Pedro's got my back

Okay, I'm a late arrival on the Napoleon Dynamite bandwagon but better late than never. Napoleon was part of our double feature at drive in movie night last Friday. The weather cooperated though it threatened to rain several times and the heat lightning was a tad scary. This concept has been tons of fun. We revolve our dinner menu around the movie each week. Of course we had tots, steak, quesadillas and brownies for dessert. I'm not a diehard fan but then again I understand that you have to watch the movie a bazillion times before it all hits you. I loved the dance scene if nothing else and Pedro cracked me up for some reason.

The other movie was Ferris Buellers Day Off. NOW this movie is one of my all time favorites. What a great way to kick off the weekend. We had a full social family calendar and have had somewhere to go every night since the boys got out of school on Thursday. I'm just glad that I don't have to move this year (she shudders at the thought).

Okay, back to fiber related activities. As far as spinning, nada, zero, zilch. Why? Because I somehow blew out my left knee and can barely walk up the stairs (there are two flights in the house) nonetheless spin :( I'm so bummed. I really wanted to get Heaz's yarn all spun up before I finally get to meet her next week. I go to the doctor this afternoon to ask him WTF I did to it. I hope that there's a simple solution. You don't appreciate the simple ability to walk until you can't do it anymore.

However, I finally finished processing last of the five fleeces - a gray new zealand corriedale. I was disappointed to find that about 1/3 of it was what I believe to be belly wool. It was half the staple length of the rest of the fleece, caked with dirt and poo and imbedded with tiny bits of VM. Here's a shot of it after the second rinse - YUCK!

It was not fun to wash. But I'm done with it and am using this "mutt" fleece today in a solar dyeing Kool-Aid experiment. Considering that the temperatures are supposed to creep over 90 degrees today, I'd say that this experiment might be a success.

Just when I thought I was finished with raw wool for a while, I couldn't resist a great deal on some Finnsheep that will arrive later this week. I know, I need more fleece like I need a hole in my head but I really wanted it. Now, if I can score some Cormo, I'll feel more complete.

Goof ball that I am, I also broke the left earpiece off of my glasses (what's up with the left this week?). Its a weird break so even gobs of tape haven't helped to temporarily fix them while I wait until my eye appointment on Wed. I finally took the tape off (because everyone I know was calling me a nerd) and have been walking around with only one earpiece and my glasses askew on my face. Good reason to try contacts again especially since they have some new ones out for astigmatism. For me, contacts feel like three or four large eyelashes trapped in my eyes and after a couple of hours I'm clawing at eyeballs to rip them out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe they've changed over the last couple of years since I tried them last.

Sorry, I wandered away from fiber again. I have been knitting a bit though not much last week since we were so busy with end of the year school stuff. One more quick aside, I announced to the school that the strawberry festival that I chaired in May raised $10,000 more this year than last - $70K! Okay, bac to knitting. Since I was in need of a quick "real" knitting fix (keep in mind that I've been doing a lot of felting and many people think that's not "real" knitting), I tried my hand at the IK Summer 05 modular heart sachet pattern using some leftover Koigu. I thought that this would be a quick knit but alas, it wasn't. I love, love, love modular knitting but this little pattern required more chart reading than I was in the mood for. Once I memorized the chart, it flew off the needles but I hadn't planned on a knit that required me to concentrate. Here's a shot of the still damp heart.

Overall, it was a lot of fun to knit and I'll make many of these for holiday gifts. I plan to stuff this one with some lavender and use it to ward off the moths in my knitting room.

And as promised, here are a couple of shots of the pink cheeky monkey with a RAOK from King Thing.


He did some major shopping at Bombay on Sunday and couldn't resist getting me this cuddly teddy. He hasn't bought me a stuffed animal in nearly 8 years(mostly because I already have WAY too many). Not only was I flattered but a portion of the proceeds from this bear go to St. Jude's Childrens Hospital, a charity that helped a little girl named Suzanne from my hometown parish. Suzanne wasn't successful in her fight against cancer but her spirit lives on through many St. Judes projects in South Hampton Roads. My little bear is named Gilmore in memory of another little St. Judes patient. Major brownie points for the staff bearers this week!

I hope to finish the micro cheekies and show you photos later this week. They're blocking right now and waiting for faces. BTW, "Pinkie" is approximately 6 inches from head to toe. The micros are about 2 inches. It's definitely monkey madness around here. I'll catch ya later this week with the return of the divine Ms. Z and the goodies she came back from MD Sheep and Wool with.