Snail Spirals

Once again, I have been a blog-slacker. Emma and I have both been sick (AGAIN) (ARGGGH), and I just haven't felt like writing or taking pictures. Gotta love the seething cauldron of germs that is a preschool. We/I used to get sick maybe once a year, but this winter, the first winter of preschool, we've been sick three (four?) times already. I spent most of the weekend in bed, with a lovely 103˚ fever, sore throat, and cough on Saturday afternoon, and residual chest congestion and lethargy on Sunday. At least I didn't get the hacking cough Emma has had for the past week. It seems like everybody we know has been sick in the past couple weeks. So, anyone want to come visit us in the Valley of Pestilence?

I have been doing some fibery things in the couple weeks since I last posted. The biggest project, and one that will be ongoing, is to sort of start a new part time job. I answered a help-wanted ad on Ravelry, and am now a production spinner for Tanglewood Fiber Creations, an Oregon company that sells hand dyed, hand spun luxury yarns. I spent three very lovely days last week spinning up 24 ounces of natural cream color 50% cashmere/50% silk. Lovely! But did I take pictures? Of course not.

In addition, I have:

• Finished spinning the second batch of purple and green silk I dyed, and plied up the whole 4 ounces. The skein came out lovely, but have I taken a picture yet? Of course not.
• Re-plied the suri alpaca laceweight to tighten up the ply just a little bit, and it's much improved. Did I take pictures yet? Of course not.
• Dyed yarn for a hat, but got tangled up in germs and haven't actually started knitting yet. Did I take pictures? Of course not.
  
• Tuned up my spinning wheel, replaced a part, and tweaked another part. It spins very smoothly and quietly now, and the drive wheel is back in alignment. Did I take pictures of the tune up? Of course not. (But I'm very proud of myself. So there, Schacht customer service, who said I couldn't do it myself, shouldn't even try, and "Jeez lady, just spend a couple hundred dollars to send it in and let us do it right." Yes, that is a direct quote.)
  
• Prepared the supplies to do a Danish Oil treatment on my wheel tomorrow. I don't know that the wood has ever been treated since it was made. I haven't in the two years that it's been mine, and it's looking very dull and dried out. I'll be doing this tomorrow, and hopefully my wheel will be very happy and lustrous.

Other than that, not much going on. Shaun and Emma took me out to lunch for my birthday today, and since Shaun had to teach tonight we're doing a birthday dinner tomorrow. A low-key birthday (and I had to work today, on my birthday and a Federal holiday), but nice.

I did get a nice surprise a week or so ago, when I saw myself displayed as a Designer on Ravelry's main "Patterns" page. I even had the energy to grab a screenshot. See my little snail-y avatar?!