Snail Spirals

Emma loves dresses. The pouffier and longer, the better. More princess-like, you understand. Since she's growing a mile a minute, she's outgrowing lots of her clothes. There are a couple consignment shops in town, but they are still somewhat pricey, and don't often get in things her size.

To address the issue of having something for her to wear, I bought fabric for a couple dresses last week. She had definite ideas about length and color, and I had definite ideas about price per yard as well as the lack of pink fake fur and scarlet sequined knits. Eventually we came to an agreement. Here's the first of two dresses, which I made on Saturday.



It's a heavy cotton, with a slubby multicolored rayon thread about every half inch. I like the fabric, it's machine washable, and think it will hold up to school and playtime. She can wear it now with a shirt and leggings underneath, and she will be able to wear it this summer as a sundress. At $2.00/yard from the clearance bin, the total cost of this dress is about $4.00 (1.5 yards of fabric and a zipper) plus four hours of my time and a commercial pattern that will be used again. That beats anything I've ever found at the consignment shops in this town.

So that's what I did Saturday. Sunday, I finished spinning the first two ounces of the merino top I won.



My camera refused to capture the colors correctly, but they are so beautiful. There's emerald green, teal, royal blue, and violet. Gorgeous deep jewel tones. The top was almost-felted, but I did some aggressive predrafting and it opened up and is spinning well at 60 wraps per inch.

I split the top lengthwise and spun one half straight through, for long stretches of each color, and split the second half lengthwise again for shorter stretches. When I ply them together, it should make a nice marled yarn, which I will use to weave. I was going to knit some lace, but the fiber is so bouncy that I think it would be better woven. I have a feeling that knit lace wouldn't hold its blocking and would just rebound into a lace-blob. It's dreamy soft, and would make a nice stole or something.

So that's what I did with my weekend. It was fun, I felt productive, and got lots done (including putting up a new clothesline).

Today was Monday, and what a sucky Monday it was. That is not a phrase I use lightly. It feels like swearing, which I don't do. (Yes, I'm square.) The morning started off well enough. I finished the report I was working on last week, did some other things, then half an hour before it was time for me to leave, I was called into my supervisor's office to have a meeting with her and the department head. They said I wasn't in trouble, but they weren't smiling.

Turns out that there isn't enough work to go around, and as the most recent hire and the only one who's not full-time, I have to go. I'm not fired, but I just can't work right now. For at least two and a half months. Perhaps during the summer field season, they said. I will be the first person they call, they said. They are extremely happy with my work, they said. They hate to let me go, they said.

This is not how my life is supposed to be. I hate worrying about money. As someone anonymously commented on my last post, it is indeed a good thing that I didn't buy that lottery ticket. My stars have slipped back out of alignment.