Sunny, Soapy Saturday

Saturday saw more activity around here than there's been in a while. The day before, I'd stopped at the hardware store to pick up an inflatable pool so Erik could soak a bunch of tatami mats for the cutting portion of Saturday's sword seminar. This is what they looked like shortly before we drained the pool and loaded the mats into his truck:



Up close:



Once he was out the door, I took a quick shower and headed out to meet up with my friend Alix so we could go down to Connecticut for its sheep and wool festival. I saw most of my SnB peeps, ate a lamb-burger that didn't quite agree with me, and... bought no fober at all. But I did buy soap. Lots of it. See?



There was actually one more bar, but I gave it to my mother as a thank-you for stopping by. The three on top are from Sleepy Moon Soaps, and the bottom one is from Hampden Hills Alpacas.

On the way home, Alix and I decided to pop into Webs, partly to enjoy the yarn and partly to enjoy the air conditioning. I picked up two balls of super-cheap sock yarn, both by Plymouth.



I'm fighting the urge to rip out something else (like the long-hibernating Clessidra) to cast on with the brown Sockin' Sox. I realized as I was standing in line that this colorway is one I would have turned up my nose at a few years ago. My taste in color has changed quite a bit lately.

Off to enjoy the warm weather. And not get sunburned more than I did yesterday. Owwie.

Spring Spinning

Life hasn't been giving me much crafting time this month, but I haven managed to squeeze in some spinning. Remember that grey alpaca-silk fiber I got at Rhinebeck? I spun that up, forcing myself to go a little thicker with the single than I usually do, and I plied it last week. Here's the result:


click to embiggen

It's delightfully soft, though not as consistent as I'd like in terms of diameter, and I ended up with a little under 100 yards of it (from just under 4 ounces of fiber). I think it's going to be given to a friend at the next SnB.

That's about it, I'm afraid. A few projects are slowly coming along, but nothing is terribly exciting or photogenic. The peepers are making noise in the woods, the salamanders are mating in the pond, and the frogs are laying globs of eggs in the cattails. The last plow pile has just about melted, it's getting into the 60s during the day while dropping to below freezing at night, and the grass is idly considering springing to life in a few select patches.

Oh, and my car's check engine light came on this afternoon. Bugger.