That's One Huge Cock!

This weekend David & I went to the Elkhart County 4-H Fair (that's Head, Heart, Hands and Horniness, according to David). There were lots of animals, but unfortunately for them, I think most were destined for the dinner table instead of the meadow. I ran into the fair president and asked him if they had any fleece-judging for the freshly sheared sheep, and he said, "Oh, no, we just judge the animals themselves, not the fleece." Oh well. But we did get to see some pretty cool bunnies, turkeys, chickens and ginormous roosters (sorry about the crappy photo but I had to justify the post title...) There were also sheep, horses, cows, dogs (not for eatin', just fer showin'), geese and baby ducks. And I think David ate just about every one of those animals. Vegetarian fare was not easy to find here, unless you count french fries and funnel cakes...

Here's a shot of my latest spinning attempt. I'm kind of getting the hang of it, or at least I think this new stuff looks a little better than my last efforts. I can see what Vicki meant by "feeling the spin in it..." So I've just got to keep practicing. I don't know if I'll be ready for a wheel by the time the Michigan Fiber Fest comes around, but I'll be ready for some fiber. This is really addicting and I can see how a wheel would be even more so.

I have no big news on the Honeymoon Cami, I'm still working on it and I'm at the bust increasess. I just keep getting distracted by other things and it's coming very slowly. I can't believe I started working on this in before the summer started, and now it's almost August!

Summer of Sam

Sam found my Suss stash!!! She had a really great time pulling everything out of the suitcase and then showing it to me. Actually I enjoyed the little display, too. This little baby's got about 1 week left to be everybody's darling, and then her little brother is rushing headlong into her life. So of course I had to lavish some of my undivided attention on her this past week. Jesse was not amused when she pulled on his tail...

This weekend Dave & I went to visit our very good friends Beniva & Devon, who live outside of Ann Arbor. We went to the Saline Celtic Festival to watch the Highland Games, which involved 6 very large men throwing 56 # weights over broad jump poles and flipping telephone poles (cabers) end to end (like that guy in the picture -- that one I found online from the games in NC, not the ones I went to). It was very cool but VERY HOT. The highlight for me was when a sheep from the herding competition escaped and ran onto the athletic field during the games. It kept baa-ing so loudly, everyone could hear it. We saw some really cute border collie puppies, too, but managed to leave the festival without one.

Acquiescence

Those fibers exerted no effort in convincing me to take them home. It was a subliminal persuasion, they just sat there looking all beautiful and shamefully inexpensive. I should have known better than to even enter Suss during this super sale, and if this big bag o'stash isn't what I expected to take home with me then I was just kidding myself. But still, I tried to escape with just the 4 skeins of Araucania Nature Cotton but then I couldn't resist the $2 chocolate Suss Cotton. Then that mardi gras colored spacedye passively forced me to submit to it. Then I was finished. I was in line to check out. But the green apple Suss Cotton kept assaulting my peripheral vision. I tried to ignore it. I was about to hand my bin over to the sales woman. And then I ran away, back to the green apple, and bought all of it. All of the green apple cotton. All of the chocolate cotton. What am I going to do with all this? Why did I give in so easily? At least the Suss staff made me feel a little better by figuring out that if I had paid full price for all 30 skeins of cotton, 2 skeins of spacedye and 4 skeins of Nature Cotton, I would have shelled out an additional $186. Now that's a bargain!

Bye bye, Suss NYC. Your store was beautiful, and so close to my old pad. I'll miss you, but thanks for the sale!

Kart!

Ruthless rode the track at Michiana Raceway Park this weekend, and we were there to watch. Emily's husband felt he needed some practice before the big WKA Manufacturer's Cup Grand Nationals next weekend, and Emily felt she needed some bonding time with me. It all worked out quite well for everyone. Karting is quite the serious hobby, and it's where a lot of race car drivers get their start. And don't let the size fool you...those little things go fast!

I'm heading for NYC later today, can't wait to see my SnB's and other friends!

Spin!

The upcoming Michigan Fiber Fest just got TWICE as dangerous to my finances, thanks to the help of the wonderful Vicki! She's one of the founders of Stranded in Michiana, the knitting guild in Michiana. She invited me over to her house for a lesson, and when I got there she had everything laid out to show me...spindles, fibers, niddy noddy, bobbins, books...she even had stuff printed out from the internet for me, and she gave me a drop spindle. Wow! So here's a look at my first effort...Totally not a beautiful as what Vicki can do (that's her handspun on the left in the pic), but I'm learning! Vicki gave me a bunch of fiber to take home and practice on, so maybe I can get the hang of this and move on to the wheel eventually. I'm in no rush though...I really don't need that kind of beautiful thing tempting next month...the beautiful wheels a the festival calling my name. I'm kind of weak-willed when it comes to that...

In other news, we had a great holiday weekend with our friend Gregor visiting from NYC. We also got to go up to Nothern Michigan (but not the UP) with Dave's family. Dave & Gregor even climbed Sleeping Bear Dunes, and although they got lapped by a few 16-year-olds, I think they can be pretty proud of making it all the way down and back. We also stopped at some wineries (of course) on the Old Mission Peninsula, near Traverse City.