Friday, May 29, 2009

Time for a change



If you have ever met me, you probably do not know this. Most people are very surprised when they find this out. While I do not allow smoking in my home, I have been one of those nasty ugly smokers for over half of my life. I contribute not smoking in the house and not being a chain smoker to my not reeking of the nasty smell of my addiction.

I pretty much started at the age of 15 in high school. You see, my little home town use to be agriculturally based and the main cash crop was tobacco. Driving around the county one would see fields and fields of tobacco. I have planted it, hung it, stripped it, graded it and well of course smoked it for about 20 years now.

I have come to the decision that I am tired of smoking. So starting Sunday, I am going to quit smoking. And you know what.... I am actually looking forward to it!

Handspun fingerless gloves

Oooh, I love spinning blended silk singles! The last batch I did was using alpaca, firestar, glitz, sari silk and silk hankies and it was devine! Here is how I worked in the hankies. After they are dyed, cut them into quarters and pull them apart with your hands before feeding them into the carder. You are going to want to recard this blend several times to get a good mix. The joy of this prep is that you get some very lovely silky slubs in your yarn. You can see the results in the finished gloves below.



I've got a smidge of the yarn left over some where. If I ever find it, I'll post a pic of that too:)

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Another Hmmm.....

I posted this to the spinning group and thought, might as well post it here too. It started because a woman was hurt by her teenage sons dis-respect of her spinning and posted to the group about it. Here is my response. What do you think?...........................................

I like this topic. Mainly because it reminds me of how I was as a teenager. I was angry at the world and not really sure why. My Uncle gave my Mom some very sage advice..... You raised her right. Eventually she will remember that.

That advice was so true! Some times we all need to find our place in the world:)

In my opinion (Lord knows I have enough of them!), there is much wrong with the world right now, I'm surprised our youth are not more messed up than they are. I'm not sure that the movies and television shows really are the problem as they are fiction and meant as entertainment. I blame much of it on the media and their use of 'yellow journalism'. Sensational headlines are head turning, but in truth it is gossip and we as a society become so enthralled by the suffering of others.

The sad thing is that one must read between the lines to find the truth in what the media reports. For example, growing up, the town I live in was small and a wonderful place. Sure we had a few bad eggs that liked to stir up trouble, but for the most part it was a great place to grow up. I remember one day in high school, two boys who had been fast friends became angry with one another and got in a fight. It just so happened that one boy was black and the other white. Well the media in the big town next door got a whiff of it and next thing you know..... News vans were parked on the high school lawn reporting that there was a racially motivated fight that happened.

I often wonder why we don't stand up to things like this. It simply disgusts me that we are afraid to voice the truth, because it is not as interesting or entertaining. It infuriates me to no end that the media is allowed to go on like it does. Creating sensational headlines to gain ratings. Why don't they try to bolster humanities spirit by reporting about the good in the world instead of drug addicted, alcoholic starlets, murder death and decay of the spirit. Why do we allow them to do this to us!

And we wonder why our children are depressed and lash out. Wouldn't you if all you knew of the world was evil and wickedness outside of your small reality? Why must we belittle someone else to feel good about ourselves? You know where hope and help live so does love and compassion and value in ones self. When will we start seeing more of the good in the world?

Hmmmm..... Guess you could say that I am still lashing out a little......lol

Monday, May 11, 2009

Hmmm......

Well, those of us who knit or crochet or weave can say...... We already know that! But for those who don't know, here you go:

Other Fun Facts..................

I taught myself to knit by watching a woman while on a flight from Scotland to the USA in 1996.

I taught myself how to spin yarn Feb 15th, 2007. I think I've done fairly well:)

'Lunabud' is a combination of two dogs' names I was loved by, Buddy and Luna:)