Phthbbbt

That's what I have to say to everyone who has today off. I don't. Hmph.

Of course, in the interest of fairness (and I am nothing if not fair)(I heard that), I should point out that Mondays are the day I work at home, and given how behind I am at work, I'd probably not be doing anything different even if I did have today off (except I wouldn't have Older Daughter here, asking me a question every ten minutes or so). And while I'm under the influence of this fit of honesty, I should also mention that it's not like celebrating Columbus day is unproblematic for someone who works with Native Americans. So even if I did have the day off, it's unlikely that I'd be dressing up like the Pinta and sashaying around the city, hollering about how glad I am that someone finally found The New World.

So, all right. I take the phthbbt back. Those of you with the day off, enjoy it -- just drink a margarita for me, 'k? (I am on my third cup of coffee; alert the media.)

I am managing to keep busy. Among other things, we finally replaced our washing machine, and the lovely Sears guys delivered the new one today and hauled our old one away. It was time; that old machine was in our house up north when we first rented it, and then it stayed with the house when we bought it. It lived through two babies, plus all the stuff that comes with wet active dogs, and then moved down here with us six years ago. I have no idea how old it is, but it was starting to make really scary noises, and given that we've had it repaired several times, it seemed like a good idea to invest in a new one before we found ourselves in a washerless state of emergency.

So we got one of those front-loading, energy-saving jobbies. It's got buttons and lights and whirligigs, and can I just tell you something? I'm scared of it. Seriously. I'm going to avoid the laundry room until Rick comes home and convinces it to stop beeping and blinking at me. I keep waiting for it to say, "What are you doing, Jocelyn?" in a frighteningly calm tone. Thank goodness there are no airlocks in the house.

Meanwhile, I'm banging away at the computer in the kitchen, wishing I could knit instead. I am so close on these socks. I am also relatively low on yarn with this first ball, and am engaged in the whole Race To The End thing that I do. You know -- where you knit really fast in an effort to get to the end of the sock before your yarn gets to the end of the ball. I can't possibly be the only one who does this. Can I? (Lie to me.)

Check these out though. I'm in love with this yarn. I adore it. Truly, madly, deeply. It's soft, and the colors blend together in the best possible way. My only question at this point is whether to buy myself to skeins of this colorway to knit myself some socks, or whether to buy the roving in this colorway to spin into sock yarn to use for socks (note the optimistic assumption that I could spin anything resembling sock yarn).
Do you see how it stripes without being all, well, stripey? Sort of shadowed stripes. Love it.
That's the top of the foot. Do you see what I mean? Why I need some more of this yarn? (I know, I know, I have two skeins of the lovely Jacob's coat colorway; what can I say? I'm a bit of a yarn pig.) I'm guessing I'll have the first sock done later tomorrow, since I have a meeting and a soccer practice to get through, and then I'll get the second one started. Between Friday's nearly-three-hour meeting, and two soccer games on Saturday, I should make good progress.

And speaking of soccer games, the girls finally had a successful weekend this past weekend. Both girls' teams won their games (it's been a rough season, so this is pretty exciting). We got home at a reasonable hour, and I sat down to spin (I had to celebrate somehow, right?). I've spun a quarter ounce of the four-ounce bump of Sanguine Gryphon merino/silk roving I posted a picture of late last week. I divided the bump into halves, and then split those lengthwise into four strips, which I am spinning, four onto a bobbin; I'll then spin a two-ply yarn. It's feeling more even than usual and fairly fine. I have hopes of a fingering weight yarn, or close to it.
Those are the singles. Here's a bit of the singles plied back on itself.
Not too bad. I'll keep referring to that to be sure I'm getting my twist even throughout the spinning. This roving drafts so smoothly and evenly that it's a real treat to spin.

As I was spinning, the girls jumped up and down and demanded to finally (they've been pleading for a while and we've never had a chance) be taught to spin on my spindles. So when I'd finished my bit, I got them started. They loved it.
In fact, they got up on Sunday morning, and tried it again.
I think this is going to be one of those things that, like teaching them to like sushi, seemed like a really good idea until they start eyeing my stash. Then I'm going to regret it.