Tour de Fleece - Day Two

Tour de Fleece - 6/4
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Busy is the name of the game around here. Today, I dug out the bulky plying head and bobbin for Mabel. The whole point of spinning up three really full bobbins was to see just how much would go on this sucker. It's huge! Pictures just do not accurately convey the size of it.

The morning rolled out slowly. We got everyone up, dressed and fed. My husband started working on the broken sprinkler heads in our lawn. The kids rambled in and out of the house. I spun for 15 minutes, just getting the rhythm of plying.

When church time rolled around we were ready to go. I packed the kids off because my daughter was insisting she wanted to go to Sunday School. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that all classes were canceled! The sign invited us into the church for a family-friendly service. I have to debate their definition of "family friendly". Playing your slowest set of worship music and then pitching a full-length adult-oriented sermon is not my idea of "family friendly". We barely made it through. The Boy wanted out early on, but at least never made a loud fuss. I was able to convince him to hang out until the very end and we finally had to make a break for it.

Snag number two happened when we got to our intended lunch location and found that it was closed for the day, too! We quickly defaulted to the "plan B" location and had a very nice lunch with our friends. On the way home, we picked up strawberries and some needed staples at the supermarket. The Boy fell asleep, and did not wake up when I took him from the car to the couch. This was not all a bad thing.

I whipped up a batch of my mother's famous (in our family) chocolate fudge frosting to use as dipping-sauce for our fruit platter. We committed to bringing a "fruit salad" to our neighbor's BBQ, and I settled on Rainier cherries (from Costco), California strawberries (on sale at Alberstons) and local raspberries (picked by child labor, yesterday.. hahaha!). I had to refill the plate with fruit, twice. I think we went through three or four pounds of it. Needless to say, it was a success.

Since The Boy was still not awake, I sat down at Mabel. My husband and daughter went on over to the BBQ. I plied yarn. And plied. And then went upstairs and wound off the spindle for a break. And came back and plied more yarn at the wheel. I worked for an hour and a half and just barely got to the end of what room I had on that monster bobbin when The Boy finally woke up. Yay! Party time!

We had an awesome afternoon. There was great food and great company. I got to sit down and get a few rows done on Grandma's shawl at one point. And then later when The Boy wanted to get away for a bit, I came home and picked up the spindle. He flopped on the couch for a little bit to watch a "show", and then apparently refreshed for social interaction, turned off the TV and we went back out to play with the neighbors, again.

I took the spindle with me and got to show off a little bit. I really enjoy sharing what I know about spinning and had a receptive audience. So I got a little more work done. When all of that was done, we packed it in and got everyone ready for bed. I think I'm about ready for bed, too.

Tomorrow, I get to start something new! I'm looking forward to bright colors and playful fibers.