The WoolWytch

Friday after the Diva’s multitude of Dance classes, we had a girls night out.

Have you ever had a girls night out with a five year old? You never know what you are going to do or eat …  in this case she wanted Sushi, and I was thankful that it wasn’t McDonalds that she had requested as she’s on a growth spurt and I really would rather she get protein without garbage and carbs without preservatives, not to mention that her vegetables be green and not coated in oil and salt.

So with that in mind we went to a place called Tokyo Sushi in Southington CT, and got a couple of Salmon Nigiri for her, and an Alaska roll for me.  They started us out with a lovely salad with crab and cucumbers and we enjoyed our sushi and salad and made it out with time to spare to pick up flowers for her teacher who was in a performance of Chicago that night.  While the content is a bit mature, she really loved the show and was just absorbed and entranced with the singing and dancing.

… it helps that she adores her teacher Miss Marissa and listens to her as if she was the deepest authority on subjects most important in life, which I suppose to the Diva, her dance teachers may just be that.

She had a relatively quiet weekend, and we’re back to the grind today…

• 

  a blur of motion, or how I see the Diva during the week

  Monday – Ballet here in our town, and then Ballet and Tap in the next town over

• Tuesday – Tap, Ballet Solo – both in our town, and then Jazz and Hip Hop dance in the next town over
• Wednesday – See Monday’s Schedule
• Thursday – See Tuesday’s Schedule
• Friday – Ballet here in town, and then Acro and Musical Theater in the next town over.

Next week we cut out the classes in the next town over and I can start seriously working on her costume for the dance recital.  We purchased a chiffon fabric that has crystals embedded in it… and a matching darker chiffon – still translucent like the first fabric and some beaded trim to make her costume out of.  The teacher has cut a special version of her song for the recital making it only a minute and fifteen seconds long, but those will be the proudest 75 seconds in the world for those who love her you know…

I look forward to September when she will return to Home school four days a week and Dance only one day a week.  This running around is exhausting and I’m presently running on low to begin with.

I did find something interesting to introduce her to though – online math flash cards!
Cool eh?  It keeps the whole theme we have going on – she is convinced, as is Calvin, that they really aren’t going to school, that they are playing computer games, which they can not get enough of and their father and I have to pry them off the computer.  I can see this interactive math program being used for a long while in our family, and I’m tickled pink that my Cousin Dee has decided that she will be introducing her little man to Time4Learning in the near future as well.  She also will be doing some guest posts here soon and I’ll do some in her blog too – something we’ve both toyed with for a while and it’s a chance to get some of my readers exposed to her work and vice versa… all two of you

I’ve been working hard at spinning when I am not knocked out by my antibiotics or driving miss Diva… I have over 1000 yards of Ramboullet spun up right now, and will be working on learning plying on my e-spinner next, and then going on to dye this.  I may exchange this fiber for the one I was going to use for the custom order as it’s spinning easier and will be a guaranteed volume to meet the order.  It’s really coming along nice, and I am happy with the results I’m seeing.  Once it’s done it will go into the dyepot en masse to guarantee a uniform dye job.

During classes I have been reading.  I have a Nook from Barnes and Noble that I love to pieces.

Originally purchased with the intent of using it for my Doula studies as it has highlight and note features, it also has a functioning MP3 player and with it’s beta web browser and built in 3g access, I have net (albeit basic with no flash and in black and white only) anywhere I go to.  I love my little Nook and have read so much in the past three weeks of owning it that I have managed to get the Diva interested in reading at a level that she needs to be, vs just trying to read whatever Mom is typing at the time.  I grew up with a love of books, and it was troubling me that she wasn’t getting to see that outside of me sitting on the laptop, but in no short time she has adopted my fervor for reading, and we’ve got kids ebooks on my nook too.  I read so fast that I’ve been reading a lot of the public domain books and online fiction as my book habit can be pretty pricey!

I considered the Kindle, but I have really fallen for my Nook, and would be very upset if it were damaged, stolen, etc…  Barnes and Nobles did a great job, and I’ve already got the memory card I bought for it as auxiliary memory filled with my favorite authors, and books on herbalism etc.  I will probably be scanning and converting some of my notes from classes I’ve taken into PDF format so I can reference them here as well.  It’s darn useful I tell you.

To that effect I have to say I’ve been reading Diana Gabaldon‘s Outlander series.  It’s darn addictive I tell you… I woke up in the middle of the night the other night and hadn’t realized it but my bathroom trip had me carrying my Nook.  Between ease of reading and my choice of reading material, I’ve just not put the thing down.

Well this week is rehearsals, spinning, dyeing, spinning, dyeing, and more dance classes than you can shake a stick at.  Once it’s over we’ll just be down to the three classes until her Recital on Aug 10, and then I get a blissful few weeks of not driving her hither and yon, and may try to get the little man out to the train that runs down the Naugatuck River as a treat for not getting as much Mama time as his sister has gotten.  His time will come too, and I expect that he will be dancing as much as his sister….

My poor husband.

G doesn’t take as well to spur of the moment trips as I do and as such shocked me today when after lunch I suggested a trip to Webs and he thought it was a great idea.

My drive band for my Ashford Kiwi is AWOL, I needed to pick up some Cushings Dyes for a project I have to have completed by early August, and I knew he was in need of felting needles.

So we hopped in the van, and headed north with the kids happily reading and singing.

Somehow ‘Row Your Boat’ got turned into the Nine Lives Chorus – with all Meow’s, but they were well behaved for the trip and at Webs.

Of course the Diva headed straight back to the Schacht Ladybug and tried to set herself up to spin on it immediately, but she gave one of the salespeople a heart attack as they don’t want small children touching spinning wheels, never mind that she’s shown a degree of proficiency and was being ever so respectful to the wheel. This is the wheel she truly desires, and after I finally got a chance to spin it myself, I can see why.  The wheel spins smoothly, quietly, and in no time flat I had a laceweight yarn that was soft, strong, and pretty.

I want one now like you wouldn’t believe.

Calvin was bored, wanted to spin and then discovered the toys.  G sat with them while I tried out the Ladybug my self, and then looked for the dyes.  Much to my chagrin, they did not have a replacement drive band.

We then drove around Northampton Mass, and fell in love with the community.  I foresee trips back there later in the summer, especially as I have to replace my swift (you wind yarn on it) and I will undoubtedly need more dyes.  I am getting in my e-spinner this coming week, a Vespera (see right) by Heavenly Handspinners, and I promise to have a review on it as soon as I can.  I need to get my Etsy shop re-stocked and with breaking and rebreaking my ankle I’ve not gotten through a couple of custom orders that I need to… so I am hoping that the Vespera will fit the bill and that I don’t burn out the motor from use.

It’s a lovely July Fourth weekend, and we’re taking a little time off homeschooling this week – I need to do a reinstall of the kids ASUS Netbook Operating System and figure out what’s wrong with their Dell, all while I’m supposed to be taking it easy from Diverticulitis.  While Mama recovers the kids get a break from Time4Learning, but the Diva still has dance school as she’s signed up for a Solo in August, hence the need to pick up the dye as I am making her costume for the recital.  I’m finding that the drive today was a bit much on me and I am now going to head off to bed, listening to fireworks outside the window, and enjoying the lovely summer night.

Oh ok I know it doesn’t rhyme, but humor me

So I have been experimenting with soap making.  Namely Lanolinized Wool-Wash bars.  It only makes sense since I’ve been making wool yarn for a long while.  Of course yesterday I had a bit of a crisis while making wool wash bonbons LOL.  My soap pot over ran while I was melting in the Lanolin – as I had gone to the other room.  I came back in to find my kitchen counter covered in hardened soap.  WHOOPS!  My counters are clean and soft now and they have a lovely Eucalyptus scent.

Along with a whole lot of Sunshine Colored Southdown Wool Roving I’ve been busy with making an Eucalyptus scented wool wash with pharmaceutical grade lanolin and Eucalyptus oil.  Why Pharmaceutical grade?  Well it’s the purist forms I have available, smells neat, clean and has no debris or detritus in it.  I’ll leave the veggie matter for my raw fleeces, not for the things I clean finished yarn with.

So on my counter finishing setting up and drying out fully are Little Cups about the size of a small Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups™ candy and while I normally re-stock on Monday’s, I needed to focus on meeting that I had this afternoon.  (Silly little day job stuff   I enjoy working in IT, and have been scouting a new opportunity or two out… today’s meeting was one that I would love to be a part of and we’ll just have to see how that sorts itself out.)

With that out of the way I can now do some more store re-stock tomorrow, and hope to list some of these soaps tomorrow.  I happen to have some small packs that I will be offering as a give-a-way of one roll of wool wash soaps, consisting of 4 Shea Butter / Goats Milk / lanolinized wool wash soaps. (while these are good for washing wool dedicates and children’s wool diaper covers in, the soaps are geared to be extra moisturizing for sensitive skin as well.)

What do you have to do to win it?  Leave a comment for an entry, and then retweet via that little twitter retweet button there at your left.

This is open to anyone who can get mail service that the US PS will ship to.   We’ll let the Diva Randomly pick out a winner at the end of seven days, and I’ll have it in the mail on the next mailing day.