Plying. I did plying!

I finally got around to starting the painful process of plying my 3 singles together on Saturday night, did more on Sunday (between other activities). I have about 120 yds of yarn that I like a lot for youngest son. Once I have the total yardage I will decide what it will be. I feel good that I got a start on it and will have an easier time finishing now. Also, I discovered that while I can not spin and watch TV at the same time, I can ply and watch TV ( if it’s not a gripping show). I am anxious to get to other spinning – the Wool of the Month group on Ravelry is doing a month of either catch up or blend of your choice. I have a merino/tencel blend that I might want to play with …..

The Spindlers Study group (on Ravelry) is working on llama and/or soy silk and I have some of each. In fact, I have 2 spindles partially filled with llama and this might give me the incentive to finish that up. There’s some Icelandic that is patiently waiting it’s turn …

I worked on the Vampire Boyfriend sock and the sweater last weekend in my knitting time. I couldn’t do any spindle spinning because I had right shoulder and back spasms after my efforts in the yard on Saturday. That’s better now, was better yesterday but I didn’t want to push my luck. I’ll limit myself to 15 minutes/day on the spindle at least until I don’t feel any more twinges. Meanwhile I plan to work hard on the sweater – sleeves are being knit now. ; ) Within a week or so I might be joining front to back!

I really want to finish up some WIPs. Usually the number of WIPs doesn’t bother me. Right now, however, I crave finished projects and fewer things on the needles. I plan to finish up the sweater ASAP as well as the Vampire socks. Then I will get after the neck band on Slinky Ribs and complete that sweater. I’d like to concentrate on lace after that for a while because I have 3 lace projects in the works and would like to get one or more of them complete. There are more things on the needles but these are my pressing projects right now.

We bought an I Pad last week and have been fighting to get it up and running. I think we’ve done it, finally. The apps work, the wi-fi in the house seemed to be working last night and it was fun to browse and play on. DH is able to read on it – he read an article on the Time magazine web site. We haven’t decided yet whether to buy the electronic issues of Time – they have the nerve to charge $5.00 per issue for them! They have no postage, handling, paper or other such costs. I’d like to know how they justify it. I hope that our library soon works out compatibility issues with it. It would be great to be able to borrow PDF books from there. Right now we have to buy books. There are a few free book sites, but they have no current books on those sites. Mostly they are what they call “classic”. That’s OK for some reading but not exclusively.

DH is legally blind – he has low vision. The I Pad, which is *much* more expensive that other readers, is the only one that has enough contrast for him to read. He tried the Kindle, Nook and Sony) We had no choice. His limitations are in both sight and hearing, so audio books don’t work well for him. He has a cochlear implant and everything sounds rather tinny. That’s not a pleasant way to experience a book. Imagine, if you will, Minnie Mouse reading aloud to you …..

Speaking of audio books, I fried both of my MP3 players inadvertently this morning. Apparently my car charger shorted out (or the fuse didn’t do its job) and both are not usable. I cannot do without my player and audio books, so I searched on line first thing. I found the brand that I already own with more memory, for less than the cost of replacing both smaller ones, and purchased one for me, one for Mom. I’ve been trying to use an I Pod that my brother sent to load books for her, but the library system doesn’t like his I Pod. It’s a painful process to load books onto it, and I just gave up. I’ll be loading lots of books onto these two players as soon as they arrive. (soon, I hope)

I searched my sock yarn stash last night for man friendly yarn and found enough to make at least a half dozen pair. At the rate I knit socks, that will take all year. Now I need to search my books and the web to find patterns that I can match with the yarn. Fun!

We decorated the outside of the house this weekend (since we were not fishing). It’s just about completed. Lights have been placed in the bushes, around the bench and up the bird house pole. Little red bows have been placed in the smaller tree branches and I made swags for the front windows with free live greenery, then added big bows that I kept from last year. It looks good. DH has to work on one string of lights in the tree that doesn’t want to work and we’re done. I think we’ll just do the tree and a wreath this year.