the evil plan, she is working

Ah yes, you wouldn't know it from the blog entries this week, but the creative stuff continues. I made a felted bag on Tuesday. Leah's 2/3 of the way done with Bren's knit scarf. Jesse has wisps of smoke coming out of his ears as he's building all sorts of inventions with his new, fully functional steam engine model. The art of sheetrocking continues to be practiced in this ol' house, so now the upstairs hall is ready for paint. And I have a couple of pairs of socks that are heading for the finish line.

The Steelers banner is hanging in its new location, an old folks' home in Pittsburgh, not far down the road from Gram and Pap's old house. Mom's in the 'burgh for the game right now and it's been fantastic to hear from so many old friends who are thinking of my dad (as are we) and cheering for the Steelers today!

A biggie here this week was yesterday's Nutmeg Spinners Guild meeting. This was Leah's first time there and she was treated like royalty. There are probably 75-100 folks at the meetings and they're all enablers! She was showered with compliments, encouragement, kindness, and goodies -- including a handknit vest, a shawl pin that doubles as a hair ornament, a fistful of knitting needles, some llama fiber, and a big ball of angora/cashmere roving to spin! Oh, and then there's all the yummy fiber we bought -- handpainted Autumn Maples, a pound of natural Montdale to dye, handpainted Springtime, and a reference book about spinning. And also a pile o' magazines borrowed from the group's lending library. Wowza! And on top of all that, we also ran into some folks we know from the Newington SnB, Madley Spinners in Colchester, and Adams Farm, plus met some new people, so all in all it was like a big happy fibery party. Proclaimed "best day ever" by the little Goob, who makes such proclamations about once a week, but really, it was an incredible day for any fiber fanatic.

So then we came home last night and everybody was excitedly sharing the stories of their day (Scott and Jesse equally had a blast of a day, romping with Rich McDonald and his kids and then going fishing) when Scott piped up with the words I've been waiting to hear: "I guess I better learn how to spin, huh?" Yes, dear, that's a fine idea. :-) So off to the new spinning wheel we went for a quick demonstration and he set to work on the Springtime roving. He stuck with it until time to make dinner, then came back again after dinner and spun until bedtime. Leah critiqued his first yarn as overspun, but we all know that's totally to be expected, and he does seem up to the challenge of mastering this little contraption, so....bwahahaha...methinks we'll have some fresh Daddy handspun in the stash soon!