Yak down and Dog training

 I've finished the tunic I was making for myself and am on to using some delicious Reywa Fibers Embrace yak down dk weight yarn that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law got me...a long time ago.  It will likely become a textured wrap design...and if you are at all interested in test knitting it and posting a project on Ravelry, do let me know! 

Knitting (and anything else that requires sitting down) has taken a back seat to some intense amounts of dog training.  Sadie is bright, eager, and active...and young.  She's also still forced to be on a leash for perhaps another week because she just got spayed.  She needs lots of exercise (we're doing three walks a day) and practice at following obedience commands, not tugging on her leash, not jumping--and being by herself.  If we do it right, she is happy to rest quietly indoors when we're done.

We've also had a big spate of "lost and found" problems here.  The blue Riverbend Garden Hat got left at school until I insisted on going through the very stinky lost and found bin by myself one last time.  HURRAY! We found it--but boy did it need a wash!

Then, it got warm out yesterday and this sweater did not make it home...we're still looking for that, we think maybe it got left on the school bus.

Finally, my professor headed out the door to administer a final exam (it's called "invigilate" an exam in Canada, as compared to "proctor" in the US) and discovered he'd lost his car keys.  He had them last night.  I have walked the neighborhood looking for them, and now I'm going to do more intensive searching in the house.  We seem to be losing things at an alarming rate here.

And this is why one occasionally needs exotic, sustainably raised yak down to knit, and enthusiastic young dogs--it keeps me from feeling discouraged!!

the Cubby Imp

On Sesame Street, there is a segment called Abby's Flying Fairy School.  The one I can't get out of my head is called "the Cubby Imp."  Essentially, there is this lonely guy who lives beneath the cubbies at school, and he steals people's stuff.  The characters at the fairy school have to get into his little lair and retrieve all their belongings.

The thing is, our household is usually pretty good at keeping track of our stuff.  I have the same keys my parents gave me to their front door when I was eight.  I hate losing things.

When I was pregnant, over five years ago, we did a bunch of painting and moving stuff around.  Substantial parts of my fiber arts life got moved around, including my floor loom, and I was just not physically able to sort it out then.  Plus, a lot of it was still in boxes from when we'd moved the year before, because that was how I'd stored it in my office.  It's a pretty easy leap from there to conclude that I have not had loads of time to tidy since having my twins, either. :)

Since then, things have been shifted and reshifted.  I am preparing to teach at the Manitoba Fibre Festival next week.  (Please come!  It will be super!)  I have all my students' bags stuffed with goodies, and all is well except for one thing.  I cannot find my tahkli spindle.  Now, you can teach about support spindles and cotton spinning without this spindle, but I just don't wanna.  I have this spindle and its little bowl, dang it.  I do.

I think the Cubby Imp took it.  AHHHH!  Actually though, I know that I have brought it as a demo spindle to other classes I've taught.  I wonder if it got left somewhere, like at a spindling class I did last winter.  Or, more likely, I brought home everything after the workshop and dumped it in my office and thought...I'll just sort this out later.  The thing is, I am exhausted after my workshops are over, and then I have to jump right into Mommy gear, and I lose track of things.

This never happened before I had twins!  

(Clarification...I was tired after teaching workshops. I had clutter... but I cleaned up and knew where things were...nearly all the time.)

A kind friend (the one that reviewed the spindle, above) is going to bring hers so I can show everybody what one looks like at my class.  AND, I still have a week to look for the darn thing.  However, it seemed like a good opportunity to start cleaning up.  I am trying.  Still, I am plagued by feeling like this darn spindle has disappeared because of fairies, or cubby imps or something.  It kills me that I have lost MY tahkli.  I don't even want to buy another.  I want to find the one I misplaced, you know?

--If you were a student in one of my spindling classes recently and read this blog (like, in the last few years...), did you see my brass tahkli spindle with the little brown pottery bowl it spins in?  When did I last have it!?

Lost and Found

(Thanks for your comments regarding the rugs and pricing for my weaving and spinning. It is helpful, and useful to know that the $100 minimum I set for myself for the rugs is reasonable. I have been granted a lucky extension on getting those slides to the local craft council, so I'm still working on that project...)

Now, on to the main event. I hear that most Manitobans spend their "May Long" weekend (also known as the Victoria Day weekend) opening their cottages or doing a lot of gardening. We here have neither cottage nor is our yard in any way ready for a lot of gardening. Weeding, mowing, yes, ---gardening, not so much yet. So, I spent the time on other pursuits.

First, I'm in the midst of getting ready to potentially teach a writing course for graduate students at one of the universities in town. In thinking about it, I sought out my copy of "Strunk and White" or The Elements of Style.

I couldn't find it. This copy is dear to me not only because I've read it over and over, but also it was my mother's copy. My mom wrote in books as a college student (something I've never been able to bring myself to do) and it's nice to see her scrawl on the pages of the text. Plus, my mom went to Cornell University shortly after E.B. White, a famous Cornell graduate, published his first revised version. (and I went to Cornell many years afterwards.) It's one of the few books where I'm attached to "this copy" as compared to any other copy of the text.

I cannot find it anywhere in my house.

I get a bit obsessive about things I appear to have lost. When I realized I couldn't find it, I worked hard to think of when I last had it. In Kentucky, while proofing one of my books, I consulted Strunk and White. I sat at the dining room table. That's the last remembered sighting, and that had to have been at least almost a year ago, and maybe longer.

I hate losing things, but this class is supposed to start June 7, so first things first. I needed another copy. I then went to 4 bookstores (2 new, 2 used) to find one. That would be 4 book stores since Wednesday evening. I ended up with a copy of Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style at book store #1, and although it is a great book, it didn't calm my obsession.

Yesterday I finally bought a copy of Edition #4, and I'm waiting for my well-loved old copy to turn up, as these things always do after one has gone on a wild chase like this. At least, I hope it turns up...

We've also now got a lovely young friend of ours, a student, visiting for the summer and staying with us. She will work in the Professor's lab. In reshuffling the furniture for her visit, I discovered we needed a little gooseneck bedside lamp. Finding an appropriately inexpensive and functional lamp? The Professor and I went to a total of 5 stores. FIVE! (we have no idea where to go for these things in Canada. We're learning. Slowly.)

However, the crown jewel of the Lost and Found stories was from yesterday afternoon. We went downtown to do a little book shopping, a trip to Artsjunktion where we scored some great 100% wool rug yarn for free...all good things. Except for one thing. We went to eat dim sum for lunch and when we got out of the restaurant, we had a little problem.

My car was gone. Not there. Not on the street where we'd left it less than an hour before.

My shock was, well, enormous. Thank goodness it was daylight and I had two other intelligent people with me. The three of us put our heads together, managed to call the parking authority people, and discovered that we'd misread the parking signs. The car had been ticketed and towed...in less than an hour, on a holiday weekend. Oh, and by the way, the woman on the phone explained, if you walk in this direction (in a relatively industrial and unsavory area of town) you'll head to the towing lot...

I've been having some asthma difficulties-everything is blossoming here -and maybe it was the lack of oxygen or whatever, but I was surprised and shocked to just short of tears. I had a distinct lack of breath. (Allergies and stress will cause an asthma attack.) Luckily the impound lot wasn't far away. We got there. Something like $120 later, we had the car back so we could drive home.

Lucky the yarn was free, don't you think?

Today we're hoping things go more smoothly! We're going off to the country to a farm to visit some sheep and lambs. I am hoping to keep my car close by at all times. :)