Sheep!

The KY Sheep and Fiber Festival was this weekend, and I managed to snag a ride with friends from my knitting group. As always, it was a blast! I got to shop, enjoy the colors and textures everywhere, see sheep, pet llamas and alpacas, and meet some online friends in person finally. One of my favorite parts of fiber festivals is the amount of non-wool options out there. I'm mildly allergic to wool, so I can't work with it (brief contact is okay, but no wearing it or knitting with it). But at places like the KYSFF? Racks of alpaca and silk roving for spinning! 

I wound up choosing to buy some dyed, unprepped alpaca locks, instead. I've never spun straight from the lock, so this will be an experiment for me. I want to eventually turn the brown/dark/red batch into fingerless gloves. No plans yet for the pinks/blues/purples. 

I also managed to snag 2 skeins of Wolle's Color Changing Cotton. This stuff is very popular in the world of knitters and as it's all handmade by a very nice woman, there are limited quantities each month. Getting it online can be tricky, especially the big skeins made for making shawls from, so I was thrilled to snag a Shawl Skein (185g) and a regular size skein (100g) at the fair. 

Ms. "Wolle" herself posed for a quick shot of her sweater, knit from her fabulous yarn.

Oh, and I got to try weaving! Decidedly fun. 

The day wound down with some Bunny Therapy (it was soooo hard to not give this fluffy little guy a new home, as he was up for adoption)...

... and some fluffy, and not-so-fluffy, sheep. The naked sheep always look so fed up with us silly humans. 

Spring is in the air

I've never been a big fan of winter. Far too cold for my tastes. Spring has always been my favorite time of year- not too hot, not too cold, not yet sticky with humidity. This year has been especially nice, since I have my own yard in which to plant flowers and start a garden (I bought my house late enough into the spring last year to make it tough to do any of this). 

My front flower beds have been in need of an overhaul, for several reasons. First off, the houses prior owner was a bachelor who did not enjoy gardening, and the landscaping made that obvious. Every since thing out front was a shrub. No flowers, aside from a few bulbs and a phlox leftover from the owner before him, and those the prior owner moved around haphazardly while doing yardwork. Add to that one bush dead from an attack of the Mold Spores of Doom and the phlox taking a heavy hit when we tore out and repoured the front walk, and you had some very sad flower beds indeed. 

With money being tight, I didn't want to buy many plants. I did cave and buy 3 of a purple perennial that grows to about 12" tall and has a single little purple flower on the tip of each stem. Thank to brain fog, I can't recall the name of the plant tonight, but they are very pretty and do well in the weather around here with minimal watering needed. My aunt gave me a few flowers from her own yard that needed thinning out, plus some snapdragons she bought for me, and my neighbor gave me a decent sized hosta when she thinned her own plants. All in all, I'm quite happy with how my front flower beds have come out.

Next up was starting the veggie patch out back. I wanted to do some potatoes, more carrots, garlic, and onions this year, so I got my hands on various pots and huge plastic containers to use as deep pots. These large totes are fantastic planters- just drill some holes in the bottom, prop up on some scraps of lumber to allow them to drain, and fill with dirt. 

Prepping the totes:

All planted and ready to grow!

The other big adventure going on right now? I've re-started Physical Therapy. PT is always a LOT of work, but very much worth it. It helps me maintain muscle mass (which has a tendency to vanish on me, between the CRPS and the scar tissue from all the surgeries), it helps keep my pain under control, it keeps me flexible, and more. This time around, in addition to the normal strengthening goals, we're working on improving my walking, including trying to get me down to using 1 crutch for real distances. Yesterday was my first appointment for this round and while I didn't hurt any extra last night, I'm paying the price today with overly tight muscles across the front of my thighs. I know from experience that that will lessen in the next few weeks, but right now my shuffle looks more like a drunk zombie lurch than a graceful shuffle. Now to just hope no one thinks I'm trying to eat their brains... 

Temporary Pets and Shiny Objects

Obviously, I haven't been around much since the SCS stuff all got into full swing. At first it was basic exhaustion, then, well, honestly? I got out of the habit of posting. Anyways, I figured I'd share some of the crazy fun I've been having while hiding from The Cold. (Seriously, we spent multiple days this month colder than the friendly state of Alaska.... I live below the Mason-Dixon line. That sort of cold ought to be illegal.)

First off, a friend wound up living here for a few weeks, along with her hysterical cat, Annabelle. Belle appears to have forgotten How to Cat somewhere along the way. Why, we don't know- she grew up with a litter then was adopted with her sister, so the silly dog behaviors are just fun. She plays fetch. She also loves to sit on peoples heads and watch TV. Like I said, silly cat. A standard day in the life with Ms Annabelle around went a bit like this:

"This is my toy. No, I will not share right now, but I will stare you down."

"I have brought you my kill. Now I must stare at it to make sure it's dead."

"It's been 2 seconds- why haven't you thrown the octopus yet?!"

In between being owned temporarily by a cat, I made an awesome discovery- I can spin again!! On my wheel!!!!!! Yes, that requires that many exclamation marks. My fabulous Lendrum DT spinning wheel has been languishing for the last 2 years, since my RSD/CRPS flared completely out of control. The foot and leg motions needed to use it were horribly painful. In  the 2 years before the SCS surgery, I managed to turn a mere 1oz of fiber into yarn. That's about 20 yards, for what it's worth. You can't even knit half a fingerless glove with that amount. Since the SCS was implanted? I can crank it up, drown out the pain, and treadle for hours. In 3 days I managed to spin 4oz of alpaca roving and 1oz of a baby camel/mulberry silk blend. (And yes, fiber counts as "shiny", as shiny applies to all things good and awesome.)

The alpaca:

Part of the camel/silk (I'm now up to 1.5 spun of this):

Ms Annabelle disapproved of the spinning, and instead felt I should stop moving my legs so she could rest there while I adored her.

This is so much FUN. I'd almost forgotten how easy it is to loose yourself in a bag of fiber for hours on end. I feel like this surgery has given me a part of myself back. Still no way of knowing how much mobility I'll really regain, but if I get back just this one thing? The entire surgery was worth it. 

Fall Garden

I've spent the last 2 days battling the dying garden and preparing for the fall/winter garden. This has involved a decent amount of celebration at the death of the tomato plants and gloating at the tomato plants over their demise. Don't me wrong, I love having enough salsa, pizza sauce, and diced tomatoes for the winter. But holy hell will I be excited to can those last few tomatoes in the next few weeks. The last few on my counter need to ripen a tiny bit more, then I can cook them up and be done!!

I had planted some broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce in the last 2 months, all of which plants were still a bit small. But we seem to have skipped fall and gone straight to winter- from barely needing the heat on to nightly freeze warnings in only 2 or so weeks. Not enough time for the cold weather plants to grow. But these are my favorite foods and I didn't want to just give up on the plants. Then the lightbulb went off.

Mini greenhouse! Duh! You build a box round the plants with an angled glass top thats hinged. Then you can open the top during the day to let in fresh air, close in the early evening to trap in some heat, and the plants are safe from frost and freezing overnight. I managed to round up all of the supplies for free even.

I tore out the garden by myself yesterday. I went from this:

To this:

In just a few hours, working solo. Today was for phase 1- the biggest part- of the construction of the mini greenhouse. My good friend Joe came over to help out for a few hours and we made some serious progress. I'm thrilled! Now all thats left is installing a glass panel in the side wall that gets all the morning sun (which involves some caulk and 5 minutes), then building the glass top which will be a cakewalk.

(Yeah, I know, I look mad sexy in sweats and a hot pink bandana!)

The mini greenhouse as it is now:

These last 2 days, though, have left me beyond exhausted and in major pain. My max dose of pain meds is barely touching the pain, heating pads aren't helping, rest isn't helping, muscle relaxants aren't helping. I used both of my topical meds (Voltaren gel and a specially compounded topical pain med) on my wrists and got the pain down from a solid 8/10 to a  6/10. I wish the topicals worked anywhere else. I'm desperate enough to try the contortions needed to get them on my back and see if it helps any. I just wish I could still work on a construction project for 16 straight hours, inhale food, then sleep 6 hours, and repeat. Heck, I'd settle for being able to work 2 hours and not collapse at the end. Tomorrow is errands and I have no clue how the hell I'm going to pull that off. I think I'll call my aunt in the morning and see if she can run with me...