Rainy Days and Mondays...

No, they don't get me down.

I love rainy days, as long as I get to stay at home. Most of my clients end up cancelling on days like this and so having a Monday that's empty of clients to begin with is not exactly a good thing, but given it's one of those nasty rainy traffic days, it's not exactly a bad thing either. It just means that I have to make it up the rest of the week - well, starting Wednesday, since I don't have my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays anymore.

I've found that ever since my freeway accident two years ago (car was totalled but everyone in the car was fine, except for some sore necks and backs for a while), I've curtailed my driving. Which means that I also cut down the days I drive the 16 miles along Pacific Coast Highway every day. Instead, I now do it in 3 - 4 days instead of 5 - although it's more like 3 days a week. And I love it!

So, what does one do on a rainy day? Why, spin, of course! Well, I actually started the spinning process last night which began with carding some more Mardi-gras-themed batts. I only got 2.2 ounces before I ran out of already-combed yellow fiber. Then I started drafting both batts till I ended up with 2 roving balls.

This morning I plied both bobbins and used up the rest of the fiber from my previous Mardi Gras singles to ply with the remaining yarn on one bobbin to come up with a pretty good 79 yards. Not bad. I may just try to make myself a pair of fingerless mitts or something.


I'm also carding some batts today. And after carding up this baby, I've come to realize that carding batts is time-consuming work! Now I know why people invest in motorized carders because my right houlder, elbow and wrist sure aren't happy.

But I've also been trying out different stands of varying heights for my drum carding. Today was the day to try out the printer stand that allows me stand while carding - which I prefer since I'm always running around searching for fiber to add. What it does to my shoulder and elbow, I have yet to find out. And after an hour of carding, I came up with this -




A HUGE 1.6 ounces of hand-dyed purple cotswold locks and pink/orange coopworth fleece blended with some angelina and firestar!

If my friend Brin were here, he'd be doing the math (he'd have done it already before I even finished typing out this sentence) and tell me that I've just lost money.