First, the beautiful: 4 ounces of merino bamboo silk dyed by Sweet Georgia Yarns in the colorway "Hummingbird", the entry in the August 2010 fiber club. This is the kind of fiber with the kind of color that makes my toes itch to treadle my wheel. Which brings me to the virtuous part:
I bought this book, the Intentional Spinner, when Interweave was running their hurt book sale over the summer. I love spinning, and I feel I can turn out a pretty decent yarn when I spin, but I would describe myself as a very un-intentional spinner -- I just let it move through my fingers and it becomes what feels right. I don't plan much, other than to make the 2 or 3 ply decision. But lately I've been thinking that I would like to take a bit more control of the process -- imagine a yarn that I want and work towards achieving it. I haven't gotten very far into the book so far (I'm still reading through the parts about the fiber types) but the Sweet Georgia fiber and some other entries in my collection are spurring me on.
And finally, the boring.
- The first sleeve on my High Line sweater is complete and the next one is under way. I used a kitchener cast off (also called, by some, a tubular cast off) to create a nice edge for the K1P1 knitting and I'm pretty impressed with that (though not impressed enough to bore you with a picture).
- John and I spent some serious effort identifying what we want to do around our house to make it a better place to live. A big part of that involves decluttering... after working on it together and breaking it down into manageable chunks, I'm pretty psyched about getting started...
- I set up an account at Mint.com and am thinking deep thoughts about how I spend my money. It helps you integrate all your accounts (banking, loans, retirement, credit cards, etc.) into one place so that you can get a better picture of your finances, net worth, how you're spending your money, and so forth. It was very easy to get connected and set up. Best of all, it's free.
- I am 99% of the way to being paperless where my bills are concerned. I should have wrapped this up aeons ago, and now the weight of a forest of trees feels lifted off my shoulders as I contemplate all the paper I won't be throwing away/recycling.
- I cleaned out my pantry. Nothing could be more boring, but, looking at the results makes me happier than I would have thought. Hopefully Fall 2010 will be the time of the Great Clutter Diaspora...
- I played a bunch of video games with my budding gamer girl... it's awful fun to be rooted on by an enthusiastic little girl!
I hope you all had lovely Labor Day weekends. The weather in Chicago is now suggesting that Fall is most definitely on the way. I think we're all looking forward to the change of the seasons!
It doesn't sound boring to me. I spent the weekend attending a wedding, walking a dog, and cleaning the kitchen (and bathing the dog). Oh, and a lot of Dragon Quest IX for the DS.
We've been in declutter mode for several months now and I love it. The garage sale and the trip to Goodwill that followed helped us get rid of many boxes that were up in the attic -- not to mention baby things (3 strollers, 3 car seats, a highchair...). Now I'm on to selling books on Amazon and soon I'll be listing stuff on etsy and eBay. It feels so good to get rid of all the stuff!
Oooh! Such beautiful fiber, and that is a wonderful book, too. The boring does not seem so boring to me, but perhaps not as exciting as the fiber.