Now for Some Down Time

Grover at his happiest:  the center of attention!

This will be short because I have mostly been on the road and have had very little time on the farm.

My mother, my brother and his family arrived on July 1st for a short visit.  We had a great time with the kids at the pond, diving, swimming and zip-lining.  Adult beverages and snacks were enjoyed by the older folks.  The visit was too short, with them having to leave the next day for other obligational visits during their short trip to Ohio from Arizona.  I also left that day headed to an agility trial in Pennsylvania with Grover.  It was a 3 day trial and we did fairly well, except we have developed a problem with weave poles in trial.  I have to figure out how to remedy that.  We did get one Q, in Standard Open, which moved us up to Excellent.  This means we get NO more mistakes.  We have to get it all right the first time if we want to Q.  We may be there a while, and that's ok.  We came so close to a Q in Open Jumpers, but I screwed it up by cheering just a bit before Grover cleared that last jump.  He pulled up and knocked the bar.  Lesson learned.  Our next trial is in Dayton on the 8th and 9th of August.

I got home Sunday afternoon and headed over to Dayton on Monday to go to Kings Island with Larry's family and my cousin, Tracey, who came down from Michigan just to see them.  I wish I could say I had a good time, but I guess my roller coaster riding days are over, as I rode 3 right away and spent the rest of the day with a terrible case of vertigo.  I will say that the folks in first aid at Kings Island are very nice and one hears some interesting things laying in there all day.  I really kept thinking it would pass, but it never did.  I felt much better after getting back to mom's and sleeping for a while and was able to drive home on Wednesday.
 
Today, I am at the office and I have just taken my alpaca blanket off the loom!  Here it is at the halfway point a week and a half ago and here it is now.

 You can see that in the center, which is where the fold was, I have some places I need to weave in ends where the warp threads broke.  I realized what was breaking these threads (because only these broke) was that the fishing line I had threaded with them to help make my fold more stable was squeezing the opening in the reed, which was abrading those threads.  I also still have to twist the fringe on the ends and "wet finish" the blanket.  This means I will put it in the washing machine and monitor it carefully so that it "fulls" a little bit and locks all those individual threads together and makes them a little fluffy.  I will take up close before and after photos to post.  Over all, I am pleased with the outcome.  This was a big project and it is not perfect, but I overcame some issues and got it done and it is lovely!

I finished some spinning last week as well, before all the craziness started.  I got about 780 yards of really nice merino/bamboo/silk/sparkle yarn from a batt I bought last fall at Rhinebeck.




It was 5.2 oz and looked like this  >>>>

And now it looks like this  

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 I am quite pleased with how it came out, but have no idea what I will do with it.  Into the stash it will go for now and I will come up with a plan at a later date. 

I am finishing up a few things, sweater sleeves, my purple beaded shawl, and a pair of socks.  My looms are empty.  But not for long.

Maybe by next week it will be dry enough to get some new cria photos.  Let's hope so.  I think we are all tired of the rain around here!