I owe knitting and spinning to my pills

We usually take Thursdays off if we can. Last Thursday, I was prostrate with a migraine. Today, I could have been. We went to KFC yesterday and I ordered a side dish of macaroni and cheese. It had the lurid, unnatural hue that I've learned comes from Food Dye Yellow #5, a major "trigger" for me. You couldn't have paid me to eat it! I feel fine today, I'm so glad I could literally see the trouble brewing, and today, we had lots of fun.

We started off with a trip to Walmart, where I got 3 cases of my favorite diet decaf soda. Happily, I still have about half of this weeks' budget. I still haven't gotten my dehydrated food from Walton's, but they haven't charged me, either. We got great trips to and from Walmart, then home. I put away the groceries and Chuck came by. We went out to breakfast, then looked at steel carts. They won't work for us, but all 3 of us had fun looking around at the hardware store. Ron agrees with me - hardware stores have distinct fragrance, a combination of rubber and wood.

After we came home (and Chuck left to have a life of his own) I took a nap. Oh, yeah. It is so hot in Houston, heat indices of over 100 degrees, all I want to do if I can is sleep every afternoon. Ron went to Starbucks.

After I woke up I spun some Merino wool (I bought 4 ounces of it a while back). I started on the "easy" wools at first, but Merino is supposed to be a little more tricky. I'm doing fine and having a lot of fun with it. My fibers are starting to take over the living room, so I'm putting a "stop" on any more purchases for a while. Besides, I have plenty on my wish list at Paradise Fibers! I also have wish-listed some knitting patterns too. I can see myself actually wearing a vest, for instance, but I really doubt I'd wear a sweater much, even in the winter.

While Ron mowed the front yard, I got out the camel and my small spindle. Oh, I love my Nordic spindles! They make spinning so fun and easy! A couple of tries, and BOOM! I was spinning thread-fine camel yarn. HOO-YEAH! I'm positively eager to get back to it. I got the camel top from R.H. Lindsay (http://www.rhlindsaywool.com/products/index.htm); it was an incredibly good deal. I'm really glad I got it, I can see I'm going to have a lot of fun with this incredibly soft, luxurious, glorious naturally colored camel top. I also ordered a pound of black/brown wool - I intend to ply it with my lighter colored brown Corriedale to make a gorgeous, soft, subtle yarn. Then I've got the gray and the cream...I'm having so much fun with this.

I owe knitting and spinning to my pills. I was incapable of knitting at all "before" and I never even considered spinning. I may get a little "Stony" as Ron calls me, but it's a lot better than the savage monster I used to be. [shudder] Or worse yet, the depressions. UGH. Before, I'd have had so much noise in my head I wouldn't have been able to do any research, practice getting it right, had the motivation to think I could try a new hobby, or the spare money to invest in supplies.

Remember, I make a MODEST salary, so every penny counts. I try to view things as "Would I work an hour for this?" I divide the cost of the item by my hourly wage. Say, the new spindle. That was about 3 hours' labor. I figured it was worth it, and it took me 5 minutes of using it to be glad I spent the money.

I'm envisioning the camel yarn, knitted up into a cozy warm vest. Camel yarns are incredibly durable and very resilient, so that's something I'd feel "safe" wearing to work. I'm also considering another vest knitted out of that black-brown/warm brown Corriedale. The brown Corriedale is actually kind of funny. It has a few silver threads running through it and it's the EXACT color of my hair (gray and all), so I always think of it as "Heather Brown".

Off I go to research the properties of camel yarn. Take care!