When I was packing to go to Lake Tahoe a few weeks back, I dug up my Lowa boots to wear while I was there. I wore them around the house and they felt funny so I took a good look at them.
The soles had deteriorated and were pretty much crumbling away.
I didn't take them with me and put them back in the box to figure out what to do.
Onto the inter webs I went searching for the Lowa website and sent them a message asking for guidance.
It seems that my boots are about 10 years old. It seemed like just a few years ago that I purchased them and had only worn them sparingly.
After some e-mail conversations, I sent the boots back not really expecting much but the customer service was so great that they are replacing my boots with the newest model.
Here are the boots that I sent back.
And here are the boots I received.
It seems that these soles are only good for about 10 years before they start breaking down. Good to know so I can wear these new boots and get some wear on them before the next time to replace them.
A few months ago, I happened upon a classified ad in the Stockinette Zombies group on Ravelry.
The trade was for dyeing yarn for knit socks. I was just starting my sock knitting journey and I thought I could dye some skeins of yarn for some socks.
I received the yarn and did one dye bath and came up with a variegated result.
In corresponding with Ms. Jones, she decided she wanted a more solid yarn so back to the dye bath the skeins went.
Off in the mail they went and I waited patiently to received my socks.
The colors are right up my alley, but the leg is a bit too loose so I will be wearing them around the house instead. Overall, a very good trade.
This is the first year that I spent Thanksgiving all by myself. All my family was out of the country on vacation and I decided not to accept any invitations from my friends for the celebratory dinner.
Instead I stayed in my pajamas all day, put some corned beef in the slow cooker and watched a marathon of Game of Thrones since HBO was free this weekend.
I added a brown sugar and mustard glaze on my beef and the dinner was super without the requisite turkey.
Qiviut is the ultimate luxury fiber and it is from the undercoat of a musk ox. I have knitting with qiviut yarn in the past but have never spun the fiber.
I was lucky to purchase some qiviut fiber and decided to try my hand at spinning it with my supported russian spindle from TexasJeans.
The qiviut fiber - clean and dehaired.
Spindle spun single on my birdseye maple russian spindle.
My plan for a sample is to ply with the reeled silk that I learned to do at SOAR.
I transferred the single to a bobbin and found some tools at home to facilitate that.
Janet, Kim and I decided to have an outing for our November supper club and got in on a deal with Groupon for Bite.
The deal was a food tour through North Park. I had posted about this a while back here when we toured San Diego. We were lucky to see our same tour guide, Eddie.
We started at Splash where we had some pizza.
They even had an olive oil dispenser for tasting.
Next was Redwing with a tasting of some hot wings which were pretty hot. They have a patio in the back that does not close.
Some bread pudding was had at Heaven Sent Desserts.
Which led up to the Subterranean Coffee Shop for a scone.
Zensei Sushi was next with some fish bites.
Last was Sea Rocket with a pork belly taco.
Very cool decor with the home made fish. Here is the Orca.
Lovely day hanging with friends and taste of new restaurants for us. Good stories told by Eddie as well.
I purchased some raw paco vicuna from Jefferson Farms at the Estes Park Wool Market this year.
I got colors in tan and brown. I finally got around to washing the fleece and boy was it dirty. It was hard to tell since the fleece is colored but I placed the wool in a laundry mesh bag and into hot water with laundry detergent it went.
I did two washes and then 5 rinses and the water was still this color.
After multiple more rinses, it came out onto the sweater dryer and it took another 3 days with it moving outside during the day and inside during the night before it was completely dry.
It is still pretty dirty as seen by the debris on my car where the dryer rack rested in the night.
Here is the "clean" fleece after drying.
I still am getting dirt/dust from the fleece.
I got a request for the dog walking pouches that I had made in the past. I dug around and found these two. It is cool that I was able to find "poop" bags in matching colors.
Well it was an experience trying to grow cotton and I don't think it was too successful. I ended up with one boll from the Pima plant and one boll from the green cotton plant.
Pima
Green
Maybe I'll have a bit more success next year. Or I can just give my seeds to Jeri and have her grow some for me.
I did a southern California road trip for work and went around in a big circle starting from home and heading east, then north, west, and finally south.
Stayed at the DoubleTree which has my aesthetics.
Hit a few restaurants along the way - this one at a Pho place that only took cash. My co-pilot got the "big" bowl.
And I got the smaller one.
We were looking for another restaurant, but could not find it so we ended up at this one.
We passed Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive as we headed up for a meeting at the Federal Building.
Traffic was pretty bad when it takes almost two hours from Pasadena to Beverly Hills.
Up in Mojave, we got a tip to Anthony's Grill where we had mexican fast food. The tacos were delicious and I was impressed by the wall of hot sauce.
We also hit the Red Lobster next to the hotel and had drinks. Mine share of liquor was transferred to his drink. Cute how they include that.
Productive trip for work and good food, good company especially for those long hours in the car and a change in the weather with rain.
I was sitting in the back of a cab and saw this fare listing.
Interesting that the charge for vomit cleaning is only $50.
When I was at Estes Park, I purchased a glindle from Bristlecone Artisan Heirlooms.
I was on their Ravelry group and I asked to be placed on the any glindle list. This is where you will get a message stating there is a glindle for sale if you would like to purchase it. It seems these are so popular now, you can only buy them at shows. The website is sold out in seconds once an update is made.
I received a message for a padauk glindle with a flower at the tip. I thought it a sign since it is the same wood I have for my spinner so I purchased it.
It came in the mail very quickly and I love the spin action.
Jude gave some belated birthday gifts at Lake Tahoe since she had to cancel her trip in September.
I got a cool bug light - it hangs from a clip and the legs are moveable to any position.
She also got me a cool yarn holder that takes apart for travel.
Last I got a little baggie of indigo dye.
Awesome presents.
I had been very good saving up and not spending money on crafty purchases waiting for SOAR. Well, it was a total bust for me. I did buy some supplies for my spinning wheels and had a good look at some spindles. It is dangerous to hang around friends who have the same pursuits and the frenzy it generates just did me in.
Here are a few of my purchases.
KCL Woods - Ken Ledbetter had great things. I bought a russian spindle, a drop spindle, a spin bowl, and a yarn bowl inlaid with turquoise. Beautiful stuff.
Hansencrafts - new flyer assembly with new slow start and stop chip. Loved the action and the set up.
Abstract Fiber - organic polworth/silk in the Tahoe colorway and merino, sw merino, silk in the SOAR colorway. Also a cool shawl pin that won't fall out. I was pressured by my peers at the condo to buy the SOAR colorway since all of them did before me. It is my homework assignment to spin and make something before the Texas Retreat in March 2013.
Carolina Homespun - some bobbins and a drive band for the Suzie Pro wheel and great spindles from Texas Jeans - Bocote and Koa with a Koa bowl.
Opulent Fibers - this was my downfall. The lovely colors of cashmere and at the last minute some dyed cotton as well.
It was a big expenditure but I think that in our group, I was not the winner. Jude and Tami both bought rugs - which are absolutely beautiful and priced low.
As mentioned before, Sam bought a new mSpinner.
It feels great to be with my peeps.
