Moving? done. Moving in? Not so much...

So we officially moved at the beginning of May. Ie. the lease at the old place ended, and we started living full time at the new place. The week after we moved in, we had the rovers over for a meeting. There was a rush of unpacking, and we got a lot of boxes emptied, and stashed the rest up against the wall. And now, a month later, they're still stacked up against the wall. Somehow, we've unearthed all the daily use things, and the things that were sorted before packing, but everything else is still just sitting. In the meantime, there has been a camping trip, and a new job, and a spinning workshop. There have been house guests, and baby plants. There has even been laundry, with a trip to the laundromat. But the boxes are still stacked against the wall of the living room. I'm almost resigned to it. We have nowhere to put all the stuff. Or at least, nowhere that seems reasonable. Apparently, we don't need all of this stuff. I'm tempted to throw it all away. It just seems irresponsible, economically and environmentally, to do it. Anybody have any brilliant ideas as to what to do with all the random trappings of life, short of stashing them in boxes in the living room?

On a better note, I did finish the yarn I was working on, though not in time to ply it before I needed the bobbins for the workshop. I wound the singles into balls to ply later, instead. This seems not to have affected the finished yarn, which I love. It's probably not going to be for socks, though. I agree with sweetgeorgia on that one. Hard to turn handspun into something to put on your feet, stuffed inside shoes all day. It might be mittens instead. It is, after all, the "winter camping" colourway. Never mind that I don't really wear mittens.

(click on any of the included photos to see bigger versions)

The workshop, Fiber Prep with Kim McKenna, was good too. I was probably the youngest person there by about 25 years, but apparently that's normal for the Fort Langley guild. I did get a large bag of sample fluff, and learned some interesting things, though I don't currently have the tools to use the knowledge. If anyone wanted to lend me a set of wool combs, or a hackle and a comb, that would be cool.

Lately, I've been having issues with spinning, though. My hands have been really rough and dry from work. Since as of the May long weekend (the Canadian one, not the American one) I wash windows on highrises. It's actually pretty awesome. My first day, I did a 12 story drop. Second day (and the rest of that week) was a 27 story building. And now I have pretty much no issues whatsoever with any size building, though going over the edge is still tricky on at least the first drop on whatever I'm working on. But I get some excellent views, and some fun photo ops.



So all is well, as soon as I find a really good moisturizer, and my hands are at least back to normal, if not optimal spinning condition. At least I can still knit, right?

Besides, if I can't spin, I can tend my "garden", right? I spent the Saturday before Mothers' day with my mom doing garden type things. We went to the UBC plant sale, and I got a pepper plant, and two strawberries. And got peas and bok choi seeds and two baby lettuces from mom. So I planted them in a box on my deck (a planter box, not a shoebox or anything) and now I have plant babies! Though one of the peas has kinda shriveled in last week's heat wave (25 and up, all week) so I only have 2 for now. I think I will have to plant more. But I have lots of baby bok choi.



Just one more thing, and I promise it's pretty. I got stash enhancement for my birthday! I have a sock blank and a dye sampler from my aunt, and from my Puzzle, I have some awesome soft pretties. Two skeins of merino lace from sweetgeorgia, in Tourmaline,



and part of a skein of Speed Demon, in a colourway I want to call either Pink Lemonade, or Camp Chair.



See what I mean? And I got me some Wensleydale in green and yellow, which is how I discovered my hands are too rough to spin right now. But I love the colours.