I Don't Have Much

Sorry to say...

I haven't really knit or spun in a while. It was a busy weekend, and now Jr. Jr.'s home sick with me. It will be a really busy week, too, so I don't know how much I'll have to show you in my next post. Bear with me.

But I do have some leftover stuff from last week to share.

First, spinning: I'm about 3/4 of the way through my current batch of spinning. I'm trying to get one long single out of this braid, and then n-ply it on itself for a 3 ply yarn with long color repeats. The braid I'm spinning was slightly more than 4 oz. Here's the 3/4 on the bobbin:


Here's a better shot of the color, although you can't see some of the reds that show up every now and then in the braid:


And this is how much fiber I have left to try to squeak onto that bobbin:


It's going to be close. I really hope I can fit it all on one.

I've still been knitting on my various stripey socks and the first sleeve of my Paper Crane, which is finally far enough along that I can show it to you:


I'd love to finish this sweater sometime this century. Of course, at the rate I've been shoving food in my mouth lately, it won't fit.

Halloween was fun and had its bit of excitement. In a change of pace from years past, Jr. Jr. was NOT something that required wearing a long black robe and a scary mask of some sort. He's been some sort of ghoul, Scream guy, what have you for the past few years now. But this year he went as "Guy Riding an Ostrich," a costume which was voted funniest in his class:


He and Mr. T went out trick or treating for a little while, until his upset tummy forced them to come home (a harbinger of what was to come this morning, clearly). Sr. Jr. helped by carving the pumpkin and handing out candy. We didn't have a huge number of trick or treaters this year.

Then things got interesting when fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars showed up at our troubled neighbor's house. This neighbor has no job, no driver's license (lost it because of drunk driving), and does nothing much but drink all day. His son lives with him off and on, as well as a skeevy roommate who appears to crash there in between stints in jail. Lovely, huh? We suspect that there's some drug dealing going on there, too. They carried the son away on a stretcher with a neckbrace on, after doing some tox tests. I hope they spent some time searching the house, too. The cops keep a close eye on the roommate and the house, but perhaps it's time for the neighbors to do some more vocal complaining.

On the school choice front, I'm still as undecided as I was before. Tracey from the comments has provided me with extremely helpful information and perspective, as have some other parents with kids in both schools. I'm torn, but I think we'll go through the application process and then Sr. Jr. can make the decision for himself.

I'm hearing reports that there are kids in his grade who are already smoking pot, which freaks me out. It freaks me out even more because I'm pretty sure I know which kids are involved. There's also been some vandalism at a local school/playground which I hear was caused by the same group of kids. I used to worry about why Sr. Jr. wasn't hanging out with the other kids after school more, but now I'm thankful that he tells me "You don't want me hanging out with them, mom, really!" I guess they're not the same cute little kids they were when they were 7 and building paper airplanes in my house.

As much as I want to wring his neck over some things, I have to admit that Sr. Jr. has a pretty good head on his shoulders. Whew!