I can't think of a title

Well, let's see, what is the dirt for the day...

Lilly went in for her real 12 month checkup today. She is in a vaccine study for meningitis, which has been interesting. Her doctor recommended it since she was hospitalized for it in October. So far, she has been doing very well on it. She is done with the vaccinations now and they will draw her blood in 30 days to see if she has built up antibodies. I hope she has, I don't like the threat of meningitis hanging over us, such a scary sickness.

They give the vaccine in the arm, instead of the leg, which she did not appreciate, plus the study nurse is not as fast as baby's usual nurses, so it was more painful than usual. Lil does not have ANY fat on her arms, so it was not nice. She was very angry. Fortunately, shots don't bother her too much and she usually only cries for about 30 seconds, then she forgets about it.

I worry constantly about her weight, but her doctor isn't worried. He says that the growth of her head is a good indicator that she is doing well. If it slows down, then he will worry, but so far, she still has an enormous noggin. Sign of intelligence and whatnot. ;) Seriously, though, she is quite advanced for a 1 yr old, I am pleased with that. Well, advanced as far as cognitive development goes. She still doesn't walk well. I had her doctor check on that, because she has an odd gait. I was worried that she might have one leg shorter than the other (I do) or mild hip dysplasia (again, I do) but nope, she just walks like a drunk! She will get better at it. She has quite a few words, which is funny. Her newest are "I did it!" and "Cool" Very funny when she says them, as she grasps the meaning.

Also, apparently, her "selective" understanding is a sign of intelligence. Fabulous.

Let's see...in other news, the housing market still sucks, so the company is not doing as well as I would like. I have debated getting a full time job, but have decided that that is not the right answer. I feel very strongly about staying home with Lil (who'd o' thought) and I already work part time. I didn't think that I would want to stay home with her, but the idea of handing her off to someone else full time is not a happy one for me. I certainly don't judge those who do, I had my wonderful nephew for 3 years while his mama worked and I wish I still had him. He has a nanny now, as I didn't think I could handle him, Lil and his baby brother. If it were just him, I would not have hesitated. I had him in my care from the time he was born and grew very attached to him. He is the sweetest little boy. Sigh. I miss him.

In crafty news, I got an insane amount of raw wool fleece from a friend of my dads. It was free. They are not from wool sheep, and they guy doesn't sell the wool or anything, so the shearing job was not fabulous for spinning and they are filthy, but there is so much of it, that I can pick through the fleeces and pull out the best parts.

Originally, I was going to wash the fleece, then comb or card it, then spin it, but I kept matting up the fleeces pretty good when I would wash them, and only getting a little bit of combable locks, plus, they were so dry that it was hard to draft them. So, I looked up some more info on the web, and I found a website that gave instructions for spinning "in the grease" It is much easier to comb the unwashed fleece, draft and spin it. Of course, you wouldn't want to do this with the excessively dirty bits, but the parts that just have lanolin and VM aren't a big deal. Most of the dirt and VM combs out, then you wash the yarn when it is done.

So, last night, I combed. drafted and spun some yarn. It turned out pretty well. I made it thicker than I wanted and not as even as I would have liked, but not bad. It is a shorter staple than I have heretofor spun with, so not as easy. I also put waaaayyyyy too much twist in the yarn, so it is a little bit cordlike. I will try to include some pics in this post. I am sure the next spinny will be much better, now that I have an idea how this behaves.

So, first pic is the raw, dirty fleece.

Second pic is the combed locks from the raw dirty fleece.

Third pic is the combed locks drafted into roving and

fourth is the spun yarn (dyed blue, obviously. I forgot to take a pic predyed).

Mike is getting me some hand carders for Mothers' Day. I am pretty excited, that should make things go a little faster. He was going to get me a spinning wheel, but we decided to wait, due to tight finances. I will get that later, in the meantime, my spindle works great.

I haven't done much else lately, craftiwise. I have been messing around with the fleece is all.

I am planning this week to get my front room switched over to my spring decor. I am a little late on that, the job cuts into my free time in a big way. I just got some pics printed today of all of us to redo the mantle with, that is my first task. Second will be to make the new chair cover. I need to get crackin'!

Well, that is all for now!