My first post--an Advent grumble!

This is my very first post on my very own blog. I was going to wait until my older daughter, Jane, arrived on the 27th WITH MY CAMERA, but decided (after an e-mail query from my younger daughter, Whitney) that I would figure out how to do this now.

Information about me can be found in my profile. In short, I'm a medically-retired-against-my-will Episcopal priest whose primary activities right now are spinning, knitting, and a little weaving and crocheting. I teach the first three and am learning the third. I've had to miss several wonderful fiber events because of my health, but I just got (for Christmas and January anniversary combined) a new (portable) spinning wheel--the Majacraft Little Gem. Her name is Loosey and she is amazing. I can do everything with her as I can with Rosey and more, plus she only weighs 4 kg.! I can take her to NwRSA meetings without stressing my cardiorespiratory system! (Northwest Regional Spinners Association.)

I am so looking forward to Jane's arrival, and am heartbroken that my Lulu (read Whitney) won't be coming. Wayne cancelled her ticket and exchanged it for an open-date one just last night, and I sat here at my computer and wept. I had been hoping that somehow she'd be able to come at the last minute.

I have started spinning some gorgeous silver-brown CVM fleece that I've had pindrafted into roving by Sharon at Blue Moon Farm in Eatonville. I've spun three full bobbins of very bulky, very soft singles, and am about halfway through knitting my grandson, Leo, a nutsy hat with it--after the first few inches, which I wanted to be ultra-soft on his five-year-old forehead and ears, I've added Lion Brand Fun Fur in electric orange for whimsey. I think he'll like it. I'm not going to get Marian's sweater finished before Christmas, so I think I'll send hats for all three of my darling grandchildren via their Aunt Jane rather than USPS. Maybe I can finish her sweater in time for her birthday in January.

I've also been spinning some of Dawn's wool/mohair blend long-draw on Loosey. It's a hand-dyed green/blue/tan/orange/pink carded roving, which I plan to ply with another bump of Dawn's wool/mohair in a slightly lighter and warmer green. I think it's going to be a heavy worsted and beautiful. I'll finish it like I finished the rose--hot soapy water, warm rinse, then whacking on my granite countertop until it all evens up and blooms nicely. Jane and I are going to go down to Dawn's Custom Carding and get more while she's here, plus to visit Alice Mattson at Reflection Farm and pick up Jane's fabulous CVM fleece and some of Alice's incomparably dyed Corriedale top, and I may leave some of it with Sharon--whose farm is right next door to Alice's--to have her double pin-draft it for me.

I had oral surgery last Thursday to extract a big back molar. The surgery itself went fine, but the tooth root went through to my maxillary sinus, so now I have a raging sinus infection, probably from anaerobes in my mouth, so it will take "big guns" antibiotics to heal. I'm calling my oral surgeon tomorrow (it's still Wednesday until I fall asleep). If I can wake up, that is. I slept from 3 a.m. until 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday, and am going to try to get back on a normal schedule tonight. Wednesday night, that is. Boy, the time-space continuum is warped sometimes!

Can't wait until I can post pictures of my fiber and yarn here. Happy spinning, etc., to all who visit, and a joyful Christmastide, et.al.