Not only a Loser Mo but also a Loser Blogger.

Well, it does seem like it has been for ever since I have chronicled my knitting adventures.  However, I really do have a good excuse.  The excuse is this; last school year was a awful.  I don't want to get into all of the icky stuff, but the short version is that my school district cut 395 teaching positions.  This raised my student load to 267.  I actually had a class of 56 seventh graders.  Okay, I may be exaggerating just a bit.  It was actually 53.  I had three of them move during the year.  So, maybe I'm a whiner.  You know, I just want to say again that I had 53 seventh graders.  Maybe I'm not a whiner but really a saint, Saint Geoff.  Only a saint would be able to teach that many seventh graders all year without killing them or him/herself or possibly both.

Enough of that, the school has been put to bed and I'm on BREAK!  Yeah!!!

Actually, a lot has happened since June 14.  This was my last day of work from the Year From Hell (you know, in my brain, when I just typed that, it was a loud, booming voice that echoed).  On that same day, my mother arrived for my nephew's graduation from college.  My sister was already here along with her partner, Keith.  In a way, it was like going from one Hell to another Hell (hmmm, still got that booming, echoing thing in the brain going on).

Here is a lovely picture of my nephew and a not ,so lovely picture of me and my partner, Jeff.  Doesn't my arm look all weird and bent.  What's up with that?  It kinda looks like I'm getting ready to take off.

Alex (I call him goober)  worked very, very hard and earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and he is making a shit-ton of money at the age of 24.  This is good, because as I age, I want him to invest in retirement property that I can live in for him.  I'm hoping he will buy one somewhere in Scotland.  However, he could twist my arm into caring for a home in Italy, France, Sweden or Spain.  It would be rough but I think I could manage. 

My mom actually had a really good time.  I have to say that I got a bit sad when she left.  I walked into the guest room and it still smelled like her.  My mom doesn't wear perfume but she has stuck with the same soap, lotion and shampoo for years.  They all add up to mom smell and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Well, the family is once again spread out across the country and Jeff and I are at home with our herd of poodles.  Oh, one fun thing that happened during the family visit/graduation was that four of our girls went into season, at the same time.  Dealing with one is bad enough but four put me over the edge.  OMG!  They were humping each other constantly.  I finally just put them out in the yard and let them hump each other to exhaustion.  Hell, I was exhausted just watching it.

Jeff, of course wanted to breed one of them and, of course, I caved and said okay.  So, Jeff was off for a breeding adventure in Canada with our girl Gracie.  She's so pretty! You can gush over her too; I'll let you.

The stud and Gracie hit it off very well but, apparently, there were some ED issues.  The semen had to be collected manually (yes, I said manually, and yes, the picture in your brain is correct) and then placed into Gracie.  They did this three times.  Hopefully, I will be posting a picture of  cute puppies in two months time.

While Jeff was off having breeding fun, I got to go to my dermatologist.  Let me say that I am not fond of going to any doctor except for this one.  Well, actually he's not a doctor he is a PA but I digress.  The reason why I like this one is that he is Smoking Hot! (hmmmm, no echo that time)  Everything was going fine until Tim (yup we are on a first name basis) tells me that I have acne.  What?  I'm going to be 50.  Acne is the purview of middle school children, not well aged adults.  So, now I have acne medicine that I have to apply daily.  The only consolation is that this truly affirms that I am actually still 13. 

Now, it's time to get down to the good stuff, Knitting!  I actually did complete quite a bit of knitting during the Year From Hell (did you hear that echo?).  However, much of it I cannot share here as the items are heading into patterns and then into publication.  It's all very secretive and James Bond but without all the cool toys and glamourous people.  What I can say is that two of them involve colour work and one involves kilts.

I have also been trying to get back to spinning and processing the three fleeces that I have in my garage.  I am happy to say that I washed one.  Here it is in all of it's fluffiness.

This is corriedale fleece and comes from one of these.

It spins up like this.

The fleece has lots of greys, creams and a touch of dark brown.  I going to do a three ply with this so that I get a nice heathered look.  If it looks like crap, I'll just end up having a dye pot fun fest.


Speaking of fleece, I had best stop typing and get busy combing.