Modern Pioneers...

An Internet friend of mine has been having some troubles, and a group is making blanket squares for her. I decided, oh, this would be perfect for my homespun. So, having some lovely multi-colored one ply, and a white one ply, I would make a lovely barber pole 2 ply, and knit up a square.

Good idea, until I wet it to 'set' the yarn. I had gotten out "THE SMELLY YARN". One of my friends gave me some terrific roving, just soft, great to spin... And had been stored in a layer of mothballs. You read that right, not one or two for good measure, the packing was described as a LAYER of mothballs, followed by roving, followed by a LAYER of mothballs, followed by roving, until the box was full, and then the box was shut.

URK.

Well, that put the kibosh on THAT for a gift... I have sunned the stuff, I have washed it in water, washed with Kookaburra wool wash (LOVE the smell of my Kookaburra), and not a dent in that MOTHBALL ODOR!

So. Plan B.

I sat down and looked at my stash of already spun 'stuff'. I had planned something else for the blue yarn... But ya know, it would be bright, cheerful, Lawd knows it's soft, and I didn't over spin it, for a rare change... Yep, it is going to become yarn. So, since I didn't have a second single that I wanted to use with it, I plied it with itself, (Navajo plying, if you're interested...), and it came out nice. I have enough other 'stuff', I certainly am not going to miss a tiny bit of it... The fact that I need to actually get some of this stuff KNIT, not just sitting quietly in a mass on the floor of my craft room, (yessss, I remember my New Year's Resolution, hush...), inspired me to get this going.

I watched out the window, as I was spinning, and three deer walked up the road in front, and watched me spin for a bit, as I watched them graze. I felt like I could have been some sort of Homesteader...

Then the dump truck load of rock arrived for my neighbor, scattering the deer. And my other neighbor buzzed by with his Gator, to go check on the irrigation pump. And I turned off my radio.

Well, uh... Modern stuff has its place, right?