Bugs and Rodents

Why is it that an insect like a cockroach, or an animal like a little mouse can send me into an absolute panic?

Irrational Fears
A few weeks ago, I had a mouse in my hotel room.

I woke up at about 2:45 a.m. because of some scuffling noise on the floor. Since a coworker had an issue previously with a mouse in his room, I immediately turned on my bedside lamp and looked over to where I had heard the noise. I didn't see a mouse, but I did see one of my pillow chocolates (that had previously been on the nightstand right next to my head) on the floor. This creature, no larger than the face of my watch, came out of the radiator, and went to retrieve his dropped chocolate. After picking it up, carrying it for a few inches and dropping it, and then repeating that process about four times, he finally got the candy under the heating unit.

I didn't sleep the rest of the night.

I'm not quite sure what I was afraid of, but some innate panic alarm was definitely set off, and I couldn't turn it off.

Other Weekend Fiber Activities
I provided an update on my sweater knitting in the last post, but I also got a little carding and spinning in this past weekend.

I carded more of the mohair, and finished spinning a second spool of singles. I loosely double-plied the singles, and ended up with this lovely yarn.



Here's a closer view of the strands.



The yarn ended up being between a DK and a worsted weight. I didn't measure wraps per inch or yardage, so I'm not really sure yet what exactly I will do with this newly created yarn

Other Spinning
I put the Cherry Merino back on the spinning wheel, and got a little more done with that.



Switching from spinning a softer twist, thicker mohair, to a fine, high-twist merino took a bit of adjustment, but now I'm back to having the singles fly onto the bobbin.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Thanks for all the good feedback on "How-To" and reference books for knitting.

I do have a whole library of books and sometimes I will go through a stack of them looking for a good baby sweater, or a nice lace project. But typically, like I said in comments, I'm only looking for an interesting stitch pattern.

When I decide to design my own Aran (I've been inspired by Marilyn's efforts), I will probably be looking for a standard shaping for design purposes as well as various pattern stitch motifs.