1.) CO and smoke detectors are programmed with special factory-set timers to hit their low-battery warning state between the hours of 1am and 5am on a work night. Have you ever had one of these devices start its warning chirps at, say, 2pm on a Saturday? Me either.

2.) The battery cases on CO and smoke detectors are not made to be easily opened by bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived people in the wee hours of the night. They require a screwdriver, a chisel, or at least a determinedly-wielded butter knife to pry open, as well as intense illumination to read the "battery compartment instructions", which were molded in 4-pt barely-raised type that blends perfectly with the rest of the case and is nearly illegible in direct sunlight, let alone the crappy 60-watt bulb in the hallway light fixture you're standing under, squinting and cursing.

3.) By the time you've finally ripped off the battery cover and flung the handful of AAs to the floor to get the incessant, hellish chirping to stop, you've broken off some fragile but vital plastic tab that secures the batteries in place and without which the unit will simply not operate. You decide it's probably time to replace the damn thing with a new one anyway, maybe a hard-wired unit that won't awaken you at 3am the morning before an important work meeting, so you set it aside and decide to deal with it later. Much later. Months in the future, when your house bursts into flames (or your furnace starts pumping carbon monoxide through the vents), the plans of the evil smoke/CO detector companies come to fruition.

African Violets:

Raindrops on Roses:

Field of Flowers:

I've noticed that I like the results best when I say, 'Hey, I have 7 partial containers of dye solution sitting around, let's mix 'em all up and slap them all over the fiber."

I've been spinning up the Lupin Bandit roving, and I'm about halfway through the second bobbin. If I can get this all spun up, I may get to ply it this weekend.

I've also been knitting away on the Simple Yet Effective shawl. To make sure it turns out a reasonable size, I decided to add in random stripes from a skein of brown Fibre Company Terra that I bought last winter to make a scarf for Jag (except that I stupidly didn't ask what color he wanted, and it turned out he wanted green). It seems to coordinate well with the handspun and I'm getting to use up some really nice stash yarn (it's a very soft silk/alpaca/merino blend).

I think a plain garter/stockinette fabric like this will show off the colors much better than something lacy.

Here are some pictures of the three new rovings I dyed on Saturday, with the metal kitty:

Sweet Petunia, Merino top.

Dreaming of September, Merino top.

Rocky Shore, superwash merino.

We'll see how it goes. I comfort myself with the thought that I really like everything I've dyed so far, so if nothing sells, I GET TO KEEP THEM HAHAHAHA. It would sure be nice to sell a few, though!

2.) VistaPrint, the online business card company. I ordered cards from them August 2 and paid extra for their 7-day processing and shipping. The ship notification came on August 4. By August 14, still no sign of the cards. I contacted DHL about the tracking number listed on the VistaPrint web site (which had showed as permanently "Shipping Info Received" since August 4) and DHL had no record of ever receiving the package. I called VistaPrint; the first CSR took my info, put me on hold, and promptly hung up on me. The second kept putting me on hold due to "system problems" and being unable to track down a supervisor, and was unable do so anything for me except order a re-print at the same priority as the last one, which meant waiting at least another week for something that should have arrived days ago. I cancelled the order, asked for a refund, and ordered MOO cards instead with happy imported-from-Flickr pictures of my hand-dyed rovings on them. They'll ship from London, but I bet I'll get them before this coming Friday.

I've discovered that 1.) I'm running out of blue dye and 2.) all of my rovings except ONE has some blue in the color mix, so my challenge to myself for the next three rovings is to use no blue dye at all. Apparently I really like blue.

"Sing Blue Silver", targhee wool.

"Fairy Garden", a bigger-than-usual 6oz-er of Columbia/Dorset

Jeans and an Orange Sweatshirt, Targhee wool top.

Open Water, Merino wool.

A Day at the Bazaar, Merino wool.

It's occurred to me that although I like really bright saturated colors, not everyone does, so I dyed up 2 more subdued rovings this evening. Pictures of those probably tomorrow.

I've had my first experience dyeing superwash merino, and it's a super pain in the ass. It's like dandelion fluff. Wonderfully soft, but damn does it want to be cotton candy and shred all over the sink. The regular Merino and Targhee I dyed last night were great to work with by comparison, and they dry up so soft, fluffy and plump. I suspect I just don't like superwash wool very much, period. I have some Wensleydale that I want to try dyeing up tonight.

Assuming that it's not pouring rain when I get home, I'll post pictures of the newest three rovings this evening, but here some samples of the first four:

Ice Palace (Columbia/Dorset)

Tropical Sunset (Superwash Merino)

Dappled Firs (Superwash Merino)

Sea and Sand (Columbia/Dorset)

The Autumn Bliss roving that Jag and I dyed is spun, plied, washed, and whacked, and is nearly dry from hanging out on the porch. 4.8oz/139gm of fiber, 520 yards of sport to light worsted weight 2-ply yarn. I'm looking at shawl and shrug patterns so I can get to knitting with it ASAP.

Jag is moving along with his weaving project. It's been slow going, and there are mutterings about his never doing tapestry weaving again, but he's finding ways to speed things up and has made a good bit of progress. The fabric he's making is very sturdy and the color transitions are looking pretty much perfect now.