Helping out

My dad broke his hand and cut his arm last week. He is now in a soft cast for about 6 weeks and feeling generally miserable because the doctor told him he cannot drive.

Nor can he help out for a while at the animal shelter. He's one of their go-to people and he's feeling badly that he has somehow let them down. I'm sure they will wait for him to get better and will be glad to have him back.

Anyway, there are things around mom and dad's house that they just can't handle at this minute, so Matthew and I went over there this morning and mowed the lawn, mowed in the orchard and weed whacked the front garden and part of the orchard before the weed whacker ran out of juice. Ken is going over this week to use the chainsaw on some downed trees.

Yesterday Matthew spent the day skateboarding with friends. He's getting pretty good at it.

It gave me an opportunity to do some spinning. I'm working on the second half of the grey "fancy" alpaca. For this second half I'm spinning much finer. I'm aiming for lace weight in two ply. So far so good. I must note however that even after a good washing (and it is remarkably cleaner), my finger tip and thumb are black after about 20 minutes of spinning. There is still a lot of dirt in the fleece.

I think after this grey one is finished I will work on the "red" one. Ken really likes it and seems to be hinting that he would like something made from it. I don't know if I have enough to make a sweater or vest out of it, but could probably make him a cabled scarf. Or, if I blend it with some wool, I might get a nice pair of socks out of it for him.

Anyway, I'm going to sit down shortly and do a bit more spinning.