When I was asking Mr. Ink about what he thought about me getting the kromski prelude, he asked “What can that wheel do that your current wheel cannot?” I told him…nothing. The rose is a great wheel that does everything I need it to do. And, when it cannot do something, there are generally additions I can get from majacraft that will make the wheel do what I want it to do. I explained that the kromski was an opportunity to own another wheel that was a traditional style. But that was it.

I was wrong. I just didn’t realize it until my vacation. And even the way I realized it was a bit of a surprise. You see, I don’t really wear make up. But since we were going to a thanksgiving party, I decided to wear make up. But, our main bathroom is THE WORST for make up application, as there is no way to get near enough to the mirror to get the job done. The master bathroom is better, but there’s not enough room in there, and no surfaces to hold the make up while I apply it. So I’ve been bringing a small mirror out to the kitchen when I wear make up, and applying it on the kitchen table. However, even that is annoying because the mirror is never at the level I need it to be.

This time, since I had plenty of time to do my face, I decided to raise the mirror a bit. I pulled out some larger books I had around. There was a weaving book, The Fleece and Fiber Source Book, and A Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs. I stacked them up trying to raise the mirror a bit, which only partly worked, but make up got applied and off we went to the party.

The next day I went to put away the books, and realized I had all these pages tagged in the yarn designs book, but I haven’t looked through the book in years. There was a time when work was great and I was creative with my spinning. But then the time of the problematic coworker arrived, and my spinning became routine stress relief rather than creative time. I began to look through the book, figuring maybe it’s time to work on some of these yarns I wanted to create. And I found it. Autowrapped singles. A thing the rose cannot do because of the design of the orifice. But my kromski can do it! So, I went in stash and pulled out some fiber and a skein of habu textiles bamboo laceweight I’ve had in stash for many years now, and made some autowrap singles.

417 yards later, I had a new and interesting yarn! The autowrap process was fun and easy, and it’s likely I’ll do it again. The resulting skein is interesting as well, and since it’s a pretty consistent color, I think it’ll make a great item. It’s probably about a DK weight yarn, though I didn’t measure that yet. I’ll certainly do this again, maybe with a couple different autowrap threads. It was easy and interesting and fast too.

What else? Oh, pics of the dog getting a bath at home.

It consistently surprises me how extremely small she is under that thick fancy fur coat. We tried an at home bath this time which seemed to stress her far less than going out of the house to do it. It was a project, as that coat takes ages to dry, but when she was dry she was also so silky soft and smooth!

And white! Those white areas just gleamed. She’s always had a very soft head, but the bath and the conditioner I used made her entire coat equally soft. The only problem? I think she might be allergic to either the shampoo or conditioner. Ever since her bath she’s been doing a ton of the reverse sneezing that some dogs do. She did this often when she arrived at our house, but then it tapered off. Now she’s doing it more than ever. It’s just I can’t remember if that started before the bath or after!

Last night was an extremely pleasant evening. Mr. Ink decided we might as well get that firepit going immediately. He started a fire and fired up the grill. Miss Butterfly is now in the midst of extra show choir practices so my firepit time was intermittent, with the picking her up and walking the dog and so on. However, Miss Butterfly was THRILLED with the fire in our backyard when she got home, so we sat outside together for a bit.

And unexpectedly, that was an item crossed off my list already!

And one more cute photo of a clean dog and a recovering kiddo. Kiddo watches TV and tries to eat some bland food. Doggo watches kiddo and hopes for scraps. A sweet moment in our house.