The weather is decidedly cooler now, by at least ten degrees, and we had a pretty cool few days at the end of last week. When the weather is like that, I make an effort to spend time carding in the garage. If it's too hot out there, or too cold, I can only stay for limited amounts of time. But Friday the weather was comfortable and I had two goals. To steam the carpets (high traffic areas) and card some more of the Jacob fleece I got on our last dye day. I did both.
I had washed the carp* out of the fleece but there was still an awful lot of VM left so, carding outside was a great idea. And the weather was outstanding! It probably stayed in the 70s for the entire day. Just enough breeze to keep the dust moving away from me, too! I am so proud of what I've accomplished, and I know this will give me one more spinning project to look forward to. And I still may add some camel down to the batch, if I find the time to card a little more.
I have the greatest of intentions, by the way. I woke up today thinking of how I was gonna clean out the garage, get rid of stuff and make way for the many boxes that will surely be coming our way when we liquidate my father in law's house and possessions. We intend to store a lot of it. I expect that some of it will come to roost in our garage and attic, and if that's the case, I will have to clear out the Christmas decorations and most of the empty boxes I keep saving "just in case I need to mail something." That's not far away from keeping extra twist ties and washed aluminum foil. I need to purge not hoard!
There is such a tendency to hang on to things that really have outlived their purpose. The older I get, the more I tend to hang on to things, and the more I have to make myself toss, toss, toss. To pine away for things that are over with is useless. I have been good about giving away baby clothes & blankets, odd bedspreads and old TVs. I have even thrown away boxes of books when we moved. (Shipping books is expensive by the way.) Last week I threw away CDs and DVDs, and this week I plan to go through my closet, purging the old summer clothes that I never wore. I've heard that you can safely pitch stuff that you haven't worn in a year. I know I have things I haven't worn in two years or more. I have a slew of suits from my old office job that are still in dry cleaning bags in the spare bedroom. Surely somebody needs those houndstooth skirts!!