New Skills Week

I feel like this week has involved doing more new-to-me things than usual. Not big things, mind you, but still new.

Tuesday the bathroom sink blocked up. It had been running slow for a while, and I tried the whole baking soda/hot vinegar thing, but no real improvement. I unbent a coat hanger and went fishing, and brought up some gunk, but the sink was still blocked. So I bit the bullet and bought a drain auger, and went at it. 10 minutes of work yielded a running sink, a large amount of stuff that looked to be mostly composed of dirt and hair, and a good workout for the cat, who spent the time chasing the other end of the spring, which was wiggling around on the floor. The dirt I understand (I garden), but the hair is a puzzler, as I don't shave in the sink and the cat doesn't sit in the sink.

Tuesday also my computer, which was dying, gave up completely. Fortunately I never got around to getting rid of the last one, which still works. It's an ancient laptop (remember the ones that were over an inch thick and had their own briefcase?) but has most of what I need. Another first - I installed a program on it. I got to love the photo editor program on the newer computer, and I had the program CD from my father, so set that up and went happily back to work.

Wednesday's new thing was at least not due to anything breaking down. At spinning night, we were doing kind of a spindle testing night - bring your own and/or try others. One of the spindles was a Russian type, which is totally different from a drop spindle (no notch or disc, it looks more like a nostepinne), and runs more like a great wheel or a charkha in that you turn it with one hand and draft with the other, and the yarn spirals off the spindle tip. That took me a few minutes to get the hang of. It's cool, but slow (at least in my hands) compared to a regular drop spindle. I can see how it would help with a very delicate or short fiber, but I don't think I'll be switching anytime soon.