Gosh I hate to post this in public, but I need to rant because I am absolutely furious with our bank (Insert giant-corporate banking conglomerate name here).  We do much of our banking in one locale, and when Craig quit his job to start working on Crowd Fusion last summer, we took out a home equity line of credit in case we needed to dip into it to cover us in between "official" jobs.  Shortly after we got the line, our primary mortgage also was purchased by the same bank, putting too many of our eggs in one basket, in my opinion.  But what are you going to do?

Back in January I noticed a $25 debit to our checking account and questioned it in an email to them.  Somehow I let it slip through the cracks.  We keep tabs on our accounts mostly electronically, and it takes a few months to catch up sometimes.  I really don't know how I let it slip under the radar that they have been charging us $25/month for our checking account, which used to be FREE before we gave them more of our business.  The return message I was sent (and just read, 3 months later--that part is 'my bad'), tells me that we need a combined total debt and/or savings in our accounts of $250,000 in order to avoid the $25 fee!!!!!  Where the heck did that come from? 

I have a couple of accounts elsewhere that will charge me $5 if I go below a $500 balance.  That seems reasonable to me.  These guys have a half dozen assorted accounts with us, and a very long relationship with us.  My first credit card I got when I turned 18 is still with them--20 years, folks!!  Now they have decided they need to nickel and dime us to death.   Leave it to corporate America to screw you for giving them a bigger piece of the pie. 

It's UFO time, and  I'm not talking generally about my Unbelievable Fiber Obsession, but  am trying to attack a specific problem within my stash; a massive pile of Un-Finished Objects or as we fiber obsessed people (and crafters everywhere) call them, UFO's.

Anyone who knows me well (and some who don't) know that I have a case of "start-itis", a term I lovingly stole from another fiber artist on one of the many lists I subscribe to.  I come up with new ideas, sometimes write them down, and start them.  Finishing isn't my strength <----understatement of the year.  So the stack of UFO's in my stash is quite impressive, maybe 20+ ok, more like 30.  OK, lets be honest I just have no idea how many items are out there floating around, waiting for some attention. And if you counted all of the supplies I purchased with a specific project in mind and haven't started...well, let's just not go there now as I'm feeling good about progress made recently, and don't want to rain on my own parade.

In the past I've tried new project  "diets" that  required me to finish one UFO in between each new item started.  It worked for a while, but then I'd find that I needed something small and brainless to work on while at the PTA meeting, sitting on line, waiting during ballet class...so I'd grab some yarn and two to five pointy sticks and whammo...great plans out the window (but nifty new hat started, cool :)

So on the verge of the Spring craft shows, and updating Amy's gallery with seasonal items,  I am grabbing some of these bad boys and plodding through the pile, putting the proper Spring UFO's at the top of the heap. This past weekend I finished a beautiful sari silk triangle shawl that I started over a year ago.  Yesterday I finished a yarn necklace that's been sitting in my bead box for a few months, and I worked for a few hours on the hairpin lace scarf shown in the photo, started last summer?   I plan to finish that today.   As I finish each, I find new things hiding  and add them to my queue.  Some of them  only need a half hour of my time to finish up, and it feels really good to have completed things to photograph, sell, gift, and show off.  After a bit of progress I feel confident that my persistence will pay off.

Ooh...gotta run, I just got an idea for a new spinning technique and need to go try it out...

Hiatus?  Really?  No, not really, just no time to take pics or post new projects lately.  I've been working on an original technique that I'm not ready to share yet, trying to perfect it so I can make a kit to sell.  Craig is a big believer in "make it once, sell it over and over", and he's right, sort of.  My kit will include both a bit of handmade (by me) parts, commercial parts, and a pattern to put it all together.  So it'll still be unique to TemptressYarn of course.  Details coming in a few weeks, I hope--I'm not much of a graphic designer and not sure how to put an instruction booklet together for printing.  That part will be hard.  I may try to find someone to help with that part...will see.

I've also been working like crazy to get some Springy things made to take to my Sister Amy's gallery in Greenport, NY:  Winterharborstudio is on Main Street, open weekends and a few other days and for Greenport's monthly gallery walks. (And I need to update her web site to reflect all that and more!)   I've been doing some lightweight felting, knit and crochet handbags and I hope to finish a few spring shawls and scarf ufo's that have been kicking around here.  Will go pull the wintry things next weekend and swap them out, or at least that's the plan. My friend Jen has been making some new felt soaps to stock up there as well--so to add color to the site, here's a pic I swiped from her web site, LillyZoo.com   She is also on Etsy as Lillyzoo :

She has some easier technique that works in her washing machine for felting soaps so I envy her that.  Soap felting is work....well, maybe not hard work but lots of time for little profit, so anything that makes it faster/easier is the way to go.  Customers literally eat them up, so it's great to have a stock (well, maybe not literally eating them, but you know what I mean).  Anyhow,  my washing machine ate the soaps when I tried to make them in there...can you say "shrinkage?"  So I have to do them by hand, which means I rarely get around to it.

Off to finish our TAXES, eeeeeew.  And then housework and fiber fun (that should be sometime around Thursday, I think).  With luck I'll get some fun things to look at here in the next few days...

Last year I purchased two lovely, small Navajo Churro fleece from Barbara at Flint Run Farm.  I was attracted by the "rare breed" idea as well as the fact that she had a few smaller fleeces for sale compared to others I had seen available.  The thought of smaller amounts of wool to process really enticed me as someone relatively new to raw fleece (not wanting to get in over my head and all--I would never do that, grin).  This year, with my renewed interest in  fleece prep that came from a successful attempt in the washing machine, I decided to purchase a few more fleeces from Barbara,  despite the fact that I still have a fair amount of last years' left.  I inquired and ended up purchasing three small fleeces that arrived today. 

I heard the postal van transmission whining down my street, and then heard the telltale "thump" that means a package has arrived.  I looked out the door to see a giant plastic canvas bag like you might imagine Santa Claus carrying over his shoulder.  Strange, I thought....then realized there was cardboard inside the bag....even stranger yet.  Why would Barbara ship fleece inside a box, inside a bag?  After a bit more inspection of the package, I realized that her box was inside an "official USPS" bag because of some kind of  postal accident (the kind you can only imagine):

So there it was, in all it's glory.  Three fleeces in bags, each bag ripped somewhat with fleece peeking out.  And then there's this:

Thoughts on this accident ran through my mind, not necessarily in this order:

"How, where, and why did this happen?"  and   "Thank goodness I don't buy antique Tiffany lamps"  and of course the best of all "I wonder what the people at the post office think I do with bags full of greasy sheep fleeces.  I can just imagine the looks on their (very, very, suburbanite) faces"   That third thought made me smile...a LOT...in fact, I'm still smiling about it.

In all, no harm was done.  The fleeces (Faith, Nancy, and Grace) were intact and in great shape, well skirted without too much dirt or vm.  Even the invoice and photos of my new sheepy friends survived without a crease, despite being found in the bottom of that box!  And I immediately opened one of the fleeces up and here it is--from Nancy.  I put half in the washer and it's already halfway finished, turning from this to a nice creamy white as I write this:

I'm sure more Navajo Churro posts will pop up, since I now have so much to work with.  I do hope this  post is the last I need to make about postal mishaps.  Happy spinning and good night.