My cars been a right pain, I know it's nearly 8 years old, and up until now it's been a really good workhorse, not let us down at all, but a couple of weeks ago it just conked out on HD. Stopped dead, nadda nothing nil. He of course didn't have either his phone (he has 2) or his AA card on him. Luckily he was outside the shops & the people at the dry cleaners who he uses regularly, let him phone me. Well the AA came out very quickly & towed him to a garage round the corner which lots of people we know use. Turned out we knew the owner from HD's youth club leader days. Anyway it seemed the clutch & flywheel had gone & they'd broken some sensor on the crankshaft, so that had to be replaced as well as the clutch. The car had to be taken to a specialist clutch place in town, but I have to say they were excellent, however we noticed that oil was leaking, so they had the car back to have a look at it. Apparently someone had jacked it up without a board & done damage to a stopper or something (you can tell I know all about cars) so they replaced it free of charge & let us have a courtesy car while they were doing the repair & checking it out. When we got it back HD noticed that there was another leak, but when I checked I said that it was only water from the air-con, but by then he'd rung the clutch place & they were on their way to collect it. Again they left us the courtesy car & took it away to check. Turns out I was right, it was just condensation from the air-con ( see I told you I know all about cars ;-) but they were great in the way that they dealt with it. It's so rare that you get anyone admitting that something was their fault & putting it right without charge or checking something out that isn't even their fault at all. It's restored my faith in the motor industry & of course we wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, which has to be the best way of getting business.
I'm still plodding on with spinning the Texel fleece. HD was out most of Saturday, so after cleaning the kitchen which was a right tip, getting the car from the clutch place & doing a few other chores I spent a bit of time with my drum carder prepping a load, then did a bit of spinning & plying. Then I saw my neighbour who keeps a few sheep & popped round to have a look at the fleeces he'd shorn. I ended up with 2 of them, one's a Leicester Border cross, which seems quite fine & soft & a good length staple, the other one's I think a Suffolk cross, bit shorter staple & not quite as fine or soft, but will probably spin up OK. I've not pulled them out of the bags we put them into yet, but I think looking at the bits I pulled off there's going to be quite a lot of 2nd cuts as he sheared them himself, but will have to see what they're like when I've washed them. Trouble is it takes so long to get them washed & dried. I don't want to put them in the bath as DH would go barmy, so do bits in a washing up bowl that I keep for the wool only. Also the weather's up & down, so the rest of the Texel that I washed is still not quite dry & I don't want to do any more until the weather is settled, it looks like it's going to be showery for this week. Sunday was more plying & spinning & HD is now completely sure that I love sheep more than any other creature. Not true of course, they're just very useful animals.
I've also started on a cardigan, it's a Drops pattern with some teal coloured yarn that I bought from Moonstone Yarns. The yarns' merino & acrylic, lovely & soft & lightweight, but the bottom will curl up. It starts with 6 rows of garter stitch & then changes to stocking stitch. I frogged it back & started the stocking stitch on the purl row rather than the knit row, and I thought that would solve the problem, but it's still curling, probably because the wool's very lightweight, but hopefully it will lay down after blocking. If not then I might try a crab stitch border or maybe even sew a few beads on to give it a bit of weight.
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