Chappy had about the best possible day where I still have to go to work. First, there was snow–about 6-8″ of fresh, fluffy snow. Then, I had a two-hour delay before I had to head to work, and yet I was up at the usual time. (I’m the one who changes the phone-message to alert all the employees.) So, we had plenty of time to play in the backyard, once I’d cleaned off my car–snowball chasing is one of his favorite games. We also played with his favorite squeaky toy, and he even got his Grandpa to play–Chappy would bring the toy to me, I’d toss it to Dad, he’d throw it for Chappy, who would bring it back to me, and so on. He did, of course, look disappointed when I left for work an hour and a half later than usual, but I came home at lunch as usual, AND got to leave half an hour early since I hadn’t waited for the whole 2-hour delay this morning. (That’s the first time that’s ever happened!)

When I got home, Mom, Chappy and I went out for a walk, and halfway around the block, we met up with two neighbors who are two of Chappy’s favorite people. They not only said hello, but they joined us and he was SO happy about that! He pranced along the street, smiling up at the two of them, just bursting with joy at getting, not only to see them, but to walk with them, too!

Oh yes, the other thing I did this morning was rolling my two skeins of blue/green handspun into balls. (I must say, now that we’ve gotten to know each other, I love my ball winder.) The next thing is to decide what to DO with it. I really have no idea, mostly because I’m not sure what the yardage is (270 yards, maybe? I lost count on the niddy-noddy, but I think each was about 90 rotations, and I seem to remember that my n-n is 1.5 yards around). I want to do SOMETHING with it, though. Not a scarf, but something like a wrap, but I don’t know how far the yarn will go, so it’s kind of hard to make plans . . . I’m sure I’ll think of something . . .

In yesterday’s comments, I was reading Alden Amos’ Big Book of Handspinning and he actually mentions historical texts that talk about textile related history and said that the authors are rarely actual spinners and thus you have to read these authors as though they are onlookers, not participants in the history they write about.“

It’s true, of course–but if you think about it, almost all history is written that way. No historian can actually live what he or she is writing about–you can have an idea of how things like spinning or wars or house-building are done now, and you may have sources explaining how they were done then, but you can never entirely know what it was really like. Kind of like anthropologists studying distant, native tribes–they can study them all they want, but they’ll never have the mindset or the intimate knowledge that their subjects have, even with their being right in front of them!

Interesting, though, don’t you think?? (Well, I did, anyway…)

• Tags: Chappy, Family, General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading, Weather • Permalink:Chappy’s Wonderful Day. //