Tardy mouse infested blogger.

I'm behind in my blogging - put this down to an excess of spinning, the arrival of two out of three stepchildren and a general malaise which left me in bed for a while. So not much has happened in the land of Mog this week or so, except:

A visit to Twist Fibre Crafts in Newburgh. After having such fun with someone else's spindle I decided to get my own. I love this place - I had what amounted to a one to one spinning tutorial, a history lesson, bible study ( did you know that the Bible bans the mixing of flax and wool for clothing ? Check Deuteronomy for details ), and the chance to squeeze lots of potential spinning fibres. And then what happened? Peter the shop owner sold me the cheapest spindle in the shop, because it was the one that suited my needs best. That's good service in my book. I also came home with some more merino in lovely green shades, some undyed merino with added silk and some soy. I have already thrown some of the soy onto Sylvia's fire because in my untrained hands, it is super tricky to spin with.

There has been a considerable amount of lying in bed feeling sorry for myself but as this downturn in health co-incided with beginning a fantastic book, things could have been a lot worse. I've been reading The Courtesan's Revenge, by Francis Wilson which is the biography of Hariette Wilson. Harriette was the Mistress of many influential chaps, including the Duke of Wellington and the book often quotes from her own memoirs. It's a fascinating world of intrigue and it seems that even though their position in society was a lot more precarious than the virtuous upper class women, the courtesans had a much freer and more interesting time of things. Until the gentlemen moved on to a newer model of course.

Then there was the mouse incident. This took place on Friday night after Archie had spent the day photographing old newspaper articles, as you do. So the batteries in the camera were spent and I have been forced to rely on memory to create my artist's impression seen above. The mouse sat quite happily on Archie's coat for about ten minutes until I went to get a dishcloth to catch it in. Mouse moved and hasn't been seen since although I half expect it to turn up asleep in my coat pockets one day. It was a thing of great beauty and cuteness but if I notice tooth marks, or worse, in my yarn collection, it will be time for the mousetrap.

The new Knitty has arrived and one of the articles linked to this blog - http://pierretheyarnsnob.blogspot.com/

As far as I can make out, The Yarn Snob is spearheading a campaign to reduce the stigma of mental illness as well as promoting the use of knitting as a way to feel better and reduce stress.
Knit and Fight The Black Dog is well worth checking out and who knows, if I get really brave, I might post my own contribution.