Well, I still can't do titles--looks like it's time for me to have a talk with the Blogger folks.

At any rate, it was a titanic struggle, but I finally got my brand-new first-ever cheapie pay-as-you-go cell phone activated last night. I think I goofed, though, by putting my number in as the voice mail number--I'll have to get on line and check it out later. I'm trying to think of a good message for the voice mail, since I'm planning to use it mostly for the cat-sitting thing.

(It's only 82, and the humidity isn't *that* bad, but boy, we're all hot already. I think the AC's coming on at noon.)

I had meant to do this like, oh, Wednesday, but didn't actually remember until this morning: I washed my lopi sweater for the first time. I have a couple of observations:

• That stuff is really water-resistant. No wonder it's been the dearest friend of the residents of the British Isles for centuries. I had to keep turning it and unfolding it and lifting pieces to make sure it all got wet through. I kept finding dry spots.
• I was appalled at how filthy it was. You wouldn't want to know what color the wash water was.
• I'd have given it a second wash, but I'm not the woman my ancestresses were--my hands got tired fast--so I settled for one wash, and rinsing until the water ran clear.
• No wonder fiction and historical records always have folks fleeing from pursuit cast off their woolen cloaks if they have to swim--that sweater is practically weightless to wear, and it weighs a TON when it's thoroughly wet. You'd get tired fast just swimming in a soaked sweater, and a big ol' cloak would just drag you right down unless you were a big strong guy.
• Since wool is basically hair, and shampoo (which is what I used for the wash, diluted of course!) strips oils off hair, I'm wondering if I've just removed the water-resistance by washing it. Sheared wool doesn't have little oil glands for resupply. Maybe I should invest in stuff actually meant to wash wool.
• It seems to me I've read that you shouldn't wash these big heavy items in spin washers, but those rotating washers, like clothes driers, are less likely to distort the garments. I need to see if I can find that--seems like this one (and its sibling) would get cleaner if they were machine washed. I think the local laundromat has a couple of rotating washers.

At the moment it's spread out on beach towels out on the front porch to dry, out of the sun. I'd like to turn it over about dinner time, but I'll have to go out and get a couple more beach towels first! Luckily it's the "end of the season" (what do you mean, summer's over??? Retail is very strange), so they're on sale most places.

Now I've got a bunch of woolen things down in the washer--socks and a shrug and a stole and some light sweaters. I'll hang the sweaters and socks out on the line, and probably the shrug. The stole I'm going to try taking out on the front porch to block out on bath towels.

I've got to clip puppy claws today, too--trauma time--think I'll wait until the AC's on.