Test Your Smarts! #1

  

See if you can guess the answers to these problems.

(Leave your guesses in the comment section below.)

1. How long is a piece of string?

2. A farmer had seventeen sheep. All but nine died. How many did he have left?

3. Take the numbers from 1 to 7, and mix them up and add them in any way, but use each number only once, and come up with a total of 100.

4. A man lives in a one-story building. He is out in his yard one day, and sees a bear rollerskating.
He runs inside his house to get his own roller skates. He finds the roller skates,
but has to go upstairs to get the key.  What is wrong with this story?

5. How many feet are there on a lamb if you call a tail a foot?
 

Correct answers will appear on Monday, July 30
All of your guesses will be posted on Monday also.

Answers:
1.Twice the distance from the middle to the end.
2. Nine
3. 1 + 2 + 34 + 56 + 7 = 100 (Becky's answer below is also correct!)
4. He couldn't go upstairs because he lived in a one-story building.
5. Four.  Calling a tail a foot doesn't make it one.

Tour de Fleece 21, 22, FINAL

From top left column:

Unplanned Peacock Mohair--258 yds 

Sheepish Creations “Pearl” Wensleydale--182 yds 

Miss Babs “Blue Lagoon” Merino/Bambboo--224 yds 

Baby Camel--162 yds 

Cotton--66 yds 

Miss Babs “Watermelon” Merino/Bamboo--378 yds 

From top right column:

River’s Edge “Buckskin” Merino/Silk/Milk/Banana--500 yds 

Wild Hare “Grateful Dyed” Merino/Black Alpaca--768 yds 

Woolybuns Merino/Angora/Nylon--146 yds 

Miss Babs “Cool Rain” Merino/Bamboo--378 yds 

Gray wool spun on drop spindle (not shown)--30 yds

TOTAL: 3 pounds (48 oz) of fiber spun 

3,110 yards!!!!

(That is Fred the Spider guarding the yarn!)

Tour de Fleece Days 17, 18, 19, & 20

Only THREE DAYS left in the Tour de Fleece!  

I have had SO much fun!

Spun from Miss Babs Merino/Bamboo roving
Colorway:  "Watermelon"

Finished spinning the Miss Bab's "Watermelon" into singles.
Getting ready to try to spin cotton again.
For some reason, I have never been able to even get cotton to make a yarn. 

Well, I managed to spin the cotton.  It doesn't look great, but it
is better than I have ever done in the past!

Skeined the cotton yarn.
Plied the Miss Bab's "Watermelon" into 2-ply yarn.
Started spinning Miss Bab's Merino/Bamboo blend in colorway "Cool Rain"

Yummy Fast Pickles

When I used to work at a living history museum one of my favorite things to prepare during hot weather was a fast pickle.  I would slice up cucumbers fresh from the garden and put them in a bowl of vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt. I kept a bowl of these going all during cucumber season. All of my co-workers would come by and munch on those cucumbers because they were very refreshing when working outdoors in 90 degree, humid weather. I know that I made them really too sour for some of them, but they ate them anyway. Many a time we would get strangled on that strong vinegar! 

While I was playing on Pinterest yesterday, I ran across a recipe for Cathy's Fresh Cucumber Salad that sounded SO tasty that I had to run out this morning and buy the ingredients!  The original recipe sounds fabulous, but anyone that knows me KNOWS how I love sour or hot food.  Naturally, I had to start changing things up!

The first problem that I encountered was that the pickling cucumbers looked terrible.  They were shriveled up and just nasty looking. So, I got regular cucumbers and decided that I should peel the tough skins.

I prefer red onions and I thought that they would look pretty in the jar, so I used them instead of white onions.  I really wanted to get red bell peppers, but when I saw that the price of them was DOUBLE the price of green peppers, I decided that money in my pocket feels better than red peppers look!

The one thing that I did not count on was the fact that pickling season is in full swing.  I bought the last gallon of white vinegar and there was NO celery seed to be found in store. I decided that the mustard seed would be enough seasoning.

The recipe only called for 1 cup of vinegar which I boiled up with the sugar. It was not enough to cover the cucumbers, so I boiled more. Oh yeah, I also cut the amount of sugar in half because I like it SOUR!  I thought about adding a jalapeno to the jar just for that extra added zip, but decided I would save that for the next jar.

About an hour after I made them, I gave one a taste.  YUM! I put the jar in the fridge and came into work.  I can't wait to get home and try them after they have set awhile.

Tour de Fleece Days 14, 15, & 16

I apologize to my readers who are not fiber folks for all of the fiber posts recently!  The Tour de Fleece ends on July 22.

Spun two bobbins of single-ply baby camel.
Trying to decide what to spin next!

Plied the baby camel and ended up with 162 yds of 2-ply yarn.
Decided to spin the mohair next. Mohair from Unplanned Peacock.
Visited at Wooly Belle in Vinton, VA and the shop kitty, Princess Nikki decided to help!

Plied the mohair and finished with 258 yds of 2-ply yarn.
Started spinning a menio/bamboo blend from "Miss Babs"
Also spun up a sample of "Hat Trick" from River's Edge Fiber Arts"
It is a blend:  40% fine Merino/40% superwash Merino/20% silk.
I am in LOVE with this fiber!  Look how wonderful it looks spun!
The yarn in the lower left photo is what I have spun so far.
2,258 yds of 2-ply yarn!  That is 6,774 yds of yarn in 16 days.
3.84 MILES of yarn!!!