What kind of customer service do you expect?

I was just reading a blog, www.myhomecoknblog.blogspot.com, and she was relating a story about customer service that she had received. Well this brought to mind a recent situation that happened to us on a trip to the coast, to visit the family especially our Grand Daughter. Well we, my husband and I decided we would go out to dinner with our youngest son and our G. Daughter. They wanted to go to Ivar's, sounded good to us because sometimes over here we get a craving for some good fast food, mind you Ivar's isn't and inexpensive meal out for what you get, and being on retirement income and our son watches his money really close. So we get there and my son and G.D. order and I said I would pay for it, so after they order I had ask Sam what she had ordered and she said chicken. Well I got chicken stuck in my head, so when I was making the order for us I guess I kept saying chicken instead of fish, well the smart #~% kid at the counter kept saying we don't have chicken on that menu and I just wasn't getting it through my head that I was saying chicken, so instead of saying to me, mam do you mean chicken of fish, but she wasn't nice at all about it. So finally my family said, "you keep saying chicken" So I apologised and then thought we had fixed the mistake in the order, till we actually got it at our table. So here's this big plate of chicken, I look up at the person who had delivered it and said " I thought we got this all figured out. She wasn't the girl who took the order, but right away she started to argue will us, she looked at my husband and said" I was standing right there when you ordered chicken, I heard it." My husband said back to her, " You didn't hear me make an order because I didn't make an order she did," pointing to me. I said don't worry about it, because our G.D was there and I didn't want there to be a scene. Well after we ate our meal, our son took the recipe and went up to the counter to tell them that they didn't handle this very professionally, and they started to yell at him, and the girl who delivered our food was the night Manager, she took some money out of the register and gave it to him for the chicken dinner. Then told him that we were being kicked out! So we left and she open the door an screamed something at us. Well we took care of her, and contacted the store manager and the district manager and the corporation....... and were satisfied with the way it turned out. We at no time gave them one bit of grief when we were there eating. Oh yeah, the N. manager said that the other near by Ivar's served horse meat. So these people must not find their jobs necessary. Well that was the short of it, but you get the idea. Today I'm going to make bread and do some weaving and forget about bad customer service. Diana

A fun way to dye wool yarn

Here's the yarn as a reminder as to what I ended up with. This is not a precise way of dyeing, you usually don't get what you thought you might. So think of it as an experiment and then you won't be anything but surprised. The yarn I'm using is a yarn from Knit Picks http://www.knitpicks.com/ the name of it is, Color Your Own, 100% Merino, Natural, 100grams/440 yds. I've used this yarn in the past for making socks, but have found if you don't wash them gently the will felt, also I reinforce the toes and heals with a separate yarn made just for that purpose. So you want to start with making your yarn into two separate balls, don't get fussy with this either, just kind of guess at the evenest. I use a ball winder and a small scale and figure it out by grams. Now the dye I use is made to be used on wool, and I used two different kinds, Jacquard acid and Gaywool acid dye. The supplies you will need, a pan large enough to hold two balls of yarn, this would be a pan that you will never use for cooking again, latex gloves, a stick for stirring, timer, paper towels and vinegar. Now please excuse my pictures, they didn't turn out very well.

Here I am winding the yarn on the ball winder from a swift. You want to try not to wind it to tight, because you want the ball to be saturated with water all the way through. So once you have them wound, now you want to put the yarn in a pan of warm water, covering to the top, now add a little vinegar, this will help the dye stick to the wool. Now soak for a hour or more, if the yarn doesn't feel wet enough. When they have soaked, remove and gently squeeze the water out, you want to keep most the moisture. Now in your dye pan put just enough water to go half way up the balls of wool. Here's were you want to add your vinegar and dye. Now with this yarn I used four colors, but I have done it with just two. When you use two you want to pick two colors that will blend together and make other colors come through, example red and blue will make different shades of the red and blue but also purples. I used for the first half a yellow and the second half a green, put the lighter colors on first. now heat the water to a strong simmer, something you can still put your finger in quickly. Put the yarn in the water, both at the same time, now gently squeeze to get the dye to go up inside the balls. Let this simmer for 30 min. Remove and let cool to the point you can handle them with rubber gloves on, now gently squeeze out the water. Follow the same steps for the second color, I used yellow first then green. 1/8Th tsp should be enough dye.

So here I have the first two steps done. Warning, dispose your water with the dye carefully, do not dye were you have foods, do not use utensils that you cook or eat with. So the next step I came up with by accident. Make sure the balls of yarn are squeezed gently of most the water, we don't need it dripping wet at this point. Now I rewind the balls from the outside on to the ball winder, this distributes the first two colors randomly. Now repeat the process with two more colors, which mine were, blue and red. Again squeeze gently, as much water as you can. Then I wind it up on my Knitty Knotty, tie it up and let it dry.

I had the best time !

Well, I know I'm a little late to talk about Valentines Day, but mine was so unexpected. That morning after Lonny and I got moving, and he headed out the door the phone rang, and it was my friend Jan, www.thebigredbarn.blogspot.com/ ; she said she was close to my house and had tried to call earlier, but I was talking to my Dad, and wondered if I was willing to run off to the bakery with her for goodies. Well anyone who knows me knows I'm all ways ready for something special. She all so had to drop her Golden Retriever Molly off at the groomers. This is a bakery that is very popular with the tourist, but especially with the locals. The Cinnamon Twisp Bakery is the place to go, they offer other things too, like soups and sandwiches. We had the best visit and time to talk about stuff. Thank you my dear friend for such a great surprise. Then I went home and made my sweetie some cookies. Later we (Lonny) and I went to Moon and Diana's house to pick up a exercise bike that I had lent them a couple of years ago, but they haven't been using it, so I thought I'd better, and we'll leave it at that.

So this week end I did some dyeing, and this is what I came up with, very festive. This is a sock weight yarn that I got from Knit Picks a mail order place for yarns and tools for knitting, they have a great catalog www.knitpicks.com This is 100% Merino wool and I'll probably make some socks out of it, I thought about using it for a woven scarf, but it's just to stretchy. I'll walk you through the process of how I did this later this week, it's very easy and fun, but not precise, for those who need to be that way. My pictures haven't been very good lately and I got to looking at my camera and the lens is really scratched. Mmmm when is the next holiday I could use for an excuse to go to the bakery, oh I know tomorrow is Wednesday, that would be a good reason! Oh yeah, I'm suppose to be using my exercise bike, well after maybe.

Some Days I'm just Thankfull for

This is a cute kitty that's picture is floating around cyber space, but it looks like I feel tonight. Last Sat. Katie, Teresa and I headed to Conconully to go spinning with our friends and guild members at Eva's house. Eve lives off the grid up in the Mt's, and if I were a bird I could fly there in minutes, but I'm not and I have to go the car route that takes an hour. Oh my what a beautiful ride it is, climbing up the Mt's. through a scenic valley of ranches and alfalfa fields. I've been on the road that Eve lives on while snowmobiling, but at the time I didn't know her. They have a lovely home, an Alpine type home, with vaulted ceilings with huge windows that look out over their meadow. Of course you can't see much for all the snow, but it is nice. Thanks for having us Eve. Here's Eva in the mid

dle between on the left her sister Marilyn and on the right Debbie. It was a great day and made me look forward for today Monday. Some of you already know that every second Monday of the Month I have a day of spinning at my house, and it's always a great day. One of the things I like to do is feed them well and I really like to make soup and it's become expected, well this time I made a Black Bean soup. This was a fabulous choice, I know I liked it and so did everyone else. The people who come also contribute food, and today it was lots of sweets. So soup then sweets and coffee, then included, good conversation and spinning, WOW I'm a happy girl. L. Diana

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Opps

I caught tis little lady busy flying around the flowers on a warm summer day! She's just beautiful.

Today I decided to look back on some of my favorite photos that I have had in my blog over the last two and a half years.

Starting with this one of the Eagle. We have this huge Ponderosa Pine right smack in the middle of our NW facing view, so when there is an unfortunate dear killing near by the Eagles seem to use this tree to rest in. Just last month we had two pairs of Golden Eagles and a pair of Bald Eagles. The Golden Eagles are by far much bigger than the Bald, but their both incredible to be so close to them and see them up close.

This was a really fun fall afternoon , my friend Katie and I had gone over to Conconully Wa to spin with our spinning guild over in that Okanagan-Omak area. Before we headed home we drove a little further north to a Lake Osoyoos. half of this lake is in Canada, so we were very close to the border. This Lady raised Alpacas on the lake, and she was selling out to move to California, And was selling all of her herd and fleeces. I got the most beautiful fleece, about the color of the little guy on the right. That was a very fun day.

Her in the Methow Valley, it's considered High Desert. So I think it means we have the best of both things, the Alpine like Mt's. and Pine trees and a hot dry summers. This is called a Rock Rose, not everyone has them in their yards, but we have the honor of having them in ours. They grow really close to the ground, and have no leaves, just these beautiful pink bursts of pink in morning and then they close up in the evening.

This is a fond memory of snowmobiling with our Son and Grand Daughter a couple of winters ago. We just rode around our property, but we had a blast. Sam will be Thirteen this year, it's hard to believe.

This is a picture of our Sunburst Locus Tree. Those people are L to R my Uncle Paul, me and my Dad. This was taken in late spring a couple of years ago. I was thinner then, oh well so it goes.

This year I'm not sure if Dad will be back, because since he left for the winter he has found out that he needs a four way bypass. He's made the decision at the age of almost 87 he's not going to have it done. Well who knows what what we would do if we were in his shoes. We will find out when it gets closer to summer.

So the things I have to look forward to in the near future is, having our Son and Grand Daughter visit at the end of March, my 59th Birthday on the 20th, the weavers conference in Spokane. Especially hearing from old and new friends on my blog, don't be afraid to leave a message.

Hope you enjoyed looking back with me! L. Diana Knits Plenty