Onward And Upward With The Big j.c.

"Kick the dark till it bleeds daylight." I love that line. The only way it could be better is if I said, kick the dark till it bleeds sunshine. It is from one of the Bare Naked Ladies tunes. I'm starting to think that I should have been an Egyptian.... I would have worshiped Ra the sun god. Ah well.... only a few weeks and we will be into the spring.... woo hoo!

So here it stands.... I'm taking the three bottom panels off the loom today. (Actually I just did.) I just finished them last night and 11:30 p.m. after working like a demon all day.
Can you tell that I was really tired... I felt rather like a blob! It looks awesome though. I am putting the warp on the other loom today for the sleeves and shoulders. If I can get the bottom fulled and sewn today and with the warp on the other loom and a little weaving done, then I might have a fighting chance at getting this done. I've run out of weft and fleece to spin more and so I just washed a bunch.... it's still soaking. I'll leave it to soak for a half hour and then rinse a few times, before dropping it on the furnace vent. It should be dry by noon. If I can get all the rest of the above done by lunch time..... I'll be a zombie.... I mean happy. : ) The afternoon will have to be devoted to spinning the last of the weft.

I'm like the Little Red Engine..... "I think I can, I think I can... huff, puff..." I might have to pull an all-nighter yet to get this done.... but I am determined...

I think Hubby is thinking that I am demented! Totally and completely! Perhaps.... We will see.

In the meantime.... I just can't get over how nasty is an alpaca fleece. Alpacas roll in the dirt.. they love it and do it a lot and because they don't have grease they are really hard to shear. They go through blades like two per animal.... so when I went to wash out some more fleece today, I thought I should show how much dirt is in the wash water to my blog followers..... so here are a few pictures of fleece water after the fleece came out of the first wash water,
and then there is a bunch of dirt down in the bottom of the sink that looks like this....
..... this picture just does not do justice to it at all.... and the finally this is the little bit of waste that came off the loom after my panels came off last night. This, among most spinners and weavers, would be considered really good, only a very small amount of waste however it really chokes me to know that the waste on the floor is the stuff that I spent hours spinning and washing etc.... argh.... The nice thing is though, that I will be doing a short seminar next month on creative recycling for the spinner and weaver. So I am going to scoop up that stuff on the floor and put it in my waste bag and save it for the day when I get a chance to recycle. Cool!

So there you have it.... the sky is light, the dog is wanting in, my tea is gone, the fleece is soaked and it is time to get down to it baby!.... sorry... that "baby" part was really not cool... o.k... I'm off to work! How's that better? I thought I was reverting there for a moment to the 70's... scary thought indeed!

See ya'll tomorrow.....