A Long Day In November

The wind is blowing once again. The clouds have been amassing for another onslaught, and while the temperatures are unseasonably warm (+8 degrees) those swirling clouds in the mountains remind me that only last week we had the ground covered in snow. Once again the onslaught of winter is encroaching. Now that Halloween is over, Christmas is making itself known in ways that squeeze my heart with fear.  I have done a little online shopping, but for all intents and purposes the bulk of Christmas shopping lays ahead in the dim and hazy future.

Daughter #1 has been home for the last two days as she tries to get over some illness that is making the rounds in our community. She has been sleeping a lot and so I have been trying to stay quiet in an effort to not disturb her. I have been beading, (working on Christmas gifts) I have been washing fleece and I have been purchasing cashmere. Plans are going ahead for my 150 hour project for the level 4 homework. My plan is to make this....

 I am using a combination of cashmere, silk and merino wool, and my plan is to use percentage dyeing to get the effect of fading from yellow in the centre of the back to peach at the outer ends. I must be nuts to try this. Meanwhile I have to finish the level 4 homework. Even though it is a summer pattern and is shown in a lovely cotton yarn I felt that it would be awesome as a wrap for a black pants and top combo.... thus the cashmere/silk/wool blend. I think that the effect will be lovely. Stand by on that project.

Also, I have been washing fibre for the Logwood baby blanket that has been in the planning stages since back in the summer. I thought I would have a little trial with Logwood since I have never dyed with Logwood before. So the first thing I did was go to the Maiwa site and see what they had to say about Logwood and dying. Then I went to my trusty scarf drawer and found a plain white cotton scarf. First it needed to be washed and scalded, according to the Maiwa instructions. Then it needed to be subjected to a mordant. Then last but not least it needed to be dyed in a Logwood dye bath. I am at the scalding stage. Meanwhile I have a sink full of wool from Fanny (one of my sheep who happens to be a Shetland/Merino x). I will spin the water out of it on the spin cycle in my washing machine as soon as I have all the grease and suent out of it and then I will pick and card it. Once I get it to that stage then I will spin yarn from it, fairly finely, I think, but not lace weight as that is too fine for my pin looms. Then I will skein it, wash it, and prep it for the dye pot and then I will follow the directions for the 25 shades of Logwood. I'm truly looking forward to that. But meanwhile life is all about level 4 right now. I'm still waiting for the Bison to come from the states and if it doesn't come soon I will begin spinning my samples that I need for the cashmere section.

With all the work I have done today with beading... washing wool.... scalding scarves.... and planning projects, and knowing that I woke in the night last night feeling queezy, and knowing that I might end up with what seems to be affecting Daughter #1, has left me feeling not overly energetic. It has been a long day.... and all this wind seems to be zapping me of my energy too.

A long day in November?!....
But it feels good to get things accomplished....