Some Days Are Diamonds... Some Days Are Stones... Nope, That Should Be Gold

Gold.... this was a golden day that is for sure. I've been working on my woven sample all day with the Muga silk.... it is looking beautiful so far. I won't show it till it is done and it is taking me longer than I thought. I decided to use my regular 6 x 6 pin loom instead of the multi.... (for those of you who weave you will understand that the principle of these two looms are very different). I did this because a very strange thing occurred.... the best laid plans never seem to work. I had intended on using a nicely worsted spun 2-ply silk yarn for the warp and a nubby muga silk/sari silk for the weft but low and behold I started to weave and the darn thing looked just a little too dicey for my liking. So I x'd that idea coming out of the gate and moved on to Plan B. Plan B was to use the worsted Muga silkfor both warp and weft and maybe throw in a little leno lace as I was weaving.... so that is what is being executed as I am writing..... one word.... gorgeous! Definitely the right idea. And, I am so in love with this Muga silk that I am now rethinking my embroidery piece. I was going to do a stylized Blue Jay on a linen back ground but ever since I did the piece for level 3 two years ago which looked like this if you recall...

... well ever since then I've been wanting to do this one....

However I knew that I would need at least three shades of silk if not four.... well I have them.... I have Bombyx, I have Tussah, I have Muga, and I have Cinnamon Tussah.... all really beautiful and perfect for an embroidered owl.... so I think I will do that. It will mean a few extra hours of spinning but I think it will be worth it in the end. And I still haven't found those flippin' coccoons. The moon and the branches will be Bombyx (that's really white for you non-spinners) and the owl will be a combination of the two kinds of Tussah and the Muga silk, (creamy champagne colour and golden champagne colour and cinnamon/bronze for you non-spinners). I might even use a little of the blue that I have around the moon to give the moon a slight halo effect.

Anyway, getting back to why this day was golden.... well weaving with that golden silk was one reason... the other was that my friend showed up and we had a great day gabbing. Spinning days with friends are always golden. She spun (merino) and I carried on with the weaving. Then the sun was out and poured its glorious golden rays all over us through the living room window.... it was really hard to not think of the day as golden in all that sunshine with the golden silk in my hands.

So yes it was a golden day....  John Denver had a good idea when he wrote that song.... too bad he didn't say golden....

Some days are diamonds, some days are gold, some days are stones too but there were no stones today....

Happy end of January... it's all easy sailin' from here.... yeh!

Back To Daily Writing.... Maybe

While Teapot was away I was used to getting up, getting breakfast for the Daughters, and getting them out the door in time for school. Now that Teapot is home I don't have to do anything after breakfast has been served other than drink my tea and work here at this screen. So I read the news, I check the weather, I read my favorite blogs, tweets, posts on Facebook, and then I can come back here for an update on what's going on in this neck of the woods.

Today I will be trying to get some of my spinning done that I have been falling down on... I still have a bunch of merino to spin in the next few weeks because I will be using that in my 50 hour project for level 3 which I hope to tackle once I go to the Blueberry retreat which is only two weeks away.  RG and I have decided that on the Thursday at the Blueberry we will be doing our twenty five shades of Logwood. I know I've talked about this forever, and I know that I never seem to get it done but... this time I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will succeed in getting it completed. I also can't find those d-mn silk cocoons that I need for the Mawata.... don't know what I did with them. Today if all goes right I have a friend coming for the day... and of course we will be spinning.

Meanwhile the Daughters are off to school today and they start their new term. Our community is putting off a week long winter carnival. As the days go by there are winter fun activities planned for each day of the week. Both of the Daughters are preparing for an afternoon of school related winter carnival activities.  So there will be sledding, and icy t-shirt contests.... (that's where you are on a team of 5 people and are handed a frozen t-shirt which you have to thaw out enough for one member of the team to get into before another team beats you... brrr!) ice cream eating contest.... a contest to make Smores over candles.... and balloon snowmen contest where some of the balloons are helium filled (you have to make a snowman with balloon and you are only allowed a certain amount of tape. Meanwhile the community will be having snowshoeing workshops, snow golf,  hiking in the woods, sliding parties and snowmobile activities. Sounds like a lot of fun. At the end there is a big auction.

What's really weird is that at the same time as all the winter carnival fun is going on, our public library has decided that their big fundraiser for the year will happen at the same time and is going to be a winter beach party! It's really bizarre to have two things going on at the same time with such opposing themes. Only in HH can you show up at the winter dance and win a meddle for the mucklucks you showed up in and then drop next door to the next dance and take first prize for the ugliest Hawaiian shirt! Should be interesting....

Yeah so that's it for me.... I'm headed off to put some finishing touches on a pot of soup... and blend some more silk and silk waste... I think I'll spin a little silk before the merino.... it looks like I'm going to run out of this stuff before I finish weaving... and I thought I had plenty.

See ya tomorrow.... when the first of February is upon us.... (Oh God am I ever going to get these two levels finished in time??!!)

Confessions On A Lazy Monday

How did it get to be Monday so quickly! It seems like I just picked up the girls from school of Friday.  But here it is Monday and a brighter sunnier day you couldn't have. Teapot is home again and I have to say that I am glad beyond all reasoning. Yesterday was indeed a strange day with the Daughters and I leaving for FSJ at 4:15 in the afternoon. We had dinner at a restaurant and  fooled away some time at Walmart which you can always count on being open on Sunday and then we went to the airport where in the waiting room, there are lovely black leather chairs which I promptly perched in and whiled away a half hour waiting for Teapot's flight playing games on the iPhone... while the Daughters did the same only on their iPads. Next thing you know Teapot's flight was on the tarmac and we were waiting for him to disembark... like I said time just seemed to drift away from us and suddenly we were getting ready for bed and opening our eyes to a mid winter Monday morning.

And what a morning it was... I love January warm ups. The sun shone, the sun warmed, the sun cheered and now the sun is setting.

I only spun a little today and I was supposed to work on the book part of my homework and get some of these samples written up and in my book. Instead, I baked.... I baked bread... and Zucchini Quiche.  Then I made Turkey soup and then I sat down... so actually it wasn't such a lazy day after all....it just felt like it. The Daughters and I watched the whole Vicar of Dibly series on T.V. so that may have been the reason for it feeling like a lazy Sunday rather than a lazy Monday.  Poor Teapot had to work... but the girls stayed home with me.

I have been making progress on the level 3 homework. I did finish the blue silk sample for the needle work that I have to produce for my level 3 books and I spun the second single of the Muga silk for the woven sample so far everything is looking hunky dory.... (that means just grand)!  I need to weave and I need to get that embroidery finished. So that will be what I tackle tomorrow. Then a day of bookwork before I make more spinning progress.

I haven't been feeling great the last few weeks and I have been getting very tired. Not sure why and hopefully it won't last, but have been taking time for me to rest when I need it so I guess that has been the reason for the slow down on the homework... still progress is progress. I refuse to sweat over it!
Tomorrow is Tuesday and I have a friend coming for a spinning day if she remembers... : ) She reads this.... so maybe this will act as a reminder.

I will try to get some pictures up here in the next few days of samples that I have finished. It's been a dull few days so I guess it is a dull bit of reading.  Hopefully I can think of something more interesting to write about soon.

Today Is Another Day Of....Hmmm I'm Not Sure What To Expect

Daughter #2 says it is another day of DOOOOOM... that's probably because she has to face a science exam today. Now she is making a chipmunk face at me because she knows I just wrote that here.

Can you tell that we are all in a weird mood?  I think that we are all really looking forward to the end of the day when we will have a three day weekend streaming out before us. I actually was able to get myself out of bed this morning at 7 a.m. instead of ten after or twenty after or half past like it was yesterday. This is due to the fact that there is a Chinook blowing in and temperatures have risen and also the wind has been howling again. So morning was not the peaceful oblivion that it normally is. There have been things blowing around out on the deck. The cat has been meowwwing  loudly for an hour to come in. Then there is that dog next door. It's not barking at the moment but it has been barking in the morning quite often in the last few days... yesterday I heard it barking for four hours straight.  Dreadful. If I can hear it in the house like that, I can only imagine what it will be like when spring comes and the windows are open! Still I hope that something good will happen in regards to that canine.

Anyway enough about the barking hound....

This has not been a week of no progress on the homework... I have been working on all silk samples for level 3. I have a sample finished from a commercial hankie and as with spinning from silk hankies it is full of nubs and noils... a very textured yarn, but beautiful all the same.

I have also finished the silk sample for a knitted or crocheted sweater, with the 3 x 3 knitted swatch. I settled on a Bombyx silk blended with silk waste in a 80/20 blend.

80/20 Bombyx silk/silk waste 3-ply yarn.

I'm very happy with the yarn but only fairly happy with the knitted sample. I couldn't find a knitting pattern that I loved and so settled on a combination of lace and bobbles... which is pretty, but I'm not a bobble kind of person... I did however want a child-like pattern and what could say childish better than bobbles!

This actually looks better than I thought....

I also started the spinning for the woven piece and got fairly far with it... that's the most exciting bit because it is being spun in Muga silk.

This looks like gold doesn't it... I just love this stuff!

I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on some Muga silk...(which was a real score). It is gorgeous!!!! Like I can't stress how gorgeous it is. I have a very smooth worsted style 2-ply yarn that I am working on which I will use on my 6 x 6 pin loom and it is going to be awesome because I am going to use a very textured cinnamon coloured Tussah silk mixed with sari silk (no nubs and noils just bits of sari silk sticking out) for the 2-ply weft yarn but I'll only use it on every alternate weft pik. I'm really looking forward to finishing this. I think it will be gorgeous.... at least I am hoping. Meanwhile I have finished 22 metres of Bombyx silk for embroidery

This will be lovely for embroidery...

and I will need blue silk spun for that as well as some black silk... which means I have to dye some Tussah.... that's what I intend to do today, dye a little silk black... in a crowded pot kind of way... only I'm going to microwave it.  Meanwhile, I am still looking for the cocoons so that I can make a mawata... I know I have them because I saw them just a few weeks ago... but for the life of me I can't seem to find them. 

I had hoped to have this section on silk for level 3 done this week but I have not made as much progress as I hoped. It's been a busy week. Again. Perhaps things will go faster from now on. We'll see. Things always go slowly when there are swatches to knit and weave.... and with Teapot away I have lost whole afternoons to hauling water and picking up Daughters from school and checking in on Mom and Dad. By the way things are almost back to normal with Mom and Dad.  Still if they need anything, I do have to try the best to help out.

So I guess I had beetter head off and get those Daughters of mine to school... then it's home for a morning of dyeing silk and spinning that beautiful Muga.... I can't wait....

As for the rest of the day??? Who knows what to expect....

Bark, F#$@$@king Bark, Yap F#$@#%$king Yap

At this very second I am listening to an unhappy pooch yap it's stupid head off. I am ready to bust apart with irritation to be quite honest.

My neighbour lost her husband a while back and then decided to go south to Arizona for the winter. In so doing she has asked a friend to house sit. Nice. But the dog that moved in with them is the nastiest peace disturbing canine of any I have ever had the misfortune to know... and that's saying something because when I lived in town some years ago, I had a neighbour with a Basset Hound that wouldn't shut up day or night. (Teapot said that it was because it dragged it's nether regions in the snow and it's balls were just about frozen off). I was so delighted to move to the country where my neighbour was farther away and I didn't have to worry about yapping pooches in the middle of the night, that I thought I had it made. But here I sit, almost ten years later, and the neighbour's dog is stirring up the shit in the neighbourhood once again. I walk out on my deck on the way to feed the rabbit and the dog starts yapping. It can see me through the trees and thinks that I am invading his privacy. I can only imagine what it will be like if these people stay on in the house for the next while and on through the summer or God forbid if the lady who owns it decides to sell it. I certainly won't be able to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the deck with that thing barking all the time. This morning something has really set it off and the darn thing hasn't stopped barking for well over an hour now.  I've been sitting here wishing evil on it!

There's something to be said about living in the country... I love it... I love my house... I love this place... I love the birds and wildlife... and most of all I love the serenity afforded by living here. So what am I to do if they don't move away? I will certainly not be happy.

Teapot and I have always thought that we would stay in this house at least until retirement.... and since he doesn't retire for another 12 years we have a long way to go... but more and more I am liking the idea of finding a sweet little spot in the middle of nowhere where there are no neighbours at all. That way you won't piss them off and more importantly they won't piss you off. The best neighbour is the one that lives miles away from you.

So until then I will sit in my living room and I will try to drown out the wretched thing by playing some nice music.... Maybe some Bach.... or Hydnn... that might gently calm my nerves.... I think I'll go plan the deck on the west face of the house though just in case....

Robbie Burns Day

For most Scots around the world this is an evening of celebration... for it is Robbie Burns Day. I'll be honest Robbie Burns doesn't have a whole lot of meaning for me... I'm not Scottish and none of my ancestors were either as a matter of a fact we were considered by Robbie Burns and his ilk to be the very di'il incarnate... you see we are English.... or at least of English descent. Still there is something about Scotland and all thing Scottish that attract me.

There's something about the Highlands of Scotland that really attract me as a travel destination. I have learned quite a bit about Scotland over the years because of my love for all things Scottish. A few years ago I wrote here on this very blog a great deal about Argyle Socks... which are only an incarnation of kilts on the bias... In addition to reading what I can about the history of kilts, I've read as much as I can about the various islands around Scotland, from the Hebrides (where one of my spinning wheels comes from) especially Iona where the Celtic version of Christianity grew and flourished, to the Shetlands (which I'd give my right arm to visit especially Fair Isle, and I love Shetland wool) in the far north.  And don't get me started on Hamish MacBeth... loved the T.V. program but even more I loved the Hamish MacBeth books especially when I can get them on audio books. I also love the Diana Gabaldon books of a woman who travels back through time to 1700s Scotland to meet the love of her life during the tumultuous time of  the Jacobites and the Battle of Culloden. I also loved the story of The Stone Of Destiny. So with all my interest in things Scottish I decided a couple of years ago to try to learn more about the iconic Robbie Burns.  First of all I learned straight away that he would have never permitted anyone to call him Robbie... it would have been Robert Burns but it seems that the Scots have given him the pet name Robbie much to his dismay if he were still alive. His poetry is well known the country over (that's Scotland not Canada) and people can quote him in the blink of an eye. So I thought lets give it a try... and try it I did! It is without a doubt the most difficult thing I have ever read.... mostly because I don't understand a frickin' word of it. Still I try. I have a Scottish friend who sometimes is willing to translate things for me. But mostly it is complete double dutch. and I thought Newfinese was difficult to understand. Well let me tell you we Newfies don't hold a candle to the Scots.

It was earlier today that hearing a short excerpt from one of the CBC radio programs about this being Robbie Burns days that I decided once again to try reading a little of his poetry. Actually I heard someone reading one of his poems and let me tell you it was beautiful to listen to that piece of poetry. I quickly looked it up on the internet and all the romance in the spoken version I had just heard on the radio flew right out the window when I tried to read it.  The romance was gone .... just like that I had spoiled a perfectly good poem. Still I did come across a website about Robbie Burns that had a translated version of some of his other poems and among them (and to my surprise) I found this one... oh and by the way the first one is the original as Robert Burns wrote it and the second is the translated version...

Bessy And Her Spinnin' Wheel

1792

    O Leeze me on my spinnin' wheel,
    And leeze me on my rock and reel;
    Frae tap to tae that cleeds me bien,
    And haps me biel and warm at e'en;
    I'll set me down and sing and spin,
    While laigh descends the simmer sun,
    Blest wi' content, and milk and meal,
    O leeze me on my spinnin' wheel.

    On ilka hand the burnies trot,
    And meet below my theekit cot;
    The scented birk and hawthorn white,
    Across the pool their arms unite,
    Alike to screen the birdie's nest,
    And little fishes' caller rest;
    The sun blinks kindly in the beil',
    Where blythe I turn my spinnin' wheel.

    On lofty aiks the cushats wail,
    And Echo cons the doolfu' tale;
    The lintwhites in the hazel braes,
    Delighted, rival ither's lays;
    The craik amang the claver hay,
    The pairtrick whirring o'er the ley,
    The swallow jinkin' round my shiel,
    Amuse me at my spinnin' wheel.

    Wi' sma' to sell, and less to buy,
    Aboon distress, below envy,
    O wha wad leave this humble state,
    For a' the pride of a' the great?
    Amid their flairing, idle toys,
    Amid their cumbrous, dinsome joys,
    Can they the peace and pleasure feel
    Of Bessy at her spinnin' wheel?

Here it is again written so the we English can hear it and understand it...

Bess and Her Spinning Wheel

I'm happy with my spinning wheel,
And happy with my wool to reel,
From head to toes it clothes me fine,
And wraps so softly me and mine.
I settled down to sing and spin,
While low descends the summer sun,
Blest with content, and milk and meal,
I'm happy with my spinning wheel.

On every hand the brooklets wend,
Up to my cottage by the bend,
The scented birch and hawthorne white,
Across the pool their arms unite,
Alike to screen the birdie's nest,
And little fishes cooler rest:
The sun shines kindly where I dwell,
Where smoothly turns my spinning wheel.

On Lofty oaks the pigeons croon,
And echo out their doleful tune;
The linnets in the bushes raise
Sweet songs that rival other lays.
The crakes among the clover run,
The partridge whirring in the sun,
The swallows swooping for their meal,
Amuse me at my spinning wheel.

With small to sell and less to buy,
Above distress, below envy,
Oh who would leave this humble state,
For all the pride of all the great,
Amid their flaring, idle toys,
Amid their cumbrous noisy joys ?
Can they the peace and pleasure feel
Of Bessie at her spinning wheel ?

When I finished reading the second version I thought wow... how very fitting...

Happy Robbie Burns Day.... may your Haggis, Neeps and Tatties be just as good as can be....

Way Up In The Back Of Beyond

I sometimes feel like I live way up in the back of beyond. Today, Sweet Davey, who is my cousin from Newfoundland, gave me a call and it was really great to have a chat with him. He's been threatening to call for weeks now, and every time he would try my number I would be away from the phone (most likely in the bathroom or some equally mundane but necessary evil). Getting a call from a cousin who you haven't heard from in a while can be like opening Pandora's box... it was a little bit like that today.

Sometimes I feel like living here in the north country is really the back of beyond. Now I know that I could be living farther up and out than I am... with technology these days the whole world has become a wee marble. But it's when you chat with someone that you haven't seen in years that you are reminded of all the things you have lost by moving away. It's then, that you want to sit down and have a good cry. It doesn't matter how close technology has brought other parts of the world. When you haven't been home in many years and you talk to someone who is still living there, it makes you feel lonely and away from everything that you love.... that you are way up in the back of beyond.  It's not that I didn't enjoy the phone call.... I did... it was lovely to spend an hour yaking away about good times and old times as well as new times and even about people you'd love to see again. No it's more about the small things.... the accent that sounds so strange which once was so familiar.... the choice of words used to describe and talk, which mainlanders don't use. Intangible things that you can't see or touch but are as real as crest of a wave,... that are here and gone in an instant, but remind you of who you used to be.  And it leaves you wondering how it is that you have come so far from what you once were.... from what your expectations in life were. I mean if you had asked me 20 years ago what I thought my life would be like when I was 46, I can surely tell you that I would not have said, "I will be a great fat old fart who lives her life diabolically through the internet and spinning"... as a matter of a fact I probably would have wondered what spinning was! In those days I thought my life would be terribly different from what it actually is... and I certainly never thought I would be an ex-patriot Newfy.

No indeed... I was going to save the world.... I was going to work for an NGO in Africa (with a home base in Newfoundland)... I was going to teach people how to help themselves because I knew everything... I knew that my life was there to help those in need. I was so privileged (having come from Newfoundland cause it is such a jewel of a place) that they would only be too glad to say thank you to the help that I could offer.  Now-a-days, I realize that I was carrying around  a very great bulbous ego. I might not have been so overweight but I made up for it in having an over inflated head.  Still, I knew nothing and I'm not a whole lot better now except I recognize the signs of bulbous-headitis when it creeps up on me sometimes.

But those were times of great innocence. I thought I could do anything.... I thought I was important... I thought I had the world by the tail.... because the world was mine for the taking. But though technology has given the world this wee marble aspect... it still is the whole world. Newfoundland, not only the place but the culture and all that was, seems very far away these days... and that makes me sad.

So I sit here way up in the back of beyond and I realize how one phone call can somehow bring it all back... back from the recesses of your mind.... and boom.... there it is, just as real, just as prevalent, just as in your face as it ever was.... a wave cresting and rolling over on itself.... and I wonder how the immigrants to Canada survived knowing that they would never again see their dear ones on the other side of the ocean. But like the wave, it is here now... tomorrow is another day... and tomorrow it will be gone again the ocean will be flat and wave will be just a memory... and I will be caught up in the whirlwind that is my life now. Newfoundland and all that was will be lost in a sea of wool, and animals, and Daughters, and Teapot, and hauling water, and watching over parents.... cause that is what my life is all about now... is it good enough... could there be more to life than this... and does it matter....

Ask me when I'm dead.... I mean, what does any of it matter.

And to Sweet Davey... Teapot will be glad to have a hug from you... he's just that kind of guy! ; )

Reflection can be such a maudlin past-time!

A Little Colour... Or A Lot

Sometimes you need a little pick me up... and this night of wakefulness seems to be a perfect time... and what better than bright colours to give me a boost. I have been having a werewolf night and can't get any sleep. Usually this happens when Teapot goes away, though not quite this bad. I will go to bed at the normal time and take forever to fall asleep and then sleep in in the morning... or I will go to sleep early and then wake up half way through the night and lay awake the rest of the night. However neither of those scenarios quite applies tonight. This is one of those rare occasions when I haven't closed my eyes AT ALL! So when that happens I find the best solution is to get up and do something to take my mind off whatever is bothering me. I spin a little, I knit a little, I blog a little... and if I'm really awake I write poetry. The poetry is not happening tonight... I'm blogging first and then we will see.  Of course I took one look at my blog and decided that it was in need of some colour.... previously it sucked... I knew it after Christmas but just couldn't decide what to do about it. When I first started this blog, it was black with all the colours of the rainbow just as it is now and has been numerous times throughout it life... and while most blog designers will say keep it simple and all these colours are anything but simple.... I just can't resist turning my blog into a rainbow. Still, I like all the black and white pics. They are pretty cool, so I will continue to keep them for as long as I can... but then summer is coming... and who knows what will happen then.

The weekend has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Teapot departed Sunday morning for more southerly climes. He has gone to Comox for a week of training for the JCRs. As a matter of a fact he is doing the same PHASE training that I did a few years ago.  I miss him terribly. That's part of the reason I am wide awake. The ever elusive sleep departed with Teapot when he left. Yesterday morning I woke from strange and kaleidoscope-like dreams to hurried whispers and dark breakfasts and cold outdoor weather, as we left for the airport, leaving the Daughters sleeping peacefully in their beds. Before long the sun was rising and the sky had turned a vivid orange to the east and a pale blue and fuscia sky to the west. The trees were covered in their crystalline coats and everywhere the sky colours were reflected by the fields of white pristine snow. The whole world was awash in colour.

I saw Teapot through security at the airport and headed home again and got here just as my stomach was beginning to growl for a midday meal. Since then I seem to have been busy, yet I have accomplished nothing. There's silk on the wheel... a sample of Bombyx and silk waste meant for a knitted sample, but I really haven't done much with it. I can't seem to find my momentum that I had only a few days ago.  The hemp samples from the other day turned out fine... I've even sold a few skeins of yarn over the weekend to a neighbour's visiting daughter-in-law. But here I sit... at a full out stop.  Perhaps tomorrow, when the light arrives again, and I am able to finally fall asleep from exhaustion, and then wake up refreshed, I might be able to get my feet on the treadles and make some more headway. But for now I stare at my wheel and pray that the ever elusive sleep will come for a wee visit before this night turns into day. But since it is now 5:35 a.m., that's highly unlikely.... for if I fall asleep now, the Daughters and I will likely sleep till half the morning is gone. (Not that they would mind missing a little school!)

So the results of this wakeful night lays before you in all the colours of the rainbow.... and those colours are chosen as brights because we all need a little brightness in these last dark days that cling to us as mother nature tries to throw winter off her back...

Happy sleeping to you and yours.... may you be snoring peacefully... drowsing in sweet dreams.

Now This Is A Real Winter Day!

So I got up this morning took one look out the window and decided that this weather is as yuck as it possibly could be... - 20.... a little warmer but oh oh oh... is the snow ever coming down. I will be staying home today and avoiding roads that are snow covered, snow packed and in a dastardly state of winter nastiness. To be honest, as much as I would like to get in to FSJ to catch up with the gals in the NPSW, I am really wanting to stay put and do so more spinning.  I have been doing fairly well with my spinning, but not well enough. Yesterday I finished my second section in the level 5 books but I never even got started on the second section in the level 3 books. Today I will get out my Mawata frame and some silk cocoons and boil me up some worms... I will be making my very own Mawata... silk hankie with a cocoon or two. I also will be spinning silk.... in various forms.... commercial hankies, rovings, blended... I'm looking forward to it. The first time I concurred the level 3 homework I found it stressful.... but because I have done it before this time around I find I'm enjoying it more. I know what I'm doing so that makes it more liberating somehow.  I'm going to say something now that I never thought I would ever say... I think everyone should do the MSP twice. The second time just for fun!You learn something new every time.... and you know what... I am totally not stressing over the tpi questions. What's more is I'm enjoying the MSP again. For two years I felt burnt out and when I said that to people all I got was, "Nah relax you can't quit now."  Well I didn't want to quit and I kept thinking that everyone was right and that if I took a break I would somehow lose my momentum.... I don't know what would have happened if I had taken a break... and I never will know for sure now. I'm just happy that I wake up excited to get down to a day of samples.

Yesterday I finished the hemp samples.  I enjoyed them actually. The first hemp sample was just plain hemp and it turned out fairly well. It reminded me a lot of flax but tow flax which is a little easier to work with. My second sample was a hemp noils/tow mixed with cotton. It turned out nicely too but as I was plying it... the darn thing snapped and that was the end of that. I had a 6 metre section and a 9 metre section, neither one long enough to send in with my homework. So it was back to the drawing board.  This time I decided to try something a little different. I had read that a hemp silk blend would be nice so I thought,  even though is was what I thought of as an odd combination, I would give it a try. I blended the longer hemp I have with bombyx silk on my hand cards and then rolled it off in a sausage.... (as apposed to a rolag, that means so that all the fibres were parallel)... Then I spun what turned out to be a lovely lustrous yarn that would work really well in a woven table runner. It would also work in a lace knitted table runner. I was really happy with my results. So with all that completed today will be my day for silk spinning for the level 3, and with any luck the latter part of tomorrow and Monday will see all of this written up and in my books.

Enough about spinning....

I went to Daughter #1's play last night. I was well entertained. There were only a few fluffs on lines and the singing didn't make me want to run away and actually the story line was quite hilarious. Daughter #1 did very well as a nerd and pulled it off really well (which makes me worry that my daughter may in fact me a nerd... which doesn't seem to worry her at all... even more worrisome!!!!) Still she is a sweet girl and she enjoyed herself, that was obvious. Unfortunately it did not draw a big crowd. Mostly proud parents. They have another performance this evening.

Friday.... At Last

Sigh... it's been a long week.... a hard week.... a cold week.... I'm really glad it is Friday.

Daughter #1 has been doing Drama at school this semester as one of her electives. She has enjoyed it but was worried that she would have to take a large part in the play... she really enjoys working on plays but in the background. she is not a front and centre kind of gal. She did manage to get out of being in a big part and snagged a small part in the play while helping to work on the background, lighting, and sound system. But now.... tonight is the big night. The name of the play is called Pom Pom Zombies and is a story about cheerleader zombies... (yes I know that's odd) Evidently the jist of the story is that the head cheerleader is at a beach party and eats some food that has been infected with nuclear waste and dies and turns into a zombie. (I know the spindle princess would love this!) Anyway Daughter#1 is playing a nerd which she thinks is awesome. It's a musical.... and from what I've heard not one of the kids can sing for beans.... but then they are all zombies so maybe that doesn't matter. However, I am looking forward to seeing the play... it should be fun.

So I didn't go to knit night again last evening... instead I stayed home and spun... as a result I have almost caught up with where I thought I would be. (But still not where I should be.)  I should, as of today, be finished section 1 and 2 in level 5 and section 1 and 2 in level 3. However, I have finished section 1 and 2 in level 5 except for the hemp and wool sample and I haven't even touched the section 2 in level 3. That means I have 8 samples to do today to catch up. I doubt if I can get that many done but then I should never say never. Even if I could get that done by Sunday I would be satisfied. So I will do what I can and see how far I get. I also have a warp to get on the loom... hmmm this should be another busy busy day...

Not as cold this morning at -23 degrees. It is supposed to warm up a little tomorrow and then it is supposed to warm up a whole lot on Sunday... we'll see. Sunday I have to drive Teapot to the airport so I am hoping for clear highways. Tomorrow I have to go to the NPSW meeting in FSJ. I hope the roads are clear for that too. But it's the 20th and there are only 11 days left of the hardest month of the year... and last night when I took din din into Mom and Dad at 6 p.m. there was still a fair amount of daylight in the sky.... I liked that.... it reminded me that this deep freeze that we are in will eventually lose it's grip and spring will come.

For now I had better get down to it and start my day with a quick shower.... a little breakfast.... and some spinning... Hemp... here I come.

Sitting With My Dad On A January Day... Brrr

So yesterday was another day of missed spinning time... I will have to stay home tonight from Knit Night in order to have a day of catch up. Yesterday afternoon I headed in to Pops house to check on him and ended up staying for supper and staying till half past nine last night because Mom wanted to go to her Crib Club and didn't feel like leaving Dad alone.... thus no spinning.  I was so tired when I got home that I went to bed pretty much right away. I'm not really sure why I was so tired since it was only 10 p.m. but I just felt like I couldn't keep going and when I crawled into bed it was the most delicious feeling you could ever possibly imagine. I do have to say that that memory foam mattress which we bought two years ago was the best money spent... ever. This morning I had a really hard time convincing my bed to let go of me.

Anyway, today I am getting down to my homework again... I have to finish the section in the level 5 books that I didn't get finished last weekend. So I have two singles of soy silk to ply first then I have a soy silk/wool blend. Then two hemp samples. That's way more than I would like to be doing, in one day. I will try my darndest to get them all done today though.... that is if I don't run into problems. I still have to go in and check on Dad and make sure that if there any things that he needs that he has them. But maybe I won't have to go for so long.

Warmer temperatures are on the horizon so the forecast says.... that is good because the dear one is headed off for a week of training for the JCRs. I will miss Teapot while he is gone. I will miss him because with these temperatures, it is a worry when he is away that there will be frozen pipes or something equally disastrous, (and remember I'm taking care of two houses at the moment) and I have to haul all our water. It really is a headache. I will miss him for other reasons too not just the fact that he does a lot of the work around here but I will miss him because I like his company at night after all the chores are done and we are sitting having our after dinner tea. It is the cozy time of the day, and it is a pleasure to enjoy his company.  Still the Daughters and I will manage if all goes well.

Again this morning I am looking out on the arctic type temperatures. It is cold, cold, cold! -32 again this morning and the sun is just rising over the horizon. I do hope it warms up some today. Yesterday it reached a balmy -18 during the warmest part of the day.  I hope it does so again....

One last thing.... Happy Birthday to my friend in FSJ... RG.... hope you are having an awesome day!

So now soy silk and other spinning.....

Nursing My Own Self Today

Today I am not so rushed... Me dear old dad is feeling a whole lot better today. The doctor came to see him last night after the clinic closed for the evening and drained fluid from his knee. Then he gave him a shot of Corticosteroid. His knee is much improved today and he has even been able to get up and walk a little. We are worried about him losing his balance after being so unwell for the last few days because he is so shaky, but I am picking up a walker for him from the clinic so that he can get around ok until he regains his strength.  Nursing Pops for the last few days has meant really buggering up my schedule for the MSP. I am not complaining just worrying a little. I will have to work really hard to get back on track. It makes me anxious. Still I felt that I owed myself a little down time today and so I have been knitting this morning. I have finally gotten the opportunity to put my feet up and knit on those silk socks. I am using a pattern from Knitting Traditions from Interweave Press. It is a men's sock pattern but I have a feeling that they will be a very small men's size. Remember I am using silk hankies to make these and the silk is pulled out to a certain size before knitting. I am a little worried that the silk will not stand up to wear and tear so this is an experiment of sorts. I will probably double the thickness in the heal and ball of the foot just to help add strength. But silk is one of the strongest natural fibres and I am hoping that it will be ok and these socks will not wear out too quickly. We will see. If this first pair fits me then I may wear them myself and do a little test to see how long a pair of silk socks will last.

Here let me show you how knitting with silk hankies works....

First of all, I bought a stack of silk hankies.

Each silk hankie looks like this... so you can just imagine how many silk hankies are in the stack. Hundreds and hundreds of silk worms have worked really hard to produce these silk hankies because each silk hankie is one cocoon, but the cocoon has been boiled in a solution to take the stiffness out and then the worm is removed and then the cocoon is stretched out on a frame in a square shape... thus silk hankie because it resembles a silk hankie.

Then I poked a hole in the centre of the silk hankie with my finger and began to pull.

 

The silk hankie will stretch and begin to produce a long circular bundle of silk filaments.

When it is stretched enough I break the bundle of filaments and wind them on to a toilet paper roll.

Then you pick your pattern... in this case it was a men's merino sock pattern by Nancy Bush.... only mine are not merino...

I then cast on the stitches and began knitting. There's the wee filament with which I am working...

When you run out of one hankie you stretch out another and overlap them by about 6 inches works best. Then you just carry on knitting.... and the nice thing is there are no ends to darn in.... I like that!

Here's what they look like so far....

I think they are going to be lovely... don't you?!

As far as I'm concerned a pair of silk socks is a good way to nurse myself.... even if I'm only knitting them... and not wearing them yet!

I will have to put them down soon as I do have to go to Pop's house and look in on him and make sure all is going well. But I will look forward to coming home again this evening and getting back to this easy and relaxing project.... it's a really nice way to nurse yourself.... for tomorrow I will be back at the MSP.... if all goes well with Pops.

A Little Nursing Going On

So... I just got home from a morning of nursing. Dad has not been well for a few days... his congestive heart ailment has once again been rearing it's ugly head. He has a severe build up of fluid on his leg. It is very painful and we are hoping the fluid doesn't move up on his lungs and heart. My mom is not a nurse... completely useless in any situation where Dad might need help... so I am doing what I can. It's really hard to deal with. Then when I got home... the ADHD s#%$%#head had gotten into a bunch of stuff in my studio. There are cotton rovings chewed and ruined. There are two balls of camel and silk yarn chewed to bits. There are wool rovings from one end of the house to the other and right now I am cleaning up the mess. Actually right now I am taking a few minutes to sit me arse down because I haven't sat my arse down this morning. I'm pooped and really did not need this fiasco to come home to.

I am supposed to be cooking food for my parents for supper so that Mom doesn't have to cook... I'm not sure it would be fit to eat if she cooked. And Dad can't get up at all. I'm sort of thinking that he should be in the hospital or at least have some home care.  I wish they were living here at the farm.... (in their own house cause I'd be in a straight jacket if they were in mine).... that way they would be close enough that I could keep an eye on them.

It has suddenly turned into that awful winter weather that I was so longing for last week. It is sunny and beautiful.... but damn cold. -32 degrees this morning when I got up.Why oh why did I want winter weather..... actually I was quite alright with the temperatures... I just wanted some sun... Slap me up the side of my head the next time I complain about warm and wind.... please.

So I am off to the kitchen for an afternoon of cooking casseroles to keep mom out of the kitchen where's she dangerous... and keep both mom and dad fed. As for the ADHD s#$%#%head..... she's outside where she can stay for a wee while!

A Little Trouble

Pops is not well. He may have to go to the hospital... Since Saturday he has not been well at all. But we are hoping that things will be better... I am sorry that I haven't had time to write... will try later today to get a few words down.

Time's Awasting

Here I am on Sunday morning. What did I do on Saturday. Nothing! N-o-t-h-i-n-g...nothing. I cleaned up my house when I should have been spinning. And I cleaned up my studio which was beginning to look like a wool bomb had hit again. In digging through this and that to find fibres related to level 3 and 5 over the last few weeks I have noticed that baggies of fibre have been landing in my room in alarming amounts. So yesterday in a fit of frustration I figured I had better make a path through the mess so that I could get to the loom which I will need this week when I start the Shadow Weave challenge for the Fibre Academy (more on that in a minute). In making a path through the reams of fibre on the floor, I decided it was time to clean up, and so began the day in which the whole house got shipped out and then re-neatened and believe me, the studio is still in a ree raw. We are building shelves under the steps and we have once again moved around the dining room and we are adding shelves above the TV for DVD storage. We took the coffee table to the shed for the next few months while I work on my levels since I find it was in the way for my spinning wheel. So in the end I can say that I never got one thing done on my homework, and I still have a long way to go before I'm ready to spin today.

Now... to go back to that bit about the Fibre Academy. So here I sit with 2/8 cotton on hand, given to me by the one and only RG who has encouraged me to try my hand at Shadow Weave on my new loom. The Fibre Academy (which is part of our guild) in doing a Shadow Weave study for the next few months. There are eight of us and we all got together to pick a colour that we all agreed on, which happened to be blue. So all of us will receive blue. Then we all had to pick a colour of our own choice to go with the blue. Shadow weave is a weave structure that involves alternating rows of two colours using patterns that bloom as you weave these two colours together. If you are really interested in checking out shadow weave then you can look at the latest installment of Hand Woven magazine... it is full of information on Shadow Weave. We have chosen our colours and we have ordered the cotton and while we wait for our cotton to arrive we are weaving in any two colours that we have on hand, a test piece that has to be so big by so big and which will aid us in making sure that we are doing things right... because at the end of this when we thread our looms for real we will be weaving blocks that will have to match in size. Each and every one of us has to weave eight blocks and then we will share our blocks with the other eight students so that we can build a blanket of some sort. I'm looking forward to this challenge... but I have to have my sample block done by Saturday! Argh!!!!So I have to have my wee studio cleaned if I am going to get this warp on the loom in the next day or two and then weave off my block. Already I'm stressing.... The whole thing has to be done by June... that's two blocks a month.... I can do that right..?

Now today I think I need a picture or two... I haven't posted any for a while... so let's see what I've got...

Shadow weave colours.... the blue at the top is the base colour that we will all start with and then the other colours are our choices to go with the blue. This will be a really cool project.

My disaster of a studio as I try to clean up the mess.

Studio spillage onto the dining room table.

This week's unwashed samples... from left to right you can see them below closer up.

..

50/50 bamboo/wool

Corn fibre....

I just realized that this sample is a complete waste because I buggered up and made it 70/30 wool/corn silk when it should have been 7030 corn silk/wool... Blast! And it was my favorite. : (

Let's see what else do I have for you....

Here we have a bunch of discarded samples that are not good enough to make it into my books.... and the previous one will be joining these. Argh!

....so this is the library under the steps in the works... shelf brackets are up and the shelves are measured and ready to go in too.

Bamboo ready to be blended with cotton for my socks for the level 5 homework.....

These are the stockings/socks that I want to knit for the level 5 homework... I'm not sure if I will make them this long.... teapot thinks they're sexy but I'm not sure anything will make my legs sexy... maybe I'll knit them for him to wear... har dee har har!

Failing the above.... these are my back up plan.

So that's it for me today.... I'm outta here... I got some cleaning to do before I redo the flippin' cornsilk and wool sample and ply the soy silk singles I have on my wheel. Then maybe just maybe if I'm really good I might get that warp on the loom for the Shadow Weave sample.

Happy mid-January to you... it won't be long now till the worst of the winter is over..... : ) See I'm not depressed!

Oh Dear... What's That!?

So yesterday as things turned out I did not stay at home. I, on the spur of the moment, got into my truck as the Dear Ones were leaving for school and took my spinning wheel and headed into FSJ for a day of spinning with some friends. There wasn't a whole lot of spinning going on but we did have fun. It was a lovely day full of sunshine and happy talk and laughter. It was the epitome of good friends getting together for a mid-winter pick me up. RG and SK and SC and moi chatted and gabbed and we even did a little spinning (a very little though). It was great. RG showed us all the things that she was working on or had finished... and made us all completely jealous and SK showed me all the collectables that she has collected recently (like the most beautiful bobbins for bobbin lace and 18th century pin cushions) gorgeous and wee glass spinning wheels... awesome. The SC came by for a quick lesson on the Inkle loom and soon the day turned into a show and tell fest. Along about 2:45 I figured it was time to get going and leave for home.... besides I had a quick stop at the grocery store to make before heading out over the road. That took a little longer than I had planned but I was on the road and headed for home by 4 p.m. By this time the sun had gone behind the clouds and the sky was starting to close in. I had Narmin with me in the truck and I knew he would need to stop somewhere for a quick pee break. I figured this would be best done once I got back into the valley and there wasn't so much traffic on the road. Well this turned out to be a stupid thought since it was Friday (the 13th) and every Tom, Dick, and Harry was headed in to town from the oilfields for a night of heavy drinking no doubt. (There have been a number of accidents around here of late with drinking and driving and oilfield workers : \)It was only after I got back into the valley that I was able to find a place to pull out and give Narmin a little walk about. He did his pee in short order and we were back on the road in no time flat. But it was then that I realized that I now needed to pee too. Only we had just past the only bathrooms between FSJ and HH. Oh oh! Well I carried on for a little while in the hopes that I would make it home before my back teeth began to float. But I knew before too long that I was defeated. Damn! I would have to pull off somewhere to relieve myself. It was then that I thought of a fairly private spot. I could pull in there and it would be far enough off the road that I would be able to do what I needed and nobody from the road would see me. I started to scheme.... I would pull in with the driver's side away from the road... I would open the door step out and do what I needed really quick between the two doors of the truck. That would work.

By the time I stopped I was almost desperate. Very quickly I did what needed to be done, and pulled up my pants in short order. I jumped back in to the truck, and that's when I noticed something different about the roadside pullout that I had never seen there before. There was a new sign..... a sign that said something about the BC Hydro group doing monitoring for moose, elk, and deer for studies related to the new Site C damn. And that's when I notice the strange looking little divices on the front of the sign attached to the mesh wire... Oh Dear! I thought.... what's that!???

I drove away in a rush knowing full well that the next time someone checks the monitoring device in front of which I had just pee'd, they will probably need to go to hospital from the shock of it all!

And me... well I laughed all the rest of the way home!!!

: ) : ) : ) : ) : )

Could those glass-half-full types and those on uppers please stop raining on my parade!!!

January Blues

I am told that I sound depressed. Hmmmm.... Actually I'm not really depressed though looking out on the piles of alpaca poop and doggy doo doo and frozen mud from here to eternity does not make me feel all that wonderful.... still I can't say that I am depressed. Though we have had a lot of wind and though the weather has been fiercely grey since the new year began, we do get glimpses of normal weather.  Yesterday the sun broke through the cloud and the whole world was awash with light. And even though it is so windy, the wind has brought warmer temperatures. It's not all bad. Last night I brought out to the bunny a fresh bowl of water and some carrots and some bunny food. She was happy to have her food brought to her and while I was petting her while she ate I had an opportunity to look up at the sky and have a good look at all those beautiful stars. Black sky and lots of stars means clear weather... (though the forecast is calling for a dump of snow). Clear weather means a little more sun. Maybe today won't be grey... I hope not.

Meanwhile all week I have been spinning. I am almost through the second section in level 5. I've run into some problems with soy silk. The soy silk is full of nubs and noils and so getting a nice yarn is difficult. I have tried several different ways to spin the stuff and finally I think the best way to get a good yarn is to change the preparation. Instead of spinning off the roving I will spin the yarn after I have carded it and if that doesn't work then I will comb it. Hopefully that will help.

Yesterday I received my box of silk hankies in the mail. I do have to say that I ordered them about a week ago and was disappointed to find that Treenway Silk has been sold... and not only has it been sold but it has gone south of the border. Still my experience was good for the most part. I was not delighted to see my bill. $164.00 for silk that's with the exchange. But now all I have to do is knit those socks for Christmas next year.... and those who receive silk socks better be happy to have such a luxury item... (maybe you shouldn't hold your breath though!) : )

So I don't know if I sound depressed but I certainly don't mean to sound depressed. I just am looking forward to the end of this long dragged out month. I am looking forward to getting further into my homework books and seeing real progress. I am looking forward to something different. I am looking forward to better weather even if that means snow and colder temperatures.  (Getting winter weather in winter is not the end of the world I realize.)

Update on family..... girls are starting to study for their finals in the first semester.  Daughter #1 just finished her Basketball season. I was very proud of her. They did not have enough to have a full team and so they headed off to DC for a fun game of Basketball with only four of their six players. They had to borrow two and were not allowed to play in the real tournament. They got slaughtered of course with a score of 41 to 21 for the other team... but considering that they didn't have a full team and their team has only been together for a few weeks and two of their team had to stay home due to being cut at the last minute with bad marks in academics all these terrible things considered they did ok. The most important thing.... they came home with smiles on their faces and they came home having renewed friendships with those in DC. Daughter #1 is head down and arse up with preparing for the end of this semester.  They have just made Lasagna and Ceasar salad and garlic bread as their final test in foods, though there will be a written portion to their final exam. She did well though we don't know her final mark and after all was said and done the whole class had a great time eating their test...  I had a good laugh at that.... why didn't we have classes like that?!

Well it is Friday and all is good... I'm off....to spin... now how can that give anyone the January Blues...

Lamenting In The Void Of Friendless Blogs .....

Blogs... I have a list of the ones that I like to follow.... but unfortunately not enough of my friends write on a blog... only a few. Some people like to tweet because they have a Twitter account. And that's cool because I get a little bit of a snip of their day... when they are far away. Not everyone is as prolific as me when it comes to writing and I understand that.... (remember I do this as much for me as anything)... I do write as often as I do because it is a good discipline, and for someone who is as flighty as I am, discipline is always good. For some, blogging is a good outlet for their desire to write.... for some, writing is an agony and tweeting works better. Still there are social sites like Facebook. For people using that venue, friends seem to be easy... I have a Facebook account but I hardly ever use it. Mostly I go in there to play games and even that has lately bored me to tears (I also keep an eye on the Daughters who both have Facebook accounts).  So back I come to this place.

The sad thing is that each morning I look forward to hearing about what my friends are up to.... I am sadly let down. (Except for the Spindle Princess whose pretty good and keeping people up on what she's doing with short snappy Tweets!)  But the rest of those who I love to hear from seem to not want to have an online life. I do have a cousin who posts interesting things on the family website... but that's it. Not my sister... not my sister-in-law, not my brother-in-laws or anyone in my family. And absolutely none of my close friends blog, tweet, or stay on Facebook.... I am virtually friendless in this world of computer technology. It is really quite unfair.  Most of the blogs to the left are blogs of perfect strangers... Except for As The Whorl Spins and Yawnkiss, It Was Fun I Liked It, I am in a void of strangers. Even the Daughters, for whom I had great hopes, have fallen by the wayside and post a blog about once a year and actually even that has fallen off.

So each morning I get up and I sit down here at my computer... I sit staring at the screen in the hopes that someone will surprise me and send me an email to tell me that they have begun a new blog or have set up a Twitter account.... or have joined Facebook.... all in vain.....

sigh!

?????! Titles Anyone???

I woke this morning with a head that felt like a bruised cabbage. I'm not sure if the headache comes from lack of water.... which I do have a tendency to forget to drink throughout the day when I get busy. I even forced cereal on the Dear Ones this morning.... then with tea in hand I have been looking at this screen off and on this morning and trying to decide what in the world to write about... at one point I decided to forget it and go back to bed. The bed looked lovely and warm and quite inviting. I crawled in and settled in for an extra hour I hoped. That's when the cat decided to feel lonely and came for a visit on top of my poor aching head... so fighting the obvious signs that cats and dogs were demanding my attention... I tried for the next hour to sleep in that oh so desirous bed. But alas, it was not to be. The animals won and so I gave it up for a bad job and ended up having a nice warm shower and another cup of tea instead. So here I sit debating if it is worth sitting in front of the screen or should I just sit at my wheel and carry on from where I ended last night. The cotton section is in my book and I am now working on Bamboo and silk for level 5. So while I feel really good about yesterday's accomplishments today not so much... the weather is not helping. January has decided to not be a winter month any more. For the last few years I can safely say that Global Warming is actually taking ahold in this area. We have a hotter and windier summer. We have a truly a short Indian summer, and then we have months and months of long grey days that are more like late autumn than winter..... right through to around the end of February and then we have a very slow prolonged spring that takes us into June and then back to that hot dry windy summer. It actually makes me want to move. I love my valley. I love the river but I'll be honest.... I hate the weather. Add to that the trouble with the Pine Beetle and I think things like where can we go when Teapot retires. Forget upwardly mobile... I'm onwardly mobile!

Update On Animals:
I'm not sure if I mentioned that just before Christmas we lost one of the bunnies..... I mean d-e-a-d dead. Not lost as in got away. I went out on morning and the bunny failed the pencil test. (The pencil test means that if you tap it with a pencil and it makes a knocking sound then it is safe to say that you can bury it and the bell won't ring.) I'm thinking that it got scared to death one night when the coyotes were hanging around... either that or it just keeled over from being bunged up. I can't say for sure.She had been eating fine... so who knows. And it was the big grey pouffy one... Cloud. : ( But I do like caring for the Puff. She is fun to have and very friendly. I may get her a companion next year.

Dexter who got sick last winter is still thin.... He has never completely rebounded but he is eating and he is still alive and kicking. We decided not to shear him this year and let him have a year stress free. I still give him extra oats and I think he enjoys the extra attention. The others are quite irritated by the fact that he gets a full bucket and they have to share one. All the rest of the alpacas are fine and normal and Mishka we hope is preggers.

The horse.... fine.

Dogs.... all good except Bailey who's ADHD and irritates the hell out of all of us except Teapot who seems to have bonded with the weirdo. Narmin... awesome we all love him to pieces.  Cat's aloof except when you go back to bed with a throbbing headache.

I don't miss the llama or the sheep... actually I'm glad they are gone... Alpacas are way better.

So the Bamboo awaits.... and the sun has peeked from behind the clouds..... I guess one more cup of tea would be a good idea.

Olds Schedule is up.... Stephanie Gaustad and Deb Robson will be teaching and I won't have time to take any of their courses..... waaaaahhhhhh!

But we're booking our apartment with great hopes that we will have our work done and marked and be all prepared for level 6. Yikes!!!! Where did the last five years go....

Now That's Just Sick

I have been talking to a  couple of people who have complained about recent sickness. Teapot and the Daughters and I have all had our flu shots so we are probably fending off illness due to those for the time being. come spring this nasty virulent stomach flu that seems to be hitting so many will probably hit us too... But for now we seem to be ok. Then I am hearing that there are quite a few who are fighting colds and flus of that nature. I'm now knocking on wood vigorously and really hoping that we can keep that one at bay too.  But to all of you who are fighting illness. (Especially U Gerald whose in hospital), I am rooting for you and saying a little prayer for those who need it.

Yesterday I finished my knitted sample with that cotton and silk blend. It looks pretty good I think.

I finished it late last night after a few false starts. I screwed up on the first couple of tries as I kept having too many or too few stitches on each row.... This one turned out better, though I think there is a mistake somewhere on the right hand side somewhere. But then they are marking not for the knitting but for the spinning.... and I can't find the mistake so that's ok. I think it looks pretty good so I will get these cotton samples in my book today and then move on to the level 5... I had hoped to be doing that this morning. But then yesterday turned out to be a day full of interruptions.

The moon is setting in the west and in the east, dawn is coming. The sky looks just beautiful. A gorgeous dark blue in the west and a lovely greeny blue in the east. I think it is time to get to work... but first twenty minutes on that exercise bike. Argh! Actually it is not too bad. I'm actually enjoying it a little... that's good isn't it!

Imagine enjoying exercise.... well, that's just sick!

Rushed And Loud And Then Slow And Quiet

I woke this morning at two minutes to seven. Just the right time to get up and not feel so extremely tired. My nice soft bed of memory foam and flannel sheets encourages me, each morning, to stay abed far longer than I should and often I find myself going back to bed once the dear ones leave for work/school. It is quiet now but I do have an almond pound cake in the oven which Teapot and I threw together just before they left. Teapot made a pact with one of the janitors at the school to bring a cake for one of the teachers who is celebrating her birthday today. The janitor is usually the cake lady and brings cakes on every birthday but she fed Teapot's classroom fish every day over the Christmas break so that Teapot wouldn't have to make a trip in to the school each day and so the pact was that Teapot, who loves to bake, would bake a cake for today.  It was really too bad that he thought of it at 8 a.m. this morning.... and so being the perfect wife... (snork)... I helped him mix the cake and get it in the oven and now all I have to do it to watch it and make sure the darn thing doesn't burn. He will make a flying visit at lunch time to pick it up along with the cinnamon and almond icing which he can put on at the school.  It was a bit of a bums rush getting it done and everyone out the door in time for school but they are gone and now after all that excitement it is quiet and peaceful once again. The dogs and cats are snoring quietly and the clock is ticking off to my right... outside the rain is hitting the tin roof and since it is not raining heavily, it is quiet as well.

Yesterday I finished spinning that silk and cotton sample and I washed it last night. Quite frankly I am very pleased with it and I will knit my summer top sample today.

So you see the level 3 homework is coming along nicely. Today I will also try to get back to the level 5 homework.

Meanwhile, Teapot put together the new exercise bike and I gave it a good try yesterday. We have moved the furniture around in the living room to accommodate the new bike and there it sits nicely in under the steps.

The nice thing is that the wall behind the exercise bike will eventually hold part of our library. I will be able to read or watch T.V. while exercising. One thing is for sure, we are a reading family. We are also a movie family.  With lots of books and lots of movies at my disposal,  I already look forward to exercising each morning.

So as I wait for dawn to creep up the sky, and the cake to finish baking I am pleased with the quiet and solitude after a hectic weekend. It's not that I don't enjoy having Teapot and the girls at home but it is nice to look around me occasionally and not be in demand.

This morning I have a letter to write regarding the rezoning of the forest property to the west of us. Our District council is making a new town plan which includes turning that beautiful forest into industrial property.... and while I understand the need for industrial properties in any thriving community, I fear that our council is somewhat stupid in choosing the most desired property for residential expansion and turning it into what nobody wants.  This is an old battle and once again we will voice our complaints. If it is not being threatened as industrial then it is being threatened by the province as a gravel pit. It is one of the most beautiful forests with ready made paths for hiking and horse back riding.... never mind all the wildlife that uses it for access to the river. I'm sure our coucil wouldn't know a good plan if it jumped up and bit them you-know-where!

So I will sign off with a wish for your day to be peaceful, pleasant, and full of accomplishments.

Bare

Christmas is now well and truly over. There are no sparkly lights. There are no cheery Santa Clauses. There are no beautiful angels. There is no bright and happy greenery. There are no packages of chocolate, and there are no bowls of nuts on the coffee table. Outside we still look Christmasy since the outdoor light never come down (we just turn them off) and the real wreath is now hanging on the outside of the front door where it will stay until it start to drop too many of its needles and begins to irritate me. Somewhere usually around Valentines. That's when we will turn off the lights outside too. Until then the lights give the house a cheery look to welcome us home in these dark and dreery winter days. There is one more day of cleaning to do to be done with it once and for all.... I will pop this computer in a different spot and sweep up all the floors and I will take the leaf out of the dining room table and take the red plaid tablecloth off the table to be laundered. Then I can say I am truly finished with Christmas. Teapot just came downstairs and already he misses the nice bright Christmas tree in the corner.  When you live so far north the bright lights that come at Christmas time can really help to get you past this dark and wretched time of the year. And so I have some bright sparkly white fairy lights that I will probably put up to help get us past this.

This really has not been one of our better winters. We have had one wind storm after another. Chinnooks bring warmer temperatures and while that is nice, it melts the snow that is on the ground and turns everything to a slick ice rink and the ice is scary. It is terribly slippery outside as we creep to the animal paddocks at feeding time. Even going to the truck is a hazard to your health. I barely go out through the door anymore because I'm scared of hurting my back in a fall on the ice. But at least the deck is clear and I do go out there almost every day for a little while for an intake of fresh air. Still there is just enough wind to blow you out of root!

I have been working for the last two days on my silk and cotton sample for the level 3 homework books and I am happy to say that I have enough for my sample but also enough for the summer top question and sample too. Last time when I did the level 3 homework I always liked my cotton and silk sample and thought it would make a good yarn for a summer top. When it came time to do a sample appropriate for a ladies summer top I really wanted to use a 50/50 silk/cotton 2-ply yarn... I was running low on time and so in the end opted for a straight cotton 3-ply yarn and while it turned out quite nicely I was always sorry that I didn't use the silk cotton blend.  So this time round I am using Supima cotton and some very pretty blue silk and as a result, I have a lovely chambray silk cotton blend yarn for my sample. I will finish this sample today and wash it and get it in my book by tomorrow when it dries and then it will be back to the level 5 homework for the next week.

So that's it for me on this mid winter Sunday morning. I am off to eat breakfast... drink tea... listen to CBC... and spin. Hope you have a good day too...