Frozen

Everything this morning is frozen... it is -5 degrees. All the pools of water that were around are now frozen over into sheets of ice, which are good for skating on. The ground which was almost bare is now white from the hail of the previous evening storm. I expect that since there are blue skies and not a cloud to be seen that by mid-day there will be a vast thaw happening. Still the storm of last night will probably have lingering effects for a few hours. Last night, I knew nothing of how cold to which the temp were dropping because I went to bed in sheer exhaustion at 9:00 p.m. and totally conked out. After nights and nights of the werewolf thing I guess I couldn't stand it any more.... I slept soundly all night and feel pretty darn good today.. all because of my wonderful night of sleep. 

In the last month since I went off to the Blueberry I haven't really written much about what things I have been doing in the way of spinning etc... but in actuality I have been working a little... not so much on homework although even a little has been going on there... though I do admit that I have really fallen behind. (I still believe that I'll get finished because I really do think that I have not that badly fallen behind but still level 5 has been hanging over my head and I do get mild panic attacks when I think how spring is just around the corner and I still have so much left to do.) However... I digress... I have been working. While at the Blueberry I spun three 100gm bags of alpaca and merino blend rovings and while I didn't quite get them all finished, I did almost see the end of the stuff. The spun fibre has been staring at me for weeks now, and begging me to finish them,  so yesterday I decided that it was high time to free up some spools. First I  finished spinning the singles, which didn't take a long time since there was only a little left.  Then I plied it once and for all and got it finished.  I must say that I am really pleased with the results. As you can see above, there are three skeins...

It is a fairly textured yarn but it is quite nice. I even had enough left on two spools after the first spool ran out to spin 75 metres of two ply yarn...

Aside from that I have been a knitting a lot lately... While at the Blueberry there was concern that our (the NPSW Guild) comfort blanket project was falling short of the desired results so I came home with a bit of a bee in my bonnet about getting some comfort blankets done.... so I started in and I have to say that there is progress in that area too...

I began the blanket project by going through my stash and finding a bunch of mohair that I hoped I could put together in some pretty way that would make comfort blankets sing... I started with a forest green mohair and knit a large triangle and when I ran out of that fibre I realized that nothing I had would look good with it so I bummed from a friend a couple of cones of mohair in brown and beige... raveled out the green that I had already knitted and started again. This time I started knitting with more purpose... and so far this is what I have...

I really like the meandering pink line through the whole project... the pink certainly brightens all the bland colours... it is a little more than 1/4 finished....

Then I got going on the pink... (of which I had the most in any colour)  and I knit a huge triangle.... and it looks like this...

 I know it kind of looks purple but its not... still it is a cool pink not a warm pink....

Anyway I was telling the Knit Night ladies about this project and one of the ladies was looking over my project and said that she had a mohair blend that I might be interested in so the following knit night she showed up with the biggest spool of mohair and a huge piece of crochet work that she had done and never done anything with and asked me if I wanted it.... needless to say my mind went wild!
Her piece looks like this....

 So I have this great idea.... I'm going to take her piece and my piece and put them together and then I will need another piece like the pink one I've already knit and two small blue pieces and then I will put them together this way....

With a white fringe around the edges... I think it will make a lovely comfort blanket....

So as you can see I have not been sitting idle... today I am making a futon couch. I know this sounds weird but it's true and since my sectional couch is now gone... we have nothing to sit on except for a couple of old ratty chairs that need some TLC.  It will have to stay like that for the moment... but I am working on level 5 today.... in between everything else I have carded some fibre in preparation for a sample... but more on that tomorrow. In the meantime I have bread ready to be put in the pans... so I had better go and get some of this outstanding work done.

See ya tomorrow with more on the wool front....

Oh and by the way since getting on this computer a few hours ago (I've had several interruptions.. ) it is now starting to melt outside and is not quite as frozen as it was.... I even hear a wood pecker working at that hollow tree again.