I actually spelled the word out... and I say it all the time. For a
lady who never wears them, I am beginning to feel an affinity for the
darn things... I think that I have the bug... I like knitting socks (not
wearing them but knitting them). And so it begins... the fifty hour
project has been started. I have been busy for two days sampling and
deciding on what I would end up with as a good sock yarn. I finally
decided on a 50% cotton, 30% bamboo, and 20% ramie blend for my sock
yarn. I had thought that less ramie and more bamboo would work but in
the end I needed the ramie to give the yarn more strength. A sock yarn
should be a hard wearing yarn, something that will stand up to the
pounding that the feet will give it. But these are lace summer socks and
so they should be cool on the feet and pretty. The cotton will give
them the coolness but cotton alone is just not hard wearing enough for
my liking... in came the bamboo. The bamboo added to the cotton makes
them much more lustrous but not really all the hardy.... so in came the
ramie... and the ramie is good. It make the yarn so strong that breaking
it even in the single is difficult. The decision in the end, is a good
one. Also, I will dye them some colour that I like but it will have to
be pastel. I have darker shades of Procion dye so I will have to really
have to tone down those colours to get pastel anything.... just add
water.... but it is all a matter of math. The depth of shade will be decided upon later...
Today is a windy day.... but the buds are coming
out on the trees. There is a silver to their silhouette that means the
grey fluff of pollination will soon be floating on the air. And as the
sap begins to rise in the Pine trees we are beginning to see which ones
have succumbed to the Pine Beetle infestation this past summer, fall and
winter. I can't decide whether or not Dreamer (the horse) likes the
wind or not. Every so often she flicks up her tail and goes for a little
run around her paddock. Either she is highly enjoying the wind or she
is completely pissed off that it is so windy. I have rolled up the rugs
around the house and brought them out to be hung over the fence for a
wash and a dry... but they will need to be washed all over again since
they have all been blown down on the ground. (sigh)
Things are drying out quite nicely around the farm. The poop of
the paddocks is no longer stinking and is drying out so well that it is
disintegrating into the soil. I will soon be out with my bags of grass
seed as I put down the new seed in the bigger summer paddocks before the
animals move into them in early May. Clearly the winter is behind us...
we may still get days of blowing flurries.... we may still get days of
cold rain but clearly the spring is here in all it annual splendor.
Even the birds are confirming this through their cheery songs on the
early morning air. I hear them now around 5 a.m. tuning up for their
serenade as we are sleeping nightly with the windows open. I just love spring.
I have been making sweet bread all morning and while I
was at it, I have been spinning on those socks as well. Back and forth
between kitchen, computer, and wheel I have been moving... but now it is
almost 2 p.m. and I started this post at 9 a.m. this morning... it is
time to be done with it and at my wheel for real. No more interruptions
as I check the bread maker, and then the rising bread in the pans, and
then the oven as I just put two lovely loaves on the cooling racks a few
moments ago. I have always hit the computer for a few more sentences
on the way back to the sunroom to spin a little more. It is time to get
to my work now and while that seems to imply that I haven't been
working... ( I have spun eight rolags this morning which is a lot since I
am spinning teeny tiny)... it does mean that I have been severely
interrupted and could do a whole lot more. So I am off to spin spin
spin....
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