A Walk On A Sunny Winter Day

Don't you just love days like this?.....

Sleeping On The Job

It's beautiful and sunny here today... Which is why I find it strange that I can't seem to keep my eyes open.  I slept like a log last night... 10 hours of uninterupted sleep... I can't remember when that happened last. I never opened my eyes until 10:10 a.m. this morning, so feeling pretty darn good, I jumped out of bed and had a shower. Downstairs a short while later, I decided to read a little on the couch while drinking tea after breakfast.... it was 12:30 next when I opened my eyes after falling asleep while reading... Teapot is absolutely astounded at my ability to doze off after only getting up 45 minutes earlier. It has been a once in a lifetime relaxing Sunday morning... one of the reasons I retired from the church almost a year ago... I think I was burned out at that time and now I'm always ready for this kind of relaxing day. As a matter of fact, I'm still feeling like if I dropped my head back on the back of this chair I could doze off once again.... which is really weird.

Meanwhile I wanted to finish the little sweater that I was doing for my level 4 homework. All I had left to do was to sew on buttons... so I did that just a few minutes ago. And here is the result of all my last few days of work.

Sweater in foreground and behind it is the 10 metre skein and the fibre I used to make it.... and in the far background you can see all of my camel down skeins, blended or not....

Teapot is quite disgusted that my little sweater is so little... he wanted to wear it. : )

So I will spend a few hours sorting my samples and getting the write ups done and putting them in my binder. Later today, I am going to get my Cashmere out and get going on the next section which only has two questions... so if I'm very good I might.... I just might get my three sections done before the end of January yet!

That is if I don't fall asleep again.....

Catch Up On Work

It's been a while since I have blogged about what I am doing. It can be hard to balance this blog with all kinds of information. Some of my readers are family and couldn't care a fig about spinning,weaving and knitting... while others follow this blog for exactly that purpose, then there are others who follow this blog because I farm so I try to write a little about that too. It is hard to find the perfect balance and I know that I'm not even close doing this perfectly, but today I'm going to show you all some pictures and tell you all about what I've been working on.  

 The current question that I am working on for my level 4 of the MSP is a camel down blend question... basically I have to blend camel down with something and make a yarn and then use it to knit or weave or crochet a tiny garment. I decided to blend camel down with silk at a 40/40 blend and then blend in some bison too. So I have 40% Camel down, 40% Silk, 20% Bison. It is very luxurious and soft. I decided that a 3 ply in a worsted technique would be best and I decided to weave it on my tri loom in a continuous thread thereby not breaking a perfectly good yarn. It started out really well and I just love, love, love the yarn.... this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice.... it is so soft and all the silk really makes it sparkle in the light... this picture just makes it look brown but in actuality it is a combination of silver, (that would be the Bombyx silk),  gold (that would be the camel down), copper, (that would be the copper dyed Tussah silk rovings), and earth (that would be the Bison)... it is gorgeous... even if I do say so myself...

Here are some pictures....

This is the best picture I  could get.... God, it's nice! Just look at that shimmer and then imagine that ten times more and you might be close!

Then I started weaving.

But I realized in very short order that the weaving was not showing the yarn to it's best advantage so I pulled the weaving apart. Considering that it is a 3 ply, (for you non-knitting types, 3-ply yarn works better for knitting because it is a round yarn and looks best in knitted form), I decided that knitting was the best option and so I got to work and cast on 32 stitches and began knitting a man's vest... but really tiny... like for a Teddy Bear.... but I knew after a few rows that I had too many stitches and would run out of yarn before I could finish it... so I raveled it out and began with fewer stitches. It took two more times before I got it right but I have the back of the mini vest done and I have half of the left front done. It is showing the yarn off as I wanted it to... but I will show pictures here later today when I get it finished.

So I have not been idle... these last few days... it took two days to card and blend and spin enough yarn to have the required ten metre skein and enough for the little vest too. 

It doesn't look like I will get the third section done before the end of January but I hate doing a half assed job on stuff and so I wanted to do this question well before I moved on. But if I get this question finished today there's still a chance I can get a little done on the next section before the end of January. We'll see...

Anyway, do stay tuned to see my itty bitty vest.....

Before And After

Before Christmas.... I liked it but very hard to maintain that hair style.... sooo.... I did this last night.

I'm not really sure about this... it's been a few years since I had my hair cut this short... but I've had lots of compliments. I was even told that it took years off me. Hmm... not sure if that was a compliment or not!

A Little Politics

When the daughters were born I was living in North Western Ontario. I was living on a Reservation and the nearest hospital was an hour's drive over treacherous roads. This is considered a mild situation to be in and during spring and summer it really was not much of a concern... but Daughter #1 was born in December and at that time of the year it was a big concern. I also had two previous miscarriages which were also a concern.  I traveled those roads for days before the baby was born always concerned that we would have an accident... and after Daughter #1 was born Teapot traveled those roads so that he could visit me and our new wee baby and to support us both. It was a time that I needed him and his love. His travelling back and forth sometimes in the worst kind of weather worried me no small amount... I was so happy when Daughter #2 was born in May.

All around me, I am hearing about the state of maternal health in Canada. I think about my situation when I was at the age where birth giving was part of life, and I think about the people who are coming out of even more remote places and I wonder how they do it. Yesterday, I was listening to the CBC radio and they were interviewing a family from Fort Nelson, which is about a 6 hour drive from a hospital that can deliver babies, and I didn't realize how difficult for them it is.  Here are young women who are having to leave their community, all of their friends and family, their complete support system and staying in hotels sometimes for weeks with their other children while their husbands continue to work at home.... or not.... as the case may be, while they wait from their due date till the time their child is born. It is a time of stress and anguish and it can't be good for the fetus. I keep thinking that there has to be a way that a non profit organization can set up a program whereby families who need to, can stay in cabins or hostels, that are set up to make the birthing experience a much less stressful event on the whole family. You know... like a Ronald McDonald house for pregnant women.

 This morning I got up and read the news and I find that our dear boy (I say that tongue in cheek), Steven Harper is at the G8 spouting on about maternal health and pledging a whole pile of money to that end.... Hmm.... I wonder where all that money is going to go... will we get our own house in order before we go raging off to save the world? He's had a year to fix the problems at home since the last G8 when maternal health was a topic of discussion and I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference.... Wouldn't it be nice if we could have mid-wives in those communities that are remote and need it... and for more high risk pregnancies, it would be nice to see something done for the mom's who need to be near a hospital... so where's all that help that our government is promising... it seems once again that our government has a whole lot of empty words in their mouths.

But then that's just my opinion...

What do you think?....

Dawn Is Creeping Up The Sky

It's only when I get up in the morning, and I'm sitting here, and I happen to glance out the window and realize that the sky is starting to get light long before Teapot and the girls go out the door, that I realize too that January is almost over. Normally January drifts by in a lazy turn of days, but for some reason this January flew past so quickly that now I'm sitting here trying to figure out where it went. Blazing by in a flurry of days, this month has left me gasping in an effort to finish the first three sections of my level 4 books. That was my goal... I haven't reached it... but I'm close, so we will see if this can be accomplished. I haven't looked at section three yet, since I'm still finishing the last question in section two. I should have that finished today. Then I will do the required reading before embarking on the next section. I just have to remember steady on... I guess.

Teapot and Daughter #2 are leaving for school. This is exam week.  Daughter #2 has two exams today and will be finished after that. Daughter #1 had her first exam yesterday, her second will be tomorrow and then her last one will be on Thursday. It is a very easy week though there is lots of studying going on.

As Teapot leaves the driveway there is a little green sky on the horizon... I know that sounds kind of weird because if I were to describe the sky, I would say that it is lime green on the horizon, then yellow fading out to a greyish yellow with darker grey clouds drifting passively by, then a soft baby blue changing into a medium blue and then darkening as you go west where it is still quite a dark blue with a half moon shining as it sinks towards the opposite horizon. It is quite lovely and I'd take a picture but Teapot seems to have taken his camera with him this morning since I can't find it in all the usual places. (Definitely time to get one of my own.)

It has not sunken below zero degrees for days now and all through the night you can hear the water dripping from the roof of the house. I do believe that we will get more snow before winter's grip has loosened, but it is nice to have this mid-winter reprieve. I have been walking out every day lately which is so nice after a month of cold temperatures and bitter winds. I would walk down through the forest... my forest, but there is deep snow in there and even though the ski-doos have the trails compacted it is still quite treacherous to walk there.  I miss the woods. So I walk the road here in an effort to hear the birds and see the deer, and hear the squirrels chirping on a beautiful winter day.... but I am looking forward to a walk through the woods again and smell the rich brown earthy scents that call me out there.

The sky is quite light now and I must get back to my work... I hope your mid-winter day is as fine as mine.

I'm off to spin some camel/silk/bison blend yarn.... and dream of that Lopi sweater.... will I or won't I????

Hay, Knitting, And Spinning

It's been extremely mild this last little while, which is good for our lambs. We lost one of our lambs a few weeks ago while we were having the really cold temperatures. I always knew that he was not really healthy as he was born late. He was born in July and that just doesn't give them enough time before they are weaned to put on the fat they need to get through the -35 degree temperatures that we get in the winter. I had thought about leaving him through the winter with his mom... I probably should have but at the time he was so lively and his mom was being sold... but I should have sent him with his mom... but it was right at the time that they were being weaned anyway and I thought it would work out. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do. I am thinking though that this year I will keep the lambs with their moms and only breed them every second year... that way they will have time themselves to recuperate and the lambs can self wean. We will have a Cria this summer too and he/she will need to be with her mom too. The rams will just have to suffer on their own this year mind you they'll be fine I'm sure.  I am seriously thinking that I will keep all the sheep that are left except one black one with a white stripe on his face. I'm hoping that the hay situation will be better this year. I will also speak for hay earlier in the season and not wait for the farmers to get their hay up out of the fields. As a matter of a fact I've already spoken for next summer's crop with a fellow who we bought hay from this year. It will all be good I'm sure.

I went to a wonderful workshop on the weekend. I got lots out of learning how to knit in the Kaffe Fassett way... using colour to amplify pattern in your knitting. To be quite honest I'm having a bit of a dilemma.. I enjoyed the workshop so much I might be changing my mind about my 150 hour project that I have to do for my level 4 course. I had originally planned on spinning a cashmere blend yarn for this pattern... but now I can't get the idea of a Lopi sweater out of my mind.... I was thinking a nice Lopi Sweater with some colours that I dye myself... something like this...

I'm totally hamstrung... if you have ideas please let me know since I would love your opinion.

Lopi yarn spins fast and knits fast. Cashmere, not so much... but I have tons of cashmere...  Icelandic fleece only a little though I do have two small ones, which would mean that I would have to go looking for Icelandic fleeces now too (like that's a hardship!).

Oh! I am in such a quandry. HELP!

If you want to leave a comment... please, please, please, do so.

Meanwhile I'm off to have a shower and spin some camel down for the last camel question on the level 4 homework...