Magazines

I really would like to know why it is that all my magazine subscriptions show up on the same day.  Like now I have to read them all and I haven't even finished the ones that I got for Christmas.... It's just not fair!

Twelfth Night

This is Twelfth night. This is the night, that if it was still a holiday, we would be hanging our Old Christmas Day stockings and tomorrow we would be having our Old Christmas Day celebrations. But this year it falls on Thursday as you can see, and since everyone is in school both today and tomorrow, we will be delaying our Twelfth Night celebrations one whole day and hanging our stockings tomorrow and taking our tree down on Saturday. We have also been invited to my parents house for a nice dinner with friends. And so, the Christmas party continues for another few days. By Sunday you will hear no more about it... I promise. The funny thing is... I just got some nice new catalogues in the mail yesterday and one of them is covered in pink and red hearts... like Valentine's is only a few weeks away! It's enough to make your head spin around like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist.  Next thing you know I'll be out looking for Pussy Willows for an Easter tree again.

Yesterday was a day for getting on with it. I didn't get my level 3 books updated as I had hoped since when I looked at my cotton samples from way back, I realized that nature/the gods of spinning had worked their wicked magic and had underspun them while they were hanging in my studio. I'm sure that humidity wrecks havoc with things if left long enough. So I wanted to put some more plying twist in them. That way they would hang the way I wanted them to.... which meant getting what was on my wheel finished and off. Therefore I spent the day finishing the spool of merino and then I didn't have enough empty spools so I plied off two spools of alpaca. Gosh the alpaca is beautiful! After that, I was able to get to the cotton and I took it off the wheel and washed it last night. It hangs in a perfect U just the way I want it to. This morning, I will work on the other skein of cotton making it hang in a U too (U2 get it... snork, snork gufaw.. hey I know I'm a nerd! By the way I'm listening to U2 actually.... I'm listening to the mix of music I have on my computer, but U2 was on a few mins ago! Uh, Ah, sorry for the digression!) Then I will do some sizing (that's the sticky stuff that my cotton will get coated in to make it stiff... most of your store bought clothes comes with that stuff on it too.) and I will need to boil a skein of cotton as well. Then my cotton samples will be ready for my books. I will have one more sample of blended cotton and silk to do and I will have the first section of the level 3 books done too. Yeah!

It sure feels good to finally see good progression on the homework for both level 3 and level 5.  It makes me feel like I am full of accomplishments. So here is a pic from yesterday's work.....

Alpaca to the left and it looks absolutely delicious. Cotton to the right and it is gunned cotton and is nice too. Then there are the two spools of merino so far. Still have to finish filling the one on the left. Of course pics never do this justice.

I have had a change of thought on my level 3 50 hour project. I had planned on doing a baby blanket using my pin looms and weaving blocks and putting them together with crochet. But in the meantime I was sitting in the living room yesterday working away at the spinning and BAM right out of the blue I had a wonderful thought. Back in the fall when my gallery had their show, I had looked at one of the shawls hanging on the wall in the gallery of one of my fellow spinners and weavers and promptly fell in love.  Her shawl was done in black and plain weave but it was done with a break in the weaving every so often. (I can't explain it very well so I'm not going to even try... you will just have to be patient and wait and you will see it when I get it finished.)  It dawned on me yesterday that I could do a colour gamp (I know most of you don't have a clue what a colour gamp is... it could be a foot fungus for all you know... but a colour gamp is a really cool thing that weavers do with colour in weaving... you can see one here... or here....) with the same idea on my rigid heddle loom (which is really easy to thread) using the 25 shades of logwood.... oh that would be just jim fine and dandy.... really! So my level 3 instructor.... (who reads here sometimes)...  can look forward to some weaving.... from me. Oh I am so excited.... I can't wait... this is going to be sooo good.... (if I don't screw up : \ yikes!)

It is still dark and the dear ones (Teapot and the daughters) have left for the day. The rabble (the dogs) are not too obnoxious this morning and are waiting for me to go back to bed.... as I do most mornings for an hour. So I will begin my Twelfth Night... since it still feels like night... and then begin on that cotton.... who knows I might even get the new exercise bike put together today....

Enjoy your Twelfth Night and I hope your catch the animals in your area on bended knee at midnight, tonight.... as the old adage says....

A Good Start

Yesterday was all about getting caught up on the homework that I had done in the fall but hadn't gotten into my books. It was a pretty good day as I got 7 questions finished and in the binder for level 5... today I have to do the same for the level 3 binder. If you remember just over a year ago I finished my level 3 book and sent them in to my instructor and got a terrible mark because I left out part of the course... so now I am redoing my books for level 3.  I just received my transcript from the colege and the marks stand thus....

Level 1 97%
Level 2 89%
Level 3 in progress
Level 4 93%
Level 5 in progress

In order to do level 6 I have to have level 3 and level 5 finished and marked. I have my work cut out for me. So today I will put the bum's rush on and I will work on the level 3 homework and get what I have done into the book for that as well.

Meanwhile I have been spinning away at the requirements for the level 3 50 hour project and the dye portion of the course. In addition, I will need to boil some cotton today and size (that means coat it in some disgusting junk to make it stiff) some other spun cotton. I am hoping that by bedtime tonight I can say that I have section 1 finished in both levels. Yesterday I ordered silk hankies from Treenway for socks for Christmas 2012. I also bit the bullet and ordered from Celeigh Wools some Bamboo for blending with wool and cotton for socks for the level 5 50 hour project.

So, there you have it... a good start I should say. Hopefully I can go forward the way I have started. Here's hoping.....

New Year's Resolutions

Growing up as a young girl I remember my mother each and every year making a promise to herself that she would lose weight and get in better shape by walking. I would follow in her footsteps making New Year's resolutions too (usually involving lying). By the time I was ten I was so jaded about making New Year's resolutions that I decided after a few more years of trying hard to stick to it that I was never going to make a New Year's resolution again. I never have made a New Year's resolution again from that time to this... at least not officially. Still it is rather humorous to listen to people planning things for the next year.... really, what they are planning are sort of resolutions. This year I intend to do this.... or that... I hear people say, and while it is not really a resolution, it is in a way since they are promising themselves something that will change this year.  So it has dawned on me that I am not really any different than anyone else when it comes to these promises to ourselves. Really I have made promises to myself each and every year just refusing to CALL them resolutions. Here are some of the resolutions I have caught myself out in this year.

1. I will lose 20 lbs

2. I will ride my new exercise bike every day for at least twenty minutes.

3. I will finish two questions a day in my homework.

4. I will knit a pair of socks each month (this one is carried over from last year).

5. I will try not to piss away too much time on stupid games on Facebook or the cell phone thereby ruining my resolutions in #2, 3, and 4.

6. I will have a better attitude toward Christmas. (I don't have to worry about that one till about September..... 'cause I rarely think about it till then anyway).

7. I will not make any impossible promises to myself.

Hmmm... well that last one blows this whole post out of the water... now doesn't it!

Unbidden, and more importantly, impossible promises to ourselves are just setting ourselves up for  failure.... Instead I should be saying I am going to try to lose 20 pounds. But then if I'm really honest with myself just "trying" means that I can now go and eat for breakfast that bag of cheesies that are in my kitchen pantry screaming out my name. No I have decided that maybe resolutions are not so bad after all... maybe just saying that you ARE going to do this or that means that you are figuratively sticking a steal rod in our back and forcing ourselves to follow through on those promises/resolutions.

So here goes...

1. I will lose 20 lbs this year (and keep them off).

2 I will ride my new exercise bike twenty minutes a day.

3. I will finish two questions a day in my homework.

4. I will order silk hankies today and start knitting socks after level 5 and 3 are finished.

5. I will only play video games for ten minutes each night before I go to sleep.

6. I will not have a temper tantrum every time the cats do something stupid like puking in Teapot's new slippers. (Midnite accomplished that feat of stupidity yesterday morning after gulping his breakfast down so fast that it wasn't even chewed properly, raising my blood pressure to new heights).

7. I will make impossible promises to my self and I will TRY to keep them!

Amen to that.

This Is Really Darn Hard

I've been playing with my blog for well over an hour and I never got up till 9 a.m.!!! It's really darn hard sometime to update this blog's colours etc... The day is passing me by, so for now I'm choosing black for the background.  You know what they say. Black is always classic. The blue title signifies the dark blue skies that prevail at this time of year. I will hopefully settle on something better in a few days... so for now... this is it.  I'll be back tomorrow with some new writing. Today I'm going to spin.... that is after I have a cheese croissant for breakfast and a very large cup of jo to get me going.

Hope your first day of the new year was a nice one and I hope your second day is nice too. Here the temperature has risen 8 degrees in the last half hours so we must be experiencing a Chinook. that always means that the day will be good!

I'm off.... merino and the wheel...

Winter Days And Looking Ahead

Today is the quintessential winter day. It is -17 today and the sun is trying to come through the frozen fog. It is so pretty.

We are, once again cooking for company. My Mom and Dad are coming out today for an old fashioned roast pork dinner. We have not eaten with them since Christmas day.  Now that all the turkey from Christmas has been consumed it is time once again to fill the fridge with leftovers. Actually with all the cooking we have been doing there are tons of left overs. Last night friends came to help us ring in the New Year with a meal and once again we found ourselves stuffing our faces this time with a five course meal. We started with crackers and cheese and pate, then we had my yummy Lemon and herb fish chowder, salad, then the main course of sausage and pork roasted in plum sauce with candied garlic and candied ginger on a bed of rice with broccoli. Then lastly we moved into the living room for pie and desert. There was apple pie, lemon pie, and chocolate cherry chew bars. I don't want to see a large meal any more for a while. At mid night we toasted and hugged and banged a few pots since we didn't have noise makers and turned on some music (Highway To Hell by AC/DC which I thought was very fitting!) It was a lovely way to end 2011.

And so here we are into 2012. The nice thing is, and I really haven't had time to think about it, but already the days are increasing in length.  Usually I put a time watch on how the days are lengthening out here on my blog, but this year I have decided to not do that. I am just pleased to know that we are past the worst of the year.

And so.... now the work really begins. In the fall I really was just playing around at working on the levels for the MS Program but now it will be head down and arse up for sure. I have been working for a few days on the level 3 dyeing portion of the homework as well as the 50 hour project but today will be devoted to actually making serious headway with it. While I have managed to spin a nice bit of yarn on one spool I am now working on the second spool. this will be a 3-ply merino yarn. I will weave the 24 squares which are 6"x 6" and then, with one extra skein I will dye the 25 shades, using different mordants and different modifiers... and as back up I will have 25 small skeins of alpaca to dye as well (just as back up though)! Then after that I will be blending merino and bamboo with a touch of cotton for socks for the level 5 homework. I will start measuring out baggies of the fibre this week but probably won't get to blending it until later in the month. Each day two questions have to be completed, Level 5 in the morning level 3 in the afternoon, with the writes ups done at night. No sickness allowed. I really need to get this done.

I am looking forward to the challenges that I will be facing this year. And isn't that what new year's is all about?.... facing the next 365 days with anticipation. (Oops... that's right this is a leap year!)

Here's hoping your new year is full of happy challenges that bring you everything you desire...

The Motto for 2012: No guts, no glory!

Beyond

There are less than 24 hours to go in 2011. I thought it might be a good day to reflect a little on what's happening out there.... you know.... beyond.  Beyond, as in, beyond my little world... beyond, as in, the whole scheme of things. All year I write about the things that affect me... after all it is my blog... but sometimes it is really good to step back and think about the almighty Out There. As you may or may not know I am an avid sky watcher. When I get really down I always know that if I look up, then I will eventually feel "up", whether it is looking at the sky in the day or the night. Still, there's something good about lifting my chin and staring at the great beyond and realizing how insignificant are my little problems.... for that matter how insignificant is me. It is a good thing to remember.

You see, in the whole scheme of things, means that any burdens I bear are really insignificant. Because tomorrow some great event like a new nebula will begin to develop somewhere out there and my little bursting nebula is likely to be like popping a zit compared to it. I mean really, when there are things in this universe like this....

the fact that I didn't get my Christmas knitting done, the fact that the dust bunnies are chewing on my ankles again, or even the fact that I didn't succeed as well as I hoped in my latest assignment for the MSP, really doesn't matter at all. Sure it matters to me but maybe it shouldn't... Maybe I should just let it all go 'cause in the greater scheme of things, life is awesome... it's a real ride.... you just have to look around you and see.

Beauty is sublime and it is everywhere, and that means in every thing and in every one, even the old batt (wink wink) who lives next door to you. How lucky we are to be able to experience such beauty, and such greatness. And if we can just remember that, I'm pretty sure our whole world would be so very different.


Already in the South Pacific, there are people who are looking forward to the new year and are beginning to experience it... but I for one am going to take a few moments to sit today and think about all the good things that have happened this year. I will try not to dwell on the bad things because we do that automatically and I'm going to try to be a little different. Beside there will be bad things in 2012... it's just the way life is... and there will be plenty of time to dwell on those when the time comes. For now I am happy to look up to the great beyond and envision all the good that resides in possibility.