Spring Is In The Air

I think, at least it seems to be mind you there are no flowers yet..... but the snow on the roof goes drip, drip, drip, everyday and I am starting to walk around during the day fully dressed without socks...... now that really says spring to me.

Yesterday I picked myself up again and had a lovely afternoon sitting here in the sunshine with a movie on (The Da Vinci Code) and some silk for spinning. The silk that I dragged out of my stash turned out not to be green undulating to purple but two separate batches of rovings.... green undulating to gold and purple undulating to beige..... I chose the purple and it turned out lovely though not quite as colourful as I thought. I finished my knitted sample last night and am now washing and blocking it. The skein is labeled and ready to go in the book. I am also setting in my book the woven sample from a few weeks ago...


I have the write up done but I didn't print it and actually put it into my binder so that will be one of my many jobs to do today. I also want to card rolags today with Bombyx silk and Pima cotton for the silk/cotton sample... I would like to do that sample over the weekend at the retreat.

Ah yes... the retreat...... Tomorrow I am headed off to the Blueberry for a short retreat. I will be spending the weekend in a log lodge north of FSJ overlooking a river (frozen) and spinning and laughing etc.... I am taking black alpaca for spinning for the big j.c., the Bombyx and Pima rolags if I can finish it today and silk coccoons for a mawatta. I will also take those damn lace gloves that I have been working on since Judas was in diapers. Who knows.... I might even get some of it done!

I have been in charge of food for the Blueberry retreat this year and am going to have to do some cooking today. Pub night on Friday night and no we won't be drinking.... just eating pub style food..... Breakfast is a whatever you can drum up affair.... Saturday lunch is soups and buns..... Saturday night is ham and scalloped potatoes..... Sunday is always a "must go" day..... The log lodge is a great place to have a retreat because they have individual rooms, showers ( a must), and a huge room in which to set up your spinning and weaving junk and spread out completely.

So I guess I had better get to it.

Silk And A Little Something

I started spinning Tussah silk a while ago for my silk knitted sample but last night I was tired of a colourless life after the last few weeks of black, and so I dug through my stash and found some nice green silk that undulates into a purple and I thought that's just the ticket. So this morning I got out my spinning wheel and got everything together for a day of spinning with colour (and shiny colour too)!

About five years ago I started having odd dizzy spells that really made me tired. I'd get them for two or three days and then it would clear up and leave me feeling a little tired but not really any the worse for wear.... after a while I was getting them so frequently that I thought a trip to the doctor was in order. He said that it wasn't anything serious, that it was an inbalance of fluid in my inner ear, and that there was nothing to do but wait them out and go on with life. Sunday morning I woke with my balance all screwed up and so I lay low for the day..... Monday wasn't a whole lot better..... Tuesday was better but not much.... today I am finally starting to feel a little better.... but at times like this I generally stay close to home and and don't stray far since driving with things spinning around you is not a great idea. So a day home with some silk to spin is just what I'm looking forward to.... if it gets sunny I will pick off the pocket on the big j.c. since black thread on a woolen fabric is not easy to see..... (a sign that I'm getting older ; 0)

Down time is what I have needed after beating myself out and up last week. I have been doing a little reading in the last few days... funny.... Daughter #2 has been reading youth books by an author of the name Sarah Dessen so in the interests of checking up on what the Daughters are reading these days, I picked up one of her books and read it. Actually it was quite good. A basic teen romance/find yourself kind of book..... typical of the books I got into when I was the same age. But even for an old gal (I've been feeling pretty old the last little while) these books have something to say (although the author does tend to put parents in a bad light generally)... it reminds you of how very difficult it is to find your place in the world and accept that you are not a princess and may never be famous..... and that is ok. After I read the first one I thought maybe I'll read another.... and that one was good too.... same message just in a different package. It's kind of nice to have a reminder that you can fall down and it is ok just so long as you pick yourself right back up and keep on going....

I'd forgotten that...

So silk today and who knows what tomorrow will bring....

Play

Sometimes it is just fun to play and relax. Sometimes you need to do that.... it's called rejuvenation.

It is good.

Going Forward

Hi! I'm back after a day of relaxation yesterday.... a nice lunch out with my Hubby for Valentine's day and back home for a really long snooze..... I think the stress of the last few weeks finally caught up with me. Today I wasn't able to get my body out of bed.... my back gave out on me... go figure. Spending 15 hours a day over a loom, spinning wheel, or sewing machine will do that to your back. I'm trying really hard to get my train back on its tracks after the derailment of the weekend. It's hard. I'm pretty hard on myself generally and look upon my failures as just that.... failures... but like a Pheonix I always raise up from the ashes... not always better but at least up and running. I have a bunch of fleece washed for spinning for the sleeves that I screwed up and tonight, if my back can hold up I am going to spin a little silk for my knitted sample for my level 3 homework. I also need to do the write up for the silk woven sample which turned out to be a study of two different spinning techniques. I'm pretty happy with that actually.

We had an awesome day today, weatherwise. The temperatures soared. At one point the water was dripping off the eaves and snow was falling from the roof in clumps. Even now as it heads for 7 p.m. the sky is a lovely shade of blue and it really lifts the heart. It gives me such pleasure to know that we are having a lovely lull in the cold temperatures of winter. I've been watching the birds that have been visiting our bird feeders and I am really enjoying their antics. One day I watched a bunch of Red Polls on the snowy roof of our shed.... they were playing chase in the snow and it was really cute to watch.

It's been a strange few days though, as Hubby, being a wonderful man, has stepped in to allow me plenty of time to work on the big j.c. It's hard coming down off the ride and getting back to the schedule of a normal household, but indeed that is what has to happen and at the same time I cannot let the big j.c. go yet... I still have work to do.... I still am having trouble trying to get my pictures up and posted.... I just don't have the heart to look at them yet but maybe tomorrow. I think a little positive work on the big j.c. might spur me to have a better feeling about it all.... Hubby says baby steps, so baby steps it will be.... wash fleece that's a start.... I have to take off one pocket and resew it as I am not happy with it's placement.... it is slightly askew and while most people wouldn't notice I do and I am not happy with that.... so I will do that and of course I still love spinning so that is always something to enjoy. When you fall off the horse..... get back on and keep riding.... so I guess that's what I will do.... I guess I just need to wear a helmet!

The Big j.c. Saga

Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Damn.... are you getting the drift on whether I finished or not???!!! Yup... my friend who commissioned the big j.c. is winging her way to South Africa less one jacket. I can't think of it without feeling like a total failure. I worked so hard and about 8 p.m. last night everything was coming together nicely and then I went to full the sleeves. I had already fulled the fabric for the rest of the jacket and it had turned out really well. Now I'll be honest... I have not got a lot of experience with weaving.... I keep saying that I am not a weaver and that I have tons to learn about weaving so with that in mind I hope you will read my tale of woe with an open mind, and not judge me harshly.

Yesterday afternoon I started cutting the fabric I had spun and woven for this great project..... I stared sewing and it was looking great. I had been weaving the last little bit of fabric all morning.... but I felt I needed to full the woven fabric first.... I mean lets face it all the great weavers say it is not fabric until it is fulled.... Fulling is a process of washing the fabric so that the individual warp and weft threads will bite together and actually cling so that the fabric has more of a face, with that in mind I called my friend in FSJ who has way more experience than I do.... and she said..... (this is important)..... "when you full you have to stand by the washer and check it carefully and often because in a matter of a few seconds it can go from being fulled to a felted mess in no time, make sure you watch it really carefully!".... are you getting the idea yet..... no...... well let me enlighten you...

So I am almost finished putting the jacket together last night and all I needed to do was full the fabric for the sleeves.... the sleeves, that was it.... I checked it after four minutes and it was looking good but not quite as nice as the body of the jacket, which had been fulled earlier in the day. It needed a little more fulling. I popped it into the washer and went to pee...... just pee (which I was really needing to do).... that's all.... I came back and checked to see the progress and just like that .... felt! I now had no sleeves and no more fabric to finish them.... yup..... pee ruined my jacket. Just like that I was out of the running to meet my deadline. I wanted to jump off the nearest cliff. Six weeks for a vest and a lump of felt, instead of a beautiful jacket. I called my friend to tell her the bad news. She was so gracious about it and I even woke her up.... double whammy. As a result I have one month to finish the sleeves so that when she gets back from South Africa she can send her Mom a jacket with sleeves for the South African winter, instead of taking it with her...... And I have to wash more fleece, card more fleece, spin more fleece into yarn.... and then weave sleeves for the said jacket....

I have loads of pictures to show but I just don't have the heart today to post them..... I'm just going to post one.... and that's the one of my sleeveless jacket so that she can show her Mom what she will be getting some time in April... here it is.... I think I'll go cry some more, while you have a look.....

I'm Having My Doubts

Ok I'm in a crunch.... I shouldn't even be taking the time to write this but here I am... I have terrible shoulder pain from leaning over the damn loom.... oops I not supposed to say that but I am so tired I don't care....

I was working on the big j.c. last night till 11:30 and back at it again at 6 a.m. this morning.... I have a lot of weaving to do today but it is looking good....really good! I spent the day spinning yesterday and setting up the warp on the other eight harness loom. This morning I started weaving and so far so good.... but I'm down to the wire on time and it will take all of my skill and effort to get this done. I am listening to The Book Of Negroes on CBC podcasts..... while I work and it really does help me concentrate on what I am doing.

I must say though that if anything goes wrong today .... and I mean anything.... even a phone call at a bad time will screw up any hopes of getting this done. So I am off to work and listen to my Book Of Negroes podcast and turn off the radio because I am sick of listening to Olympic stuff.... Blah!

Wish me luck.... I'll need it!

Onward And Upward With The Big j.c.

"Kick the dark till it bleeds daylight." I love that line. The only way it could be better is if I said, kick the dark till it bleeds sunshine. It is from one of the Bare Naked Ladies tunes. I'm starting to think that I should have been an Egyptian.... I would have worshiped Ra the sun god. Ah well.... only a few weeks and we will be into the spring.... woo hoo!

So here it stands.... I'm taking the three bottom panels off the loom today. (Actually I just did.) I just finished them last night and 11:30 p.m. after working like a demon all day.
Can you tell that I was really tired... I felt rather like a blob! It looks awesome though. I am putting the warp on the other loom today for the sleeves and shoulders. If I can get the bottom fulled and sewn today and with the warp on the other loom and a little weaving done, then I might have a fighting chance at getting this done. I've run out of weft and fleece to spin more and so I just washed a bunch.... it's still soaking. I'll leave it to soak for a half hour and then rinse a few times, before dropping it on the furnace vent. It should be dry by noon. If I can get all the rest of the above done by lunch time..... I'll be a zombie.... I mean happy. : ) The afternoon will have to be devoted to spinning the last of the weft.

I'm like the Little Red Engine..... "I think I can, I think I can... huff, puff..." I might have to pull an all-nighter yet to get this done.... but I am determined...

I think Hubby is thinking that I am demented! Totally and completely! Perhaps.... We will see.

In the meantime.... I just can't get over how nasty is an alpaca fleece. Alpacas roll in the dirt.. they love it and do it a lot and because they don't have grease they are really hard to shear. They go through blades like two per animal.... so when I went to wash out some more fleece today, I thought I should show how much dirt is in the wash water to my blog followers..... so here are a few pictures of fleece water after the fleece came out of the first wash water,
and then there is a bunch of dirt down in the bottom of the sink that looks like this....
..... this picture just does not do justice to it at all.... and the finally this is the little bit of waste that came off the loom after my panels came off last night. This, among most spinners and weavers, would be considered really good, only a very small amount of waste however it really chokes me to know that the waste on the floor is the stuff that I spent hours spinning and washing etc.... argh.... The nice thing is though, that I will be doing a short seminar next month on creative recycling for the spinner and weaver. So I am going to scoop up that stuff on the floor and put it in my waste bag and save it for the day when I get a chance to recycle. Cool!

So there you have it.... the sky is light, the dog is wanting in, my tea is gone, the fleece is soaked and it is time to get down to it baby!.... sorry... that "baby" part was really not cool... o.k... I'm off to work! How's that better? I thought I was reverting there for a moment to the 70's... scary thought indeed!

See ya'll tomorrow.....