Ahh .... Spring maybe...?!!

The seasons just keep marching on... I look out my window by the computer here and I realize that spring is on the move. All day yesterday the snow was sliding off the roof in great thunderous slumps. Water was dripping constantly and when I went out last evening to go to the monthly JCR meeting I realized that there is very little snow left on the roof at all. The paddocks where the animals reside are now blossoming quagmires of sh-- and hay. It is the time to watch for foot rot. Our ground here is fairly porous and so foot rot is not generally an issue. Still, in the spring when the ground has not quite caught up with the sun and the snow is melting but the grounds is not accepting the extra moisture, there is always a chance that my animals will have issues with their hooves.

More of our pine trees are dieing. The pine beetle has had its way with another generation of Pine trees and so now when the sap would be flowing back into the tree and branches would be starting to put out their new buds instead the pine trees are dieing and turning red. It is sad to watch. I look out on the deck and see that I am going to have to start watering the cedar trees that I have in my planters. I won't pull out the old annuals yet because that is an open invitation for the cats to use it as a bathroom. We get stuck just driving into our driveway as the snow turns to slush each day before returning to ice in the evenings.

Yep Spring is in the air.....

In house there is a turn back to the big j.c. as I start spinning once again black alpaca fibre and black wool... I also have been playing on the Inkle loom and have had a terrible time getting that sucker warped.... but I think I finally have it finished. It was fun having some of my spinny friends come by on Tuesday and see what they have been working on. One was working on plied yarn for sox, another was working on an Inkle loom like me and the other was prepping fibre for spinning on a charkha.... all is good on the spinny front.

Meanwhile Duff the big pooch still continues in agony with eye issues.... I am off to the vet today with her in another effort to deal with the problem of swollen face and obvious infection. I will be driving my way down highways that are at last dry.... no snow.... how great is that! I can't wait till the quagmire of my paddocks and yard are clear and dry once again.

It's at this time of the year that I miss my ducks puttering around in the pools of water.
Ducks in our yard in 2005

Bust A Move

I like small things.... I'm not small so why I like small things is not necessarily apparent. Perhaps it has something to do with wishing I was small.... I like my hands, they are small even though one hand has no thumb and the other hand has a fused pinky knuckle and looks as ugly as hell. I like my ears.... they are small... when I got my ears pierced the lady said my earlobes were so small that she wasn't sure she could pierce them.... eventually she managed.

I like small things like my spinning wheel which is one of the smallest wheels on the market.... I like small paths through the snow and not big plowed roadways. Last week at the Blueberry I saw a nifty little item.... I saw a cute little Inkle Loom made by Ashford. It is called the Inklet. I saw it and wanted it so I ordered it for my birthday.... No it is not my Birthday yet!

I like little small fishy crackers.... they make me feel young and happy. I like little weavette looms... they're small. My house is small even after all the renovations... it is barely 1000 square feet.

With all the small things that I like, it is odd that every now and again I bust out of the usual small-ness of my life and go big, big, big. My deck is big. At 441 square feet, it is almost as big as my house. My bike is big.... fat tires and a nice fat cushy seat on it... And my children are big as they tower over me.

I mean every now and again I bust a move and do something big.... like my tri loom. Most people were buying/making 3 foot tri looms for the tri loom workshop last year, and while I have one that size I thought, why not go all the way and buy the biggest tri loom you can get.... so I bought a 7 foot tri loom. I have a small house but I have a big couch. 9 feet to be exact and a sectional to boot.

What I have realized is that there is a real dichotomy within me. It is the yin and the yang at battle. It's not really an impractical/practical thing in me.... it's more like I'm made of all the contrasting desires and sometimes one wins out while at other times the opposite wins out.
When I was in University and studying philosophy one of the subjects that really caught my attention was that of a trinity.... and while THE TRINITY came to interest me later on it wasn't so much THE TRINITY that I was interested in then, but trinities in general and how they work..... I've always seen trinities as two opposing forces (though opposing might be the wrong word maybe two forces) and the opposition between them as the third.... so to make this easier.... I want smallness.... I am bigness.... what's in between is the reality of me. Has your brain now done a flip flop.... I wouldn't be surprised! Chinese philosophy explains it like this.... an individual has both the yin and the yang.... male and female (I think).... but the reality of what you are is a combination of the two.... perhaps you are more yin.... or more yang but you are still a combination of the two. Yin (one force).... yang (another force).... you (three in one).
What it all comes down to is acceptance.

I accept that I like small things.... I also accept that occasionally I have a need for big things..... that is what makes me who I am.... hopefully solid (Hubby says I'm not solid because I'm too spinny!) So maybe you are more yin or more yang but once in a while it is nice to bust a move and be the thing that you are not normally. So if you are female maybe once in a while you like to put on black leather and get a roaring motorcycle between your legs and hog it for a while.... or maybe you are a man and once in a while you like to get a fairy tale story out and read it to your kids. Either way it is nice to be in touch with all aspects of who you are....

We are all complex creatures... acceptance is the key....

And that's my waxing poetic for today..... I can't wait till I get my Inklet... : )

Friends

I have never been one to remember birthdays... I'm bad at it. My friends' birthdays come and go and I just don't remember..... I know.... that's pathetic....

The weird thing is long after I have lost track of friends of yester-year that's when I start to remember their birthdays. When they hang around with me I forget birthdays but when I lose track of them they stick in my mind... I know this is an odd phenomena, but I just can't help it.

I try to make up for this issue with my memory by presenting friends with gifts at other times of the year. Usually I have explained my problem, first so they know that their birthday gift may show up 5 or 6 months after the date of their actual birthday....

Recently I missed a friend's birthday and I am feeling really dreadful about it because I have never told her about the fact that I am so dreadful with remembering birthdays..... I am trying to find a really great gift as a belated birthday gift but I hate just giving anything. I am thinking what kind of miserable wretch forgets her best friend's birthday.... how can I do that. I have been looking for a birthday gift now for about 6 weeks to make up for my mistake..... and I'm not having any luck.... when you forget birthdays your gifts had better be super awesome....

So if my friend happens to read this.... then please forgive and bare with me I will pull through in the end....

Cotton spinning is going well and I'm on the verge of having my cotton section done.....

Have a great day... and if your birthday is today..... and you are my friend..... sorry I forgot.... and I will make it up to you... : )

One Third

I'm really happy to say that I met my 1/3 goal by Sunday night.... meanwhile I can't show pictures still since the d--- camera batteries died and I can't find the charger... Anyway... I was really happy last night when at 11:30 p.m. rolled around and Hubby came home from working on report cards, and my goal had been attained. I did a research question last night and finished that. I managed to get two cotton questions in my book and I actually started on another cotton question... two actually.... I will spin enough cotton on the charkha to finish the cotton roving question.... and the sizing question... clear as mud?!! Then after all that, I was just too tired to keep spinning while waiting for Hubby to return. After he called to say that he was just leaving, I sat and carded punis... which is a totally mindless job perfect for waiting while being too tired to do anything else.

I do have to get back to the big j.c. and this is the day that I have to do it so.... no level 3 homework. I'm going to miss working on it, that is for sure. But the big j.c. is calling me and I need to have that done by mid March and so the pressure is back on for that one.

I cannot believe that it is the first of March... last year, at this time, Hubby and I were preparing for our house renovation. We were planning and getting things in order for our start day which was April 1st. A year later and there is still a lot of work to be done but I'm not pushing. March break looms and I'm hoping that Hubby will do some then... we will see. If not then we will wait till summer and try to get the rest of the work done then. I am hoping to finish our bedroom and having all winter to ponder it has given me time to think about what I want to do in there.... I have decided to finish the paneling on three walls, drywall one wall and do wall paper on it... then I want to have all book shelves on one wall so that I can do lots of reading in there... (I'm a total read-in-bed addict). I've chosen our bedroom furniture and we have chosen a black leather headboard and footboard in a sleigh bed style with a platform (with drawers in it) for under the bed. That will give us drawers for clothing storage. Then I just need to pick out doors for our closets and I even have room for a small slim electric fireplace.... I can't wait to get it done.... I'm even going to splurge and buy a nice new set of bedding in a pear green shade.... which is a very soothing colour, and of course, that is the point. Soothing... a haven... isn't that what a bedroom should be?

Meanwhile we are all trying to figure out what colour is our new couch.... I say khaki green, Hubby says brown.... and there is now a big debate. The other day I saw in a magazine that the colour of our couch is called espresso.... whatever... there's still flooring to be done in the living room and the sunroom needs flooring, some paneling, and a ceiling and light fixtures. Sadly we are seriously looking at revamping the kitchen to accommodate a wood stove which means more kurfluffle. Suffice it to say that we have a bunch of work left to do.

With spring in the air... (plus temperatures all week this week)... I'm starting to think about house, home and garden.... Life turns outward again and I'm looking forward to spending some time on my deck with a fire in the fireplace... flowers all around.... a new orchard (which was part of the house renovation plan as we will be changing the driveway to accommodate the new front veranda making room for an orchard where the old driveway was). Funny how life is like that. In winter we hibernate, but come spring and life changes... I look forward to it

So life is more than the four walls of this house and my spinning and weaving, and I'm starting to think of other things.... all the more reason to work, work, work, and get the big j.c. finished and then the level 3 homework.

I'm off.... have a real nice day...

Huh?... How Did That Happen

How do two days pass you by in a blinding rush... One day it was Friday and then all of a sudden it was Sunday night and I'm wondering how the heck I got here....

OK lets see... it has been a really busy weekend.... I'm planning a party for next weekend... it's a party for one of my guild members who is moving away and I'll probably never see her again..... waaaah!

I had service this morning at church and that came off very well considering that the organist was not able to be there.... we used taped music....

I spun and wrote and tabulated and respun and labeled all day yesterday on homework for the level 3 of the Master Spinners..... it's all going according to plan.... tonight I will have one third finished..... woo hoo... then it is back to the big j.c..... two weeks to finish it.

Then Hubby has been butchering and shearing lambs all weekend.... I sold the fleeces right away.... how did that happen you ask? Well I advertised them to my guild members.... and that was that, in three minutes flat.... I had my fleeces sold. I have one tucked away for moi..... The ewe and ram fleeces will be available later in the spring.... I'm hoping they will sell just as fast.... but then you never know... I still have a few of last years fleeces roaming around in the shed. But I'll keep them for the mill. I helped Hubby label and grade the fleeces too.

I finished a bracelet and necklace for myself which I have been wanting to do for a while I still have a necklace for myself to finish.... it has a pendant that has a blade for cutting thread or yarn. Then I have the bracelet for a choker and bracelet set done I just ran out of strand to finish the choker.... I'll get some next time I'm in town....

So as you can see it has been a busy two days... Hubby just left to go to work. He will be working until late tonight which is odd since Hubby is a teacher and usually he works by day. But this is report card week so he will be working late each day until he is done. Daughter #1 is catching Daughter #2's cold and Daughter #2 is studying for a test tomorrow that she missed last week while she was home from school.

Spring is definitely in the air... the deck is clear of snow and everything is turning to ice in the driveway. There is only 3 weeks left before the spring equinox...it soon will be planting time.

I planted cotton seeds a while ago but they never did grow. I was really hopeful that I had something growing when a green shoot popped through the ground but it turned out to be a weed... no cotton... : ( but then what did I expect... we do live far too North for cotton to grow. Speaking of cotton .... I had better go spin some... and weave the last of my silk for my distaff....
That is if I want to be at the 1/3 mark.....

The Well Being Of All

It has been a bad morning for Daughter #1. She had a great time yesterday on the ski slopes but today she is suffering. Daughter #1 went skiing with the work ethics honour group and this is something she has never done before. She used muscles that she normally doesn't use. She is moving very slowly and frankly she is having a hard time not crying because it hurts so bad. Red eyes an swollen nose and she's walking like a zombie. I think she's really wanting a day home with Mom.... she ain't getting it!

Daughter #2 is in bed.... she has a snarky cold. She also has a red nose and red eyes.... but for different reasons. It's going around the school so they tell me. She has been home for two days but hopefully will be able to go back to school on Monday.

Duffy has a sore eye. I took her to the vet two weeks ago and he put her on steroids... then her face swelled up and it got so bad that she couldn't get her eyes open.... we took her off the steroids and her face started to go back to normal.... but when her face stopped swelling there was a huge lump over the bad eye.... I was just going to call the vet for an appointment again when she broke it open and out came a lot of disgusting pus.... obviously a misdiagnosis. So we are putting peroxide on it in an effort to clear up what ever infection was there.

Tootsie is fine. In serious ball crisis... since we were so irritated with him staring at us to play ball with him that he got his ball taken away till the snow melt and he can play outdoors.

The animals are all fine. The ewes are starting to have that pregnant look. I am expecting the first lambs in just over a month. Ahhh lambing season.

The cats..... well they're their usual irritating selves....

Hubby is fine.

Me too.

This post is entirely for the folks home who read solely just to catch up on how we all are.....

Tomorrow I should have a post about silk.....and how to spin hankies. I'm dyeing a bunch of them today...... if I can just find the vinegar..... hmmm... what the heck did I do with that stuff...

Life Long Learning

Sometimes things just work out.... don't you love it when that happens. Yesterday I didn't write here because I was nowhere near a computer. Hubby just happened to be going into FSJ for a day of workshops and there just happened to be a spinning day at the house of one of he guild members. I took Hubby up on the drive to the home of my friend where we conferred about the level 3 homework.... (we did this before heading to the home of the guild member who was having the spinning day).....she is doing her Master Spinner certification too. It is great having someone with whom you can bounce ideas around. I think she may go on to do her Master Weaver certification while I'll probably go looking for further spinning certification..... maybe the Australian certification which I have looked into.... who knows. All I know is that I want to be the best that I can be at spinning... that doesn't make me any better or any worse than anyone else it just makes me want to excel as much as I can in what I do. It's not that I want to be famous like Judith MacKensie McCuin, (although that wouldn't hurt) but I just want to feel like what I do is the best... so I strive and sometimes it is a kick in the pants when you finish a question and you know it can be better but you don't have time to go back and fool with it anymore. When I finished my level 1 homework I still felt that I could have worked on it some more to get it right. The same thing happened when I finished my level 2 homework.... and that one really ate at me since my mark was a .5 less than my low goal.... it truly frustrates when you work really hard and you don't even make your low goal.

This year my goal is to make 86 as my low goal and 95 my high goal.... and I already blew the high goal when I got a 88% in my classroom exam. My friend got 100% her first year to my 97% then she got 97% to my 89% in level 2 (I should have gotten higher than this but blew two questions with less than the 10 metre skeins required.... Mine were 8 and 9.5 metres respectively. It was my own fault because I should have remeasured my skeins after they were washed... as a result I got a big fat 0 for those two questions just because I handed in less than the required amount.... regardless of the fact that I should have gotten marks for the written part of the question) and we'll see what happens in level 3... hmmm... but 88% for the classroom test was not a good beginning. I hate knowing I lost marks due to some stupid mistake on my part. (On my test I had a brain freeze and said that 9 x 5 is 36 instead of 9 x 4 is 36.... see.... dumb eh?) Every time I lose marks it's because of stupid mistakes. That's why the other night I looked at my knitted sample and felt it wasn't good enough.... so I raveled it out and did a different sample.... I can't show pictures though since Hubby seems to have hidden his camera and mine had the batteries just die. The new knitted sample is awesome. I may redo my woven sample too.... I'm just not satisfied with it!

Spinning is like that..... you can spend an entire lifetime trying to make one sample perfect. But in the end time is the issue..... that is why I'm disappointed to say that after level 6 in the Olds Master Spinner program I will not be able to go further unless I go to some other spinning program. I really wish there was a Doctorate to earn in spinning.... I'd do it in an instant..... then I would be a Spin Doctor (har har... pun intended.... ). Really life long learning is cool and my thing is learning spinning.

The Olds program is awesome.... but the Olds program is finite. There are only 6 levels in the Master certification program..... I'm already at level 3, and 4 is looming.... yes I use the word looming not because I'm dreading it.... (although I study flax and linen this year and that is a little scary) but I'm dreading it because I am one step closer to being finished. (Boo hiss hiss!) Maybe I'll just register again for level 1 under a different name and go through the whole process again..... think they'll notice?!!

I think I could have been a permanent student..... My motto should be..... "Life Long Learning.... Boom Chakalakalaka!"

Anyway, as a result of yesterday's spinning day.... I've turned some people on to silk hankies which I was spinning. I will be spinning more today... and then I'm weaving them for a distaff.... It is looking..... well quite frankly WOW! I can't wait to finish it. And hopefully I'll have located the charger, charged my batteries and be able to post some pics here. Now what did I do with the silk hankies I pre-drafted last night.