Inside My Own Head

I've always been a bit of a loner. When I was going through my teens I always enjoyed walking on the beach that graced the town of my grand parents. I'd wait until the evening came when everyone was gone for the day and then I would walk along the beach in the pleasure of my own company. Even now, years later, I really don't have an issue with being alone. I always find something to keep me busy. As a matter of a fact after spending time in the company of friends, more often than not I get to the point where I start to feel restless and this is an indication that I've had enough of chatting and gabbing and I need to go off on my own. That is why I find it so strange that I am not looking forward to the time when school starts again. At that time Teapot and the Daughters will be returning to another year of school and I will be once again on my own.

Most of my life has been spent inside my own head and I find it quite soothing at times to not have to express myself to others. I do that through my art, I think. Poetry has been an outlet for me for many years. Originally it started as a bit of fun. I would write some foolish stuff to who ever was having a birthday or special occasion, but then it became something a little more. I'd often sit down with a journal and write poems. Some of them totally suck : ) and some of them are a little better. I also express myself in the form of paintings. I paint all the time. Sometimes I paint with water colours and sometimes I paint with acrylics but it is always a joy and a pleasure to put a paint brush to work. Then there is this blog which is a way for me to come out of my own head a little and let people know that I exist, (you know... because I am such a fading flower!!!). Still that time spent inside my own head is really quite alright. My head is so busy that really it is quite enough to keep it all straight so I actually think that I need that time away from the business that is the world around me.

A problem arises though when you live mostly in your own mind.... people have a tendency to think you are stand offish. Really though that is completely unintentional.... however, it does make for some really awesome people watching.

I remember having a chat with some friends of mine and we were talking about creativity. They mentioned that back in the 60s and 70s when they were younger they did drugs and found that it really enhanced their creative minds. I found that to be strange because it almost seems like an artificial creativity... I had another good friend a little older than the other ones who did drugs, and she said that her best creative moments came when she was in the bathroom.... I had a good laugh at that one.... and have occasionally used that myself. However, my best creative moments come unforeseen and unexpected and at any time at all.... my mind for some reason never really turns off. The minute my eyes open I start to see things as they could be and not necessarily as they are. I am always coming up with good ideas.... which sometimes can really irritate Teapot. And sometimes my mind doesn't really turn off at all... even when I am asleep.... those are the nights I hate because the ideas won't stop but they never fully form and you wake up not well rested at all.....

I can see how this would all seem a little dangerous. Perhaps I'm standing on the edge of a precipice and don't even know it. I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day with me... all I can say is that living inside my own head is not really all that bad and I do get out occasionally.....

No you don't...
Yes I do.....
No you don't...
Yes I do....

Argh! See what I mean....

Smells And Other Things....

I have a very sensitive nose. This is not always a good thing. For the last two weeks I wake up in the morning and I smell smoke. B.C. presently has something over 400 wildfires burning and this valley seems to suck smoke into it like there is no tomorrow. So upon waking I can smell smoke and it tells me that once again there is dry, warm weather prevailing. Still, in this neck of the woods, though it is still extremely dry, there is a change in the air. The nights are now beginning to feel cooler and in the morning there is a crispness in the air that wasn't there a few short days ago. People around here are predicting a heavy snowpack this year and since our actual rainfall is low every year, we rely heavily on a high snowpack for most of the moisture for growing things in the garden, so I will be happy if what everyone is predicting comes true..... we need it.

So I am now working on the cotton summer sweater question and I have been spinning on my charkha in an effort to get my summer sweater sample finished before summer is at a complete end. I am using dyed rovings that I painted this summer at the cotton dyeing workshop that I did in Olds. It is looking really pretty. It is a really nice soft summer green, which is one of my favorite colours. I have one spool of singles done and I need to do two more then ply the whole thing. I've picked out a lovely knitted lace top from Vogue Knitting magazine. It feels really good to see progress on my books.

Teapot has finished the fencing on the new paddock for the horse. He still has some work to do on the fencing for the sheep/alpaca paddocks. It will be good to get it done as then the animals can get out on grass in the summer. Teapot has worked hard this summer and though the roof on the electrical shed is not done yet I feel that we will get it finished before the snow comes.

It looks like we will be taking a short vacation before the end of the summer arrives. Teapot and I are working on the logistics.... yes I know I am making it sound like a covert operation. But we are planning on going down the river for a couple of days with the Daughters and possibly another couple if they decide they want to come.... the logistics involves figuring out how to get four adults, two youths, two dogs, and all our camping gear into two canoes. You see it is because we have been teaching the Daughters how to paddle this summer that we feel they are not ready yet to take a canoe of their own.... after watching them paddle about for a number of days on the lake and knowing that they don't really have good control over the canoe that we have decided that they are not ready for the river where there is current to push and pull the canoe around. Teapot is going to ferry everything down to the camping spot. We are going to make a number of trips (hopefully only two) with me and the gear being dropped off on round one.... I will set up camp (this is on an island) while Teapot makes a short trip down the river to a boat launch where Opa (my dad) will pick him up, at which point he will load the canoe on top of Opa's van and they will drive back up river and then come down river with the Daughters and dogs. The other couple are on their own if they come at all. Then later on when Teapot has time after our hay has been picked up and purchased we will take the Daughters down to PG for a pre-school shopping trip which they will be ecstatic about..... and know nothing of yet.

But meanwhile I have lots of work and need to get at it.... so I had better go and start working on the cotton punis that I carded last night in the middle of the night, while waiting for Jiggs to come in after she f--ted and evacuated Teapot and I from our bedroom..... there is seriously something wrong with a dog that smells that bad! See what I mean?.... Having a sensitive nose is not always a good thing..... argh! And on that unfortunate note I will end this epistle here... thanks heavens eh?!!

I can't wait. (It's all about now!)

Woopee! After waiting a year I finally have the tub in the downstairs bathroom hooked up with running water. See those taps and that shower head...... It is all hooked up!!!! For the first time in eight years I can have a bath again without having to wait till we go on vacation where there is a hotel with a tub. When we moved into this house the bathroom had a lovely shower but no tub... I've never been a linger-in-the-tub kind of person but after eight years I can safely say that having the option would have been nice. I do occasionally like to stretch out in a tub and have a nice bath with bath salts. Very soothing..... and now I can. I can't wait....

Yesterday, TCH came by and hooked up the tub and all the unfinished plumbing that Teapot didn't know how to finish or was too nervous to do. And what's even better is that he'll come in October and finish all the other stuff (like that paneling off to the right of the tub in the above picture) that Teapot doesn't have time to finish. I'm so excited that by Christmas I will finally be able to finish the floors and walls and electrical and finally have the renovation on the inside of our house finished! Oh happy day! Next year there will only be the stonework on the outside of the addition to finish and that will be mine and Teapot's work for the summer. Oh how nice it will be to have it all done. I can't wait for this either.

I have been working hard at another question for the level 3 homework. I have been braiding on my Marudai a distaff out of cabled yarn. This was a question that I started way back in the winter and never completed. I had cabled some lovely silk hankies and then woven, on my little 4x6 Weavette, two pieces for the side of a distaff bag. And then I wove, on the round, (that means weaving on a paper plate or plastic margarine container lid), the bottom for the bag, and sewed the whole thing together.... it still needed a handle and it needed some dangley bits to wrap your fibre around, but then I didn't get around to finishing it and so it sat all winter waiting to be finished. Yesterday I made the dangley bits and now I'm braiding the handle. It is going to look awesome. With the outerwear question done, (this is the knitted sample)..... and this distaff question nearing completion, I am beginning to feel good about my progress again. I am hoping to finish the distaff bag question today. And this is something else that I can't wait about.....

We have found a new home for two of our sheep... I was telling a friend about the dreadful issues I was having finding hay and how far I was going to have to haul hay from, and that's when she dropped the bomb and said she would like to have sheep to eat some of the brushy stuff that she and her husband have been trying for year after year to get rid of..... well of course I jumped on that like you wouldn't believe. So she is going to come by and have a look and pick out a couple of sheep for their farm.... I feel a whole lot better knowing that those sheep will be on another farm somewhere and not butchered in the freezer. There is a slight issue with cougars and coyotes and wolves and stuff but they plan on building a wee barn for the sheep to go into in the night time and that should be good. So I will be really glad to have that little bit of peace of mind which means, that once again.... yup you guessed it.... I can't wait.

Hmmmm.... what is that I'm sitting on..... oh lookee..... a ball of cotton yarn.... that I spun back in the winter.... (it was jammed down between the cushion and the arm of the chair I am sitting in)..... Wow, I did a really good job spinning that cotton..... hmmm.... did I really spin that.... gee if that was me.... I did a pretty darn good job.... naaah, it has to be commercial yarn..... yeah.... hmmmmmm..... maybe I had better go and check it against the one cone of commercial cotton I own.... well, it might have been me.....right.... I can't wait. I've got to go and figure this one out....

Just remember... it's all about now!

The Teapot Strikes Again!

You know what I just thought about?

I'm a little teapot short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I get all steamed up hear me shout... just tip me over pour me out.

Yep there are no devils hanging around me tonight.....

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

And I got another question done on my level 3.

See what I mean?! There are no devils around when you get work done....!

Reckoning

I had to make a terrible decision yesterday. Oscar the ram will have to be slaughtered.... I'm so upset. He is my all time favorite sheep. But the decision was made because his horns do not have a good configuration.... that sounds so dumb really because it sounds like we are out to keep only animals that look nice... but horns can be tricky things. The horns are full of nerve endings and if they are not polled when they are very young then it is more difficult to poll them as they get older. You would think that horns would grow properly but like human teeth they don't always do that. Oscar horns started giving us trouble early in the spring when they began to curl against his eye. Teapot bought a little saw and we began to saw the tips off so that they would not cause blindness or worse. The problem is that as Oscar's horns grow longer they also begin to thicken.... and the thickening is beginning to squeeze his skull. He is such an easy tempered guy that I hate to slaughter him but unfortunately I've tried every source I can think of to find a solution and unless I want to spend a fortune dehorning him then I have to slaughter him.... When you are trying to run a farm then the idea is to make it as cost effective as you can and this time that means slaughtering one of my favorite sheep.

Xavier, our other ram is still on our list of keepers, so at least I can breed again when the fall comes. Xavier is a pure bred BFL (Blue Faced Liecester) and he will make a very good breeding ram over time. He has a lovely configuration and to my eyes no sign of horns yet... mind you he is still young so perhaps the horns haven't come in yet, but it is certainly something that I will watch for. But then, not knowing a whole lot about the breed other than I really like their fibre, I do believe that both sexes are polled.... meaning that they are bred to be hornless I think. I really never gave any of this much thought when I bought him, since I was planning on using Oscar primarily and Xavier would be just used to breed with Oscar's offspring.

Teapot wants me to cull the flock back even further than the six/seven I had picked out and since he does so much to help me with them and since my back issues dictate that I need help, I will have to take his desires into consideration. I have decided on Xavier, Greigg, Fanny, and Nellie. That will give me ten animals in all when you include the alpacas.

For days now I have had a bad back.... this is nothing abnormal for me since my back has gone through horrible stresses and surgeries since I was a child. Normally, medication keeps everything going along tickety boom... but this week the back monster reared it's ugly head and I have had shooting pains up and down my legs as the nerves for these areas are being horrible compressed.... I continue to hope that nothing back there has changed radically in the last week but am beginning to wonder since five days of drugs is the most that it has ever taken to get things back under control. Like Oscar, my day of reckoning has come..... well... I'm not going to meet my maker..... I'm just going to have to stop treddling for a few weeks, which is a horror since I have not made much progress over the summer on the level 3 homework. But I have two questions that I can work on for sure. I have to spin a yarn appropriate for a summer top, and I have to spin a yarn appropriate for a baby outfit.... both of these can be done on things other than spinning wheels. The summer top of course will need cotton and so I will spin that on my charkha, which does not require my feet or legs at all. The other can be spun on the charkha as well if I use cotton, or I can spin on my drop spindle if I choose to use some other fibre.... possibly a blend of silk and alpaca and wool, (for a christening gown). I might even be able to spend the time writing up the questions on count since I have tons of samples from the t.p.i. questions that I can use them for the count questions. I also have the fibre spun for the distaff and the distaff is pretty much finished but I need construct a handle and do a little trimming on it to finish it off.... all these questions can be completed without treadling and so I am going forward today with that.

After the last few weeks, and though rain has been sporadic and only a little, there is some green on the ground.... not lots mind you, but at least it is not that brilliant golden almost white of dead grass... I took a short walk yesterday on the trails through the forest and discovered that the leaves from the Poplar trees are beginning to fall, see these little yellow things in our driveway, they are dead fallen leaves.....
and this tree has turned mostly yellow under the outside canopy of green....
and autumn coolness is definitely in the morning air. As I sit here with the window open above my desk, the air is penetrating my joints and making both my fingers and toes very cold. Many of the birds have begun to flock and head south. The crows began their journey a week ago. We are on the slippery slope down into another kind of reckoning.... the reckoning of winter, and probably an early one too!

Accomplished

The long weekend is over and all those out camping this last weekend have gone to their homes with the idea that they should get up this morning and go to work. I'm glad Teapot is a teacher and has his summers off.

Over the weekend he began culling the flock... he butchered three of my animals and got some work done on the fencing. Once the fleece started rolling in I had to take a look and decide what I wanted to do with it all... we spread them out on the deck and I have to say that they are quite nice fleeces. Both are somewhat coarse but that's the nature of those two particular breeds. What I was amazed at was the size difference.....

The fleece on the left came from a Shetland and Shetlands are quite small.... there was absolutely no fat on her. The fleece on the right came from a Cheviot/Merino cross and she was nothing but fat..... The Shetland fleece is fairly coarse but I am keeping it because Lopi yarns can be spun fairly softly and they are usually done from Icelandic sheep or you can use Shetlands which have similar characteristics. The Cheviot/Merino fleece is just gorgeous.... I would have kept her but she was a glutton and feeding her took reams of hay and the others sheep suffered for her gluttony.

The fleeces lay in the sun yesterday as I picked through them to see what was what and along came Tootsie the Chicken herder who no longer has chickens to herd and.... well..... maybe I could teach him to herd the sheep?!!!...

He really seemed to be enjoying having a snooze on this fleece in the sun, because when Teapot woke him up, he looked like this....Now if that is not a dismayed face then I don't know what is.

Over the weekend there were all manner of things accomplished.... besides what Teapot was up to. I finished my bag from the percentage dyeing.... well, it still needs a zipper at the top and I still need to put the handle on, but I think it looks really awesome. Those colours blended so nicely.... you can hardly see where one ends and the next begins.... except for the yellow, the yellow was a little bit bright. I do like the dye I used... they are Mother MacKenzie dyes. (I'm sorry I don't have a link I couldn't find anyone who stocked these dyes in Canada.)


Then I wanted to get the Ombre samples woven and written up too while it was still fresh in my mind so here are my woven samples.... and they look pretty darn good too....

Then I finished the skein of yarn that I was spinning from the pencil rovings.... I used the multi coloured pencil rovings for one single and I used a teal coloured pencil roving for the other single and I got quite a nice 2 ply yarn..... this one will be among my stash for sale.....

In addition to those little projects I decided to start a weaving project.... well, it is just a little one.... not at all like the Big j.c. I have decided to make a baby blanket out of commercially spun yarn which happens to be a merino wool bought from Louet. I am doing this because I am working on an article for the Threads Along The Peace newsletter. I will weave on my Hazel Rose loom, 6 x 6 inch squares in a Brooks Bouquet pattern, enough squares for the baby blanket... some 48 in all. The clincher is that I am going to finally try the 25 shades of dye in Logwood, something I've wanted to do since last year when I finished the 25 shades of yarn in Madder.
You can see here that I have begun to skein the fibre into the right amount to weave my samples remembering that I need 25 skeins.... and of course I ran out of fibre. I have 8 skeins of 56 yds. each and 1 skein at 100 yards. The 100 yd. skein will be for the sewing together at the end and the other 24 skeins will give me 48 blocks. So I will get 25 shades of Logwood.

Having run out I will have to wait till my supplier can order more for me which she assures me will take about ten days. That will be ok as the next newsletter is due out on the 16th of August. If I get the fibre in time (somewhere around the tenth) then I will be able to get the dyeing for this project done in time for the newsletter, which is the important thing. The weaving can take all winter if I want! I may even do the weaving on knit night.

Anyway, that is it for today... I actually did accomplish a little bit, even though my back has really been terrible over the last four days..... I hope it gets better soon so that I can get even more done. I think I'll go take another anti-inflammatory....... hmmm...... but then maybe I'll sleep and get nothing done..... argh!

A Conversation To Myself

Yesterday: OHHH God..... (groaning as I roll out of bed)... I can't straighten up.... this is sooo not good. I had better take an anti inflammatory...

Later: Cr-p! I've slept half the day..... that is those stupid anti-inflammatories... I should have had a whole lot done by now.

Later still: Aack! Good Lord. August 1st and I only have two of the t.p.i. questions done..... this is soooo not good. I had better do some spinning today.

A whole lot later: I had better get those pencil rovings finished so that I can free up the bobbins for the t.p.i. questions.

Later Still: What the heck am I going to do with another fleece! (Teapot just finished shearing from the sheep that he was currently butchering).... hmmm.... nice fleece though.... like I need another fleece!

Later still... like evening by now: I had better bag up all this fibre that has been sitting around since the retreat.....

Bedtime later: I got nothing done today.... there is still all the pencil roving to spin and ply.... there's all that fibre that I was supposed to put in bags... and I never did a bit of spinning on the t.p.i. questions..... aaack!

This morning: Ohhhh, God, (groaning).... I can hardly straighten up...... I had better take an anti-inflammatory again...... I love drugs.... I think I will go back to bed.....

I'm seeing a trend here..... this is soooo not good.