Phssssstttt! Blowing Strawberries Is Really Quite Fun!

I seem to be taking an inordinate number of photos of my feet/foot for this blog... weird!

 The treadle foot is raging today so I'm picking cashmere for the 150 hour project.

Now that I have that off my chest I have to fess up... I have been caught in a vortex of my own doing this last two weeks. I have discovered the nasty,  time-sucking, adventure of Garden of Time on Facebook (it's a game) and have been playing far too much. (Teapot says that my need for furniture moving has caught up with me as I really haven't moved it much since the house reno two years ago... and Garden of Time is like moving furniture only in computer land... either way I'm stuck good and fast in this stupid vortex and I'm really trying to get out of it). I'm still getting stuff done... stuff that needs to be done but those dust bunnies are getting pretty ferocious again and I feel that it is important to put computer-land on the back burner for a few days.  I have decided to only do write-ups on the computer and write for my blog for the next few days. (No Facebook.... No Facebook.... I just have to keep telling myself that.)

On Monday, after the birthday celebrations at my parents house I walked out on their front steps with my new camera and promptly popped the battery cover by accident and then watched as the rechargeable battery for my camera rolled across the board it landed on and then down between them and onto the ground beneath the veranda. Problem... the space beneath the deck cannot be accessed without a hammer and nails so the stupid battery is a write off.... result.... I can't get pictures off my camera until I go to town next time and purchase a new battery pack.  : ( However, the pictures we took that day are funny and I will show them as soon as I can.

Meanwhile I've been planning a project that has nothing to do with my level 4 homework.... but it is something that I really want to do.... I've wanted to knit a lace scarf for a very long time. I finally settled on a pattern last night... I am going to knit the dragon scarf from the last Piecework magazine..... with... da da da da da drum roll please.... this....

I can't wait.....

I just felt that that Yarn Harlot and that Spindle Princess were having way too much fun.... so I'm going to finish something.... I can do this right?!

Anyway, I had better go back to picking some more cashmere.... my foot is swelling again... : (

Anyway, go blow some strawberries,... it really does make you feel better.... and it is even more fun if you can find a baby's tummy to blow them against..... it makes them giggle and barring that you can always try blowing a few on your husband's/wife's tummy.... they may not giggle but you'll get some strange looks that will make you smile... I guarantee it!

Hazy Daze

Well it sure has been hazy daze around here. The air is thick with smoke in our neck of the woods. I can't understand yahoos who think that this is a good time to burn grass... that ended over a week ago. Teapot has not been burning for days. To the east of us poor Slave Lake is burning. I can only imagine how the people of that community must be feeling. I see the pictures of melted cars and thank God that that wasn't us last week when we had our brush with fire. I think that having snow right up to the May long weekend is not so bad in retrospect of what's been happening. We have a long summer ahead of us and a dry forest to the side of us... a worry for sure. It looks like we will get rain today... and I am praying for that.... and that it will move to the east of us and relieve some of those people with fire threatening them in Alberta.

Well, as you know, yesterday was Daughter #2's birthday. She turned 14 and what a day we had. Lovely weather and a trip to FSJ to go shopping.  She got herself some jeans and a top and a book. then we went for lunch and bought a cake at the Bakery and then headed home. She had wanted to go to the pet store but I'm a little too raw with Tootsie's death to go purposely looking at pets. Besides it's really hard to get out of the pet store with just a few pet toys, so I turned her down on that one. Then Opa took us all out for dinner at one of the local restaurants. She finished her book just as she was heading for bed last night. Even Daughter #1 got in on the celebrations and skipped school for some shopping in town. (Yes, I know. I let my kids skip school.... well, we only do it once a year! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Working back from there.... Hmmm... Saturday was a lovely day with a visit from the NPSW. We had organized a trip, as we do each year, for all the gang to come and visit their sister guild here in H.H. (which seems to be down to just me and CJ at the moment). We had a lovely day spinning and prepping wool for a fibre challenge. What's that, you say?! Well, I had come up with this idea to challenge everyone to stretch their imagination and bring 50grams of spun of unspun fibre to throw into the dye pots that I would have going when they got here... then we would pass around a little bag of scraps of paper with individual challenges on them. The challenge is to create something with your fibre that accommodates what's written on the scrap of paper that you draw. So the challenges went like this.

Weave

Knit

Felt

Crochet

Stitch

one of the following...

Celestial

Boreal

Terrestrial

Oceanic

Spiritual

Climatic

So for example if you received Weave and Celestial then you have to weave something with your fibre but you also have to incorporate something that represents the word celestial. I'm weaving a star pillow. with Northern lights represented somehow.... I think... (can you tell that I was the one who got Weave and Celestial).

So there you have it... it was a fun day. Sunday was a day to finish the level 4 homework (except for the 150 hour project), which I did. All I have left to do is work on a few write ups today and then tomorrow I will begin the 150 hour project in earnest.

So here are a few pictures from the last few days.

The new lambs gamboling about with their step sister and their mom....

My first Bucle....

My spiral yarn...

Another kick at the can for flax...

Shades of Grey...

Hopefully I can remove the pictures from my camera of Daughter #2' birthday... and post them tomorrow...

Holy Smack! How Did It Get To Be Monday!

What a weekend.... It's been a busy one with the NPSW here on Saturday that day passed in a flash. Then yesterday our community had an Environmental Extravaganza and that took most of yesterday. Good thing I still managed to get my spinning done. All I have left is the 150 hour project which I have already done some work on.

Today is a special day. Daughter #2 turns 14 today. We are going shopping but she doesn't know it yet. She thinks I have a meeting in town and that I am dropping them all off at school... but I'm not I'm just going to kid nap her and take her to town for a day buying clothes. We'll be home this evening hopefully with an ice cream cake.

I'm off in about 10 minutes so I'll write here later with more on what's been happening.... and some pics of recent spinning... and maybe other pics too.

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

A Few Complaints:

1. Why is it that I'm the only one who writes a fibre blog and never finishes anything. The Yarn Harlot who writes a blog and writes books and can finish the delightful shawl is way beyond me... and then there's The Spindle Princess who writes a blog and hopefully one day will write a book and still finishes beautiful shawls and spins tons of fibre etc... (I'm sooo jealous!) What do I have to show... no shawl, that's for sure.

2. Why do I have to have carpal tunnel flare up at this time in my ankle... no, the swollen ankles are not from retaining fluid... no, the swollen ankles are from treadling too much. Like what's that all about?! Now I have to wear a tensor bandage for the next little while and avoid treadling.... hmmm... like that's going to happen.

More Cheerful Thoughts:

1. I'm almost ready to start the 150 hour project. I'm three weeks behind schedule, but I'm going to have my books complete by Sunday night.... except for the 150 hour project which will begin on Monday morning. Ha and then they think I'm going to stop treadling.... I don't think so!

2. I love my Bucle.... it's divine... I got it bang on, the first try.  I also really like my spiral after the 4th time trying. I'm finishing the shades of grey today and I'm about half way through that one. Tomorrow will be a day to celebrate dye... when the ladies from NPSW in FSJ will come for their annual foray into the wilds of the Peace Valley. More about that later.

Two for two... hmmm... I guess that's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick...

I'm just glad that Blogger is back up and I can write about it here. I will be offline tomorrow as I have the NPSW coming for their annual.... well you read that above. We will be spinning and weaving and dyeing and I have a special little bit of joy ready for them in the dye pot... with a challenge for all and a full year to finish the challenge... cool eh! I will be back on Sunday to tell you all about it..

In the words of The Yarn Harlot (and actually considering that I live in this valley and have a better reason to say it) Peace Out!

It's Raining... It's Pouring....

The Old man is.... off to work actually. Teapot and the girls got off early this morning as Daughter #1 is heading in to FSJ on the bus for a tour at the college there. She will be checking out several classes in an effort to get a taste of what college is like. She had to be on the bus at 8 a.m. We never woke till 7:30... it meant a very hurried breakfast this morning. But they managed.

As for me, I got up at 5 a.m. and spun and then boiled up my flax yarn. I'm scouring it and it has one more hour to go in the pot. Then one of my samples will have to go back into a pot of Javex water to bleach it. Meanwhile I managed to finish the spiral yarn and start the Boucle yarn.  Actually it is all going well... I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

I've been waiting for a day of rain. We have had beautiful weather all spring with only one day of rain a few weeks ago. The leaves have been wanting to come out on the trees but haven't had enough moisture to make it. I was so pleased when it started to rain last night. Already this morning the grass has turned green and you can see that the leaves are definitely a little larger. There is a green-ness that wasn't there yesterday.  It certainly makes it easier on the eyes.

I'm looking forward to going to the green houses and picking out my flowers for the deck.  We have also decided to put in an orchard. Just recently Teapot has been cutting down a lot of the old dead Pine trees and where our driveway makes a loop there were several. Over the years since we have lived in this house we have often complained about the fact that our driveway round-about is too sharp a turn. For larger pick-up trucks they can't make it without backing up and turning their wheel a little harder. We had often said that the driveway would have been better if the loop were just a little larger. A few years ago when the Pine started to die we noticed that if five particular trees died then when Teapot cut them down we could actually enlarge our driveway with very little effort. Last year the Pine Beetle attacked that stand of trees and by mid summer they were all red and dried up. Teapot started on the driveway expansion as soon as the snow started to melt this year. He has the trees cut down now and we are burning out the stumps. Next will come the three truck loads of gravel that we will need to make the driveway viable, and the larger loop that is formed in the middle, will become our orchard. We will have to fence it as the deer will nibble everything, but that is ok I think, as it will also let everyone who visits know not to drive on the new trees. This will also mean a trip to Dunvegan Gardens (the best greenhouses in the vicinity) for several varieties of apple trees and a cherry trees. We will have room for four or five fruit baring trees with what is already there. Already Teapot has planted Green Gage trees which are a type of plum and we also have a Dogberry (also known as Mountain Ash trees to you up-alongs) there too. I may even try my hand at a few grape vines in there and certainly some raspberry canes along the fence. That is our big project for this summer. The other small project is to get the tin roof on the electrical shed which has been sitting on the ground for the last two years.

Teapot will also be working on the paddocks that he started last year for the animals... there are two new paddocks that have not been used yet. One has fencing wire around it the other has two sides done but requires work on the other two sides. I'm also concerned that the fencing is just straight wire and not page wire. The sheep can fit through the fence and worse the dogs or coyotes could get in, no problemo. So it is not really good enough for them... however the alpacas will enjoy being out there.... and we'll just have to bring them in at night. I might put low page wire there later on, when I can afford it, but that stuff is really expensive!!

See what a little bit of green does to me.... I get all excited and start planning..... hmmmm ; |

In the meantime... It's raining, it's pouring the old man is snoring..... oh for pete's sake.... no one is snoring in this house.... well maybe the cat.....

Three Posts In One Day... Weird!

Well, when I've got something to say, I say it I guess.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I just finished the second lot of flax samples and to be honest they are much better than the first ones.  I discovered a little secret... the Fiddle Fiddle technique (this is a highly technical technique... my tongue is pretty far over in my cheek right now!) really works well when you're trying to make a join in flax. It really helps to make a linen yarn smooth. So I fiddled and fiddled and my new yarns look quite nice actually... I also realized that less is more when spinning flax. Always remember.... go thin.

That's it I'm done.... I've nothing more to say at this time... except I'm off to try another spiral yarn... the last one fell apart when I washed it.... argh!

A Little Something To Say About A Book I Just Read

Remember Clan Of The Cave Bear? I do. I saw it on TV years ago and that's what turned me on to this series. I loved it. Then Valley Of The Horses came out and I loved that one too. Then out came The Mamoth Hunters and I figured I had found the best writer of all time. All great books. That's where it ends. The series steadily went downhill from there. The last installment of these books just came out and even though I've been disappointed in the last two I decided I'd give it a read and see if it had improved and returned to the awesome writing of the first three. NOT! OMG this was worse still. While J.M.A. is got great ability to describe that does not make a writer. Her plot line never really got started until the last two hundred pages. I slogged through the first part of the book in the hopes that at some time the story would actually start. It did but I was so disappointed with it when it finally did that I kept thinking that no wonder there will be no more in this series. As I turned the last pages I just sat there and thought, "well that was pointless."  If you are thinking about reading it.... well I'm not one to tell you what to do but I'll say this... find a better book because almost anything would be better.

It's almost as if J.M.A. started writing the books because she had a lovely trip to France to see the caves that she describes in the book and then decided I had better write a story around my descriptions. Problems is she didn't seem to be able to bring the story together. Instead of spending so much time on descriptions she should have paid some attention to the actual story. 1000 pages of description of cave art while very enlightening and is cool, but it makes more for a text book rather than a novel. The main characters story lines were .... well, quite honestly lame. The ideas behind them were excellent... but J.M.A. just couldn't pull them off. The story lines were pathetic and contrived. I realize that a novel is a contrived thing but the story lines at least should seem realistic or at least explained for the time and cultural conditions... but they weren't.  I really don't want to give away any story lines because I know that there will be a bunch of you who will want to read it no matter what. But sadly I do have to say that it was a big disappointment. I kept thinking, well that was stupid! When Ayla received her call, it was ok... but then she confronted Jondalar when she found out he was cheating and that was pathetic. There was very little emphasis put on the relationship between Ayla and her Daughter, and then J.M. A. dragged in some characters from previous books which had no real reason for being there. Their story lines kind of just drifted off. Then there was a scene where Ayla was convinced to consume a root for the purposes of experimentation. It turned out to be life threatening and there was a whole vision scene which never got talked about again but it would have been nice if J.M. A. had expanded on that a bit. Then there was the whole knight in shining armour thing when Jondalar came rushing to Ayla's rescue which was more than lame. There was no real reason for her to come back from the brink of death since Ayla's and Jondalar's relationship hadn't even been resolved at that point.

I'm sorry to say that I don't recommend this book... spend your time more wisely... it's just not worth reading, unless you like long winded descriptions of pre-historic cave art.