The Visual And The Tactile

So I've been sitting at the Peck House at the HH Museum for the last two days demo-ing spinning as a traditional/ pioneer skill.  There were very few who showed up, which didn't surprise me as most of the people in this town have at one time or another seen me demonstrate spinning... mostly we were hoping to pick up traffic of those passing through our community. There has been such bad weather of late and with all the road closures etc. there are very few passing through our community... still it was fun to show off the art/craft to those who came.  As a result my 150 hour project has been suffering from neglect... not entirely... because I have been working on it from time to time, especially in the evenings, but not enough... never enough!  This morning though I woke early and came downstairs for reasons I will talk about later (like tomorrow if I get the nerve)... and started knitting right away. While I was knitting I decided to pop one of those DVDs that I purchased from the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. I happened upon Margaret Stove's, Spinning for Lace. Wow, it is awesome. It is by far the best DVD that I have viewed in terms of usable information.  She never opened her mouth on the video without teaching me something I didn't know. Obviously there's a lot to learn out there yet.

Now there's something that could be done for a Group Study for Master Spinners.  Hmmmm...! Maybe I should suggest Margaret Stove to come for the Master Spinners who want to keep working.

Next video... A Spinner's Tool Box. We'll see if that one is as good.

So it looks like it is going to rain again this afternoon. After two days of sunshine I am hopeful that those dark clouds coming our way are full of wind and nothing else... otherwise any farmers out there haying are not going to be happy.

Having just got home from the museum, I'm about to continue on with the second sleeve in my shrug. It is looking awesome and it feels simply .... well, there are no words.  I wish we had feel photos.... you know pictures of how things feel rather than just how they look. There is beauty in this shrug that I am making and I am not trying to brag now... but aside from how it looks (which is quite nice)... it is how it feels that makes me want to sing it praises and that is not something I can take credit for.  It feels nice because the merino sheep have been bred to give fine soft fibre, and the silk worms produce an exemplary fibre, and the Cashmere is.... Oh! The Cashmere is beyond heaven... oh heavenly goats!  I have enough knitted and sewed that last night I was able to slip one arm in one sleeve.... and it feels like the silkiest cloud you have ever felt... it makes you want to get naked and just wear it... sorry I had to describe it that way... it would be like rolling in hundred dollar bills for you tycoon types, or,  for a connoisseur, drinking the finest Scotch Whisky and letting it slide over your palette after twenty years of not drinking at all.  If there were Greek Gods they would be fighting to roll in my Shrug.

Do you get my drift... the Shrug is glorious. The only thing I can think of that even closely compares is new born baby skin... on the inside of your arm. Soft and smooth and sleek all at the same time.  I cannot sing the praises of Cashmere highly enough.

 If I could wear Merino/Silk/Cashmere underwear... yeah... I think I would...

Ok.. enough... I won't say anymore... there have been too many over the top images already!

God.. it's really bad having a visual imagination. I'm just sayin'....

So with that in mind here's another image at the other end of the spectrum.... and thank God it is not a tactile photo....

Ha ha... that's it for me today... I'm out of here... ya hear? Gone...

Good Night To One And All

I've been knitting for the last few days. 150 hour project... is coming along really nicely... though slowly. It looks awesome... even better than I thought it would look.

I woke this morning to a ripping thunder storm... one of those ones that every crack of thunder seems like the sky is going to open up above your head and something awful is going to fall out of the sky and squash you smartly.  Then it rained.... like nothing I've ever seen before... the rain was so hard.... (how hard was it you say?)... it was so hard that it was like someone tipped a bathtub over and poured it over our heads.  But then the weird thing is it just cleared up after that and out came the sun and it was down right steamy and hot hot hot. Teapot says that this is the change of the summer and we will get hot weather from here on in.  We'll see... and if things are like that it won't be fit out since the mosquitoes are dreadful this year.  We'll still be house bound unless we're covered in Deet.

Teapot and Daughter #1 are headed off down to Cochrane, AB for a trip with the JCRs.  It's all good though I have to take care of animals alone while they are away. A few weeks ago Teapot decided that the sheep and horse could get out on graze if we put up a temporary fence around the lawnier parts of the yard.  So up went a temp fence and if ever I had wories about the alpacas I don't any more. Mishka the female alpaca stays inside a three strand fence that in some areas is no higher than just above my knees.  Howeydew the llama, has to stay cooped up since the fence would be a joke for her. The sheep fit through the wires but because Mishka stays inside the wires they don't wander far. Usually on our property or within a short range of our place.  Meanwhile the horse goes into another area with a temporary fence and is loving the fact that she can eat green stuff instead of hay. However, with all horses and animals in my experience... the grass is always greener... so she lifts the wires and heads off in her own direction... it's good that she is such a placid horse because Daughter #1 has been known to be dragged down the road holding on to the tail of her horse until such time as Dreamer will stand still to get the halter on her. Then she is quietly lead back to her digs with head hanging low.  Silly horse.  While the dear Daughter is away I think Dreamer will be staying inside her paddock and living on the bit of grass that has been able to grow up in there recently.... that and hay.  Meanwhile the alpacas are grazing on their two new paddocks and enjoying the new digs... they will hopefully be ok there till Teapot gets back.  Still the whole thing is a worry when I'm here on my own... Daughter #1 is a good help but sometimes she's a bit hard to jump start.  Hopefully there will be no surprises.

Well it is getting late and there is a sleeping dog with it's chin on my foot and I think it's time to hit my pillow... all is peaceful and Daughter #2 is sleeping, Daughter #1 is reading in the sunroom and is too excited about her trip to sleep... she'll have time in the vehicle to do lots of that.  Teapot is packing the last of his gear. They leave at 10 a.m. My knitting is sitting on the side table next to my chair in the sunroom... it's calling me... I just wonder to I have the hutspa to knit another row or two or should I just face reality and head off to bed....

I think bed is winning.

Good night... and stay tuned for my foray into Pioneer days at the HH museum, I'll be in costume...

Quote For The Day And A Few Other Things

I had a comment saying that the links I placed in yesterday's post were not working... they work for me.  They are two links to YOU Tube videos of men Air surfing... They fling themselves from airplanes with surf boards attached to their feet and fall to the earth surfing the wind currents using the board to help them.  Then when they are almost down to the ground they open their shutes and land as though they are birds. It is quite something to see. If you want to view it and can't get through on the links in yesterdays post just look up Air Surfing on You Tube.

The rain is still coming... in small amounts and so we find ourselves cooped up in the house. It is giving me a great opportunity to knit... and so I knit. My 150 hour project is coming along nicely... But I need to keep knitting. My posts here over the next few days will be short as I try to knit as much as possible.

Here's a quote for the day... Teapot read it to me from a book he is reading and quite frankly I found it to fit my personal philosophy quite nicely....

There is pleasure in pathless woods;
There is rapture in the lonely shore;
There is society where none intrudes,
Where horned owls hoot and night hawks soar;
Not that I love man the less but nature more.
                                                   (Unknown, possibly C. W. Mitchell)

Wackos In This World

Sometimes insanity can be pathetic.....


But sometimes insanity can be awe inspiring.....

Check this out

and this

I Can't See Through This Fog...Oh... That's The Sleepy Dust In My Eyes

This morning even the mosquitoes are walking. I'm sure that the fog is so thick that they just are too nervous to fly. Really it doesn't surprise me that it is so foggy. We have been having so much rain this year that it looks positively tropical out there. Still I'm not complaining, though I do hope the farmers are able to get their hay off. The fog is golden coloured off to the east so the sun must be trying to burn through.

I peered out through the murk at half past 6 and wended my way downstairs for a cup of tea and to let the dogs out for a bathroom break. I needed to stay by the door and keep an eye on Jiggs since she ran away last night. We are thinking that there is something that distracted her in the bush, like a baby deer or maybe a bear (I'm thinking baby deer since the alpacas and llama are quite peaceful). Usually she will come when she is called but not this time. Then Teapot got mad and that made her run faster. She was gone for a good half hour and only came back when Daughter #2 coaxed her home.  So while I watched through the window this morning, I began to read The Alden Amos Big Book Of Hand Spinning. I've always been told that if there is one book that a hand spinner needs in their library it's The Alden Amos Big Book Of Hand Spinning. So this year, while Interweave Press was having its Hurt Book Sale, I decided to finally buy it... it's hilarious. Alden Amos, I think, must eat shards of glass for breakfast to be so sharp. (That's a compliment.. weird I know).  At one point he is talking about cleaning fibre and in this instance silk in particular.... he says, "About the only time you have to clean silk before spinning is when you have raised, purchased, or fallen heir to a quantity of mangled, semi-occupied cocoons. In which case you have my sympathy." Ha ha, he cracks me up....  Anyway, the books is awesome. It has everything that you could ever want to know about hand spinning and then some. I've already learned lots and I'm only on pg 49.

Fog seems to be a prevalent issue these days. Last night, when Jiggs went missing, I decided that perhaps I should take the truck and have a look for her on the road. I didn't really think that she had gone that way... I really figured that she had run into the bush, but then I'm not an expert on freaked out dogs who are thirsting after something to chase. So off in the truck I went. That's when I noticed the fog from hell.... there is a streak of some substance on the windsheild of the truck that no sane person can see through. It is the fog from hell.  It's hard to drive when you are constantly putting on the windsheild wipers in an effort to wipe away the offending substance on your windsheild. Suffice it to say that I wanted to get out and like the proverbial grandma produce a tissue from the sleeve of my sweater and wipe the offending slime off. However, SINCE I'M NOT OLD, (I only fall asleep in my chair because I have narcolepsy...  just joking) I didn't have the required tissue. In the end I didn't drive far and by the time I got home Jiggs was there and it was raining again. (I must say... a little sun would make me feel better if it would only come out for a little while.... but really I'm not complaining!!) The humming birds too seem to be staying in the trees... because I'm refilling the feeders for them and the only thing coming to the feeders are the ants that promptly fall into the feeder and then drift to the top of the syrup, dead. So I'm wondering if the hummingbirds too are feeling that there is just too much fog... still they have to eat... perhaps they have left for the year and are roosting in sunnier climes.

It's years like this that remind me why we left Ontario... The mosquitoes there were unbearable. They would land on the window screen by the thousands and to go outside the door meant that you were taking your life in your hands. It's years like this that make me think that a screened porch is just the ticket.  Teapot and I have been seriously thinking about a screened porch since the year of the renovation, but it has not gotten past the planning stages at this point. Still I may have to prod Teapot into taking out his dreaded hammer if we are to survive this summer.

Oh looky!  There's blue sky above.... maybe just maybe I can sit out and knit today... for I finished spinning the two spools of Merino/Cashmere/Silk that I was spinning yesterday and I even got it dyed. So now it's straight knitting for the next few days and hopefully.... hopefully, I'll be finished with that level 4 homework...

Have a great day. (And try not to sleep in the fog... because even walking mosquitoes will find you and enjoy a good suck).

Spinning Day... Dyeing Day

Right now I'm plying the last of my 150 hour project... I know I've said that before but this time I know that I'm spinning the last amount. I have 450 metres of yarn coming off the bobbins in about 2 hours from now. I started to fall asleep at the wheel (ha ha that's so funny... I wonder if the cops will pull me over for that!) mostly because I went to bed really late last night after spinning the last two baggies of fibre. This morning I got up at 8 a.m. and started spinning right away. But even with a coffee in me (actually two) I found that my eyes are getting heavy so I should be snoozing instead of writing on my blog... but here I am.. all the same.

Teapot, I'm sure is sick of doing everything while I spin. He just punched down bread and put it in the pans so that I wouldn't have to wash goat stench off my fingers (I'm spinning unwashed Cashmere which is kind of rank). I'll be glad to get this stuff plied and in the dye pot. I'm looking forward to getting back to knitting.  My goal is to get this in the mail to my instructor by Monday.... and yes I will post pictures of it before it goes in the mail.

I just received in the mail yesterday a stack of books that I bought from the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. Oh joy and bliss!  Videos and books to peer at and take pleasure in.  Last night I lay in bed perusing Spinning Control (I can't remember who wrote write now and I'm not running upstairs to get it either!) and this morning I watched the video Spinning Rare Breeds. Awesome so far... loads of information that nobody would want to have except for us nutty spinning types.

It has stopped raining... though it continues to threaten. Everything is so lush that it looks like a jungle around here. Yesterday Teapot and I walked the forest trails in the wet and by the time I got home my legs were soaking wet and my feet. Jeans went into the wash because they were wet to the thighs and the runners had to be left on the deck.  The walk itself was lovely... we looked at the reams of Bedstraw  plants that are growing profusely. And Teapot pointed out the beautiful blooms of the Wintergreen plants that are also blooming in profusion. I have not seen any orchids this year but it may be too wet. Mushrooms are everywhere. Teapot brought home some giant puff balls which were yummy with steak the other night. Still my favorite are the good old fashioned regular puff balls.

I'm off for a quick snooze before I carry on with that plying... I can't believe that it is over a week since I got back from Olds and I'm still feeling pooped. Yup it's a sure sign that I'm getting old.

Well I ain't dead yet....

Slogging Through

Slogging through Seems to be an apt title today since I seem to be slogging through a bunch of stuff.  The rain has been pouring for a few days now and though right at the moment it is not raining it seems to be possible that at any moment the skies will open up for another downpour.  the forecast called for a drying trend two days ago but it has not stopped raining heavily all the same... so much for predictions!

Everywhere there is mud... have a look at this...

The water is pooled every where and will not dissipate...

This is a rare thing indeed...
Even my flowers got hit....

They look so pathetic in their barrels with the petals all beaten down.
... and through it all we're slogging through. All that praying that I did last year must be coming back to bight me on the bum. Everything is looking lush and green and I guess we did need the water but why things can't come in a more measured way is beyond me.

I've been slogging through spinning for the 150 hour project. Yes I ran out of yarn and need some more...  not much, but some, so I have been spinning for the last few days whenever I possibly can. I'm doing ok and I only have two more baggies of fibre to spin so I should have that done today if all goes well and there are no interruptions.  At least that is my plan. But I really have my mind on the next project so I'm slogging through the 150 hour project too.

For the last few days I've been helping the parents move furniture around in their house. They have decided to move Dad's chair into the spare bedroom in an effort to give him some privacy.  His chair is is home... he sleeps in it and eats in it and pretty much lives in it. We also brought him in a book shelf and desk so that he can continue working on his 3000 page book of genealogy. He has been working on it for twelve years now.  He has traced our family back to the time of William the Conqueror. so he has written a book  of our family. It's actually quite interesting... but time consuming.  Meanwhile it has been a slog cleaning up the papers and Christmas cards and birthday cards that date back ten years... real horders they are. They also had a leak in their bathroom so Teapot has been doing his best to fix that... slogging is actually an understatement for all of that.

Teapot and Daughter #1 leave at the end of the week for summer camp with the JCRs. They are headed for Cochrane, AB, for ten days of fun so we are trying to get done everything that we need to do before they go. It is an intensive time for sure. Too much to do in too little time... but we're slogging through.

For family member who want to see them I leave you today with another picture of the girls... on the eve of that graduation ceremony of two weeks ago.

Can you tell that Daughter #2 doesn't think much of getting her picture taken.??? Yeah kind of...

Have a great day and hope you're not slogging through like I am... and no more rain.... at least for a few days... not likely!