The Dyeing Retreat Starts Today.... Please Can We Reverse Time ; \

Well the dye retreat begins today. Blah ick ugh... the weather sucks.  It is supposed to be rainy today and sunny tomorrow and Sunday.... I'm hopeful. The mosquitoes want to eat me and pester me and make life firmly miserable.  There's recycling to do, and garbage to go to the dump... the lawn mower gave out and so we will be camping in our jungle lawn where killer mosquitoes lurk. The deck is in dire need of being cleaned up but I will do that this morning. The garbage will go to the dump since a good friend is working there and I will take a thermos of tea up and we will have a visit in the shack... there's quite a nice shelter/shack and you can see good stuff going into the share shed.... it's all good.  I have to stop off at the Thrift store for some weaving shuttles that just came in. A quick visit to the doctor's office for a check up on the ankle... (which has moments when its better). And then I should be home for an afternoon of cleaning up my damn kitchen which is a crazy crater right now. I made an apple pie yesterday and just as I was about to clean up after making it and getting it in the oven the contractor who did our house renovation two years ago showed up... I had to leave with him to take him to Mom's and Dad's place because he's going to be doing some renovations to their bathroom.. we hope... So the kitchen was left a la mess... which I partially cleaned up last night when I got home but by the time supper was finished I was pooped. (Well I did have to chase sheep in off the road and haul water (4 tanks) and after all was said and done it was my Dad's 77th birthday.... (the apple pie was for him... his favorite). So by the time I sat down last night knitting was the last thing I had on my mind.  For the first time in a very very long time I sat with nothing in my hands and watched a movie.... I don't do that very often. Even when I watch a movie usually I'm spinning or knitting. I certainly miss Teapot's help... he usually hauls water and feeds and chases sheep and goes to the dump and does the recycling... though the last is generally a shared task.

Now along with all of that I'm training a puppy to not pee and poop in the house... this has generally been unsuccessful so far. He's too young to rub his nose in it... he's doesn't know what that means so you have to catch the wee bugger as he is starting to squat and run out the door and put him on the ground before he poops on you.  It is rather a hilarious scene to see my rather large carcass running for the door with a mini poop machine in my hands.... held at a distance. Yesterday he discovered the thrill of peeing in the furnace. Our furnace is in the crawl space beneath the floor and the vent for it is in the floor beneath the steps.... well the little bugger peed in there knowing full well that no one would ever find it... I just so happened to hear psssspspsssspspsp and looked up to see him standing there with a rather glazed expression on his face. Yup.... I can't reach down to clean it out... my arms are not long enough... so thank God we are not using the furnace right now or else we would have a fine aroma in the house.... Teapot will have to face that one when he gets home.

Meanwhile I'm trying to train the damn kitten to use a litter tray. That has not always been successful either... right now I have a tub full of stinky cat's pee and water and shoes... the cat decided the other day to pee in the closet where we keep our runners and shoes etc... 2 pairs of flip flops, 1 pair of red high heels, and 3 pairs of runners are now soaking and being washed.... they will be finished today and then I have to clean the tub out with bleach. Yeah gotta love those pets.

So if you're coming for the dye retreat be ready to experience Frankie in extreme wacko mode.

Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh.... I think I'll go have some tea and some breakfast.....maybe that will make me sane....

Nah... that's just impossible.

It's A Fine Marnin' This Marnin' Narmin

Remember that from last year.  It really applies this year because we have a new puppy... (I know.. that's the third doggy... but honestly there won't be anymore) and his name is Narmin. (For you proper English speaking types that's Normon). And it truly is a fine marnin this marnin.  The sun is out... there's a gentle breeze keeping the mosquitoes bearable.... it's not too hot... and I don't have to go back to the museum today... I can knit... Now can you get any finer than that? It's a fine marnin this marnin Narmin. If it's as fine a marnin tomarrow marnin as it is this marnin Narmin, it'll be a fine marnin again tomarrow marnin, Narmin.

I'm having a bowl of strawberries with cream and sugar poured over them for my breakfast. Yum!  They are local strawberries and quite frankly outstrip the California ones ten to one for taste. I'm hoping that a few weeks of sunshine will bring out the berries in force this year.  For the last few years it has been next to impossible to get local berries because it was so dry. The strawberries are ripe.... the raspberries are about to be just right for picking, and the Saskatoons, then just a few weeks from now it will be time to pick blueberries. That will just be a pleasure.  Is there anything so gratifying as a day berry picking with a picnic in the middle and maybe a quick swim in a nearby lake?  Summertime pleasure at its best.

Narmin is sleeping at my feet.  He's a good little puppy and he is only 7 weeks old.  The first few days were a bit of an adjustment.  He was peeing and pooping all over the house and if you didn't catch him right away it could be quite a mess. But we are getting better and he is starting to whine in an effort to let us know that it is time to take him out. Thank heavens we don't have carpet. He is a sweet looking little fellow. He is a Shi-tzu and Red Heeler cross so basically he is a mutt... just the kind of dog we like... pure bred dogs have too many problems... at least that has been our experience.  While we like Jiggs and Baily they were neither fulfilling our lap/cuddle requirements and so we got this little guy. He likes to sleep on our bed with us unlike the other two... well Bailey likes to sleep on the bed but she likes to push everyone off so we've had to curtail her bed sleeping with us.  Jiggs doesn't like sleeping with us... I think she thinks it is beneath her dignity... which is really weird because when we first got her she loved to cuddle up with us... but not any more. Jiggs is a very self reliant and individualistic dog.  She is not at all in need of our company... she could live out doors and have nothing to do with any of us except for the food thing.  Bailey is totally not self reliant and wants to be a lap dog only she's too damn big. So then there's Narmin... and so far he's very cute and likes to have a cuddle as long as it is not too confining.  He follows me everywhere. Still, he's a chewer and so far has wanted to chew on any fringe... like the ones on my wool rugs. Fingers are also great for chewing.... and toes. Slippers are he best chew toys and he likes to fall asleep with his nose in a pair of slippers. He's quite an interesting little character.  The only real problem with him so far is he falls asleep at about 8 p.m. in the evening and wants everyone up at 5 a.m. which totally sucks... cause I want to sleep and he wants to play.  However, I managed to hold him off to 7 a.m. this morning and his reward was a nice long 1 km walk through the bush... lovely. That's probably why he's passed out under my feet here. He has very short legs and a bushy round bum and walking that far for the little guy just about exhausted him. Still, it got me out of bed and doing stuff already... (though I really want to go back to sleep for another hour!)

The coffee pot is brewing and the smell of rich brown coffee is calling me to the kitchen and the knitting sits on the side table in the sun room waiting to be picked up.  I watched The Spinner's Tool Box yesterday and will give it a bit of a review tomorrow along with Rigid Heddle Weaving (the dvd). I'm off for a day of relaxation and two more patterns on this sleeve and I'll just have the sewing together, the darning in ends, and the knitting of the band around the body left to do... a couple more days I'm hoping on that shrug, and I'll be finished.  Then there is the upcoming dye retreat....

Well I'd better get at it.  See ya!

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).