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I woke this morning with a head that felt like a bruised cabbage. I'm not sure if the headache comes from lack of water.... which I do have a tendency to forget to drink throughout the day when I get busy. I even forced cereal on the Dear Ones this morning.... then with tea in hand I have been looking at this screen off and on this morning and trying to decide what in the world to write about... at one point I decided to forget it and go back to bed. The bed looked lovely and warm and quite inviting. I crawled in and settled in for an extra hour I hoped. That's when the cat decided to feel lonely and came for a visit on top of my poor aching head... so fighting the obvious signs that cats and dogs were demanding my attention... I tried for the next hour to sleep in that oh so desirous bed. But alas, it was not to be. The animals won and so I gave it up for a bad job and ended up having a nice warm shower and another cup of tea instead. So here I sit debating if it is worth sitting in front of the screen or should I just sit at my wheel and carry on from where I ended last night. The cotton section is in my book and I am now working on Bamboo and silk for level 5. So while I feel really good about yesterday's accomplishments today not so much... the weather is not helping. January has decided to not be a winter month any more. For the last few years I can safely say that Global Warming is actually taking ahold in this area. We have a hotter and windier summer. We have a truly a short Indian summer, and then we have months and months of long grey days that are more like late autumn than winter..... right through to around the end of February and then we have a very slow prolonged spring that takes us into June and then back to that hot dry windy summer. It actually makes me want to move. I love my valley. I love the river but I'll be honest.... I hate the weather. Add to that the trouble with the Pine Beetle and I think things like where can we go when Teapot retires. Forget upwardly mobile... I'm onwardly mobile!

Update On Animals:
I'm not sure if I mentioned that just before Christmas we lost one of the bunnies..... I mean d-e-a-d dead. Not lost as in got away. I went out on morning and the bunny failed the pencil test. (The pencil test means that if you tap it with a pencil and it makes a knocking sound then it is safe to say that you can bury it and the bell won't ring.) I'm thinking that it got scared to death one night when the coyotes were hanging around... either that or it just keeled over from being bunged up. I can't say for sure.She had been eating fine... so who knows. And it was the big grey pouffy one... Cloud. : ( But I do like caring for the Puff. She is fun to have and very friendly. I may get her a companion next year.

Dexter who got sick last winter is still thin.... He has never completely rebounded but he is eating and he is still alive and kicking. We decided not to shear him this year and let him have a year stress free. I still give him extra oats and I think he enjoys the extra attention. The others are quite irritated by the fact that he gets a full bucket and they have to share one. All the rest of the alpacas are fine and normal and Mishka we hope is preggers.

The horse.... fine.

Dogs.... all good except Bailey who's ADHD and irritates the hell out of all of us except Teapot who seems to have bonded with the weirdo. Narmin... awesome we all love him to pieces.  Cat's aloof except when you go back to bed with a throbbing headache.

I don't miss the llama or the sheep... actually I'm glad they are gone... Alpacas are way better.

So the Bamboo awaits.... and the sun has peeked from behind the clouds..... I guess one more cup of tea would be a good idea.

Olds Schedule is up.... Stephanie Gaustad and Deb Robson will be teaching and I won't have time to take any of their courses..... waaaaahhhhhh!

But we're booking our apartment with great hopes that we will have our work done and marked and be all prepared for level 6. Yikes!!!! Where did the last five years go....

Now That's Just Sick

I have been talking to a  couple of people who have complained about recent sickness. Teapot and the Daughters and I have all had our flu shots so we are probably fending off illness due to those for the time being. come spring this nasty virulent stomach flu that seems to be hitting so many will probably hit us too... But for now we seem to be ok. Then I am hearing that there are quite a few who are fighting colds and flus of that nature. I'm now knocking on wood vigorously and really hoping that we can keep that one at bay too.  But to all of you who are fighting illness. (Especially U Gerald whose in hospital), I am rooting for you and saying a little prayer for those who need it.

Yesterday I finished my knitted sample with that cotton and silk blend. It looks pretty good I think.

I finished it late last night after a few false starts. I screwed up on the first couple of tries as I kept having too many or too few stitches on each row.... This one turned out better, though I think there is a mistake somewhere on the right hand side somewhere. But then they are marking not for the knitting but for the spinning.... and I can't find the mistake so that's ok. I think it looks pretty good so I will get these cotton samples in my book today and then move on to the level 5... I had hoped to be doing that this morning. But then yesterday turned out to be a day full of interruptions.

The moon is setting in the west and in the east, dawn is coming. The sky looks just beautiful. A gorgeous dark blue in the west and a lovely greeny blue in the east. I think it is time to get to work... but first twenty minutes on that exercise bike. Argh! Actually it is not too bad. I'm actually enjoying it a little... that's good isn't it!

Imagine enjoying exercise.... well, that's just sick!

Rushed And Loud And Then Slow And Quiet

I woke this morning at two minutes to seven. Just the right time to get up and not feel so extremely tired. My nice soft bed of memory foam and flannel sheets encourages me, each morning, to stay abed far longer than I should and often I find myself going back to bed once the dear ones leave for work/school. It is quiet now but I do have an almond pound cake in the oven which Teapot and I threw together just before they left. Teapot made a pact with one of the janitors at the school to bring a cake for one of the teachers who is celebrating her birthday today. The janitor is usually the cake lady and brings cakes on every birthday but she fed Teapot's classroom fish every day over the Christmas break so that Teapot wouldn't have to make a trip in to the school each day and so the pact was that Teapot, who loves to bake, would bake a cake for today.  It was really too bad that he thought of it at 8 a.m. this morning.... and so being the perfect wife... (snork)... I helped him mix the cake and get it in the oven and now all I have to do it to watch it and make sure the darn thing doesn't burn. He will make a flying visit at lunch time to pick it up along with the cinnamon and almond icing which he can put on at the school.  It was a bit of a bums rush getting it done and everyone out the door in time for school but they are gone and now after all that excitement it is quiet and peaceful once again. The dogs and cats are snoring quietly and the clock is ticking off to my right... outside the rain is hitting the tin roof and since it is not raining heavily, it is quiet as well.

Yesterday I finished spinning that silk and cotton sample and I washed it last night. Quite frankly I am very pleased with it and I will knit my summer top sample today.

So you see the level 3 homework is coming along nicely. Today I will also try to get back to the level 5 homework.

Meanwhile, Teapot put together the new exercise bike and I gave it a good try yesterday. We have moved the furniture around in the living room to accommodate the new bike and there it sits nicely in under the steps.

The nice thing is that the wall behind the exercise bike will eventually hold part of our library. I will be able to read or watch T.V. while exercising. One thing is for sure, we are a reading family. We are also a movie family.  With lots of books and lots of movies at my disposal,  I already look forward to exercising each morning.

So as I wait for dawn to creep up the sky, and the cake to finish baking I am pleased with the quiet and solitude after a hectic weekend. It's not that I don't enjoy having Teapot and the girls at home but it is nice to look around me occasionally and not be in demand.

This morning I have a letter to write regarding the rezoning of the forest property to the west of us. Our District council is making a new town plan which includes turning that beautiful forest into industrial property.... and while I understand the need for industrial properties in any thriving community, I fear that our council is somewhat stupid in choosing the most desired property for residential expansion and turning it into what nobody wants.  This is an old battle and once again we will voice our complaints. If it is not being threatened as industrial then it is being threatened by the province as a gravel pit. It is one of the most beautiful forests with ready made paths for hiking and horse back riding.... never mind all the wildlife that uses it for access to the river. I'm sure our coucil wouldn't know a good plan if it jumped up and bit them you-know-where!

So I will sign off with a wish for your day to be peaceful, pleasant, and full of accomplishments.

Bare

Christmas is now well and truly over. There are no sparkly lights. There are no cheery Santa Clauses. There are no beautiful angels. There is no bright and happy greenery. There are no packages of chocolate, and there are no bowls of nuts on the coffee table. Outside we still look Christmasy since the outdoor light never come down (we just turn them off) and the real wreath is now hanging on the outside of the front door where it will stay until it start to drop too many of its needles and begins to irritate me. Somewhere usually around Valentines. That's when we will turn off the lights outside too. Until then the lights give the house a cheery look to welcome us home in these dark and dreery winter days. There is one more day of cleaning to do to be done with it once and for all.... I will pop this computer in a different spot and sweep up all the floors and I will take the leaf out of the dining room table and take the red plaid tablecloth off the table to be laundered. Then I can say I am truly finished with Christmas. Teapot just came downstairs and already he misses the nice bright Christmas tree in the corner.  When you live so far north the bright lights that come at Christmas time can really help to get you past this dark and wretched time of the year. And so I have some bright sparkly white fairy lights that I will probably put up to help get us past this.

This really has not been one of our better winters. We have had one wind storm after another. Chinnooks bring warmer temperatures and while that is nice, it melts the snow that is on the ground and turns everything to a slick ice rink and the ice is scary. It is terribly slippery outside as we creep to the animal paddocks at feeding time. Even going to the truck is a hazard to your health. I barely go out through the door anymore because I'm scared of hurting my back in a fall on the ice. But at least the deck is clear and I do go out there almost every day for a little while for an intake of fresh air. Still there is just enough wind to blow you out of root!

I have been working for the last two days on my silk and cotton sample for the level 3 homework books and I am happy to say that I have enough for my sample but also enough for the summer top question and sample too. Last time when I did the level 3 homework I always liked my cotton and silk sample and thought it would make a good yarn for a summer top. When it came time to do a sample appropriate for a ladies summer top I really wanted to use a 50/50 silk/cotton 2-ply yarn... I was running low on time and so in the end opted for a straight cotton 3-ply yarn and while it turned out quite nicely I was always sorry that I didn't use the silk cotton blend.  So this time round I am using Supima cotton and some very pretty blue silk and as a result, I have a lovely chambray silk cotton blend yarn for my sample. I will finish this sample today and wash it and get it in my book by tomorrow when it dries and then it will be back to the level 5 homework for the next week.

So that's it for me on this mid winter Sunday morning. I am off to eat breakfast... drink tea... listen to CBC... and spin. Hope you have a good day too...

Magazines

I really would like to know why it is that all my magazine subscriptions show up on the same day.  Like now I have to read them all and I haven't even finished the ones that I got for Christmas.... It's just not fair!

Twelfth Night

This is Twelfth night. This is the night, that if it was still a holiday, we would be hanging our Old Christmas Day stockings and tomorrow we would be having our Old Christmas Day celebrations. But this year it falls on Thursday as you can see, and since everyone is in school both today and tomorrow, we will be delaying our Twelfth Night celebrations one whole day and hanging our stockings tomorrow and taking our tree down on Saturday. We have also been invited to my parents house for a nice dinner with friends. And so, the Christmas party continues for another few days. By Sunday you will hear no more about it... I promise. The funny thing is... I just got some nice new catalogues in the mail yesterday and one of them is covered in pink and red hearts... like Valentine's is only a few weeks away! It's enough to make your head spin around like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist.  Next thing you know I'll be out looking for Pussy Willows for an Easter tree again.

Yesterday was a day for getting on with it. I didn't get my level 3 books updated as I had hoped since when I looked at my cotton samples from way back, I realized that nature/the gods of spinning had worked their wicked magic and had underspun them while they were hanging in my studio. I'm sure that humidity wrecks havoc with things if left long enough. So I wanted to put some more plying twist in them. That way they would hang the way I wanted them to.... which meant getting what was on my wheel finished and off. Therefore I spent the day finishing the spool of merino and then I didn't have enough empty spools so I plied off two spools of alpaca. Gosh the alpaca is beautiful! After that, I was able to get to the cotton and I took it off the wheel and washed it last night. It hangs in a perfect U just the way I want it to. This morning, I will work on the other skein of cotton making it hang in a U too (U2 get it... snork, snork gufaw.. hey I know I'm a nerd! By the way I'm listening to U2 actually.... I'm listening to the mix of music I have on my computer, but U2 was on a few mins ago! Uh, Ah, sorry for the digression!) Then I will do some sizing (that's the sticky stuff that my cotton will get coated in to make it stiff... most of your store bought clothes comes with that stuff on it too.) and I will need to boil a skein of cotton as well. Then my cotton samples will be ready for my books. I will have one more sample of blended cotton and silk to do and I will have the first section of the level 3 books done too. Yeah!

It sure feels good to finally see good progression on the homework for both level 3 and level 5.  It makes me feel like I am full of accomplishments. So here is a pic from yesterday's work.....

Alpaca to the left and it looks absolutely delicious. Cotton to the right and it is gunned cotton and is nice too. Then there are the two spools of merino so far. Still have to finish filling the one on the left. Of course pics never do this justice.

I have had a change of thought on my level 3 50 hour project. I had planned on doing a baby blanket using my pin looms and weaving blocks and putting them together with crochet. But in the meantime I was sitting in the living room yesterday working away at the spinning and BAM right out of the blue I had a wonderful thought. Back in the fall when my gallery had their show, I had looked at one of the shawls hanging on the wall in the gallery of one of my fellow spinners and weavers and promptly fell in love.  Her shawl was done in black and plain weave but it was done with a break in the weaving every so often. (I can't explain it very well so I'm not going to even try... you will just have to be patient and wait and you will see it when I get it finished.)  It dawned on me yesterday that I could do a colour gamp (I know most of you don't have a clue what a colour gamp is... it could be a foot fungus for all you know... but a colour gamp is a really cool thing that weavers do with colour in weaving... you can see one here... or here....) with the same idea on my rigid heddle loom (which is really easy to thread) using the 25 shades of logwood.... oh that would be just jim fine and dandy.... really! So my level 3 instructor.... (who reads here sometimes)...  can look forward to some weaving.... from me. Oh I am so excited.... I can't wait... this is going to be sooo good.... (if I don't screw up : \ yikes!)

It is still dark and the dear ones (Teapot and the daughters) have left for the day. The rabble (the dogs) are not too obnoxious this morning and are waiting for me to go back to bed.... as I do most mornings for an hour. So I will begin my Twelfth Night... since it still feels like night... and then begin on that cotton.... who knows I might even get the new exercise bike put together today....

Enjoy your Twelfth Night and I hope your catch the animals in your area on bended knee at midnight, tonight.... as the old adage says....

A Good Start

Yesterday was all about getting caught up on the homework that I had done in the fall but hadn't gotten into my books. It was a pretty good day as I got 7 questions finished and in the binder for level 5... today I have to do the same for the level 3 binder. If you remember just over a year ago I finished my level 3 book and sent them in to my instructor and got a terrible mark because I left out part of the course... so now I am redoing my books for level 3.  I just received my transcript from the colege and the marks stand thus....

Level 1 97%
Level 2 89%
Level 3 in progress
Level 4 93%
Level 5 in progress

In order to do level 6 I have to have level 3 and level 5 finished and marked. I have my work cut out for me. So today I will put the bum's rush on and I will work on the level 3 homework and get what I have done into the book for that as well.

Meanwhile I have been spinning away at the requirements for the level 3 50 hour project and the dye portion of the course. In addition, I will need to boil some cotton today and size (that means coat it in some disgusting junk to make it stiff) some other spun cotton. I am hoping that by bedtime tonight I can say that I have section 1 finished in both levels. Yesterday I ordered silk hankies from Treenway for socks for Christmas 2012. I also bit the bullet and ordered from Celeigh Wools some Bamboo for blending with wool and cotton for socks for the level 5 50 hour project.

So, there you have it... a good start I should say. Hopefully I can go forward the way I have started. Here's hoping.....