Time's Awasting

Here I am on Sunday morning. What did I do on Saturday. Nothing! N-o-t-h-i-n-g...nothing. I cleaned up my house when I should have been spinning. And I cleaned up my studio which was beginning to look like a wool bomb had hit again. In digging through this and that to find fibres related to level 3 and 5 over the last few weeks I have noticed that baggies of fibre have been landing in my room in alarming amounts. So yesterday in a fit of frustration I figured I had better make a path through the mess so that I could get to the loom which I will need this week when I start the Shadow Weave challenge for the Fibre Academy (more on that in a minute). In making a path through the reams of fibre on the floor, I decided it was time to clean up, and so began the day in which the whole house got shipped out and then re-neatened and believe me, the studio is still in a ree raw. We are building shelves under the steps and we have once again moved around the dining room and we are adding shelves above the TV for DVD storage. We took the coffee table to the shed for the next few months while I work on my levels since I find it was in the way for my spinning wheel. So in the end I can say that I never got one thing done on my homework, and I still have a long way to go before I'm ready to spin today.

Now... to go back to that bit about the Fibre Academy. So here I sit with 2/8 cotton on hand, given to me by the one and only RG who has encouraged me to try my hand at Shadow Weave on my new loom. The Fibre Academy (which is part of our guild) in doing a Shadow Weave study for the next few months. There are eight of us and we all got together to pick a colour that we all agreed on, which happened to be blue. So all of us will receive blue. Then we all had to pick a colour of our own choice to go with the blue. Shadow weave is a weave structure that involves alternating rows of two colours using patterns that bloom as you weave these two colours together. If you are really interested in checking out shadow weave then you can look at the latest installment of Hand Woven magazine... it is full of information on Shadow Weave. We have chosen our colours and we have ordered the cotton and while we wait for our cotton to arrive we are weaving in any two colours that we have on hand, a test piece that has to be so big by so big and which will aid us in making sure that we are doing things right... because at the end of this when we thread our looms for real we will be weaving blocks that will have to match in size. Each and every one of us has to weave eight blocks and then we will share our blocks with the other eight students so that we can build a blanket of some sort. I'm looking forward to this challenge... but I have to have my sample block done by Saturday! Argh!!!!So I have to have my wee studio cleaned if I am going to get this warp on the loom in the next day or two and then weave off my block. Already I'm stressing.... The whole thing has to be done by June... that's two blocks a month.... I can do that right..?

Now today I think I need a picture or two... I haven't posted any for a while... so let's see what I've got...

Shadow weave colours.... the blue at the top is the base colour that we will all start with and then the other colours are our choices to go with the blue. This will be a really cool project.

My disaster of a studio as I try to clean up the mess.

Studio spillage onto the dining room table.

This week's unwashed samples... from left to right you can see them below closer up.

..

50/50 bamboo/wool

Corn fibre....

I just realized that this sample is a complete waste because I buggered up and made it 70/30 wool/corn silk when it should have been 7030 corn silk/wool... Blast! And it was my favorite. : (

Let's see what else do I have for you....

Here we have a bunch of discarded samples that are not good enough to make it into my books.... and the previous one will be joining these. Argh!

....so this is the library under the steps in the works... shelf brackets are up and the shelves are measured and ready to go in too.

Bamboo ready to be blended with cotton for my socks for the level 5 homework.....

These are the stockings/socks that I want to knit for the level 5 homework... I'm not sure if I will make them this long.... teapot thinks they're sexy but I'm not sure anything will make my legs sexy... maybe I'll knit them for him to wear... har dee har har!

Failing the above.... these are my back up plan.

So that's it for me today.... I'm outta here... I got some cleaning to do before I redo the flippin' cornsilk and wool sample and ply the soy silk singles I have on my wheel. Then maybe just maybe if I'm really good I might get that warp on the loom for the Shadow Weave sample.

Happy mid-January to you... it won't be long now till the worst of the winter is over..... : ) See I'm not depressed!

Oh Dear... What's That!?

So yesterday as things turned out I did not stay at home. I, on the spur of the moment, got into my truck as the Dear Ones were leaving for school and took my spinning wheel and headed into FSJ for a day of spinning with some friends. There wasn't a whole lot of spinning going on but we did have fun. It was a lovely day full of sunshine and happy talk and laughter. It was the epitome of good friends getting together for a mid-winter pick me up. RG and SK and SC and moi chatted and gabbed and we even did a little spinning (a very little though). It was great. RG showed us all the things that she was working on or had finished... and made us all completely jealous and SK showed me all the collectables that she has collected recently (like the most beautiful bobbins for bobbin lace and 18th century pin cushions) gorgeous and wee glass spinning wheels... awesome. The SC came by for a quick lesson on the Inkle loom and soon the day turned into a show and tell fest. Along about 2:45 I figured it was time to get going and leave for home.... besides I had a quick stop at the grocery store to make before heading out over the road. That took a little longer than I had planned but I was on the road and headed for home by 4 p.m. By this time the sun had gone behind the clouds and the sky was starting to close in. I had Narmin with me in the truck and I knew he would need to stop somewhere for a quick pee break. I figured this would be best done once I got back into the valley and there wasn't so much traffic on the road. Well this turned out to be a stupid thought since it was Friday (the 13th) and every Tom, Dick, and Harry was headed in to town from the oilfields for a night of heavy drinking no doubt. (There have been a number of accidents around here of late with drinking and driving and oilfield workers : \)It was only after I got back into the valley that I was able to find a place to pull out and give Narmin a little walk about. He did his pee in short order and we were back on the road in no time flat. But it was then that I realized that I now needed to pee too. Only we had just past the only bathrooms between FSJ and HH. Oh oh! Well I carried on for a little while in the hopes that I would make it home before my back teeth began to float. But I knew before too long that I was defeated. Damn! I would have to pull off somewhere to relieve myself. It was then that I thought of a fairly private spot. I could pull in there and it would be far enough off the road that I would be able to do what I needed and nobody from the road would see me. I started to scheme.... I would pull in with the driver's side away from the road... I would open the door step out and do what I needed really quick between the two doors of the truck. That would work.

By the time I stopped I was almost desperate. Very quickly I did what needed to be done, and pulled up my pants in short order. I jumped back in to the truck, and that's when I noticed something different about the roadside pullout that I had never seen there before. There was a new sign..... a sign that said something about the BC Hydro group doing monitoring for moose, elk, and deer for studies related to the new Site C damn. And that's when I notice the strange looking little divices on the front of the sign attached to the mesh wire... Oh Dear! I thought.... what's that!???

I drove away in a rush knowing full well that the next time someone checks the monitoring device in front of which I had just pee'd, they will probably need to go to hospital from the shock of it all!

And me... well I laughed all the rest of the way home!!!

: ) : ) : ) : ) : )

Could those glass-half-full types and those on uppers please stop raining on my parade!!!

January Blues

I am told that I sound depressed. Hmmmm.... Actually I'm not really depressed though looking out on the piles of alpaca poop and doggy doo doo and frozen mud from here to eternity does not make me feel all that wonderful.... still I can't say that I am depressed. Though we have had a lot of wind and though the weather has been fiercely grey since the new year began, we do get glimpses of normal weather.  Yesterday the sun broke through the cloud and the whole world was awash with light. And even though it is so windy, the wind has brought warmer temperatures. It's not all bad. Last night I brought out to the bunny a fresh bowl of water and some carrots and some bunny food. She was happy to have her food brought to her and while I was petting her while she ate I had an opportunity to look up at the sky and have a good look at all those beautiful stars. Black sky and lots of stars means clear weather... (though the forecast is calling for a dump of snow). Clear weather means a little more sun. Maybe today won't be grey... I hope not.

Meanwhile all week I have been spinning. I am almost through the second section in level 5. I've run into some problems with soy silk. The soy silk is full of nubs and noils and so getting a nice yarn is difficult. I have tried several different ways to spin the stuff and finally I think the best way to get a good yarn is to change the preparation. Instead of spinning off the roving I will spin the yarn after I have carded it and if that doesn't work then I will comb it. Hopefully that will help.

Yesterday I received my box of silk hankies in the mail. I do have to say that I ordered them about a week ago and was disappointed to find that Treenway Silk has been sold... and not only has it been sold but it has gone south of the border. Still my experience was good for the most part. I was not delighted to see my bill. $164.00 for silk that's with the exchange. But now all I have to do is knit those socks for Christmas next year.... and those who receive silk socks better be happy to have such a luxury item... (maybe you shouldn't hold your breath though!) : )

So I don't know if I sound depressed but I certainly don't mean to sound depressed. I just am looking forward to the end of this long dragged out month. I am looking forward to getting further into my homework books and seeing real progress. I am looking forward to something different. I am looking forward to better weather even if that means snow and colder temperatures.  (Getting winter weather in winter is not the end of the world I realize.)

Update on family..... girls are starting to study for their finals in the first semester.  Daughter #1 just finished her Basketball season. I was very proud of her. They did not have enough to have a full team and so they headed off to DC for a fun game of Basketball with only four of their six players. They had to borrow two and were not allowed to play in the real tournament. They got slaughtered of course with a score of 41 to 21 for the other team... but considering that they didn't have a full team and their team has only been together for a few weeks and two of their team had to stay home due to being cut at the last minute with bad marks in academics all these terrible things considered they did ok. The most important thing.... they came home with smiles on their faces and they came home having renewed friendships with those in DC. Daughter #1 is head down and arse up with preparing for the end of this semester.  They have just made Lasagna and Ceasar salad and garlic bread as their final test in foods, though there will be a written portion to their final exam. She did well though we don't know her final mark and after all was said and done the whole class had a great time eating their test...  I had a good laugh at that.... why didn't we have classes like that?!

Well it is Friday and all is good... I'm off....to spin... now how can that give anyone the January Blues...

Lamenting In The Void Of Friendless Blogs .....

Blogs... I have a list of the ones that I like to follow.... but unfortunately not enough of my friends write on a blog... only a few. Some people like to tweet because they have a Twitter account. And that's cool because I get a little bit of a snip of their day... when they are far away. Not everyone is as prolific as me when it comes to writing and I understand that.... (remember I do this as much for me as anything)... I do write as often as I do because it is a good discipline, and for someone who is as flighty as I am, discipline is always good. For some, blogging is a good outlet for their desire to write.... for some, writing is an agony and tweeting works better. Still there are social sites like Facebook. For people using that venue, friends seem to be easy... I have a Facebook account but I hardly ever use it. Mostly I go in there to play games and even that has lately bored me to tears (I also keep an eye on the Daughters who both have Facebook accounts).  So back I come to this place.

The sad thing is that each morning I look forward to hearing about what my friends are up to.... I am sadly let down. (Except for the Spindle Princess whose pretty good and keeping people up on what she's doing with short snappy Tweets!)  But the rest of those who I love to hear from seem to not want to have an online life. I do have a cousin who posts interesting things on the family website... but that's it. Not my sister... not my sister-in-law, not my brother-in-laws or anyone in my family. And absolutely none of my close friends blog, tweet, or stay on Facebook.... I am virtually friendless in this world of computer technology. It is really quite unfair.  Most of the blogs to the left are blogs of perfect strangers... Except for As The Whorl Spins and Yawnkiss, It Was Fun I Liked It, I am in a void of strangers. Even the Daughters, for whom I had great hopes, have fallen by the wayside and post a blog about once a year and actually even that has fallen off.

So each morning I get up and I sit down here at my computer... I sit staring at the screen in the hopes that someone will surprise me and send me an email to tell me that they have begun a new blog or have set up a Twitter account.... or have joined Facebook.... all in vain.....

sigh!

?????! Titles Anyone???

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!