Some Days Are Diamonds... Some Days Are Stones... Nope, That Should Be Gold

Gold.... this was a golden day that is for sure. I've been working on my woven sample all day with the Muga silk.... it is looking beautiful so far. I won't show it till it is done and it is taking me longer than I thought. I decided to use my regular 6 x 6 pin loom instead of the multi.... (for those of you who weave you will understand that the principle of these two looms are very different). I did this because a very strange thing occurred.... the best laid plans never seem to work. I had intended on using a nicely worsted spun 2-ply silk yarn for the warp and a nubby muga silk/sari silk for the weft but low and behold I started to weave and the darn thing looked just a little too dicey for my liking. So I x'd that idea coming out of the gate and moved on to Plan B. Plan B was to use the worsted Muga silkfor both warp and weft and maybe throw in a little leno lace as I was weaving.... so that is what is being executed as I am writing..... one word.... gorgeous! Definitely the right idea. And, I am so in love with this Muga silk that I am now rethinking my embroidery piece. I was going to do a stylized Blue Jay on a linen back ground but ever since I did the piece for level 3 two years ago which looked like this if you recall...

... well ever since then I've been wanting to do this one....

However I knew that I would need at least three shades of silk if not four.... well I have them.... I have Bombyx, I have Tussah, I have Muga, and I have Cinnamon Tussah.... all really beautiful and perfect for an embroidered owl.... so I think I will do that. It will mean a few extra hours of spinning but I think it will be worth it in the end. And I still haven't found those flippin' coccoons. The moon and the branches will be Bombyx (that's really white for you non-spinners) and the owl will be a combination of the two kinds of Tussah and the Muga silk, (creamy champagne colour and golden champagne colour and cinnamon/bronze for you non-spinners). I might even use a little of the blue that I have around the moon to give the moon a slight halo effect.

Anyway, getting back to why this day was golden.... well weaving with that golden silk was one reason... the other was that my friend showed up and we had a great day gabbing. Spinning days with friends are always golden. She spun (merino) and I carried on with the weaving. Then the sun was out and poured its glorious golden rays all over us through the living room window.... it was really hard to not think of the day as golden in all that sunshine with the golden silk in my hands.

So yes it was a golden day....  John Denver had a good idea when he wrote that song.... too bad he didn't say golden....

Some days are diamonds, some days are gold, some days are stones too but there were no stones today....

Happy end of January... it's all easy sailin' from here.... yeh!

Back To Daily Writing.... Maybe

While Teapot was away I was used to getting up, getting breakfast for the Daughters, and getting them out the door in time for school. Now that Teapot is home I don't have to do anything after breakfast has been served other than drink my tea and work here at this screen. So I read the news, I check the weather, I read my favorite blogs, tweets, posts on Facebook, and then I can come back here for an update on what's going on in this neck of the woods.

Today I will be trying to get some of my spinning done that I have been falling down on... I still have a bunch of merino to spin in the next few weeks because I will be using that in my 50 hour project for level 3 which I hope to tackle once I go to the Blueberry retreat which is only two weeks away.  RG and I have decided that on the Thursday at the Blueberry we will be doing our twenty five shades of Logwood. I know I've talked about this forever, and I know that I never seem to get it done but... this time I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will succeed in getting it completed. I also can't find those d-mn silk cocoons that I need for the Mawata.... don't know what I did with them. Today if all goes right I have a friend coming for the day... and of course we will be spinning.

Meanwhile the Daughters are off to school today and they start their new term. Our community is putting off a week long winter carnival. As the days go by there are winter fun activities planned for each day of the week. Both of the Daughters are preparing for an afternoon of school related winter carnival activities.  So there will be sledding, and icy t-shirt contests.... (that's where you are on a team of 5 people and are handed a frozen t-shirt which you have to thaw out enough for one member of the team to get into before another team beats you... brrr!) ice cream eating contest.... a contest to make Smores over candles.... and balloon snowmen contest where some of the balloons are helium filled (you have to make a snowman with balloon and you are only allowed a certain amount of tape. Meanwhile the community will be having snowshoeing workshops, snow golf,  hiking in the woods, sliding parties and snowmobile activities. Sounds like a lot of fun. At the end there is a big auction.

What's really weird is that at the same time as all the winter carnival fun is going on, our public library has decided that their big fundraiser for the year will happen at the same time and is going to be a winter beach party! It's really bizarre to have two things going on at the same time with such opposing themes. Only in HH can you show up at the winter dance and win a meddle for the mucklucks you showed up in and then drop next door to the next dance and take first prize for the ugliest Hawaiian shirt! Should be interesting....

Yeah so that's it for me.... I'm headed off to put some finishing touches on a pot of soup... and blend some more silk and silk waste... I think I'll spin a little silk before the merino.... it looks like I'm going to run out of this stuff before I finish weaving... and I thought I had plenty.

See ya tomorrow.... when the first of February is upon us.... (Oh God am I ever going to get these two levels finished in time??!!)

Confessions On A Lazy Monday

How did it get to be Monday so quickly! It seems like I just picked up the girls from school of Friday.  But here it is Monday and a brighter sunnier day you couldn't have. Teapot is home again and I have to say that I am glad beyond all reasoning. Yesterday was indeed a strange day with the Daughters and I leaving for FSJ at 4:15 in the afternoon. We had dinner at a restaurant and  fooled away some time at Walmart which you can always count on being open on Sunday and then we went to the airport where in the waiting room, there are lovely black leather chairs which I promptly perched in and whiled away a half hour waiting for Teapot's flight playing games on the iPhone... while the Daughters did the same only on their iPads. Next thing you know Teapot's flight was on the tarmac and we were waiting for him to disembark... like I said time just seemed to drift away from us and suddenly we were getting ready for bed and opening our eyes to a mid winter Monday morning.

And what a morning it was... I love January warm ups. The sun shone, the sun warmed, the sun cheered and now the sun is setting.

I only spun a little today and I was supposed to work on the book part of my homework and get some of these samples written up and in my book. Instead, I baked.... I baked bread... and Zucchini Quiche.  Then I made Turkey soup and then I sat down... so actually it wasn't such a lazy day after all....it just felt like it. The Daughters and I watched the whole Vicar of Dibly series on T.V. so that may have been the reason for it feeling like a lazy Sunday rather than a lazy Monday.  Poor Teapot had to work... but the girls stayed home with me.

I have been making progress on the level 3 homework. I did finish the blue silk sample for the needle work that I have to produce for my level 3 books and I spun the second single of the Muga silk for the woven sample so far everything is looking hunky dory.... (that means just grand)!  I need to weave and I need to get that embroidery finished. So that will be what I tackle tomorrow. Then a day of bookwork before I make more spinning progress.

I haven't been feeling great the last few weeks and I have been getting very tired. Not sure why and hopefully it won't last, but have been taking time for me to rest when I need it so I guess that has been the reason for the slow down on the homework... still progress is progress. I refuse to sweat over it!
Tomorrow is Tuesday and I have a friend coming for a spinning day if she remembers... : ) She reads this.... so maybe this will act as a reminder.

I will try to get some pictures up here in the next few days of samples that I have finished. It's been a dull few days so I guess it is a dull bit of reading.  Hopefully I can think of something more interesting to write about soon.

Today Is Another Day Of....Hmmm I'm Not Sure What To Expect

Daughter #2 says it is another day of DOOOOOM... that's probably because she has to face a science exam today. Now she is making a chipmunk face at me because she knows I just wrote that here.

Can you tell that we are all in a weird mood?  I think that we are all really looking forward to the end of the day when we will have a three day weekend streaming out before us. I actually was able to get myself out of bed this morning at 7 a.m. instead of ten after or twenty after or half past like it was yesterday. This is due to the fact that there is a Chinook blowing in and temperatures have risen and also the wind has been howling again. So morning was not the peaceful oblivion that it normally is. There have been things blowing around out on the deck. The cat has been meowwwing  loudly for an hour to come in. Then there is that dog next door. It's not barking at the moment but it has been barking in the morning quite often in the last few days... yesterday I heard it barking for four hours straight.  Dreadful. If I can hear it in the house like that, I can only imagine what it will be like when spring comes and the windows are open! Still I hope that something good will happen in regards to that canine.

Anyway enough about the barking hound....

This has not been a week of no progress on the homework... I have been working on all silk samples for level 3. I have a sample finished from a commercial hankie and as with spinning from silk hankies it is full of nubs and noils... a very textured yarn, but beautiful all the same.

I have also finished the silk sample for a knitted or crocheted sweater, with the 3 x 3 knitted swatch. I settled on a Bombyx silk blended with silk waste in a 80/20 blend.

80/20 Bombyx silk/silk waste 3-ply yarn.

I'm very happy with the yarn but only fairly happy with the knitted sample. I couldn't find a knitting pattern that I loved and so settled on a combination of lace and bobbles... which is pretty, but I'm not a bobble kind of person... I did however want a child-like pattern and what could say childish better than bobbles!

This actually looks better than I thought....

I also started the spinning for the woven piece and got fairly far with it... that's the most exciting bit because it is being spun in Muga silk.

This looks like gold doesn't it... I just love this stuff!

I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on some Muga silk...(which was a real score). It is gorgeous!!!! Like I can't stress how gorgeous it is. I have a very smooth worsted style 2-ply yarn that I am working on which I will use on my 6 x 6 pin loom and it is going to be awesome because I am going to use a very textured cinnamon coloured Tussah silk mixed with sari silk (no nubs and noils just bits of sari silk sticking out) for the 2-ply weft yarn but I'll only use it on every alternate weft pik. I'm really looking forward to finishing this. I think it will be gorgeous.... at least I am hoping. Meanwhile I have finished 22 metres of Bombyx silk for embroidery

This will be lovely for embroidery...

and I will need blue silk spun for that as well as some black silk... which means I have to dye some Tussah.... that's what I intend to do today, dye a little silk black... in a crowded pot kind of way... only I'm going to microwave it.  Meanwhile, I am still looking for the cocoons so that I can make a mawata... I know I have them because I saw them just a few weeks ago... but for the life of me I can't seem to find them. 

I had hoped to have this section on silk for level 3 done this week but I have not made as much progress as I hoped. It's been a busy week. Again. Perhaps things will go faster from now on. We'll see. Things always go slowly when there are swatches to knit and weave.... and with Teapot away I have lost whole afternoons to hauling water and picking up Daughters from school and checking in on Mom and Dad. By the way things are almost back to normal with Mom and Dad.  Still if they need anything, I do have to try the best to help out.

So I guess I had beetter head off and get those Daughters of mine to school... then it's home for a morning of dyeing silk and spinning that beautiful Muga.... I can't wait....

As for the rest of the day??? Who knows what to expect....

Bark, F#$@$@king Bark, Yap F#$@#%$king Yap

At this very second I am listening to an unhappy pooch yap it's stupid head off. I am ready to bust apart with irritation to be quite honest.

My neighbour lost her husband a while back and then decided to go south to Arizona for the winter. In so doing she has asked a friend to house sit. Nice. But the dog that moved in with them is the nastiest peace disturbing canine of any I have ever had the misfortune to know... and that's saying something because when I lived in town some years ago, I had a neighbour with a Basset Hound that wouldn't shut up day or night. (Teapot said that it was because it dragged it's nether regions in the snow and it's balls were just about frozen off). I was so delighted to move to the country where my neighbour was farther away and I didn't have to worry about yapping pooches in the middle of the night, that I thought I had it made. But here I sit, almost ten years later, and the neighbour's dog is stirring up the shit in the neighbourhood once again. I walk out on my deck on the way to feed the rabbit and the dog starts yapping. It can see me through the trees and thinks that I am invading his privacy. I can only imagine what it will be like if these people stay on in the house for the next while and on through the summer or God forbid if the lady who owns it decides to sell it. I certainly won't be able to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the deck with that thing barking all the time. This morning something has really set it off and the darn thing hasn't stopped barking for well over an hour now.  I've been sitting here wishing evil on it!

There's something to be said about living in the country... I love it... I love my house... I love this place... I love the birds and wildlife... and most of all I love the serenity afforded by living here. So what am I to do if they don't move away? I will certainly not be happy.

Teapot and I have always thought that we would stay in this house at least until retirement.... and since he doesn't retire for another 12 years we have a long way to go... but more and more I am liking the idea of finding a sweet little spot in the middle of nowhere where there are no neighbours at all. That way you won't piss them off and more importantly they won't piss you off. The best neighbour is the one that lives miles away from you.

So until then I will sit in my living room and I will try to drown out the wretched thing by playing some nice music.... Maybe some Bach.... or Hydnn... that might gently calm my nerves.... I think I'll go plan the deck on the west face of the house though just in case....

Robbie Burns Day

For most Scots around the world this is an evening of celebration... for it is Robbie Burns Day. I'll be honest Robbie Burns doesn't have a whole lot of meaning for me... I'm not Scottish and none of my ancestors were either as a matter of a fact we were considered by Robbie Burns and his ilk to be the very di'il incarnate... you see we are English.... or at least of English descent. Still there is something about Scotland and all thing Scottish that attract me.

There's something about the Highlands of Scotland that really attract me as a travel destination. I have learned quite a bit about Scotland over the years because of my love for all things Scottish. A few years ago I wrote here on this very blog a great deal about Argyle Socks... which are only an incarnation of kilts on the bias... In addition to reading what I can about the history of kilts, I've read as much as I can about the various islands around Scotland, from the Hebrides (where one of my spinning wheels comes from) especially Iona where the Celtic version of Christianity grew and flourished, to the Shetlands (which I'd give my right arm to visit especially Fair Isle, and I love Shetland wool) in the far north.  And don't get me started on Hamish MacBeth... loved the T.V. program but even more I loved the Hamish MacBeth books especially when I can get them on audio books. I also love the Diana Gabaldon books of a woman who travels back through time to 1700s Scotland to meet the love of her life during the tumultuous time of  the Jacobites and the Battle of Culloden. I also loved the story of The Stone Of Destiny. So with all my interest in things Scottish I decided a couple of years ago to try to learn more about the iconic Robbie Burns.  First of all I learned straight away that he would have never permitted anyone to call him Robbie... it would have been Robert Burns but it seems that the Scots have given him the pet name Robbie much to his dismay if he were still alive. His poetry is well known the country over (that's Scotland not Canada) and people can quote him in the blink of an eye. So I thought lets give it a try... and try it I did! It is without a doubt the most difficult thing I have ever read.... mostly because I don't understand a frickin' word of it. Still I try. I have a Scottish friend who sometimes is willing to translate things for me. But mostly it is complete double dutch. and I thought Newfinese was difficult to understand. Well let me tell you we Newfies don't hold a candle to the Scots.

It was earlier today that hearing a short excerpt from one of the CBC radio programs about this being Robbie Burns days that I decided once again to try reading a little of his poetry. Actually I heard someone reading one of his poems and let me tell you it was beautiful to listen to that piece of poetry. I quickly looked it up on the internet and all the romance in the spoken version I had just heard on the radio flew right out the window when I tried to read it.  The romance was gone .... just like that I had spoiled a perfectly good poem. Still I did come across a website about Robbie Burns that had a translated version of some of his other poems and among them (and to my surprise) I found this one... oh and by the way the first one is the original as Robert Burns wrote it and the second is the translated version...

Bessy And Her Spinnin' Wheel

1792

    O Leeze me on my spinnin' wheel,
    And leeze me on my rock and reel;
    Frae tap to tae that cleeds me bien,
    And haps me biel and warm at e'en;
    I'll set me down and sing and spin,
    While laigh descends the simmer sun,
    Blest wi' content, and milk and meal,
    O leeze me on my spinnin' wheel.

    On ilka hand the burnies trot,
    And meet below my theekit cot;
    The scented birk and hawthorn white,
    Across the pool their arms unite,
    Alike to screen the birdie's nest,
    And little fishes' caller rest;
    The sun blinks kindly in the beil',
    Where blythe I turn my spinnin' wheel.

    On lofty aiks the cushats wail,
    And Echo cons the doolfu' tale;
    The lintwhites in the hazel braes,
    Delighted, rival ither's lays;
    The craik amang the claver hay,
    The pairtrick whirring o'er the ley,
    The swallow jinkin' round my shiel,
    Amuse me at my spinnin' wheel.

    Wi' sma' to sell, and less to buy,
    Aboon distress, below envy,
    O wha wad leave this humble state,
    For a' the pride of a' the great?
    Amid their flairing, idle toys,
    Amid their cumbrous, dinsome joys,
    Can they the peace and pleasure feel
    Of Bessy at her spinnin' wheel?

Here it is again written so the we English can hear it and understand it...

Bess and Her Spinning Wheel

I'm happy with my spinning wheel,
And happy with my wool to reel,
From head to toes it clothes me fine,
And wraps so softly me and mine.
I settled down to sing and spin,
While low descends the summer sun,
Blest with content, and milk and meal,
I'm happy with my spinning wheel.

On every hand the brooklets wend,
Up to my cottage by the bend,
The scented birch and hawthorne white,
Across the pool their arms unite,
Alike to screen the birdie's nest,
And little fishes cooler rest:
The sun shines kindly where I dwell,
Where smoothly turns my spinning wheel.

On Lofty oaks the pigeons croon,
And echo out their doleful tune;
The linnets in the bushes raise
Sweet songs that rival other lays.
The crakes among the clover run,
The partridge whirring in the sun,
The swallows swooping for their meal,
Amuse me at my spinning wheel.

With small to sell and less to buy,
Above distress, below envy,
Oh who would leave this humble state,
For all the pride of all the great,
Amid their flaring, idle toys,
Amid their cumbrous noisy joys ?
Can they the peace and pleasure feel
Of Bessie at her spinning wheel ?

When I finished reading the second version I thought wow... how very fitting...

Happy Robbie Burns Day.... may your Haggis, Neeps and Tatties be just as good as can be....

Way Up In The Back Of Beyond

I sometimes feel like I live way up in the back of beyond. Today, Sweet Davey, who is my cousin from Newfoundland, gave me a call and it was really great to have a chat with him. He's been threatening to call for weeks now, and every time he would try my number I would be away from the phone (most likely in the bathroom or some equally mundane but necessary evil). Getting a call from a cousin who you haven't heard from in a while can be like opening Pandora's box... it was a little bit like that today.

Sometimes I feel like living here in the north country is really the back of beyond. Now I know that I could be living farther up and out than I am... with technology these days the whole world has become a wee marble. But it's when you chat with someone that you haven't seen in years that you are reminded of all the things you have lost by moving away. It's then, that you want to sit down and have a good cry. It doesn't matter how close technology has brought other parts of the world. When you haven't been home in many years and you talk to someone who is still living there, it makes you feel lonely and away from everything that you love.... that you are way up in the back of beyond.  It's not that I didn't enjoy the phone call.... I did... it was lovely to spend an hour yaking away about good times and old times as well as new times and even about people you'd love to see again. No it's more about the small things.... the accent that sounds so strange which once was so familiar.... the choice of words used to describe and talk, which mainlanders don't use. Intangible things that you can't see or touch but are as real as crest of a wave,... that are here and gone in an instant, but remind you of who you used to be.  And it leaves you wondering how it is that you have come so far from what you once were.... from what your expectations in life were. I mean if you had asked me 20 years ago what I thought my life would be like when I was 46, I can surely tell you that I would not have said, "I will be a great fat old fart who lives her life diabolically through the internet and spinning"... as a matter of a fact I probably would have wondered what spinning was! In those days I thought my life would be terribly different from what it actually is... and I certainly never thought I would be an ex-patriot Newfy.

No indeed... I was going to save the world.... I was going to work for an NGO in Africa (with a home base in Newfoundland)... I was going to teach people how to help themselves because I knew everything... I knew that my life was there to help those in need. I was so privileged (having come from Newfoundland cause it is such a jewel of a place) that they would only be too glad to say thank you to the help that I could offer.  Now-a-days, I realize that I was carrying around  a very great bulbous ego. I might not have been so overweight but I made up for it in having an over inflated head.  Still, I knew nothing and I'm not a whole lot better now except I recognize the signs of bulbous-headitis when it creeps up on me sometimes.

But those were times of great innocence. I thought I could do anything.... I thought I was important... I thought I had the world by the tail.... because the world was mine for the taking. But though technology has given the world this wee marble aspect... it still is the whole world. Newfoundland, not only the place but the culture and all that was, seems very far away these days... and that makes me sad.

So I sit here way up in the back of beyond and I realize how one phone call can somehow bring it all back... back from the recesses of your mind.... and boom.... there it is, just as real, just as prevalent, just as in your face as it ever was.... a wave cresting and rolling over on itself.... and I wonder how the immigrants to Canada survived knowing that they would never again see their dear ones on the other side of the ocean. But like the wave, it is here now... tomorrow is another day... and tomorrow it will be gone again the ocean will be flat and wave will be just a memory... and I will be caught up in the whirlwind that is my life now. Newfoundland and all that was will be lost in a sea of wool, and animals, and Daughters, and Teapot, and hauling water, and watching over parents.... cause that is what my life is all about now... is it good enough... could there be more to life than this... and does it matter....

Ask me when I'm dead.... I mean, what does any of it matter.

And to Sweet Davey... Teapot will be glad to have a hug from you... he's just that kind of guy! ; )

Reflection can be such a maudlin past-time!