Here We Go Again... Friday.... And Other Stuff... Mostly Boring

So... write ups. I'm just about caught up with the write ups... I just have two more to do... Problem: I have run out of plastic paper protectors and double-sided sticky thingies. This is extremely irritating since I am unable to finish any of the write-ups entirely.... I mean I do finish the write-ups but am unable to get them into my book... gotta have the paper protectors, which sucks, 'cause I was right next to a Staples store on Wednesday... I could have got the stuff then... like, how irritating is that. For now I am doing all that I can for each question and setting it in my book in baggies... in the hopes that I can get my supplies soon.

Today I'm spending time spinning merino... I do have those two more write-ups to do but they won't take long. The merino is for my level 3 50 hour project. I will be dyeing that next week. I can't believe that the Blueberry retreat is only a few days away... I'm so excited. It's one of the best times of the year.... My goal while there is to finished the level 3 50 hours project if I can. I will probably bring along my wheel just for comfort.... and evening relaxed spinning. But the goal is the 50 hour project for level three... I will also bring along my scales and the cotton and Bamboo for my level 5 50 hour project... remember the plan to spin for socks?  And I have one other little project that I will bring along... that's cotton for a small project that I dyed in class last summer... I am working on a Sumak tapestry.

This is the drawing that I did while at Olds last summer. It will be the picture that I use for my tapestry.

These are the skeins that I dyed for the tapestry.

And this is the beginning of my tapestry... the first step... string a warp. it will be 6 x 6 inches. Just a wee tapestry... but a wee one is probably all I have time for. 

Oh and here is my constant companion who keeps looking up at me as if he's saying when are we going back to bed.

Not today little guy... too much to do..

I think he is mad at me.  But that's the way it goes. I'm off to get at that merino... I have half a spool to spin and then I have to ply.

I'll be glad to spend the evening with the family....  with, maybe some movies for movie night.

TGIF

Write-ups And Other Stuff

It kind of has been a non-stop day. Finally at 4 p.m. I had to go have a quick snooze after a bad night... (last night was the full moon). After tossing and turning for the first part of the night I finally settled down around 2 a.m. which did not mean I was bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. Then I came down stairs to face a sink full of dishes which I had forgotten to do last night after supper and noticed as I was going to bed. After a "Nah", I headed up to bed... and what did I do, wasted my time trying to sleep.... fooling myself into thinking I was going to fall asleep any time at all... I should have gotten up and done the blamed dishes in the middle of the night... I'd have been better off. Then it was off to FSJ for another flippin' appointment which took all of 7 minutes. 75 minutes driving in for a 7 minute appointment... an expensive lunch at A&W (snork) and another 75 minutes home! What a waste of time.... actually not really but you get my drift... the appointment was necessary I just wish they could have given me an appointment on the same day as the last one, then it wouldn't have been such a waste of time.

In the end, the evening yesterday and the rest of this day has been spent doing write ups for my level 3 homework and I even managed to get a couple of write ups done on the level 5 homework. I'm getting there... so I guess some progress is something to be happy with.

Teapot has departed for a meeting at the school with the Rangers which meant a hurried supper and no radio since Teapot seems to be the antenna these days for the radio which crackles and spurts and hisses when he's not here. Even the radio is complaining because he is away so much. I guess it's just one of those days... you know.... the kind that just seems like you should have slept through it.  (Remember I am part old bear... and sleeping in wintertime comes naturally to us old bears!)

Still the weather around here seems generally moving toward spring... I'm not sure that's good since the snow levels are decidedly down and of course we are always aware that grasshoppers love hot dry summers... and that's usually what follows early springs and winters with low snow falls.

I just read through this and almost deleted the whole works since I sound dreadfully gloomy. But then I took the time to write it so I guess I will post it even though it's not worth a cobbler's cuss.

Anyway, I hope your day is going better than mine and I hope you are not bored and I hope that flippin' big round nightly silver globe is not playing havoc with your tides... and rhythms... and I hope your not having bad events in your life either.... let's just end here and say I hope your day is a whole lot better than mine was... not that mine was particularly bad... just that I hope yours was better.....

Over and out.... till tomorrow when I hope I have had a better sleep and have something more interesting to write about... for heaven's sake are you still here.... go... I'm sure you have better things to do!

Ta ta ( I couldn't resist getting the last word....) ; )

Canada Reads...

My book got nix'd! Poop!

Canada Reads 2012

So.... Grey Again....

What a beautiful day yesterday. Teapot and I went into FSJ for a medical appointment... and the weather fully co-operated. The roads were totally clear and the sun was shining brightly... we got home at supper time.  Before I left I had managed to finish the two samples... the one that I had partially finished the night before and the other one that I hadn't even started... and that was section 3 in the level 3 done. Last night I started on Yak. Now Yak is something I've never spun before so it was a totally new experience.... I had no idea what I was doing. I only had about 30 grams of fibre to work with which isn't a whole lot, so there was no room for screw ups. I started with the Yak blend first and worked my way backwards. Yak and Bamboo was first and it worked but I under-plied it so I will have to fool with it a bit today. Then I did Yak and wool and it tuned out just fine. Then I went to bed. I will have a go at fixing my mistake on the Yak and Bamboo sample today and then I'll get my plain Yak sample done and then I'm not doing another blessed sample until I catch up on my write ups... I swear... I'm not going to spin any more until every bit of book work is caught up!

Teapot and the girls went out the door a little while ago and it was getting light... but then they were late getting ready this morning. Teapot and I never use an alarm clock, but as we get older, I'm finding that we occasionally over sleep... especially at this time of the year when that memory foam mattress grabs on and just won't let go. This morning the river fog has rolled in over the land and everything is a shade of grey. Grey snow, grey frost, even the trees have a grey pallor to them. The hay bales are greyish green and greyish gold and even the alpacas have a coating of frost and have a grey look about them. Certainly not the beautiful day that we had yesterday.... mind you maybe the sun will burn off the fog later.  Here's hoping.

I thought I would leave you with this....

Remeber back in the fall when our friends traveled to Switzerland and I showed this picture...

So picturesque... so lovely.... here's what it looks like this morning......

Now that's an ice sculpture!!! ... and not man made either...

I think they might need a little lock de-icer... : )

I'm off to spin Yak.... and do those flippin' write-ups.

Well... I'll Be Knackered

Whoa....Nelly! What a day yesterday. I got down to it in the morning and finished that whole bag of alpaca/merino rovings.... spun.... and done! I'll do another bag sometime when I have a few minutes but that won't be today.... I have other things planned for today. After I had finished that, I had intended on getting the write-ups done for my silk samples which I didn't get done the day before... But I'll do those this evening and tomorrow maybe instead.... it's all because Daughter #2 wanted to do some work on the computer so I gave up my computer time yesterday afternoon and let her have at it.  Instead I got my question sheet for the level 5 homework out and thought the next section should go fairly smoothly... was I right?.... Damn straight I was! Done thank you very much.... I finished all angora samples last night so I will have to write up those as well. Then Teapot needed to do some computer upgrades on some of the software we have and so while he was doing that last night after supper.... guess what!... I decided to get out the stuff for the next section in level 3..... Burn!!! I finished most of that too! Two sections in one day.... hello.... you are reading the blog of an Olympic spinning champion! (Hee hee... I love exaggerating!)

All fun and craziness aside... I am feeling pretty darn good about getting so much done. Five whole questions in one day... but now I am feeling like I have really fallen behind on the write ups. Today, I will finish the last sample for the 3rd section in level 3 and then I have to go to FSJ this afternoon for an appointment that I cannot get out of.... so the write ups will have to wait till tomorrow. Wednesday I should be ready for Yak! That's the fifth section in level 5. Woo hoo. I'm feeling really good. I want to get the Yak section done by Friday and all write ups done.... then I've got a section to do on weird yarns... spirals, snarls, marls, etc... I would like to have them done before I go to Blueberry... then when I get back I will be facing TPI in both levels.... that's a good way to start March right?

I do have to say that I was really pleased with the angora samples... they are terrific.... very consistent... even if I do say so myself... but my instructor will probably find fault... that's always the way. Still they do look pretty darn good.

So the sky is lightening... and off to the east, there's a lightish blue close to the horizon. It's 8:30 and I can safely say that the days are noticeably lengthening.... I love it. Spring is on it's way.... the birds are making more and more noticeable spring-like noises. Saturday was warm enough to sit out on the deck with a nice warm sweater.... I didn't do it because Pops and Mom showed up for a cup of tea... that's the first time Dad has driven that far since the scare of two weeks ago when his knee swelled full of fluid. It was good to see him mobile again.

It's the 6th of February.... and with all of the above.... things are looking pretty good! As I say that I think I should be knocking furiously on wood.... and I hope Murphy is still out living under the deck... since I kicked him and his plague of dust bunnies out from under the china cabinet he's been less problematic. Still I don't like to speak too loudly since he might hear me and trip me up as I'm leaving the house. One of those days I'm going to catch the wee bugger and get rid of him for good! then I can say all kinds of nice things and feel like I'm not tempting fate.... (Murphy and Fate seem to be holding hands and making out a lot in my neck of the woods!)

So today... I'm off to finish the wool and silk sample that I didn't get plied last night, and then I have one more sample of wool and silk and maybe a little cotton to throw in, and I'll have that other section of level 3 done. Then it's write ups till noon, and then I'm off to FSJ.

Here's hoping that your Murphy had a face plant in a snow bank and is leaving you alone while he nurses his bruises!

Happy day.... this Feb 6th day....

Dull Grey Day Once Again

We've had really awesome weather of late. The January thaw was on us for the last few days of January and the first couple of days of February... but this morning I got up to grey skies overhead and what looks like snow ahead. Yesterday was such a beautiful day and then today is not.... but maybe snow is not the worse thing in the world... we could be having freezing rain which is what the forecasters are calling for in some of our areas.

Yesterday I managed to almost catch up with my write ups.  I even managed to get the section 3 in level 5 done since that was just writing up the Burn test results that we did in class way back in June of last summer. The funny thing is, I decided to use a picture at the beginning of each section of my binder and I got the brilliant idea to use one of the pictures that I took when I burned my level 3 books back in 2010 as the picture for the section divider of the Burn Test. It looks like this....

Somehow it seemed fitting! Yup there are my level 3 book from my first effort going up in flames.... hmmm bright flame, some black and grey smoke..... smells like burnt grass and chemicals.... must be a little cotton, some silk, wool, hmmmm mohair... what else..... yup it's a burn test alright!

I will continue working away on them today and hopefully finish up before the day is over. Yesterday morning I was folding laundry in my bedroom and when I went through the odd sock basket I found a bag of alpaca/merino rovings

that looked so delightful that last night when I finished my write-ups for the night, I sat right down at my wheel and watched two movies while spinning almost the whole 100 grams.... well, I almost finished it... I have about 20 grams left. I will finish that this morning before I get down to the rest of the write ups. Ever since I sold some of my skeins of yarn a few weeks ago I've had it in my mind to spin for selling... I like the idea of selling my yarn so I will carry on doing a little here and there when ever I can. This is what I finished last night...

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself, though I do need to finish up the merino for the 25 shades of logwood before I go to my retreat at the Blueberry on the 15th, and I should be getting that spun.

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the Blueberry Retreat.  I am hoping that I will be able to get cell service so that I can write short things here on my blog while I'm away... however the Blueberry is way out in the middle of nowhere and there may not be cell service.... that's a real possibility. I guess we'll see! I guess I will be taking some of my homework to work on while I'm out at the Blueberry. I was thinking of trying to get all the dye samples done for the level 5 homework... I have most of my dyeing done so it is just a matter of mounting sample and working on a small tapestry. Then there is the 25 shades of logwood.... if that turns out alright I will maybe bring along my loom and get that done too.... maybe not take my spinning wheel at all!  I might actually have to go through detox though! Nope I'm already abandoning that idea. ; )

So today is peaceful and quiet and all is ready for me to go finish that bag of alpaca/merino rovings.... yup.... I hope you're having a nice Sunday too.

See y'all tomorrow....

Black Out

I had started to write here yesterday but then I decided to keep working on my silk embroidery and get it finished so that I could post a picture. Things didn't quite work out the way I planned. It's not that I didn't get my silk embroidery finished.... I did.... but the problem was that I finished it in the dark last night. I had been working away at the embroidery pretty much all day because I had finished all the spinning the night before and I had washed the embroidery yarns and hung them to dry. I knew they would be ready for yesterday morning so that I could get going with the embroidery part of the embroidery.

Diligently I worked away on it all day, starting with the Muga silk and getting the branches of the trees done. I had next used the Bombyx silk and worked the moon but somehow the moon looked like crap and so I took it out again and tried making it bigger. It still didn't look right and in the end I decided not to put the moon in at all.  the face of the owl was the trickiest part but I managed it and as a result it does look like an owl. The cinnamon silk was the last and it was used for just a few stitches on the body to give the owl's feathers some definition. I think it look pretty darn good even if I do say so myself. Have a look and tell me what you think....

It still needs to be pressed because there is a natural crease in the background fabric but for all intents and purposes It is finished and I think I like it just as well as the original Chickadee that I did way back when... Honestly I can't tell you how pleased I am with it.

Meanwhile as I was working on the body of the owl last night there was a very loud pop and everything went black. So for the next three hours we had no power. I had to finish the owl embroidery by the light of my head light.... (you know... I had one of those flash lights that is attached to an elasticized strap and you wear it on your head.)Finally at about 10:30 last night just as we were heading back to bed on came the furnace and the power and lights came back on in very short order.

So except for the silk Mawata which I will do next week after I get some more silk cocoons... (finally found them among my stash but there were only six left so not enough for my Mawata)... the silk section for the level 3 homework for all intents and purposes is finished. Today I will do all the write ups and then I will move on to the next section.

It feels really good to move onto another section. I feel like I am making real progress. So I will end here and I will head off for a day of write-ups and I might even get started on some more stuff for the levels tomorrow.

Have a great weekend...