Blueberry.... Jumping Excitment In The Tummy Region and Other Stuff

Ok... the count down is on.... Monday.... Tuesday..... Wednesday.... BLAST OFF! I'm getting a little excited. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm really going without my spinning wheel. I don't know.... I can't make up my mind... I think it will be a last minute decision. Really I should leave it behind and that will force me to do what I need to do... which is dyeing... and weaving.... and tapestry.... and weighing... NOT SPINNING. Errr.... not sure though if I can do it.... am I strong enough to leave the wheel behind! We'll have to wait and see.

Wool Basket Fighting 101:
When my good friend Anita passed away two years ago, her family came to clean out her house and when they had sorted through everything there were several things that they thought I might like to have.  So I headed over to have a look at all that Anita had left. Among the stuff was a largish basket that she had used for putting her clean and picked wool in. This was great because I love baskets plus this one had poignant meaning for me since I had seen it every time I had gone to her house for a cup of tea. I brought it home and sat it in my living room and a few weeks later when we had our summer dyeing retreat I filled the basket with unspun wool that I had dyed. It wasn't very long before my old black cat Midnite discovered the comforts of the wool basket. He took ownership of it quite quickly and so now we refer to it as Midnite's basket. In the bottom of the basket is the same pile of wool that I had dyed at that retreat. It is now squashed down and somewhat felted and it is covered in black cat hair. Recently the wee kitty has decided that she likes the basket too. So now each morning the two cats have a fight over who will get to sleep in the basket.

The fight will go something like this... Midnite will come into the house, after a night outside on the town. He will have his breakfast and then head for his basket with the expectation of a long and fruitful day of sleeping and coziness... but then shortly after he settles down the wee kitty, (Little Monster, and never was a kitty more aptly named) will come along and bat at Midnite's head. This will progess to licking Midnite's ears and then slowly she will ooze her way into the basket, dislodging Midnite from the basket in the process. Midnite will proceed to his bowl to have a look and see if he left any crunchies there acting as if he meant to vacate the basket all along. Then he will sit in the middle of the living room looking more and more like a thunder cloud as time goes by. Meanwhile the kitty will settle into the basket of wool as if she is the Queen of Sheba.  Finally, after an half an hour of missing his basket of wool, Midnite will go over and stare at the kitty in the basket for a while. This will then progress to Midnite licking the kitty's ears and so the cycle begins but with opposite cats doing the kicking out. Over and over this scene plays itself out until about mid way through the morning Midnite (who is a much fatter cat) will promptly get fed up with the whole business. At that point, diplomacy will frankly end and he will sit on the kitty's head.t  This puts an end to such shinanigans as the kitty will indignantly remove herself from the scene and go sleep on Daughter #1's bed. I get a great kick out of watching the fight each morning. It is a quiet fight. No cats make any sound... they just diligently go about their business asserting who is top dog cat. So far there is no real contest... Midnite wins by weight alone... but as he gets older I think there will come a day when Little Monster may take the trophy. Meanwhile I have given up on ever spinning the wool at the bottom of the basket... 'cause I know that as the human in the house, there is just no contest. The basket belongs to the Cats and as a result everything that is in it too.

Whitney Houston:
So sorry that such a beautiful voice has been lost to us... though I think in reality her voice was lost to us long before this... so sad to see the slow denigration of this lovely lady... so much to live for... so much thrown away... perhaps now she will find the peace her life never afforded.

Awake?... Wide?.... What Does That Mean?!

So here I sit at 25 minutes to eight. Teapot and Daughter #1 have left for the school. Teapot won't be long but Daughter#1 is off for a day of down hill skiing. She is going with the JCRs. Teapot decided to stay home today. I think he has been feeling like he's been away enough in the last few weeks. My eyes are having a really difficult time staying open. Why am I up... mostly because I was having terrible dreams.... disturbing and confusing. I opted to get up as daughter #1 was leaving... (I wanted to give her a kiss good-bye). I'm so thankful that Daughter #1 is quite comfortable with mummy displays of affection. Most teenagers in my experience want nothing to do with a kiss from their mothers. But I force a kiss on Daughter #2 while Daughter #1 is quite alright with it each and every night... and before they leave the house in the mornings too. The other reason I'm up is because that blasted dog next door has decided that Saturday morning needs to be disturbed with a good bark. (I really am learning to hate that f$@#%$#ing dog!)

So for all intents and purposes, I have made inroads into the merino spinning. There were moments of panic when I went to get the two spools yesterday and forgot where I had put it. A half hour of frantic searching almost sent me to the hospital! However, I found it eventually, exactly where I had put them, in a knitting bag for safe keeping. (I'm really going to have to start writing stuff down if this forgetfulness continues.... mind you it was months ago.) I have also made great inroads into the tapestry. I stated balling all the little skeins of yarn yesterday and then decided that my warp was just too open. So I took off the warp and rewarped the whole thing so that my warp would be closer together. I have an inch done almost all the way along the bottom. Today I will stick with the merino since I need to have that finished by Wednesday... and the tapestry can come along as one of my wee projects. I am wavering back and forth.... should I... should I not take my spinning wheel. Am I nuts.... am I not nuts..... wheel... no wheel. I am definitely taking my loom. Thursday will be dyeing... and I could work on my tapestry.... Friday will be warping the loom and weaving. Saturday will be weaving... I could bring knitting and the pin loom for Sunday.... hmmm. Wheel or no wheel.... I can't imagine going to the Blueberry without it. But it really is a good time to force myself to get these other necessary things done. Oh I don't know what to do. I could bring my scales too and start weighing out the fibre for my level 5 50 hour project.... then I definitely shouldn't bring my wheel. But I might fall over from the DTs!!! I better bring my wheel..... oh shit... help!

I just finished one of my Christmas books. It was a murder mystery called Dyed In The Wool. It was good ... as murder mysteries go... not really my thing but I did get into it after a while. I guess the author is writing a series of murder mysteries... the murder is situated in a wool shop and then the rest of the book involve the same characters... with a bit of a love interest between the wool shop owner and the investigating officer, well I can safely say that it read... well ok. I certainly couldn't give it a two thumbs up... maybe a one and a half. (Not sure how I'd do that... especially when I only have one thumb to begin with.)

Well, Teapot has just walked in the door... and hurrah.... the dog next door seems to be settled down... I'm going back to bed with the dear one.

See ya tomorrow.

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....