What's Happening!?

Ok so our keyboard is still not working. It's better than it was but it is still acting erratically so I am back to typing on this old piece of sh--! Sucks to be me... oh well might as well get over it.

Spinning: 2.5 tpi done on first try though I still have to wash it and that could change me into a blithering idiot in very short order. I'm tired tonight. Felt like throwing the stupid sample at a wall when I saw that there was a cork screw in it but it is near one end and after I wash it if it is ok then the cork screw will get cut off and I'll still have 11 metres... that'll work. But then I'm not thinking straightly tonight. Why am I so tired, you ask? I was talking to birds all afternoon. (yes I do talk to birds... and generally it is a great conversation... even better than some I have with people!) I was outdoors in the bright spring sunshine enjoying a fire on the deck in the fireplace. It was just too awesome to talk about. I finished the embroidery this morning and it looks great... I am now weaving  the back of the purse and should finish that tomorrow. Then I will weave on the inkle loom a little handle... or maybe on the Marudai I will braid a handle but I won't make that decision until I'm finished everything else since I need to know how much fibre I have left.

The Daughters went for a long walk today in the spring sunshine and took the dogs. They left at 12:30 and by 4:00 I was starting to worry about where the heck they were especially since they didn't have a phone with them. I don't normally worry about them much cause they're pretty good at letting us know where they are or not staying away very long... but there have been cougar  sightings lately in the area and that always is a worry. Teapot says I worry too much and while he's probably right it is hard to stop being a mother hen. Teapot eventually went looking for them and with the snow and three dogs with them they were pretty easy to track. By the time they got home they were all just about ready to fall over. I didn't say much .... but they knew I wasn't pleased... I'm glad they're home safe but they had better not go off without their phone again.... or it will be to the moon.... !!!

I'm so tired tonight that I decided to sit and read on the computer for a few minutes before going to bed early instead of working on the tpi sample tonight any more.... tomorrow is another day. Still when I catch up on all my favorite blogs/websites I realize that I have been letting the world pass me by I even forgot St. Patrick's day this year. My leprechaun stayed out of sight this year. Tomorrow our church is having a pancake breakfast and pancake day was three weeks ago... no wonder I'm mixed up. When I finally look up from all this homework that I'm doing, I won't know where I am or what time of year it is.

Spring is definitely here and tomorrow is swimming day. I'll be heading off with my seniors group for our last swim for the year. April1st the pool is closing for three months for updates on the chlorine equipment.... : ( sad face... but then in 7 more weeks our pool here in HH will be opening for the summer. We have the greatest pool.... and all the better for being an outdoor pool... really it's awesome. I look forward to it.... anyway I just yawned enough to split my head apart... I guess I better toddle off to bed... see ya tomorrow. 

How To Cook Your Computer 101

So I knew something was up when I tried to type here yesterday and all I got was.. 3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
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I wasn't sure what was wrong but knew it had to be something to do with the cup of tea that I tipped all over the keyboard. For now I am using an ancient keyboard from our old computer and it is a monster to use. ThespacebarsucksandIendupwritingsentenceslikethis. Meanwhile the other keyboard is in the oven. Yes you read that right! It was hooped anyway so Teapot went online to fine information on how to clean a keyboard. It told us to run it under water with a little bit of soap. Then rinse with distilled water and heat oven to 150 degrees. When the oven is heated then turn the heat off and put the keyboard in for an hour then remove it from the oven and place is a dry place with a fan blowing on it for 24 hours. It should be ready later today... and I'll be glad if it works cause this thing is dreadful.

In case you couldn't figure it out... that's why I haven't been here for a few days.

This morning I woke up after a really good night's sleep at 6:30 a.m. I decided to get up right away since I was wide awake and didn't want to wake Teapot. By 7:30 I was getting hungry. I decided to make breakfast and take it to the still sleeping Teapot. Half way through making breakfast he came downstairs since the rich brown smells of food cooking awoke him and his stomach. We had home made hash browns with lots of pepper, fried tomatoes (I wish they had been green), fried mushrooms in worchestershire, and a little bit of bacon. With melon and orange juice on the side, all food groups were met. I'm now having tea at the computer... tempting fate once again.

Sorry the picture is not clearer. I couldn't take a better one since we had eaten the food by the time I discovered that the picture sucked. : )

Progress is being made on the front of homework. I have completed another sample for my level 5 homework and I am working on another. I thought I would put a few pictures here this morning to show some of the samples that I have been working on....

This picture shows my knitted sample for the level 3 question for a yarn appropriate for a baby's layette. I love cotton on a baby and especially this colourful yarn that I spun for level 5 dye samples. At the time when I was spinning I actually spun enough extra so that I could make something not thinking that I could use it for this question. So I get to kill two birds with one stone.

This yarn is the yarn that I designed by using the picture of Noah's Ark (see previous post). There is the blue of one single that is in the sky of the Noah's Ark pic. Then the other single is brown linsey woolsey because of Noah's ark and all the grasses that Noah must have had to use on the ark for all the animals. Then I used little bits of cotton to represent the rainbow. And of course this pic does not do it justice. The blue is a combination of blue wool and turquoise bamboo.... and looks really pretty close up. Same for the brown... it is a combination of flax and rust coloured wool.

I love Northern Lights from Louet... I can spin a perfect 1 tpi woolen yarn from it if I don't draft... it gives me one tpi by default.

This is my cabled yarn for level 5.  It needs some fooling around with because it is not quite balanced and it hasn't been washed so it will just need a little more twist.

Then I got mad at my tapestry... and decided it was taking too long so I pulled it all apart and decided to do this instead.It will be a little purse when I'm finished. But so far it is looking great I think. I'm pleased that it is turning out as I had imagined the tapestry would. I will make a strap in Kumihimo braid if I have enough cotton. And I will show pictures when I get it finished.

The cold winter temperatures and the dreadful snow of last week seems to have passed and we are into more  spring-like temperatures. I love it. I am just waiting for the snow to melt from the deck again so that I can go out and enjoy the deck again. It won't be long if the temperatures stay high. Everyone is saying that the snow pack in the mountains is higher than normal so we will have good moisture... at least for the early part of the summer. Teapot and the girls started their March break on Friday. Teapot got up to another day of snow after two solid weeks of precipitation. He was so disgusted that he went to work like this.

The shirt would blind ya I think.... he  made that a good twenty years ago when I was sewing a lot and he wanted to make a really loud outfit.... he succeeded...there used to be orange surfer shorts to go with it... it was really nasty... but I convinced him that the pants should go in the garbage (actually I think they might have made their way into the garbage without his knowing!)

But now that it is 10 a.m. and the sun has finally burned off the fog it is time to go and do some work... hopefully there will be no more glitches with the computer and I will be here more regularly. See ya soon... I hope.

That Was The Plan

Yesterday was a bit of a bust.... I did try to get work done but really didn't manage anything until later in the day at which time Teapot announced that he was going to FSJ to pick up the truck from the dealership again. I got the brilliant idea that after selling our couch over the weekend I would go with him so that we could drop by The Brick and pick up the first installment on our furniture for the sunroom. This proved a bust too since the dealership gave us back our truck alright and even said that it was fixed... and we thought so too... that is until we got half way home. That's when we discovered that the transmission is still bucking when it goes into overdrive at about 62 kph. We have had the truck in to be fixed three times now and we can safely say that we are no further ahead than we were when we started. You can safely say that it will be the last Ford truck or Ford anything we buy since this is the second time that we bought Ford and were severely disappointed. It seems Ford sells nothing but lemons. Sucks to be us. Teapot will have to call again to let them know that the problem has not been fixed and something needs to be done.

Anyway, after we got to the Brick we decided against the apple green chair of our desires since it was not as comfortable as hoped. Instead we bought this one.... only in red....

It reclines... and is soooo comfortable.  I had a chance to really look around the store and I saw many things that I want.... I love furniture shopping. I wish for a whole lot of money so that I could go shopping and buy tons of stuff.... mind you I only have a wee house....so maybe lots of furniture is not such a good idea.

Meanwhile the level 5 homework is yes coming along... I did manage another sample yesterday... this time I have finished my 1 tpi question. I spun a 2 1/2 tpi but it wasn't consistent enough so I will give that a try again today. I started spinning another sample. It is my "design a yarn based on a picture. I am using turquiose bamboo and blue merino for one single... and rusty brown corriedale and flax for the other single and I will be dropping in a rainbow of bits of cotton and it is based on this picture...

I first saw the picture at the Blueberry retreat. It was an astounding 4ft by 6ft mosaic that the kids last summer must have put together to hang on the wall of the dining area... it was very eye catching and so I took a picture of it.... that night while I was lying in bed it suddenly dawned on me that I could design my yarn around that picture.  I will be carrying on with this today and trying to get some more of the bookwork caught up. So you see there is some progress... on all fronts.

Meanwhile Shadow Weave has been barking at my heels for weeks. I had joined the intermediary weaving group of our guild this year and they decided to do a Shadow Weave project.  I agreed to join in which I am now regretting... I might as well be honest. It's not that I don't want to join the people who are doing this project.... it's not that don't like the project... it has to do with the fact that I am short on time. I want to work on my two levels and I am feeling pressure on this project. It's not just put a warp on and weave... it is edges and perfect sizing and getting it right. So I am not as sure that I am going to enjoy it especially when every time I sit down to work on it, I am feeling guilty about not getting my homework for the levels done. Still it did force me to get my loom finally and fully put together and it is now in a place that is easy to get at and I can work freely. So I might try stringing the warp today and at least threading the reed.

Right now there are big flakes of snow falling.  I'm actually kind of glad about that since this has been a very dry winter and the snow will help make the ground a little wetter as spring comes along. Pop said that he passed by a construction site yesterday and the soil that they were digging out for the foundations was very dry and dusty. It is not a good sign. Still, yesterday an the way to FSJ I noticed that the water in the river is very high. when I mentioned this to Teapot he said that I guess all the Hydro people who work at the dam which controls the water levels are saying that the water is extremely high in the reservoir and there is a huge snow pack in the mountains... they are fearful of problems later in the spring when the runoff really begins. So they are running the water high right now. Evidently they will be running the water high all summer. This means that canoeing will be good for those shy of rolling waves but not so good for those who like the rolling waves. It certainly will be hard to find good camping places along the river. But then this is out of my control and so I will not worry about it at all.

And on that note I had better go get some work done since the day is passing and I don't want to wake tomorrow thinking that WAS the plan...

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear!!!

I feel like the rabbit in Alice In Wonderland... you know, the one that is always checking his pocket watch for the time. How has four whole days gone by without my writing... I can answer that one easily... I have been head down and arse up getting work done and I feel satisfied in saying that I am making great inroads into the piles of work which have been languishing for over a month.... problem is I just have gone all over the place and don't know whether my head is down or my arse is up! I am finished the next section of questions in my level five books and written them up and gotten them in the book today. I have decided to leave behind the TPI questions for the time being since they were daunting and really keeping me from doing any work at all. So today I started at the end of the questions and working my way back. No I haven't decided to work on the 50 hour project yet even though that is the very last question.  No I started working on the dye section. Yes I have done work on it before and some of it is done. But very little of it was in my books though the write-ups were done. I had one question that was not done at all and so I decided to sort out the whole mess and get it in the book and looking good. I didn't quite get it all finished but I am making progress there too and to be honest I am very pleased with one question in particular. I had to dye skeins of cotton in the primaries, the secondaries and the tertiary colours of the colour wheel... then I had to make a colour wheel with my skeins and it turned out better than I expected...

The greens in this picture are barely distinct but for some reason I couldn't get a picture that showed that. Then I dyed a section of cotton roving with Procion dyes and that is my first time using fibre reactive dyes. I had to dye a section of cotton roving and then spin a two ply yarn from some of it. I have to say that the colours came out lovely and bright. Cotton can be very dense and does not always take dye well but this was not too bad. Still there were some naturally coloured parts to the roving that I dyed.In the end I was very pleased with the result... it lent the skein I spun some interest.

Here's a little better shot of the yarn I spun...

After I finished what I could of the Dye section I moved on to the section on novelty type yarn through using spinning techniques and I managed a nice 4 ply cable yarn and got it finished. Then I decided to catch up on book work and it will take a little more work to catch up on all the book work that needs to be done.

So the result of all my confounded work is that I am in a terrible tangle because I should have just kept right on going with the tpi questions... now I have spinning from all over the place that are partially in the book and tonight I'm so tired that I can't make heads or tails of it.... On top of all that Daughter #2 is going through a Phantom Of The Opera love stage. She has watched it over and over again and right now she is watching it and to be honest I want to take a baseball bat to the T.V. !! I guess I'm just tired and need a break... so this is my break.

Teapot just made tea and I think I will go put my feet up and drink tea for the rest of the night... and finish my work tomorrow. Yep... now I just have to find a place where I don't have to listen to opera... (I actually love the Phantom Of The Opera... but not tonight)!

So I will try to get back to writing here a little more often even if it means writing about my boring spinning and stuff. ( I wonder if I'll get in trouble for saying that! Eh RG and MF and CJ)! And tomorrow... I will just have to sort out another bit of the mess that is my homework books... when I'm not so tired.

 See ya...

Offline For 24 Hours

We can't quite figure out why but for twenty-four hours we have not been able to use our computer.  I thought that the batteries in the bluetooth keyboard had died but apparently not. This has led to the most unexpected and somewhat disconcerting experiment. I got up today knowing that I wouldn't be able to use the computer.... and yesterday I had finally struggled and man-handled the T.V. and it paraphernalia out to the sunroom but I hadn't plugged it in. This meant that today was a day of forced silence. I quietly sat all day working on level 5 homework. I am making inroads into that but it was so quiet that for a good portion of the day I was able to pretend that I was deaf.... there was barely a sound and no radio to occupy my mind.

Over the years I have wondered if I would be able to survive in the wilderness on my abilities alone and after much deliberation I think I could... but I'm not sure if I would be in as much comfort as I am now. Still, there is a lot to living on one's own and providing for ones needs.  I don't know if I could do it without some access to grocery store even if it meant only twice a year.  I would also need access to medical since when my back flares it's really impossible to do anything without drugs. But otherwise I've always maintained that I could survive if really pushed... After today I would have to say that I might not be so sure of that. I sat here quietly for hours on end and at the end of the day I wonder if I would get used to it and enjoy it or if I would be insane within a week... probably the latter.

As for level 5 I am back in the saddle again after a hiatus of 4 weeks.  I am once again cruising along at a rate of speed that would make even the most experienced spinner jealous... (snork)!!! Well, ok so that's a slight exageration... but I am making progress... no doubt as I go along you will hear about it.  All is quiet right now except for Narmin who is trotting back and forth across the living room hopeful that I will soon be going to bed. He will not go up without me... Teapot has gone and so have the Daughters but in the kitchen is a pot of cotton and some Procion dye doing their thing.... I will be having a quick check on it in a few minutes and then I am headed to bed too.  I might even post pics tomorrow... if it turns out alright.

For now I will say good night and head to bed since the sound of silence (the fridge is quietly running and the clock is ticking but that's all I can hear... except for Narmin...) is beginning to get to me... I'd rather listen to Teapot snore...

See ya...

Perplexing Questions

1. How do you get rid of spring-like temps....

Answer: Blog about how spring is in the air and there are birds twittering and the ground is drying out but that there's still mud everywhere.... yup... that will do it.

2.  Why do farts smell worse in the shower.... (this is Daughter #1's question...)

Answer: I don't know... I try not to smell them...

3. Why are husband's unwilling to help with good questions by reminding you of the lousy question your Daughter asked the night before....

Answer: ???

I'll leave it there since you can tell from this what kind of morning I'm having... I think I'll go back to bed and sleep for a while maybe then I'll wake up and have a better start to my day.

Swimming

Two weeks ago I started swimming with the seniors. I enjoyed it so much that I am headed off again this morning. Last time there were only a couple of other swimming and I basically had the pool to myself for the first hour. The second hour there were more people there but that first hour was awesome. I did 30 lengths of the pool which is almost a kilometre of swimming. After I had finished I got out and went and sat in the hot tub for about twenty minutes. I can only describe it as wonderful. The sun had been shining in full twenty foot high windows over the hot tub and I felt like a million bucks. That's what I'm heading out to enjoy today... no sun though. Today it is cold and grey and -13 degrees... the coldest day we've had for a while. Brr...

I finally have my floor loom ready for weaving... it took getting out all the parts that I hadn't figured out last fall and laying them out on the floor and reading the instructions one step at a time... it worked! I now have a working loom with a beater bar and reed. I'm ready to weave. Yahoo!  I was starting to wonder what I had gotten myself into.... but it's all good. Come summer I will give the loom a nice coat of paint and I've finally decided on a colour.... plum. A plum coloured loom... yep that sounds like me! Just nutty enough... for what... I don't know.

So I've just finished my tea so I guess I better go get dressed and fish out my swimsuit and shampoo and towel etc...

Yep, going swimmin'