OMG There's The Light!!!

I just finished the second last question in level 5. This has been a really really productive day. I just have to spin a Snarl yarn... just the sound of if makes me want to get snarly. My spiral yarn came off quite nicely... but it did take five samples to get one I was satisfied with. The flake yarn came together perfectly first try.... but considering how flakey I am that doesn't surprise me. Then I did the marl yarn which turns out to be nothing more than a barber pole... easy. Then I just spun the two singles for my designer cellulose yarn... I and doing a marly flakey celulose yarn in cotton and bamboo for that.... odd I know but then it is a designer yarn.... it's supposed to be odd. I am so glad to be at the end... just a few write ups over the weekend and then the fifty hour project.... I could work all next week and be done in no time at all.... woo hoo!

My new scales just arrived since my weigh scales for my yarn have been giving me trouble since the dog knocked them over and they hit the floor with a resounding crash... that was back during the winter. Sometimes when I order scales through the mail I feel sort of odd you know like I'm some kind of drug dealer... if people only knew that my precision scales are for weighing wool.... snork... it's rather funny the thought that I might be weighing anything else.... of course I'm weighing wool.

I'm off... I'm going to finish that cellulose fibre yarn which will take all of twenty minutes to ply and then I will be dealing with snarls.

: \ This is my snarly face!

Yep... I finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

All Kinds Of Alternatives

"With cells and computers and iPads and laptops in this house some damn thing must work!" I said to Teapot in frustration. So the dear boy told me that there were alternatives. I could hook up his laptop to my cell phone if I wanted internet which really made me happy because on a laptop I can write here and actually have the return key recognized. That means paragraphs are recognized and poetry doesn't just run all together and it means being able to fix my spelling mistakes. It also means that I can include pictures! This makes me very happy. Still I will be glad when we get our computer running again. With Teapot needing his laptop at school it means working on the blog when it's convenient for him.... which can be slightly irritating.

So what has been going on around here since the fiasco of computer irritability?  Well, to begin with March break has come and gone and so has Easter. Spring is here with a Shazam! The crows are around here picking through the hay stack looking for the perfect piece that will coax the female to come hither if you know what I mean. The alpaca poo is drying out which is always a good thing since when it dries out the smell is not quite so potent. I am now waiting for the first robin to show itself because to me that is the sign that the ground has thawed and the worms are moving... a great sign that spring is fully on the move. There are still patches of snow in the shady places but that is it.... nary a bit to be seen anywhere else.

Meanwhile level 5 homework is progressing satisfactorily... I spent most of Easter week spinning t.p.i. questions

There they are in all their glory.

2.5 t.p.i.

3 t.p.i. in Lincoln

5 t.p.i. in silk

6 t.p.i. in medium wool

7 t.p.i. in cotton

8 t.p.i. in my choice of fibre and I chose merino wool.

10 t.p.i. in merino

I'm almost finished except for a few snarls, marls, flakes, and write ups and of course that 50 hour project.... but I'm hoping to that by Monday I will be working on the 50 hour project with everything else behind me. My goal: to finish level 5 by the end of April.... then I need to focus on what's left of level 3. And surprisingly that's been coming along too. I have been working on the t.p.i. questions for that too... so once that's behind me the worst is over. I look forward to getting 12 t.p.i. done and 15 t.p.i. done. These still look like sh-- well you get my drift.

Teapot has finished our taxes so that is one nasty spring job behind us. Next thing we have to work on is our alpacas. They will be sheared, trimmed, and given shots the first week of May, then they will be allowed back out on spring pasture.... I'm sure they will be happy to eat grass again after so many months of hay but at least it was good hay this year.

So that's it from this small farm in the North. I am off to get laundry ready to go to my mother's and father since the pump in the washer finally died completely and it leaks all over the place. There's been nothing funny to talk about for such a while now... except that Teapot tells me that I was laughing in my sleep last night. I did sort of vaguely recall waking up and thinking that something I had been dreaming about was hilarious.... but for the life of me I can't remember what in the heck it was.... still there's something vaguely humorous about umbrellas this morning.... but it's all so surreal... honestly I don't know what that was about.

The sun is out and my spinning wheel awaits... i'm off so I will wish you a wonderful day.... a wonderful spring day.... see ya

Here There And Everywhere

So I'm sitting here waiting for the water to warm up in the hot water heater. I have friends coming today for a day of spinning and taking no doubt! Sue and Debbie are coming and Carol who is my HH spinning buddy. March/Easter break is over and things get back to normal around here only chaos is the new normal around here. Finally the dealership called to say that they had fixed the truck yesterday. Teapot drove in to get it. Now it is worse than it ever was! So this is it. The riot act gets read today with threats of lawyers! Meanwhile the washer leaks like a sieve and Daughter #2 went out of here this morning in her sister's jeans because hers were all dirty. It's her own fault because most of her jeans are crumpled in a heap on the floor of her room. They could have been taken to Mom's and washed there if she had managed to put them in the laundry basket! Silly girl. Car won't work... Washer won't work... And computer is on the fritz. Meanwhile the sunroom is littered with Icelandic fleece as I try to spin a satisfactory woollen yarn. I hope the water is warm by now because if it's not then that means the hot water tank didn't run out due to too many showers, it means that that' on the fritz too!

An Ode To The Earless Bunny

When children play and search for that symbol of life, The oval of new life, And mother nature reminds us of all things green and growing, of new life and new love, and hope eternal, Then we too return to our roots of youth. Oh happy Easter, when earless bunnies shall prevail, Oh joy divine, This sunlit day when all pleasure is in the brightness and charm of earth's slow rotation toward light, Is not this day the best day of all? Happy Easter to one and all! May your ham be cooked well and your turkeys be tasty and through it all you remember how lucky we are to live in this great world of warm winds and spring-like brightness... And if you are one of the unlucky ones that is enjoying the last vestiges of winter may your pain be of short duration. I'm off to enjoy the ears of my bunny... And I might even brush out the real one.... ; )

I'd Rather Be.... Not Spinning!!!

I am sitting here so po'd with spinning at this moment that I have decided that I need a real break from it... By real I mean more than a few minutes. I have been spinning all day today and all day yesterday trying to get an illusive 12 t.p.i. skein of yarn and I am getting nowhere fast. I break it midway through plying it...this is a big no no! I get 10 t.p.i. Or 9 t.p.i. But not 12 t.p.i. and I am certainly NOT having fun! I have to say that I really hate these high t.p.i. yarns. I keep wondering who in their right mind would want a yarn that has such high twist. I will give it one more try tonight. If I get it, great! If not, then I will set it aside for now and stick with level 5 homework. I have been trying to get this yarn with silk so I will try with cotton and see if that is any better. Actually I was just thinking that I enjoyed sweeping dirt on the floor from the dog's paws better than spinning right now. You know it's bad when! *I'm using this little star to signify a new paragraph since yesterday's try at making paragraphs with Daughter #2's iPad was an abysmal failure. *Easter is going quietly this year with dinner at Mom and Pop's house tomorrow. Teapot has been finishing some panelling in the bathroom upstairs and after try #4 of spinning a 12 t.p.i. I decided a nice walk in the spring air was a necessity. Out I went into the beautiful sunshine with my ever faithful companion Narmie... and the kitten who went for a walk too. She is now in heat... Another f-ing cat with blinking pregnancy issues! Once again we are caught in the cycle of kittens. But I'm determined to get them aborted if I have to. It's off to the veterinarian on the 16th. A great birthday gift to me. Payday and a day waiting for the kitten to get her ovaries removed... But at least I can go shopping while I wait. Hmmm... maybe a cat at the vet's won't be so bad after all. *I have been listening to CBC radio and find that the budget cuts to CBC are horrible. Still, sometimes I wonder if CBc has diversified too much. Maybe we could do without CBC 2 and just have CBC 1 radio and the T.V. Station. Would that not solve some of the problem? Meanwhile Harper is cutting funding to libraries across the country and the first thing cut is free Internet access to those who need it...and who needs it most? Well... I would say that it is the poor.... those who cannot access the Internet from home. Then there is the roll back to 67 for the Old Age Pension. I'm now not going to get a cent until I'm 67. Sucks to be me! And if I was truly relying on it I sure would be really ticked. But then I might not have to worry about it if I pop off early! Anyway CBC radio was interesting for the most part though I thought the stupid program about obsessive behavior was odd especially when they interviewed the guy who thought that all food fell into one of two categories. one category was dirty food and the other was.. You got it...clean food. An example of clean food was a squished hamburger and sushi. Peanut butter came into the category of dirty food! That was enough for me.... I turned of the radio but not before hearing the interview about the fellow who had a pencil sharpening business. he obsessed about beautifully sharpened pencils... Like they are art... Ok that was weird too. So now I'm listening to world music on my iPhone. Lovely. *I hope your Easter is full of flowers, chocolate,and hugs... 'cause what's life without a few hugs?

Writing From My Daughter's iPad

Ok this works a whole lot better than trying to type from my phone. I will have to borrow her iPad and then save my pennies and buy one for myself. I definitely like this darn wee thing. It is great. I wonder if blogger will recognize paragraphs from this thing! Ish all give it a try. OK so this is a new paragraph. I won't know if this works until I post because I can put the paragraph in in the draft but then when I hit post the paragraphs disappear. Still, if I can make this work it would be great. Now I think I will try posting a picture from this thing. Ok, I can't figure that thing out! That was just plain weird. Maybe I will have to get someone to help me figure that out. I like this little thing though. It's really sharp! Tell me what you think.... And let me know what is your technology thingy that you like best. Meanwhile I'm off to spin a 12 t.p.i. See ya...

Virus(cont.)

By the way... When I post from my phone I for some reason can't do paragraphs. And May near the end of the previous post should have been capitalized. And sorry I won't be responding to comments until I get my computer fixed!!!