Several Things At Once

Teapot just left. He's off for the next eleven days to Cochrane, Alberta for an opportunity of herding kids through leadership activities for the JCRs. There will be some 30 kids from age 16 - 18 who will be doing mountaineering, repelling, kayaking (in white water I might add), as well as wilderness biking skills training. In addition, each individual JCR will be assigned a group and that group will have to come up with a challenging activity that they will have to lead and organize. It is an awesome camp. Daughter #1 will be eligible to apply to go some day.... I hope she gets a chance.

As Teapot headed out the door, it suddenly dawned on me that he was taking his camera with him. This, under normal circumstances, would not be a problem but mine has died and I actually took some photos yesterday, on his camera, of things that I wanted to post here and unfortunately he is gone with them still on his camera. You see yesterday was a lovely day, which you will see as you continue to read.

I have been struggling with the summer idleness of the Daughters and finding it difficult to cope with. But yesterday I got that in hand by having a heart to heart with them. (I kicked them out of bed by 11 a.m.). We discussed things that they could be doing during the summer instead of reading incessantly. So Daughter #1 called her friend and headed off for a full afternoon of riding and visiting with her friend. Dreamer, her horse got a good workout and Daughter #1 didn't laze around all day. Daughter #2 called her friend and they went hiking the creek that runs along the edge of the subdivision that we live in. They both came home thoroughly worn out which is how teenagers should feel at the end of a day in summer. Part of that heart to heart discussion was that I also have decided to put them to work for me.

Now here I have to do a little explaining. First of all Teapot and I did a big re-evaluation of our lives in the spring and we both decided that the carding mill that I had bought was not part of it nor are my sheep. The sheep drive us crazy as they are way more demanding than the alpacas. (They baa all the time even at night and when it is summer and you sleep with the window open this is a miserable affair). With the sheep, you have to bend over in order to shear while the alpacas will allow themselves to be wrestled onto a table making two people with terrible back issues much happier shearing alpacas than trying to shear those sheep on the ground. I have decided to keep a very small flock of sheep and only breed enough to keep my family fed with lamb. I have chosen seven sheep to keep. (I have 24 right now!) I sold the mill with the intention of fencing more of our property so that I could better feed the animals I have. Hay is at a premium price and now we have the added problem that our usual supplier will not be able to supply us any hay at all this year... so we are scrambling and trying to find another supplier. This is not proving to be easy. We may have to butcher all of our sheep. (This would really bother me though since there are several that I really like). When we did this re-evaluation of our lives Teapot and I admitted that we are not getting younger and choosing the way for our lives for the next ten years will mean looking forward with some serious foresight. I do not want to spend the next ten years of my life in some dark shed (which is where the mill would have to go) washing, carding, and prepping fibre for other people. The thoughts of large equipment that is loud and dirty is not really appealing.

It was while I was on my way home from Olds that I had a better idea of what I wanted to do with all the wool and alpaca fibre that I have lying around. One of the things that I have noticed about prepared fibre is that more often than not it is over processed. (Mill processed is sometime overprocessed). There is something really nice about knowing what was used to wash the fibre that you are spinning. Besides, hand prepared fibre has a nicer feel. It has not been treated with harsh chemicals and it has not been stretched, or be man handled in any way. So I thought based on that, that perhaps I wasn't the only one out there with this thought, and if there were others out there like me... that hand washed and prepped fibre might be appealing to a niche market. So, I want to start a little business for myself which I will call Heritage Fibres where I will prep the fibres the old fashioned way.... that is where the Daughters come in.... the Daughters can help for a take of the profits.

Prepping and washing fibre is not a job for the faint of heart. The finer the fleece the more time it takes to clean.... you do not want the stuff to be felted in the process. So the Daughters and I are going to work today to prep, wash, comb, dye, blend, etc... all fibres and blends that I deem fit. Believe me I have plenty of fibres to handle.

In the meantime, yesterday I finished spinning a pile of fibre for the dyeing retreat coming up this weekend. I spent the whole day out on the deck having fun (this brings me back to yesterday being a great day) and while I was there I had a visit from a Hummingbird. I thought this was wonderful since the Hummingbirds have not been coming around as much since the weather has turned dry and windy, but after all the rain we had two days ago, they seemed to be happy to come to the pots of flowers on the deck for a visit. One little fellow got quite ferocious and landed on the rope that holds the tarp covering the deck in an effort to stave off any other marauding Hummingbirds that might want to come to check it out for food. He was quite a chubby little fellow and I decided to name him Dim Sum. He was there for over an hour, braving the dogs and cats, and would hover at times, quite close to me before going back to land on the rope. I did have pictures of him but those are the ones that Teapot has departed with.

I finished plying all that yarn I spun yesterday on the deck and this morning, while I was plying I kept looking at my 8 t.p.i. skein of yarn hanging on my Lazy Kate that I had spun last week, you know... the one that I was most satisfied with.... after looking at it for hours yesterday, I have decided it sucks and I need to redo it!

So call me crazy, call me camera-less, call me Teapot-less, call me business woman with a hopeful idea.... but don't you hate it when I cover several things at once?

It's just sooo confusing.....

Rain At Last

Yesterday, in the evening, the storm clouds rolled in.... which has been fairly normal for the last few weeks... but there was never any storm.... until last night. The thunder and lightning raged and then rain came down in torrents. I was so happy to see rain after such a long interlude of dry on seasonably hot temperatures. I went to bed listening to the sound of the rain on our tin roof and the sound of thunder in the distance with a bright flash of lightning every so often. It was a lovely thing and a more peaceful sleep I never had.

This morning I woke at 5 a.m. and the beauty of outside beckoned to me.... I had to get the camera.....

It's nice to see a wet footstep on the deck again after so many months of dry wind.

This was the scene as I looked out the kitchen window... it's all so wonderfully wet!

Even the chopping block was hidden in dew and fog.....

The fog has been drifting in and out of the trees as I sit here writing..... in....

out.....
I hope the grass begins to grow again.... everything is so dry.... a few days of this would be lovely....

I had forgotten how soothing moisture in the air is....

A Kayak A Day... (Or A Canoe)

We went to Cameron Lake yesterday where Teapot's school district owns an outdoor education centre. We decided to take the girls and let them try out the kayak. We spent the afternoon teaching them the rudiments of kayaking and teaching them how to get out of a kayak if they roll it. They both had to roll the kayak and get themselves out without fear or frustration. They did really well and were able to get out no problem.... emptying the kayak was another story..... Teapot had to help dump out the water. After they had their lessons we all decided to go for a paddle down to the other end of the lake.... half way down we passed the campground on the other side of the lake and discovered friends camping there for the weekend... so we stopped for a short visit and then carried on our way. The Daughters were in one canoe and we were in another and the kayak was back at the Ed Centre.... we had a lovely time.... we even trained Jiggs to sit in the canoe without jumping out after beavers and drowning herself. Here are the pictures from our day on the lake.....


Cameron Lake with storm clouds moving in..... but it didn't storm.

Daughters #1 and #2 coming behind us and doing an adequate job of steering...


Daughter #2 looks like she is going to hit Daughter #1 over the head..... hmmmm.
Look at those hard working faces....


Almost there......
Even Tootsie the wonder chicken herder took a sail.....

Jiggs was sitting on the shore after her ride with Teapot and I.... she did really well for a dog that has never even swum before....
While we were loading the canoe onto the truck Daughter #1 took the kayak out for another go around....

I think she really enjoyed the kayak..... we had a hard time getting her to get out and let Daughter #2 have a try....

There she goes......

I thought she did really well... good form and all.....

Daughter #2 stayed back and helped load the canoes and then played with Tootsie while we waited,..... and waited,..... and waited..... for Daughter #1 to come back.... it was almost dark before she came back.

After a long day we were finally loaded up and Tootsie decided to sit on the dashboard to ride home....


We had been out there most of the day and supper consisted of popcorn and chocolate covered raisins because we were having such a lovely time that we didn't want to go home and get supper and shorten our day on the lake. Not the best supper in the world but sometime a silly supper like that is good when you're having fun.

So I think we should forget that old adage, "an apple a day" ..... and say instead.... "a kayak a day".... or "a canoe a day".... It sure made me feel better...

I'm Still Trying

I'm just about bonkers.... I just tried the next question you know the 12 tpi and I've got a lovely 10 tpi! Ok... so I quit for a little while. It has become too stressful to continue on these stupid questions. I think I deserve a break after fours days and really struggling to get these questions done. Next weekend is the retreat the big annual dyeing retreat and so I have decided to spin some nice relaxing BFL so that I can work on my dye samples for the level 4 homework.

I have to be honest, I'm really looking forward to the retreat.... the last week has been ...difficult, so a bit of relaxation is well overdue. Teapot and I have bought the Daughters kayaks and we are supposed to be heading off to a nearby lake for a couple of weeks of pleasure and teaching the girls the rudiments of kayaking. We will take our old tent trailer, which is one step above tenting but only barely, and our canoe and the two kayaks. But first Teapot is heading off to Cochrane for the annual camp for JCRs. He is leaving on Monday and is gone for eleven days. He is looking forward to it. Eleven whole days where I am not nagging at him about finishing some of the work that needs to be done. We .... well I should say I, really wanted to get the new roof on the electrical shed.... the metal has been sitting there since last summer and I really wanted the downstairs bathroom finished but more and more I'm starting to realize that if I want these things done I will have to hire someone. Teapot just does not have the time or the inclination (particularly the inclination) to do any of that kind of work.

Quite a few things on the house renovation never got finished last year and it is looking more and more like it will be another year before any of it gets finished. Very aggravating actually.
Here are a few of the things that I was hoping to see finished this year....

1. new tin roof on electrical shed.
2. new tub (from last year) in downstairs bathroom finally working
3. steps to the deck moved into place and set in concrete
4. painting of the deck and veranda finished
5. Daughter #1's room have the last tiny piece of wall board put up
6. Daughter #2's room clear coated.
7. The sun room exterior siding put on
8. some of the electrical work finalized (so we don't get electrocuted)

These were the main things but there are other jobs, like the wall paneling in all rooms, the kitchen pantry finished, the flooring in the living room, (because we are still living on plywood floors). Not to mention the new venting for the downstairs bathroom because it has become a problem to flush the toilet and we think it is due to inadequate venting.

So not only am I still trying to do my skeins of yarn, I'm still trying to coax Teapot to finish the pile of work that there is around here.

I guess I'll keep trying.....

Mwa hahahahaha!

I am now finished my 1 tpi... my 4 tpi... and my 8 tpi....

It took 21 tries to get my 8 tpi right and what they didn't tell me in class is just how to figure out grist (thickness of the yarn)... now if there was a formula for that we would have her knocked.

All I knew going into this exercise were the formulas for figuring it all out.... like this....

Step 1
twist per inch in singles = [t.p.i. in doubles x (# of plies +1)] divided by the # of plies

so I want a 8 t.p.i. in a 2 ply yarn....

t.p.i.(s)= 8x(2+1) divided by 2..... which equals...
8x3 divided by 2....
24 divided by 2.....=12
so my tpi in the singles is 12

... but now I need to know how many treadles to get this amount of twist in my singles

Step 2
# of treadles = t.p.i.(s) x length of draft divided by the ratio

length of draft for you guys that are not spinners, is the length of your comfortable draft for whatever type of yarn you are spinning... I generally use a 1.5 inch draft for a worsted and a18 inch draft for a woolen.

and the ratio is the difference between the number of time your flyer turns to one revolution of your wheel..... I have several but I usually use my 6.

so based on these figures the formula would go like this...

# of treadles = 12 x 1.5 divided by 6
# of treadles = 18 divided by 6
# of treadles = 3

So now that I figured that out I would sit at my wheel and spin a single at 3 treadles per every 1.5 inches of fibre that I drafted...

easy right?

then when I had spun a single that was at least 15 yards I would do the same thing again only on a different spool.

So now I have two spools of fibre spun into singles at 12 t.p.i. (s).

What do I do to put these together.....

Step 3

Well the generally accepted rule is to ply at 2/3 your singles so mine would be 2 treadles for every 1.5 inches of plying.

But my length of draft is longer for plying than for spinning....
so let's figure that out.

My plying length of draft just happens to be 15 inches.....

so 15 divided by 1.5 = 10

if my treadling for the singles length of draft of 1.5 is 3 and then my treadling would be 2/3 of that so 2 in the ply but I need that spread out over a 15 inch draft so I would multiply 10 x 2 and get 20

I would treadle 20 times every time I draft out 15 inches of my two singles......

are you with me? I probably left a lot of you back somewhere around "what's grist"!!!!

Bare with me......

Now the problem is that this works only if you have the right grist... and generally the right grist rule is that the higher the tpi the smaller the grist.

Yes well that's not a lot to go on......

My questions ask for a 1 tpi, a 4 tpi, a 8 tpi, a 12 tpi and a 15 tpi... my default yarn is a 4 so doing a 12 and a 15 is a real stretch.

12 is thread and 15 is micro thread...... and I can't wait to get this done. I am using a merino/silk blend with the hopes that the silk will give this very fine thread a bit of strength.

My 1 tpi was fat. My 4 tpi was normal slightly lighter than worsted weight yarn, my 8 tpi was equal to a embroidery floss and my 12 tpi will be equal to sewing thread and heaven only knows what the 15 tpi will be like..... probably around BARELY ABLE TO SEE THE DA-- STUFF!!!

But I at least have 3 out of 5 samples done..... and a whole bunch of samples that are just not fine enough..... good enough and I can't use them....

Try doing all this and coming away with a nicely balanced yarn...

If I'm not back in a few days you know I lost it and they carried me away in a straight jacket......

Mwa hahahahahahahahahahaha.......!!!!

Further Up And Further In

Anyone who is familiar with C.S. Lewis, will recognize those words from the Narnia series where in the Last Battle, Lucy is told by Aslan to go "further up and further in" after the door to old Narnia has closed and Lucy finds herself in the new Narnia... the real Narnia. I always think of that passage as a little bit of heaven of which, C.S. Lewis had some insiders knowledge. The new Narnia is more beautiful, is more colourful and vivid... in a way more real than the old Narnia. It is the true place of "being".

Today my dear friend Anita has begun her journey "Further Up and Further In" and ended her journey here in this place.

Thirteen years ago when I moved to this little community a little white haired lady took me under her wing after my first guild meeting, and helped me buy my first fleece... helped me become the fibre addicted freak that I am today. I've never looked back.

She and I have spent many a sunny day sitting on either her deck or mine picking tags, or stewing a pot of woad. We have shared many cups of tea while our spinning wheels rattled away. We've discussed all manner of sheepy things and the aspects of what makes a good yarn. We have in essence been conspirators of our art.

In recent years Anita has battled one bout of cancer after another. Breast cancer first, then bowel cancer next, and finally breast cancer again.... the thing is that cancer never got in the way of a good yarn... you know the kind you knit with. Even on her worst days she always had time for a little spinning and a little knitting. She made awesome Icelandic sweaters.... one after another, some of them with all natural yarns hand spun on her wheel or on her electric spinner, some of them with wools she had dyed from things she had picked on her daily walks. It was nothing to turn down the road she lived on and see her in a ditch with a basket over her arm filled with Mare's Tail or slips of Alder... and God help you if you didn't know the latin name. She would hunt down onion skins from the grocer in town. Always she was fearless in her hunt for a good dye.

Fleece excited her like candy for a child.... a good fleece could never be passed up. I once turned in her driveway to find her with a cheeky grin and a wool bag that had been dropped off at her house by a farmer she had met on her last trip south. She had evidently seen some black sheep in a field as she was driving along and so decided to "drop in" and meet the shepherd of the flock, thereupon, befriending the couple and soliciting a promise to save her the fleece from the blackest one. Unbeknownst to her, they showed up some months later, with their whole clip, some thirty something fleeces all stuffed in one giant burlap bag. It was just as they had left that I came upon her with this giant bag in her front yard, bare foot, and thinking she had stolen the cat's cream.

We have traveled all over this country together, taking our craft to local schools to show children of all ages, what once went into the very important task of covering ourselves for warmth. I remember one young fellow asking what she was doing and she responding, "I'm spinning yarn out of wool from a sheep," and when he responded with the question "Why?" she looked at him as if he was the most ridiculous thing in the world and said "What do they teach you kids in school?" She didn't suffer fools lightly and anyone who didn't show interest in the craft was certainly a fool!

As she entered her eighties her stamina for woolly workshops began to ebb. She would come to them but only if they were short ones. This last two years, she has been unable to "make it through" any workshop at all and so I began to travel to those workshops without her. But always when I got home I would have her over for a cup of tea and an opportunity to talk "shop".
And so it was last week, when I returned from Olds, that I went by to see my old friend. She had been declining in the last month and she knew her time was coming to a close, so before I left for Olds, she had said to me to make sure I came by when I got back to see her and to show her what I had learned. She greeted me from her bed with a sad smile on her face and said in a tired voice, "Frankie, I don't think I'm long for this world. Tell me all about your trip to Olds and show me what you bought." So I did.... and we had one last lovely visit.... two days later she was in a coma-like-state.

I like to think that my friend is "further up and further in" with natural dyes that never fade, with woolly sheep of every colour as far as the eye can see, with a shearer right there on hand, with a spinning wheel that is well oiled a doesn't clunk or bang and hands that are steady, hips that don't ache, and eyes that are clear as the big blue sky....

Rain Rain Come Again Any Day

It's overcast but still really warm... every time it clouds over these days we sit with baited breath for those pearly drops of moisture to hit the roof... a merry drumming that would make us all happy, happy, happy. It is dry.... really dry... scary dry. We have no grass. It died a couple of weeks ago. The flowers on my deck are ok because I water them but when you get heat like this for prolonged periods then it becomes disastrous. I am glad we didn't plant a garden this year as anything we planted would have dried up ages ago and would have been horrifying to watch. It is so dry that it is beginning to look like fall. The trees have begun to turn golden and if we don't get rain soon we will lose a lot of them. This is drought in the truest sense.

It was only a short four years ago that we suffered the same terrible devastation. Poplar trees died in droves because of course their root systems are connected so when one dies there will be a whole patch that dies. We spent the next year taking dead Poplars out of our yard. We will have to do it again make no mistake.
Teapot went to the farm where we buy hay a few days ago and once again it looks like hay will be at a premium price. On his way there though, he saw an odd thing. He was driving along and the fields on the left hand side of the highway were yellow and bare. The fields on the right were not, actually they were quite lovely and green still. Then he noticed that the road looked like it was wet which also was odd since we have not had rain for quite some time. He pulled over to investigate and discovered that the wet highway was wet from the dead bodies of grasshoppers. They had been making their way across the highway from the dead field to the green field.... this is also not good. I went to a friends house in Alberta last year and saw a grasshopper plague like nothing I have ever seen. The grasshoppers had eaten every living thing and were working on the fleece of an old sheep that was too old to move around much. They were literally shearing her wool down to the skin. I never want to see anything so horrifying again. It really is dreadful to watch.

Today it has been windy and of course that adds to the miserable blight of drought. It whisks the moisture away so very fast and turns everything to powder. The winds whorls around taking with it the dry dust that once was the rich soil of our garden. It is spectacularly bright without the rich green beauty of the trees and add to that the Pine Beetle kill and you have a disaster zone. I feel bad for the farmers and I feel bad for the animals that make their homes in the forest.
Sadly, this last week I have begun to watch the birds depart for greener pastures. They are drifting away in small flocks unlike the great flocks of autumn. They hatch their younglings and once they can fly they leave to find a place father south that is not so badly affected by drought.
I am afraid of what will happen to this beautiful valley if we do not get rain soon.

This expat Newfy who grew up with so much fog, drizzle, and rain now wonders why I hated the stuff so much.... I wish the good Lord would send our way a little of the rain that the prairies are receiving too much of....