A Serious Case Of Sleepitis

For two days I have indulged my inner me... and have gone back to bed after Teapot and the Daughters departed for school. I have had great pleasure checking out the back of my eyelids for several hours each morning and may do it for the remainder of the week.  In the meantime though, that does not mean that I have been doing nothing. No indeed. I have been working very diligently on my work at home here with little or no thought to anything else (the dust bunnies are poking their noses out from under the china cabinet again). In the meantime, it is onward and upward with level 4. I have finished all of the cashmere questions a second time and still am not satisfied but I think this is the Freudian Annal coming out in me and so I have decided to carry on anyway. Two of the samples will do so I will use them and will put the other two away...

and get on with it. The next section was silk and I say WAS most strategically because I have completed that section as well. Reeled silk was the first question and since I had done that one last summer in class there wasn't a whole lot of work to with it... just a write up and voila... finis! Then came 3 wool silk blends.

My first was a Polwarth/silk noil blend in 75% and 25%. I'm absolutely enchanted with that one.
Then came a Finn wool/Bombyx silk in a 50%/50% blend and it turned out very lovely too. My last one is nice and even and nicely consistent but I do have to admit that it would not be my choice in a yarn. It is a 75% Dyed Tussah silk and 25% Polwarth wool rovings and I decided to try something different in the blending... something that is not necessarily recommended but I wanted to try it more or less as an experiment to myself. I carded the blend into a Sausage and then elongated it before spinning. The result was, that though silk is shiny, it lost most of its sheen. I figured it would do this but, all the same,  I wanted to see what exactly would happen... like would it have any lustre at all. it didn't but it is still quite a nice yarn but more of a raw silk look and of course the wool really knocked the lustre back too. Anyway it is going along with the other samples and that is that!  Meanwhile I was listening to Canada Reads on CBC last night, and while doing so, I decided there's no point in pi--ing away time and so out came my cards and I combed some Supima Cotton into punis and began the cotton section. I find myself at mid day today with the cotton section finished too. One of the questions for cotton was to spin cotton on a support spindle (that being a Takli) and I had done that last summer.

So With the two cotton questions done I have 5 sections done on my level 4 books. Still I'm not sure about my Takli sample and I may redo that one in the evenings. I carded some new punis and this time I'll be using yellow.

The next section is Flax. Yikes! I had a look this morning and the first question already has me scratching my head. We are asked to spin a 10 metre 2 ply linsey woolsey yarn and there's nothing in our text book about linsey woolsey. I think this is a serious oversight on the part of the MSP text book people. We are not asked to research linsey woolsey... so why they have that question there without some information in the text is weird to me. I must write to the instructor about that... It's just plain weird.  Since I have the Blueberry retreat coming up next week and there is some organizing for that, I decided to put the Flax section on hold until I get back on the 20th. Meanwhile I am beginning the section on low twist singles yarns better known as Lopi style yarns. The fleece is washed and so I begin.

As for the Blueberry retreat.... my heart does flip flops when I think about it because I am so excited. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that.  5 whole days with only myself to think of. 15 other women all spread out with wool, cotton, dye, weaving, knitting, and more fleece... etc... I think it is going to be awesome.  I am giving a little dye workshop on percentage dying with two colours. But other than that, its relax, and spin for five whole days... yipee, yahoo, hurray!  It is what drags me out of my mid-winter blahs.  For the last few weeks, even though I've been fighting it hard, I have felt it poignantly. (I think that's why I'm sleeping so much.) Something to get me out of the house... something to give me heart again... and who knows I might be able to come up with something interesting to write about again.... (because I'm sure you haven't missed the fact that you could snore your way through my blog posts/ramblings).

The Blueberry retreat is so named because we rent a summer camp for kids called the Blueberry on the Blueberry river. It is a vast log building with beautiful rooms and balconies overlooking the rolling hills beyond, and is just divine for a retreat.  I am soooo lucky. I leave on the 16th.. and there will be pictures.

Meanwhile, Pops' thumb is continuing to improve slowly (more slowly than we would like) but with Diabetes, healing is not that easy, so we are glad of any improvement.

Now that my sleepitis has been dealt with, I am off to spin a little Lopi and do some write ups. But meanwhile, I think that I will leave you with this picture that I'm so proud of... (pat pat pat.... that's on my back if you're wondering)!

Updates On A Bunch Of Things

First..
Dad's thumb seems to be a very little better... though the infection is not gone or even lessened in looks he thinks that there is not so much tenderness as there was yesterday... we are cautiously optimistic.

Second...
I have been really working hard at the next few questions for the level 4 homework... I am now finishing a 75% wool 25% silk sample and have the 50/50 sample ready to spin which I hope to finish tonight. Tomorrow there will be a 75%silk and 25% wool sample done if all goes well. Then on to the cotton.

Third...
I am knitting so--- (well you know). And I am not using the Cat Bordhi pattern either... I am making a textured knee sock... I am hopeful that I will be able to get them to work. Why am I doing this? I don't know.... I haven't worn so--- all winter... maybe they will be for Teapot since they are bulky and will work inside a boot quite well.... I am using a Briggs and Little worsted weight yarn... yes I know I should have spun it myself... Oh well... life is hard and then you die!

Fourth...
Teapot and I have been making retirement plans.... he doesn't retire for another 13 years... and that will put him at 61. But we are not staying here... This is big because this is the first time that I have been able to get Teapot to even consider anything that far in advance. We are going to look for a rural setting close to medical but the definite thing is that we are going to build (I can't believe he's even considering that) on lake front.... Which lake you ask... well we have a couple in mind so we will have to look for land. He wants to go fishing whenever he wants and I want to go canoeing whenever I want.... gotta have a lake!!!

That's it for updates.... I'm off to spin some more... I'll post pictures tomorrow of my spinning samples...

No Real Change... Dull As Dull Can Be

Pops is still having trouble it is not changing for the better though it is not getting any worse.  I am hoping that after a couple of day with the antibiotics that things will improve. We are still watching very closely.

I have decided to redo my cashmere samples as I was not satisfied that they were consistent enough. I redid both of them yesterday and am more satisfied with the 100% cashmere sample the second time around but I am feeling that perhaps my original cashmere/wool sample might be better than the second one. Either way they are both inconsistent and I can't seem to get it any better. It is the grist which is giving me all the trouble. I am now wondering if I should try again and dig into the cashmere that I bought for my 150 hour project but this worries me as I do not want to run out of cashmere for that. Hmmm... such a dilemna.

Sunday seems to give nothing much to write about as I sit looking at grey skies outside my window. I think I need to get out and go for a walk. I have been in doors too much in the last few days. Now that I have enough hay to see us through till the spring if not the summer I am beginning to find time long... perhaps I should go and have a look at Fanny and see how close she is to giving birth.

I'm still worried about Pops and need something to take my mind off my troubles.

Once Upon A Time

... there was a little town in the middle of nowhere.... Everybody knew everybody else and everybody kind of looked out for everybody else. But like all small towns there was some mia mia mia that went on behind backs.

One day a young lady moved to this town and looked around her and had quite an eye opener to small northern towns.  There were all kinds of interesting characters in that small town... like the old man that drove his garden tractor all over town because he was too old to have a drivers license any more and so in an effort to stay active he got his lawn tractor licensed instead. Then there was an old man who had been a war vet and had at one time held the position of mayor... but this old man was now a very old man and though he was deserving of our respect most people would laugh at him because even though he was legally blind he was still driving his Geo Tracker around very slowly. The cops didn't stop him and so all the mothers with children who were just learning to drive themselves were given the warning to watch out for the White Tracker and to steer clear or at least give it a very wide berth. Then there was also a very old lady who was somewhat mentally disturbed... she would take her car when she was off her medication and drive away... and nobody would know where. One day the old lady totaled her car on a back woods road and though she survived the crash she would not take a ride back to town with the trucker who found her so when the trucker got back to town he called the police and sent the police out to get the little old lady. She came willingly with the police and in a few weeks, after she had had a rest in the mental hospital and was back on her medication, she had a new car and was driving again... But it was only after a few months that she once again decided to take her car for a joy ride. This time they found the old lady in a ditch quite a ways up the Alaska Highway (but still in Canada). This time she was badly bruised up... Once again she had a little stay in the hospital and once she was taking medication she came home and bought a new vehicle. It took her quite a while but she was able to get insurance after going through a battery of tests... A few months after she had been driving again she went to the local clinic and when she came out of the clinic there was a little blue car with the engine still running that looked just like hers. She got in it and drove away with the idea that she would go and pick up her mail... back at the clinic a young man came out to the parking lot only to discover that his car was missing... he looked all around and saw that the old lady who was very strange had left her car in the parking lot and putting 2 and 2 together figured that the strange old lady had probably taken the wrong car... he didn't press charges.

Meanwhile the lady who had moved to town saw all of this and thought this was all very strange... how can old people get away with this kind of thing.  Many years later her own parents were getting older and she began to worry about them... and how they could carry on driving in the small town... but having watched for many years how the young people in the town took care of aging people who insisted on driving she knew that they would be alright yet a while.

The End.

I'm worrying about Pops today as he has got a small infection under his thumb nail that looks like it is Necrotizing fasciitis according to his doctor. It is not bad at this point and the doctors have put him on very strong antibiotics but we are on pins and needles watching to see that it does not get worse.


Say a prayer for Pops please.


Sometimes I look around me and think about how very hard it is to get older and watch health deteriorate and how it constricts us... but knowing that we live in a small town where people look out for one another is a good thing I think.

Stay tuned... I'll post here about Pops as we watch this infection.

Another Post

I just read Yarn Harlot's Blog.... OMG... thanks to her I just remembered....  I'm supposed to have a pair of socks knitted by now with silk hankies.... it's the end of January and I was supposed to do one a month until I had enough for everyone for Christmas next year.... right.... I was happily forgetting in blissful ignorance until the Yarn Harlot reminded me of this.....

Argh!

Run Around

Yesterday was a complete run around day. I had finished the 100% Cashmere sample for level 4 and had moved onto the cashmere/wool blend but I didn't get a chance to get as much done yesterdays as I hoped since it had a couple of meetings and didn't get home till  well after 2 p.m. Then I was working for about 1 and 1/2 hours before I had to get supper ready. It's days like that that you scratch your head and wonder where the time is going. Today is lining up to be a better day work wise.

The weather has been very strange here for two days. One day cold one day above freezing with the snow dripping off the roof. With Chinooks blowing in one after the other it almost feels like spring which is not good since if the snow melts too quickly we will not have enough grass for hay again this spring.

I know I talk about hay issues a lot but really it means the make or break of a farmer. Without feed there are no animals... or if the feed is too expensive too many years in a row then it does not bode well for making enough money off the animals to keep them.

Part of the reason why I decided to get animals in the first place was because I needed to feed the mill wool... but now that I've sold the mill I'm trying to decided what direction I want to go. There is not much market around here for spinning fibre... unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) I don't live in an area where there are a lot of people who spin and weave... and frankly weavers want fibre already spun. There is a fellow alpaca farmer who lives north of FSJ and has just gotten back some really nice yarn that came from her animals. She sent it to a mill in eastern Canada and it is lovely and best of all sells like hot cakes.  That is pretty much where I am.  I'm thinking that it is time this year after shearing to sort my fibre by colour and send it off to the mills to be spun... (some of it I will keep for me) and make a business of selling yarn both dyed and natural. My summer dyeing retreat would be all about getting fibre ready for sale... I'm really liking the idea. Ye Olde Batt would have to become Ye Olde Batt... Strung Out.  (Hee hee!! Teapot might think Strung Up!)

Anyway as for the Cashmere samples... here are a couple of pics....

!00% Cashmere 3 ply yarn very soft and lovely to touch.

50% Cashmere, 50% Wool, 2 ply yarn also very soft but not as soft as the first sample.

I think I'm using these as examples for my 150 hour project.  I will decide based on these two samples and a few more samples which yarn to use for this...

yes this was my final decision... I had bought all that Cashmere fibre and I couldn't very well forget that.... almost $200.00 dollars worth of Cashmere.... you don't just throw that away! So onward I go.
no Lopi Sweater... at least not now! : )

So today is all about the write ups for these two samples and then I'm on to the silk section...  I hope your not too bored with all this shop talk. Bare with me and I'll try to say something awesome or funny tomorrow... (snork!)

Valley Girl

Ok... so this makes my valley look like a regular hole! Oh to be in Switzerland.... the Switzerland of Heidi...