Fecking Shite Again

Fecking Shite = Earthquakes followed by tsunamis!

And I say a prayer for all those who have lost someone today.

Fecking Shite

Fecking Shite = Flax

I've finished the flax and it looks like an ape spun it.... actually that's an insult to the ape. It looks more like an elephant had at it with it's trunk!  But I don't care at this point. I'm finished and the tips of my fingers are raw to prove it. 6 skeins of line flax and the worst time I've ever had spinning anything. After watching YouTube videos on how to spin flax and reading and trying, and reading and trying again, I'm putting the flax away and never looking at it from this day forward, that is, if I can get away with it. It was horrible... it is horrible. It looks like rope and rough rope at that. I'm likely to get very little in the way of marks but that's fine by me.

These are my line flax samples and if you click on the photo you will get an enlarged version and you will also see how coarse and ropey it looks.

By comparison my tow flax sample look positively soft!!

I have never in my life had such a swearing fest as I have had in the last few days doing these sample... I don't know if the rest of the Bast fibres are like this and I'm not readily wanting to find out either!

So now I have to boil up these babies and finish processing them and one of them has to be bleached.... and while I'm doing that I'll be washing wool for Lopi and working on worsted and woollen samples.... and relishing spinning something I love.

I also decided that I just couldn't live with that godawful pink background anymore so while I'm trying to be satisfied with some pink, I think the black is a good background.

Oh yeah... I'm still waiting for lambs... and spring... neither is on the horizon yet... just one blasted moose still yomping away at the hay.

25 Years Comes To An End

The last mission of the Discovery Space Shuttle has come to an end. A sad day indeed. And it is all the sadder because our friends to the south are hard pressed to be the innovators and forward thinkers that they have always been. President Obama saw fit last year to end the Constellation Program which was to take the place of the Space Shuttle program. Obviously this economic recession that most of the world finds itself in, is detrimental to the people of the United States in more ways than one. We tend to think of people out of jobs and declaring bankruptcy, but the loss of innovative ideas like the whole Space Shuttle Program has come to be its most serious collateral damage for those of us who looked to the US for leadership in space research. The Endeavor will make a trip to the International Space Station in April and then the Atlantis will make a trip in June. There are no other scheduled trips.

Space Shuttles are amazing transportation devices. I have watched over the years the many missions of each and every one. I have to say that I looked on the Discovery's last mission with sadness in my heart. Here are a few pictures....

The most important legacy of the Space Shuttle Program is that for the first time in history we have been able to see the planet that we call home as something onto itself. It is finite and it is ours. It's blue beauty is fragile and that is what the Space Shuttle Program has been able to drive home to us over and over through the awesome pictures the astronauts have been able to take of our planet.  I love this last photo since we see the horizon of the earth in the background of the ISS. Very cool.

It is with sadness that I watch the Space Shuttle Program winding down. Manned returnable space vehicles are the legacy of the US and NASA combined efforts to lead the way in space engineering. There is likely to never again, in my time, be as rigorous a program as this. I am proud to know that it has been during my lifetime that space research has been so forward thinking.  That is not to say that NASA will not persevere with space travel programs. Currently they still have a space probe on Mars and one on the way to the outer reaches of our galaxy. But manned missions for the US are at a stand still. Let us hope, that if nothing else, the wars that torment the world and suck dry the funds of the US will come to an end so that the money that is wasted on killing each other returns to higher minded things like research into space craft.

For now we must look to the leadership of countries like Russia and India to watch the space programs that they have if our knowledge of this great universe and our place in it is to continue.

I would love to be able to get to the Smithsonian to see the Discovery at some time in my life, which is where it will be retired for those of us to view.... those of us who dream of seeing this planet in all its roundness and blueness, unhindered.

Knee Slapper

I was sent a joke that cracked me up. I'm going to print it here though I don't usually do that but there is a story behind my posting this joke here and I'll tell you all about it after you read this.

Tap on the Shoulder  

A true story from the pages of the Manchester Evening Times . . .

Last Wednesday a passenger in a taxi heading for Salford station leaned
over to ask the driver a question and gently tapped him on the shoulder to
get his attention.
The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up
over the curb and stopped just inches from a large plate window.
For a few moments everything was silent in the cab. Then, the shaking
driver said "are you OK? I'm so sorry, but you scared the daylights out of
me."
The badly shaken passenger apologized to the driver and said, "I didn't
realize that a mere tap on the shoulder would startle someone so badly."
The driver replied, "No, no, I'm the one who is sorry, it's entirely my
fault. Today is my very first day driving a cab.
I've been driving a hearse for 25 years." 

You may have already heard this joke but it struck me so funny because the first guy that I ever went out with, long before I met Teapot,  drove a hearse for his father's funeral home!

LOLOLOLOLOL it just cracked me up.

I Took Sunday Off

I really did. Usually I spend Sunday catching up on all the things during the week that I didn't do. But not yesterday.  Teapot had report cards to finish at school and so he was gone all afternoon. The Daughters were busy finishing assignments that needed to be done for today, as a result, I found myself at loose ends. So I finally decided to ball up those skeins of yarn that I had dyed during the retreat at Blueberry. This got me thinking about that Counterpane pattern in the last issue of Piecework. I had been planning on knitting that counterpane with the yarn that I had dyed and I had spent a week looking for the darn magazine that I had gotten just after Christmas. I still can't find it but a good friend in FSJ had copied the pattern for me so that I wouldn't have to keep being frustrated while looking for it. Eventually I will find the magazine but for now I have the photo copy. So I started knitting and this is what I've go so far...

I am working my way up through the colours. So far it is looking just as I had hoped.

So I need to back up a bit and talk about this a little. The 150 hour project for the level 4 of the MSP is looming over me and so I had decided quite some time ago what I wanted to do. I wanted to knit this...

in a blend of Cashmere, Merino, and Silk. But I want to use percentage dyeing in order to make the petals in the pattern look like actual flowers... in order to do this I need to carry the colours from pale lemon yellow to darker peach, with gradual changes in the colours as I work up the petal pattern. I will be using percentage dyeing, blending fibres, and Cashmere which was one of our new fibres we learned about this year. It is important to use the knowledge you've gained in these types of projects and this suits the criteria fairly well.

Now what does this have to do with a counterpane pattern in the Piecework magazine?  Well, I got the brilliant idea that if I needed to dye my wool I would not want to blow it and spoil a whole bunch of my hard won hand spun Cashmere blended yarn if the dyeing didn't work. So I ordered some Gems yarn which is a merino, lace weight yarn sold by Louet.... and while I was at the Blueberry I had a little test try of my dye. I do realize that a Cashmere/merino/Silk will take the dye differently but it is better to test with this first before I commit myself to colours that might be wrong.

When I finished dyeing this yarn I had a bunch of fibre that was useless for my 150 hour project but quite lovely to be used in a project... so since the counterpane pattern has a leaf motif in it I thought I would give it a try and see how it looks using the methods I will be using for my 150 hour project.

That's what I did yesterday.

I needed a day to sit on my arse and do nothing other than watch my needles click away, feel the sunshine on my face after a week of snow, and listen to CBC. It was a lovely afternoon.

Saturday was bad and good all at the same time. I almost died but I had a great spindling class. Having almost died, it meant all the more that Sunday was appreciated fully.

Dieing was not something I wanted to do, so I didn't do it, but it almost wasn't up to me. I left Saturday morning on roads that were less than spring-like (that's an understatement) for my class of spindling students in FSJ.  I was traveling along about 20 kms less than the speed limit, and about halfway there, when a driver in a car coming toward me, decided that her side of the road was not good enough and so crossed over to mine.  She obviously was busy talking to her companion and either didn't see me or thought that her SUV was bigger than mine and would have a better chance in a head on collision. She did not move over till the last possible moment. We missed but it was by about three or four feet at most. It was horrifically scary. She swerved at the last minute when she finally decided to put her eyes back on the road and not on whoever was distracting her..... and I thought she might end up in a ditch but she didn't and I was able to carry on unscathed.... Still my knuckles from that point forward were extremely white and my teeth will all need to be resurfaced since they were grinding the rest of the way there.  I hate winter driving and avoid whenever I can.

The rest of the day turned out well except I was so uptight driving home that I had a serious case of white knuckle syndrome again and every vehicle that came toward me meant that I was slowing down to about 40 kms on a 90 kms road... I'm sure I ticked off every driver who had the misfortune of catching up behind me.... because every one who did passed with frustration in their moves, and all the ones who were coming toward me looked at me like I was some kind of strange weirdo that shouldn't have a drivers license. But all is well, that ends well. I'm home and I'm safe.

As for my spindlers... it went well except that my two newbies didn't show up, so I was teaching a class of students who at least had some experience. They all went away with smiles on their faces and yarn to practice on till next week. It was a real privilege to teach them. Here they are learning how to card rolags after having spun pencil rovings of various grist.

MJ learning how to card properly... she's charging the card.

MA also learning the same thing.

DS is learning how to flick card locks.

NC had two drop spindles that she worked with. This one had no hook and was a bit of a challenge. But she did really well.

And this lady is another of the Master Spinning Program and needs no help spindling... she's there to help if I need it.

We all went for lunch afterwards and had a lovely time. Next week I will go back and teach them plying techniques and how to choose a spindle based on fibre and weight of yarn that they want to spin. I also told them I would show them support spindling... hopefully to wet their appetite for another course at a later time.

I'm off to shower and spin flax... finally.

Oh What I Can Do With My Head

I've been sucked into a cartoon.

It ain't easy being green...

"Ahhhh... My head's exploding."

I always wondered what it was like to be a fish.

Cyclops maybe?

Didn't I see this in a cartoon one time?!

I can't take it anymore maybe I should just pull my head in like a turtle.

Surprise! 2 heads. Oh there's just too much of me.

I think I was in one of Picasso's dreams. Or maybe it was Salvadore Dali.

Hm... If I really looked like this I'd have to go kill myself.

Didn't Helena Bonham Carter look like this recently in Alice in Wonderland? I think I should go pluck my eyebrows.

Brian Mulroney syndrome.

Angelina Jolie's lips just wouldn't work on me.

Ok.. that's just freaky.

Help!!! I look like a shark. Hmm... I wonder if I have all the teeth too.

The evil one. I just need the horns... oh sorry they're there you can't see them but I can feel them. Mwa ha ha!

Ah... thanks girls I'm back to normal now... well, better than a putty head anyway.

Panic Ville

Ok so this morning I'm in Panic Ville. I kept waking in the middle of the night last night and thinking about things to come... and things that should have come and time and how it slips past in a never ending eddy making you worry about missed deadlines. 

Upcoming events include a spindling course that I am teaching to several members of my guild. They are paying for this course (and no I don't get paid for this : (  because it is a fundraiser for the guild). It is the first time that I will actually teach a proper workshop so I have been getting ready for this with worry in my heart and anticipation in my mind. For the last few days I have been getting together photo copies and fibre. I have been preparing for any number and types of spindles showing up in my class and it has been no small task. I prepped fibre for two days so that all my students would be on the same page. From pencil rovings for beginning so that they don't have to draft or with a minimal amount of drafting to batts and rolags I've got it all. The rolags were the worse. I spent hours forming rolags from Polworth wool I had dyed a while ago and I ended up with a blister on the inside of my finger. (That doesn't mean that I'm carding wrong it just means that I have no thumb on my right hand and a blister formed when I was carding from holding the handle between my first and second finger. Yes I was gentle and no the teeth of the cards did not touch or dig in and yes I was like a bird.... I did it right.) Anywhy when I had prepped all my student's fibre this is what I had...

This picture doesn't have all the fibre I prepped but it had lovely colour so I had to add it here.

This picture has all the fibre I prepped.

Meanwhile I have spun lots of cotton but I still don't have enough for the level5 requirements. I am about 30 yards short. This is what I have....

I'm really proud of my cotton skeins. They look awesome.

So why am I in Panic Ville?  Level 4.  It has been on hold all week. I was supposed to have the flax and Lopi samples done by the 1st of March but that has not happened. I have been up to my ears with all this other stuff. But now that I've got the cotton spun and I have to wait until my cotton order arrives before I can spin more I have a little more time on my hands.  Today I have to do a little work on my spindle course that I will be teaching tomorrow and then it is time to catch up on write ups for my level 4 homework. So that means that once again I have to wait until Sunday before I cane get back to spinning flax. Line flax.  5 samples using various methods and then on to the 2 Lopi samples. That will put me behind a whole week. Argh!

When I get in Panic Ville I do have a tendency to go on a bit so excuse me for that today BECAUSE I'M DEFINITELY IN PANIC VILLE.