absent with cause

Thursday and Friday-I sorted through more of my stuff and moved part of it into my work room and then, on Friday, rearranged my living room. Don't know why, just felt the need.



Saturday-I was invited to a dying day by a friend from another guild in the next town over. A one hour drive and then all day playing with color and fiber! The top row L-R is Jacob roving dyed green and blue(hard to see), BFL dyed dry with red, blue, yellow and green acid dyes, and cotton dyed with MX(?) dye in lapis to spin a variegated yarn. The skeins in the bottom row where all spun by me since my first lesson in Feb and are L-R: a grey Romney dyed with silver-dollar eucalyptus and then over-dyed with indigo to get a dusty turquoise; some more of the Romney dyed with Queen Anne's Lace, some light Shetland dyed with acid purple, indigo on the grey Romney, Queen Anne's Lace on the light shetland, and some of the silver-dollar eucalyptus on the grey Romney. What a wonderful day, there was a pot-luck table groaning with food, a pool to swim in when the heat got oppressive, and an Irish wolfhound with an appetite for rum cake! What fun!

Today-I went back to town near where I was yesterday and cleaned my spinning teacher's house to work off a debt. I put parts for my wheel on layaway, she needed her house cleaned because of a lot of having to be in two places at once = equitable exchange.

Even though I didn't blog this week, I feel like I have fulfilled my part of the quest for the TdeF: to work with, around or think about fiber. I have to take pictures of the quilts that I finished on monday and tuesday, so that I can say that almost the whole week was involved with fiber. I just need to get out of my work chair to the computer to blog about it, THEN maybe it will count for more than just good thoughts.

Did a little...

.....spinning of the shetland today. Only got about 15 or 20 minutes, but I guess its the thought that matters. Would like to get more, but the finishitis virus is coursing thru my innards and I must make use of it while I can.

Out of the Race

for not blogging these past three days-thur, fri, and sat. What can I say? I let the team down. But I didn't not do anything with yarn, if its any consolation. I have developed a case of finishitis, which for me, is unusual. Very Unusual! I have been trying to finish my Sockapalooza4 socks, the Irish shawl from Folk shawls, a quilt started in 1998 and my block of the month for the round robin quilt from a neighborhood quilt group I belong to. Pictures to follow, some day. I did work some more on unraveling the wonder of the purple bobbin, if it helps any?????
Soooo....my spinning for today consisted of the above mentioned purple and organizing my work room so that I could be more efficient in getting this round of finishitis out of my system. Since most of my work room is wool and spinning related, I guess that this activity barely qualifies as being tour material, for today anyway.

Crash and Burn...

...on turn five!!!!! Talk about road rash!!!!! I just spent the last 3 hours unwinding -by hand- the remains of one of the bobbins of the purple single spun. I finished spinning the other bobbin and went to get the full one from where it was, in the travel bag, and I found the bobbin in pieces and the stuff half on and half off of the center. I tried to put it back on, but a large slug of middle just pushed out. You see the remains on the right. Above is what is plyed. I think that there is half of the total left to ply.

early and tired!

I said that I would post a picture of yesterdays' plying session, and here it is: four hundred and something yards of yarny goodness. From left to right is 2 skeins of grey romney, an orange gold/brown of 'wool' and a smidge of blue-green BFL.







For the second picture, here is a picture of what I have been learning over the past two days: weaving. This picture is of a borrowed Shacht Baby Wolf in the back of the van with two! seats belts(baby wolf's get rowdy, ya know!) and a length of teal and white twill woven at 10epi approximately 10 inches wide and about a yard long. The pattern structure is a zigzag twill of random design. It's a table runner made of cotton and silk.

missed! aw nuts!

today was a busy day: lets argue all day with a teenager about doing their house work BEFORE they can go anywhere, weaving lessons today and tomorrow from 9 to 430, traffic was awful getting home from lessons, and then plyed a total of 423yds, trying to clean off some bobbins for the wheel. I finished about 1205am. Pictures tomorrow.

HAH! under the wire!

Here's today's spinning: I tried to finish filling the last remaining part of the bobbin. Here is one good picture and one lousy picture. The flash refused to cooperate. The lighter picture is only from the lamp light, no flash. Not quite enough to match for a plying session. OH! Well, maybe tomorrow.

Let the tour begin!

Today starts the 'tour de fleece'. the object is to try to spin something or do something spinning related every day that the riders of the tour de france ride. There is the notion of having a plan, if you like, or a challenge, of some sort during the tour. My plan is to a) try to spin every day, or do something spinning related; b) finish the spinning already started: the wool/silk, the romney fleece, and a 5 lb box of mixed colors shetland from StoneHaven Farms in Oregon.

Sooooo....for today, I washed some romney, two pan-fulls of which you can see one here in my not clear picture. The bobbins are included to show what the blended color looks like and that I need to finish the 2nd bobbin so that I can ply. Two bobbins, spun fine will get me about 200yds of a 2ply that gets 5 or 6 stitches to the inch on size 5US needles. Not too bad for a beginner.


This picture is of a batt that got shuffled to the side during finals week, back in May. This is silk and wool blend that I purchased from Carolina Homespun by Crosspatch Creations.



This last picture, for today, is of Thermal, from the Spring '07 Knitty, This was my sanity knitting during the last month of school and finals. I finished knitting the pieces, but never assembled them, and I still haven't put on the buttons. I did alter the fit some, I made the body a slight bit shorter and made the sleeves 3/4 length. Here in sunny central California, we generally don't need full coverage in the winter. Mind you, I know that I will be eating those words, sometime this coming winter or the next.

long time, no see.....

well now, where to start. I suppose that some ramblings are in order to make up for the lack of posting......

• since last we met, I have finished the semester and received my grades: C's in biology and spanish, and B's in ethics and economics. The spanish and economics had me worried as they are problematic of a mild learning disability(see post dated May 26, 2006).


• finished Thermal from the spring Knitty '07. I suppose I will have to get the back hoe out and dig a trench in DS#2 room for the digital to take a picture.


• finished spinning lessons and have been processing fleece and spinning like crazy. Processing involves unrolling a fleece and separating out the various types of fiber and then bagging and marking for use later. But first, must wash.


• I have unofficially, of course, been trying to do some spinning at least one day a week, every week, must really get some pictures of the finished product, if nothing else.


• ....AND.... because of this, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece at wabisabi's place. The address is www.tourdefleece.com/ I am posting the weblob button here in the comments becuase I don't know how to activate the button in the side bar yet. BUT I do know how to make a list of words that will get you there.
• and for my Sockapalooza 4 pals, I am at work on your stuff!!!Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!