Tour de Fleece

TourdeFleece
Originally uploaded by corneliusfirst

At under an ounce total it's not a huge amount of yarn, but it was a blast.
The red is my nearly ten year old Romney dyed with cherry Kool-Aid in the microwave. The white is bamboo and is underplied :( The Cafe con leche is tussah silk and cotton. All spun and plied on hand spindles.

I have to say that this was a successful challenge for me. It re-introduced me to spinning and also got me going on my hand spindles and plying on them for the first time.

I have selected the tussah and cotton yarn for a sweater project. I'm going to knit it up and see what it says to me about what it wants to be. The Romney may have to wait for another little bit, the bamboo I'm still not sure what it wants to be.

I did bake a pie - basically reduced a flat of berries to a pie, marionberry biscuits and anyberry jam. It's been a great weekend.

Doing what comes naturally

That's going to be me. I successfully created wool and bamboo yarn and I hope to bake a pie and dye the yarn this weekend. It's supposed to be cooler that usual so I won't heat up the house.

Not sure what I will use to dye the yarn, but we'll see. I'm also hoping for some out and about time. May all your dreams come true

The Bearable Lighntess of Being

I don't know if you saw that movie, the Unbearable Lightness of Being. They made a rough approximation of the book starring Daniel day Lewis. It's only now in my 50's that I have an understanding of all of the themes of the book. The book was wonderful, rich and nourishing to the soul.

My days are lighter than usual, and the weather is soft and welcoming. Berries are in season, and I haven't even picked any yet. I think I need to make a pie and freeze it for my kids to enjoy.

I haven't been baking - or cooking - much. But now with the kids gone, and my Sweetie back in Baltimore I am finally relaxing into a non-schedule of floating where I will.

It's good stuff. I'm going to try and do much more of it this weekend.

My world resumes spinning on it's axis

It's been a rough week or two. I think I've finally come out of my funk about Andi and so I've resumed being a human instead of someone hiding from the rest of the world and surreptitiously weeping.

And.....drum roll......Andi the bird has an interested party. Someone has noticed Andi and taken a shine to them down at the Avian Medical center. I felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from me. Of course we'll have to see how it goes. This process is different from human adoptions in someways (less cost and paperwork) but similar in others (falling in love with your oh-so-hoped-for-to-be-new-addition-to-your-family). I pray that all things go well and that Andi will soon be in a home with another budgie so they can hang out and be pals together. It's not too much to ask.

Spinning is going well, I've committed to spindling enough yarn for a sweater - Buahahahahah! Yeah I know. I'm going to enjoy these next two weeks of relative peace and quiet. Then the world really does resume spinning madly. Soon - New York and Boston. My daughter will search for colleges, I will search for yarn.

Can't remember the last time this happened

I worked on my handspun bamboo today. I tried a center pull ball for plying and used a hand spindle to perform the plying. It was a bit of a knotted up mess, but the finished product was terrific for my first try at the fiber. I've put it into a warm bath and it's now hanging in the shower to dry.

I looked up to see what time it was and it was only 3:00. I've spent the morning cleaning the house and working in the yard and expected it to be like one of my normal way too busy, way to much stuff to do day. I accomplished the things I wanted to and still had time to lose myself in the act of creating yarn.

Yummy! I consider my Tour de Fleece to have been a total success and it's not even over yet.

Glad for a break in the action

Last night was better, although Andi isn't better yet. Yes I keep calling to check on her. I did manage to scratch the car though. It totally bummed me out. The bikes fell forward onto the hood and put a little scratch and the smallest little dent.

I also have a big planter/urn that has decided to plug and won't drain the water out. This is the herb pot and I don't think it will be replanted this year. We have a giant rosemary plant named Audrey (FEED ME!), another sage plant but no parsley. But at the rate I've been cooking it doesn't really matter. I haven't wanted to make food and experiment like last year.

All of my free time is taken up with knitting.

I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich for dinner last night. It's pathetic. Maybe I need to get a cookbook with 1001 delicious vegetarian meals for one person.

Knitting and spinning is going great. Although I seem to be undoing as much as I'm getting done in the knitting department. I'm taking it as an experimentation in design, try this, frog it, try that, frog it, find the thing I can live with. Tour de Fleece has been a good kick in the pants to get spinning on a regular basis again and I don't need to spend much time doing it to make progress. I've been in love with the bamboo, now that I've figured out a way to reliably spin it. It comes out thin and fairly even.

More pics soon

Shot from a cannon

So when it goes bad around here it goes from bad to worse. Last night I left work expecting to work from home. This morning, thankfully I took a shower early instead of waiting and went to plug in my computer and I turned it on.

No power cord.

Now as much as I love to think computers can do anything, I am not delusional enough to think they can run without juice.

I had waited to do everything else and suddenly it needed to be done in 20 minutes. Water the plants, let the dog out one more time, pack lunch and gym clothes, gulp tea.

I got here to work with my zippers zipped and my most everything I needed but I felt like I had a case of metaphysical whiplash. I am still feeling the disconnection - like I'm not quite all there. It also makes me want to stay home instead of going out to Sip and Stitch. I need a good talking to from myself.

Last night was no easier for me. I miss little bird so much, and I don't have any decent pictures of her to post. The house seems so big and empty.