Dog-Lover's Yarn

more wacky winter weather

2012-01-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

The unseasonably warm weather continues here in the prairies. We got a fair amount of snow last weekend and then it warmed right up again; most days have been above freezing. I took these pics a couple of days ago.

The snow was melting and dripping off of the eaves and downspouts. We don't usually see that happen until March.

The snow on the grass was slushy and wet.

There were lots of puddles in the street.

Environment Canada is forecasting 11 C for Monday! That's 52 F at the time of year when we are usually in the deep freeze. Snow enthusiasts aren't very happy with all of this warm weather but I say bring it on!

Thanks for all of your comments on my last post about leaving the dogs at home when we go to Mexico. They will be safe and sound at my sister Darcie's place while we're away. We're dogsitting her two dogs while they're away this winter and then she'll return the favor for us. The dogs are used to going to her place with us but we decided to do a trial run by leaving them there for a couple of hours on Tuesday, just to see what they do. They were fine so I'm much more comfortable about going away now.

in with the new

2012-01-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all!

I have to admit that it doesn't feel like January yet. Likely that's because we aren't seeing really cold temperatures. Although it's cooler this weekend than it has been, the temps are bang on normal (-10C or 14F) and aren't supposed to stay cold for long. In fact, Environment Canada's 7 Day Forecast is starred with an asterisk "denoting an abnormal temperature trend" because Tuesday's through Saturday's highs are above the freezing mark again, a couple of them at 5 and 6C (41 and 43F)!

So what do a couple of homebodies like Dan and me do when the winter weather is milder than I can remember? Book a Mexican holiday, of course. We are nothing if not ironic.

First, a little history. The last time we went on a vacation was when Geoff was about 6 or 7 and we booked a rustic cabin at Clear Lake, MB. It was a lovely vacation for the most part. I'm not entirely sure why we haven't gone anywhere since. As for flying, I've been on a plane once in my life at the age of 12. Yeah, I know. I might as well be a dinosaur. So now that Dan is retired we have been tossing around the idea of a warm winter vacation. Dan's sister recommended we contact her travel agent, the amazing Evelyn Poole, so I sent an email to her on Friday at suppertime and before 10 pm we had booked a week's vacation in Puerto Vallarta in late winter.

It hasn't really hit me yet. At this point, I'm wobbling between feeling tentative and excited. I hope my health problems don't flare up and I hope my dogs aren't miserable because they have never been without at least one of us around. It's going to be particularly hard on Bentley because he is such a little velcro dog and I have spoiled the stuffing out of him. On the other hand, it's Puerto-freaking-Vallarta!!

I will leave you with pics of said Dachshund. I bought a C-shaped pillow (meant for nursing mothers) to have on my lap while spinning so that my shoulder doesn't have to support my arm in one position which caused tendonitis in my right shoulder in the summer. The pillow was on the living room sofa when Dan called me to see how Bentley had burrowed through it.

"No, don't leave me when you go away!"

"I can't face it."

this week

2011-12-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone for another year. We hosted breakfast and gift opening in the morning. Darcie took a nice pic of son Geoff and his girlfriend Carmen.

Cooper loved having everyone here.

It was a beige Christmas here on the prairies - not quite brown because there was some residual snow and ice left from November but certainly not a white Christmas because of lots of ground without any snow cover. The weather has been exceedingly mild lately with many days of temperatures above the freezing mark. Christmas Day was 4 degrees C (39 F) which was almost record breaking. If winter was like this all the time I would be a happy camper. As we were driving home from Dan's sister's place in the afternoon, there was a spectacular sunset which I tried to capture on my phone. The picture doesn't do it justice.

The only reminder that this is December and not March was the early sunset around 5 p.m.

The mild weather has lasted all week but some precipitation has been added to the mix. There was freezing rain earlier today, turning everything into a skating rink. I was glad to be able to stay at home and not have to drive anywhere.

The rain has turned to snow now. Austin and Cooper celebrated the new snow with a good run around the back yard.

It's still nice out. Sooner or later, the bitter cold temperatures are bound to arrive because this is Saskatchewan after all but this lovely weather will make the really cold winter that much shorter. I'm all for that.

where's your tail?

2011-12-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

"Where's Your Tail?" is a sheltie game that is popular with Austin and Cooper. Robbie refuses to get involved. You can almost see him mentally putting his little paw to his forehead using the L-shaped salute for 'Loser' when he watches the other two. Bentley doesn't care to get involved either. However, Austin and Cooper think it is the greatest way to get attention ever. They will show off on request and will also offer it spontaneously when they figure it will get a laugh.

I managed to get a little video of a bit of the game to share with you. Sorry about the poor lighting - the opportunity presented itself without any pre-planning on my part. (Notice that they spin in opposite directions. Dogs have right/left preferences just like people!)

From all of us, we wish you the best of the season!

Sidekick bags

2011-12-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

This is try #2 for this post.

I am the proud owner of a new Schacht Sidekick (from Shuttleworks). I have had other travel wheels and didn't really bond with them so they were sold and now live with very happy new owners. The Sidekick arrived in November, an early Christmas gift from Dan, when I was taking the art yarn class.

With the weather turning wintery I knew I wanted a bag for it. There aren't a lot of options for bags yet because of the newness of the wheel design. The Bag Lady makes one and Bountiful offers another. I decided to order the Bountiful bag because it is lighter than the more substantial one from the Bag Lady. People on the Schacht Ravelry group asked for pictures so here we go.

I had to wait a few weeks for the Bountiful bag so I cobbled together a bag from an old bathrobe. It did the trick but isn't beautiful.

One side fits over the top of the wheel then the other side, with its edge encased in elastic, closes the bag. The posts for attaching the strap are left open.

The public side has a big pocket that closes with velcro.

It wouldn't be very useful in the rain but worked fine in the winter weather and was surprisingly comfortable to carry.

My Bountiful bag arrived yesterday and I'm very pleased with it and the excellent customer service I received from Lois at Bountiful!

The bags are made to order by Judy Jackson for Bountiful. She does a great job with quality materials!

There are some color options available. I chose dark teal to match the wheel.

There is a good sized pocket on the front that zips closed.

The bag has webbing for handles and backpack straps. Because of my cranky back and neck, I added the seatbelt pads for now to make the straps more comfortable to wear. They were bought at WalMart and cost $5 each. I ordered some better ones from Amazon that haven't arrived yet.

The wheel fits comfortably in the bag.

It has some padding on the bottom and where it leans against your body when carrying it.

There is enough room to add extra padding if desired. This bag is not sufficiently strong enough to protect the wheel if it is checked as baggage for a flight. Size-wise, it can fly as carry-on on a few airlines but not all so you'd have to research the guidelines before flying with it. Beth of The Spinning Loft went shopping for a suitcase to protect her Sidekick and blogged about it here if you're interested.

The Bountiful bag came with two fleece bags.

The larger one easily holds the bulky flyer and large whorl.

So there is my review. Hope it's helpful!

And to wish you good night, my lovely Austin dog.....

how appropriate

2011-12-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

I took a pile of photos this afternoon when the sun was shining and just finished editing them for this post. As usual I emptied my trash folder promptly because the icon of the full garbage can on the desktop bugs me. When I went to my pictures folder to add pics here, today's file is gone. Disappear-o. Nothing. Empty. Dark.

Dark, as in no light. Today is the Winter Solstice. The least daylight hours of the whole year. How appropriate that my pics vanished into darkness.

So now I will go and retake all the photos with the flash. Sigh. My New Year's resolution will be to ignore that full trash icon until I have triple-checked that I still have what I need and haven't accidentally deleted whole files in a single move.

how it ends

2011-12-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

In yesterday's comments a couple of you asked how the sheltie crate game ends. Actually it ends with no excitement whatsoever. Austin and Cooper get bored and leave to have a nap or chew on a rawhide.

Robbie stays in his crate and barks at whoever walks by in the hopes of reviving his favorite game....

until I leave the computer room, the doorbell rings, or the other dogs start barking at real or imagined people and dogs outside the window.

what I see

2011-12-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

What the dogs do when I'm on the computer:

The shelties enjoy a game invented by Robbie. It involves Robbie being in the crate and the other two acting like they're trying to kill him from the outside. I don't know why this is such a popular game but they like it so much that Robbie goes out of his way to get me to put him in the crate by jumping up on the keyboard and barking until I oblige. Note Robbie's smile while he's in there.

Bentley doesn't 'get' the crate game. He stays out of their way.

It was tough to get the above picture while Austin and Cooper were flying around, snarling and barking at Robbie. I deleted a bunch of the shots but couldn't resist keeping this one of Cooper's furry butt. That happy tail tells the tale (sorry, couldn't resist) of how much fun he was having.

goodbye Movember!

2011-11-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

If you have somehow never heard of Movember (and if not, where have you been? Seriously.) you can find out more here.

I'm proud of my husband Dan for participating in this very worthy cause but I'm really, really glad that Movember is sighing its last gasps. Why, you ask?

Is that not the sorriest, most pitiful excuse for facial hair that you've ever seen?

One thing that you could never accuse Dan of doing is growing excess hair. Now if someone dreams up a fundraiser that involves women growing leg hair, sign me up. I can grow leg hair so lush that I could braid it. Okay, not quite but it's not that far out of the realm of possibility. In fact, I wish that someone would make that sort of fundraiser in one of the summer months so we could show off our lush legs by wearing shorts. Just think of the time-saving benefits to be able to wear shorts or skirts without having to de-forest our legs first.

Tomorrow is December and the so-called moustache will finally be just a memory. Bring it on!

textured

2011-11-23T20:26:00.000-08:00

I've been taking an art yarn spinning class at my wonderful LYS Golden Willow. The very talented Deb, aka dragondancer, is teaching it. She knows a lot about yarn and spinning. Check out her blog.

I spun a few art yarns in the past, mostly just to prove that I could, but didn't see much practical use in them as knitting yarns. I now have more interest in using them since I started weaving with texture. I've always figured that learning new techniques makes me a better spinner so I probably would have taken the class even if I wasn't a weaver. The possibility of actually using the yarn is a bonus.

In my mind I've categorized these yarns as art yarns and textured yarns. Some yarns are spun just to make something pretty/different/wild to view as decoration. These include but aren't limited to large or unexpected yarns with add-ins (such as eye balls, Barbie heads, toy soldiers, etc.). I call those art yarns. Textured yarns, to me, are those that are more traditional and less out-there and that's where my yarns fall. I have nothing against the wild art yarns and give my blessing to those that spin them but I like my yarns to be more user-friendly, to be used in projects not the end result in and of themselves.

I believe that textured yarns require a lot of spinning skill to make. I know that the first yarns produced by new spinners are frequently referred to as art yarn but I don't buy it. Spinning mistakes may resemble art yarns but they are generally not stable yarns. I think that textured yarns should be stable and (mostly) balanced. That takes time and practice. They generally are slow to produce, often needing considerable amounts of fiber, and involve plying and/or anchoring the elements in place and then finishing techniques to make them stable and usable. That said, they're fun to make. They make me think outside the box which is good for me. My default spinning is control-freak, fine, worsted yarn so textured yarns force me to let that tendency go, experiment, and get creative.

So here are my latest spinning endeavors.

corespun mixed batts plied with 60/2 silk

merino thick and thin spun with 60/2 silk, the thick spots pushed up to form coiled cocoons, then plied with silk again to balance the twist

the same thick and thin merino and silk as above with the silk used to ply and then autowrap

If you would like a good reference for spinning art/textured yarns, my favorite is Jacey Boggs' DVD Sit and Spin! Jacey also has a soon-to-be-released book titled Spin Art.

and BAM, it's winter!

2011-11-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing that we prairie folk are hearty because Mother Nature didn't even give us a skiff of snow in October to prepare us for winter. She deluded us into thinking that our lovely autumn weather would last forever.

Case in point:

this picture was taken Thursday just before sunset.

Here is a similar view taken from my kitchen window yesterday.

No more autumn for us. Uh, uh. Nosiree Bob.

As usual, the shelties are thrilled with the snow.

Robbie knows that he looks gorgeous against the snow.

Austin was so excited he couldn't wait to tell me about it.

Cooper got the zoomies.

Then he posed nicely while he caught his breath.

And where was Bentley?

Ready to go back into the house. He doesn't have nearly as much fur as the shelties.

I will leave you with some stunning sunset skies from Thursday, before the snow.

Interesting that the sky was purple. A year ago the sky turned purple before snow.

definitely treats

2011-11-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

No tricks here - treats for sure!

One fiber that I had never had the chance to spin was qiviut. That changed when I bought a destash spindle from Peacecat on Ravelry. She lives in Alaska and told me that she sells qiviut (free shipping to boot!) so of course it was the perfect opportunity for me to get some.

This arrived in the mail.

It's a qiviut/silk blend and I can't imagine a softer, more luxurious fiber than this!

I will be spinning it with a Tabachek spindle so that the experience is exquisitely savored.

Also a treat.....

meet Twitter's fleece. Twitter is a CVM/Romeldale who lives in Washington State and her shepherd is Joy (sheepgirl on Rav). This is a gorgeous fleece - soft with lovely long locks!

One more treat was a visit to Celtic Cast On's blog today to see pics of the cutest Little Red Riding Hood and her big but not-so-bad wolf. They win my award for best Hallowe'en costume this year for sure!

On a sadder note, my sunroom now looks like this.

Although we don't have snow yet (knock on wood), it's too cold to work there comfortably any more so all the fiber equipment has been moved indoors.

Sigh.

done diddy done done done!

2011-10-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

Happy dance, oh happy dance! I have finally finished the Watermelon Socks!

I think that they are adorable! But I'm very glad that they're done so that I can work on some other knitting for a while.

Also done is my foray into quilting.

I am definitely a process spinner. I am usually a process knitter. I am usually a product weaver. I am definitely a product quilter. I really didn't enjoy making the bag much so I won't be launching into making a king size quilt any time soon.

Both of these projects were started in July. They only took me all of summer and most of autumn to finish.

Speaking of autumn, Dan and I loaded up the dogs and took a drive out of town last weekend. It was the first time we have taken the Terrain out of town since we got it in March. Yup, we have truly exciting lives.

We went to the Craven valley which is about 20 minutes northwest of Regina.

The valley was flooded in the wet spring and the water is still high in many places.

There are numerous market gardens in the valley so we stopped at one for some veggies. There were lots of pumpkins.

Lots and lots of pumpkins!

And in case the weather was unco-operative, there were even more pumpkins inside!

Back on the flat prairie on the ride home, the setting sun peeked through the clouds.

such a lovely autumn so far

2011-10-11T23:41:00.000-07:00

Our weather has been such a treat lately. I can't believe that my garden is still growing strong in mid-October; usually frost has killed it by mid-September.

The dogs are happy to be outside as much as possible. I bathed and groomed them all last week so they were ready for this photo shoot.

"Throw the toy! Throw it! Put that stinking camera away and throw it!"

"I am groomed and beautiful. This is my best side."

"Oh, all right. Take the stupid picture if you must."

"So many good smells out here this time of year."

Moving indoors, I warped the 15" Flip loom with 20/2 silk using two 8 dent reeds for a sett of 16. The weft is the Austin colorway fractal-spun laceweight handspun yarn. It sure takes a lot longer to weave than the fluffy baby throws that I've been doing lately but I love the resulting weft-faced fabric so far.

I feel so clever when I use my fractal-spun yarns. I really love the gradual and soft color transitions. I have no idea how I will finish the fringe. I've been mulling over possibly using beads. Any ideas would be welcome.

making progress

2011-10-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling like I'm making headway around here. This is the last day of our Regina Ravelry group's Challenge Week to finish WIP's and I actually have finished or made good progress on a few things.

I finished the custom spinning of Romney/Malamute. It's likely going to be made into a knitted bag by the recipient so I spun the singles woolen but with a fairly tight twist and plyed it quite snugly too for strength. I then aggressively finished it with hot/cold baths and lots of agitation to bring out the halo of dog fluff before hanging to dry. The two skeins total about 140g and 415 yds.

I also finished the Austin yarn.

There is a whopping 1482 yds., 224g. It seemed like I was spinning this yarn forever and the large yardage explains why. My plan is to weave a scarf with silk as the warp and the Austin yarn as the weft to show off the fractal 2-ply.

I'm also getting the second Watermelon Sock finished more quickly than the first one. I'm just about to start the heel.

My next pressing job is also fiber related. All the dogs really need baths before the cold weather sets in but my hand-held sprayer attachment on the laundry tub is toast and spraying fine streams of water in every direction even with duct tape covering the cracked plastic. Dan shopped a bit the other day for a new one and couldn't find one that didn't need to be attached to a tub shower rather than the faucet. Hopefully something will turn up soon. I usually get pretty wet bathing dogs at the best of time. I don't relish the notion of the sprayer dowsing me too.

My left foot had a bad summer. I blogged about what I thought was plantar fasciitis after the Ex. I saw my podiatrist last week and it turns out that it was actually pain because I had torn a ligament earlier in the summer. I had been dusting the top of the fridge by standing on a kitchen chair. When I stepped off the chair, my foot landed on a raised dog bed that someone (probably Cooper) had moved into the middle of the kitchen and rolled my foot. I thought I heard a snap and it hurt like all get out but I was able to put a bit of weight on it by the next day so didn't panic. It bruised in lovely technicolor shades over the next couple of weeks but healed slowly. My activity at the Ex was too much for the newly healed foot and it protested. So now I am doing strengthening exercises for my foot. The moral of the story is that housework is hazardous to your health.

Speaking of summer, it still is! We've had marvelously beautiful weather! I covered the garden one night in September when it froze and haven't had to worry about frost since. I'm still getting tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini from my garden which is unbelievable for the first of October. I made a big pot of borscht yesterday with the garden vegetables. With weather like this, it's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week.

I like lac

2011-09-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

My friend Chandra generously gave me some sock yarn and natural dyeing ingredients to try. I have never used natural dyes so this nudge gave me a chance to play with lac.

Chandra had included some plastic to use if I wanted to wrap the yarn tightly in places that would resist the dye, a method known as ikat so I did that before starting. Then I premordanted the yarn with alum a couple of days before I dyed it, let it cool, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge. I followed Chandra's directions for dyeing but used the crock pot so I'd have better control over keeping it from boiling. (I have a dedicated crock pot for dyeing - I don't use any of the same tools for dyeing that I use for food.) After dyeing it, I put the yarn into a vinegar/water bath for an hour or so, then washed and rinsed it. And rinsed it, and rinsed it, and rinsed it. There was a lot of residual dye. Once the water was finally clear, I hung the skein to dry.

Here is the finished skein.

I like it a lot! I think the best description for the final color is faded raspberry with the undyed yarn giving it the same casual look as well-worn denim. Thanks, Chandra! I bought some pre-reduced indigo and will try it sometime in the near future as well. Honestly, I won't be abandoning my Jacquard dyes to switch over to natural ones. While I like the result very much, there was a lot more clean up from the lac than there is from acid dyes. Everything that the lac touched needed to be scrubbed. However the resultant soft color provides enough motivation to use natural dyes some of the time too.

I've also been very fortunate to get an amazingly beautiful alpaca fleece from my LYS owner (Golden Willow Natural Fiber - Rav link) and friend Sharon's own alpacas.

I knew that I wanted to spin some samples before deciding how to prepare it. I like sampling; it gives me so much information. First I used my cotton cards to prepare a sample for woolen spinning. I then combed some on my new Valkyrie Super Fine combs. They are so newly developed that they aren't on the website yet; I heard about them on Ravelry and contacted Chris that way. They have three rows of very closely set tines. I am a fan of all the different Valkyrie combs and these are perfect for super-soft alpaca!

I spun this bit worsted short forward draw.

Here are the two samples before wet finishing. It was dark already when I took the next pic so it's not wonderful.

I fulled the woolen skein with agitation and hot water/cold water baths then I whacked it against the counter. The worsted skein just had a warm bath before I hung both to dry from my kitchen cupboards. They are so light that they twisted in the plying direction when wet so that's kleenex on them to provide a slight bit of weight while drying.

Here they are after drying.

The verdict? I like them both depending on how they'll be used for knitting. The fleece is plenty big enough for more than one project so I'll prepare some each way.

I finally finished the first Watermelon Sock for Katie.

After having to restart this sock because it was turning out too small, I kind of lost enthusiasm for it. Hopefully sock number two will be finished a lot more quickly.

another baby throw

2011-09-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

I finished another (acrylic!) woven baby throw similar to this one. My physiotherapist is having a baby boy this fall so the latest is blue and white.

I can't believe how much fun weaving with texture is, even with ~~acrylic!~~ washable novelty yarn. It weaves up quickly too. In fact warping takes longer than weaving. I like the effect using the bunny-tail baby yarn but weaving the ends were a bear.

I had trouble getting the warp even on the last acrylic! baby throw so I thought I would try measuring the warp this time rather than direct warping it. I don't have a good place for attaching the warping board to a wall and wasn't comfortable doing it with the board in my lap leaning against the table. Putting it on the kitchen counter was the right height so I put cupboard liner non-stick stuff under and behind it to anchor it. It worked really well.

Yes, I know the experienced weavers will notice that I goofed at the top there. I didn't notice it until I had enough wrapped that I didn't feel like starting over and it wasn't a problem because the acrylic! yarn has a bit of stretch. I'll know to make the two sides after the warp cross even next time.

It takes a bit longer to tie the warp on both front and back but I was pleased with how evenly taut I could make the threads. I used the shelf liner instead of paper for winding on and it worked great for that too. Shelf liner is my new best friend. I'm finding all kinds of uses for it, none of which include lining my cupboards though.

The shuttle in the above picture is new and very cleverly designed by Weaving Weft 2 Wright on Etsy for using with a rigid heddle loom. It fits into the shed well and is long enough to be able to pass it back and forth. I tried a regular shuttle once and it just kept falling through the warp. The new one works great! This one is for the 25" Flip loom and it came with a long bobbin but I found that three regular LeClerc ones fit fine too. I also bought one of these shuttles for my 15" Flip. It will be really nice for winding on a lot of fine weft yarn for plain weaving.

I have been creating batts of Malamute/Romney for a custom spinning order. I have the batts finished and have starting spinning. It's nice to make progress on a couple of tasks around here.

dianna left a comment on my last blog post asking how the Cascade spindle spins. It is a little heavier spindle than I usually use but it spins well. All three of the new spindles work well - being center weighted they don't spin as long as rim-weighted ones like IST or Goldings but they are fast. I found that the low-whorl, spiral shaft one is a little fussy about how it is spun or the yarn pops out of the top of the shaft but it is a very light spindle for a low-whorl so that might be part of it. I'm willing to forgive its quirks because it is so beautiful and unusual.

mojo a go-go

2011-09-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

I know that I have been missing in action and I have no good reason for it. I just haven't felt like blogging. So there you go. Anyway, it's not that I haven't been doing anything. I've been puttering around on various projects but not finishing any of them so nothing seems too exciting yet.

I splurged on some new spindles since I last blogged. These first two are from Malcolm Fielding and I think that they are stunningly beautiful!

Olivewood/Bowyakka/Kingwood top whorl, 25g.

and Pink Ivory/Purpleheart/Horizontal Scrub spiral flute low whorl, 20g.

The yarn fits into the spiral groove on the shaft as you wind on.

And from Ask The Bellwether, I got a Cascade Mt. Rainier, 35g

and a little Akha spindle, which I have yet to master with my attempts to spin cotton on it.

We have been in a very unseasonable September heat wave this week after last week of cool, rainy days. Whether it's hot or cool, this is the usual behavior of the dogs.

Austin and Robbie snooze somewhere near me.

Bentley hangs out on the sofa in the sunroom, as usual, unless the air conditioning is working in which case the door is closed to the sunroom and he has to find in indoor perch.

Cooper likes to be outside in the back yard regardless of the weather. He has decided that he is Dan's dog and ignores me when I call him in. When Dan calls him, he trots in obediently. This is what I see when I call him in.

What a dog!

still summer

2011-08-13T22:39:00.000-07:00

I was spinning at the Ex for all five days and now I'm paying the price but I think it was worth it. My shoulder and foot don't agree. All that spinning at the wheel made my right shoulder cranky so I switched to standing and spinning with the spindle for one day and now have plantar fasciitis in my left foot. Now I can't stand or walk without significant pain and I can't sit at a wheel spinning either. It's weird and I'm feeling quite ungrounded (if that's a real word). Spinning has become so much a part of my life that I really miss it. The foot and shoulder pain is also preventing me from giving the dogs a good brushing and they really need it.

Anyway, enough whining. The Ex was quite a civilized experience; or at least as civilized as it gets for a busy fair. We were in a building with a stage at the back for a couple of vocal/dance shows and the quilters/knitters/rug hookers/stitchers/etc. at the front. It was air conditioned and volunteers were fed a lovely supper each day. I really enjoy eating food that someone else prepares so those suppers were much appreciated.

I found that the wheel was the big draw for the public. The spindle just didn't seem to attract attention like the wheel did. My niece Katie at the wheel attracted the most attention of all!

She has become a very good spinner!

We managed to teach quite a few kids and teens to spin on spindles and some even got their first experience spinning on the wheel. It always amazes me how much easier learning to spin seems to come to kids compared to adults. I've decided that adults over-think the process. But one of our spinners has convinced her husband to learn to spin and knit.

Susie is proud of Jeremy but she says she is getting a little nervous because he has been eyeing her fiber and yarn stash already.

There's a saying around here that the Ex is the last hurrah for summer before the cooler weather sets in. While it's certainly true that the nights have been cooler than they were in July, tomorrow's forecast is for a humidex of 41 C! That is about 105 F! I think summer isn't over just yet.

Right on cue though is the sunbeam on my kitchen windowsill. I took this picture yesterday.

We are gradually tilting away from the sun on our journey to the short dark days of December. I think I could handle winter better if it didn't get dark before suppertime. I guess I should just soak up the light while it lasts.

Finally, I had to share this pic of the web beside my chair in the living room. Just the way the light shone on it, I was able to watch the industrious spider spinning it last night. It was fascinating to watch how it was spun in triangles and so quickly. As usual, Nature puts on the best shows! I noticed today that the web has caught dust and dog hair but no insects so I think it's time to relocate the busy little spider outside.

Click to embiggen if you want a better look.

spinning at the Ex

2011-08-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

I will be spending some time spinning at Regina's Exhibition this coming week. If you're heading there, come and say hello. I'll be in the same Co-Operators rink as Saskatchewan Express. I'm looking forward to it and hoping my body will let me spend many hours there.

such fun!

2011-08-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

Lynn was having a 5th blogiversary contest on her Never A Dull Moment blog and I won!

The postal strike delayed the arrival of my prize but it finally came last week. It was so much fun to open up the parcel and see all of the fun things that it contained.

The two skeins of Misti Alpaca are so soft and lovely! There is a cute knitting card and a note pad with a map of the Caribbean area on it as well as a postcard of sunny Florida that I will put on my fridge to cheer me through the winter. There are sock knitting needle point protectors. Lynn also took a risk and sent me a yummy bar of dark chocolate that she worried might melt en route. It arrived here none the worse for wear so it must not have been left out in the heat during its journey.

Thanks Lynn! What a treat!

plied

2011-07-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

I plied the teal singles. It seemed to take as much time to do the plying as it did spinning the singles but that can't really be the case.

Dan's fever was caused by an abscessed tooth. Apparently the root of the capped tooth was dead and likely had been for some time when his body decided to attack it. It's been cleaned up and Dan has been taking antibiotics since Monday. He's feeling much better.

light show

2011-07-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

I was in the sunroom last evening carding some merino when the light changed suddenly and everything glowed. I looked up to see that the sky looked like this:

the sun started setting just as there was a sudden rain shower.

Once the shower passed, the sky glowed violet.

We mere humans can try to create beauty but it's hard to top Mother Nature. So lovely!

Tour de Fleece is over today. I didn't get a lot of spinning done during TdF this year but did finish this bobbin of woolen singles from my batts the other day.

It's so much faster to spin this yarn than my usual very fine singles.

Poor Dan woke up last night with a very high fever. He was a bit better today but still not well. My first thought was West Nile but he didn't have a headache so I'm hoping that he just picked up a bug.

hot!

2011-07-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

It's hot here on the Canadian Prairies. Currently, at 6 pm, it is 31 C (88 F) with a humidex of 35 C (95 F). Often our summer heat is tempered by low humidity but this spring's wet conditions mean that there is a lot of water still sitting around so the humidex factor makes the heat seem even hotter (and the mosquitoes are vicious). Thank heaven for air conditioning!

Here's the view of the dogs from my seat at the computer here. Notice that Austin, Robbie, and Bentley are sensible dogs and know what to do on a hot summer afternoon.

And then there's Cooper, bugging me to put him outside. He doesn't care if it's hot - he loves to have me spray him with the hose while he leaps into the air to catch the water in his mouth.

We went to a movie on Friday night for the first time in years (Bridesmaids, cute movie, good for summer viewing). Yesterday I woke up with a backache that spread up into my neck and gave me a headache too. I'm still sore today and hoping this isn't the start of a flare. Did sitting at the theater make my body cranky or is my pain a random occurrence? Who knows?

Anyway, I've been spinning a bit for Tour de Fleece.

Prepping merino fleece for spinning. I love scouring and prepping fleece! It's quite magical.

Finished first bobbin of the 'Austin' custom colorway from Spinning Awesome Good (didn't she do a great job?)

and started the second bobbin which will be shorter repeats of the color sequence for fractal spun ply.

And I finished up the Bee Mice Elf 'Miss Havisham' BFL 3-ply. I learned to make a photo collage for this one and I feel very clever!

And now I'd better take the dogs out just in case Cooper really does need to go.

satisfaction

2011-07-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

I think "satisfaction" is a very appropriate title for my blog post today. Here are some things that give me satisfaction.

I live in Canada. There is nothing that gives me more peace of mind, thankfulness, pride, and satisfaction than living in this magnificent country. Happy 144th birthday, Canada! I feel truly blessed to have been born and live my life within your borders. (The above picture was taken from my back yard a few days ago.)

On a much lesser scale but still satisfying:

These lovely batts are ready for spinning.

I had some mixed dyes in shades of green and teal that were starting to get old so I used them to dye a mix of fibers from fleeces in my stash. Pretty much any odds and ends of scoured fleeces that were kicking around got thrown into the dye pot. They ranged from soft Merino/Rambouillet to Corriedale crosses to Clun Forest and the result is a bouncy blend with some crispness. Most of the fleeces came from Val at Wooly Wool of the West on Etsy. I flick carded individual locks before carding them together. I think the spun fiber from these batts will make lovely woolen mittens and/or hats so will spin them allowing air to get into the twist for warmth. Tour de Fleece starts tomorrow and this will be a good project to get that rolling.

Next up, remember these little nests of combed fiber? I spun them for sock yarn and was a little short of enough yardage so spun up a single of merino/bamboo to ply with them. The result will make soft but strong socks.

And finally, I am satisfied that my husband is officially unemployed since the school year ended yesterday!

drat!

2011-06-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Drat, drat, drat, drat, drat!

I am kicking myself. It was a rookie mistake and I should have known better.

I was working away on the heel flap of the Watermelon Sock when something twigged. All those stranded rows? The ones I was so proud of?

Too. Tight.

I had completely forgotten to adjust the size of the sock so that it would actually fit over the size of the foot for which it is intended. Stranding takes away a lot of the horizontal stretch in the knitting. Duh.

a good day if you're a duck

2011-06-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

We got thumped with a massive rain system over the last 24 hours. It was like someone was emptying a bucket right on top of us, constantly, for hours. After a wet summer last year and a winter with a lot of snow, the poor soil just can't absorb much more water so it pooled where it could and flooded anywhere low lying.

Portions of my back yard had small lakes sitting on top of the grass/rocks.

Cooper just had to taste the water.

(If you click to embiggen, you can see his tongue lapping the water. It cracks me up. Apparently I'm easily entertained.)

Bentley was interested in what lurked in the puddles.

Soggy Austin and Robbie were less impressed.

The water dripping off of the lilac blooms was pretty. I love lilacs!

The wind picked up this afternoon and blew heavy, water-logged branches off of the trees. The yard is completely covered in litter but clean up will have to wait until the wind dies down. It would sure be nice to see some real summer weather for a good stretch now.

And it's been an exciting couple of days because we have been attending Dan's formal retirement functions. At the end of June he will officially be retired from his thirty year teaching career. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great for pictures and this is the only one that turned out sort of okay.

It was a crazy day for Dan. He was in a rush to get to a dental appointment after school and found that one of his tires was flat so there he was in the pouring rain changing his tire. It was a definite case of Murphy's Law. He was a little late to the dentist and very wet by the time he got there. Then he rushed home to shower and change to make it across the city through flooded intersections to the banquet and presentations. He's glad that tomorrow is Saturday so he can take the offending tire to be fixed.

After two evenings of dressing up and going out, my jaws hurt from visiting with colleagues, and my feet, knees, and hips hurt from wearing heels. Jeesh, I feel very old some days.

seeded

2011-06-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Here's the start of the first Watermelon Stripes sock.

It's a fun pattern with the color changes and the two rows of knitting with both colors at each change. I'm glad that I learned to knit with two colors using the Philosopher's Wool method. Here is the inside of the sock.

All of the ends are woven in already. Because the yarn is superwash, I left the tails of yarn from each color change. I will thread a needle to pierce each end into a couple of strands on the back before I wash the socks. That should anchor them for good and then I will snip off the ends.

Trish posted on her blog about buying a new dining table and then discovering that she couldn't clamp her ball winder and swift to it. I have the same problem with every table in our house. I solved it simply by buying an inexpensive tabletop ironing board. It works great and it's portable. I thought that I would share this in case other people have the problem.

When Geoff moved out, I took over this table in the basement to use as a winding station. It's nice to have everything ready to go when needed.

what Bentley's wearing

2011-06-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

For those that asked in the last post about what Bentley is wearing in the picture, it's a belly band.

A belly band is just a strip of fabric with a fastener, in this case it's velcro, to wrap around a male dog's belly. Having several males over the years that were show dogs for a few years before being neutered, I've had boys "marking" (lifting their legs) in the house. Some breeds are worse than others. You can tuck some protection, usually a sanitary pad or an incontinence pad, in the belly band and it protects the house from spritzes. It's a terrific little fashion accessory!

Although shelties are very good about not lifting their legs in the house, the bichons and the dachshund - not so much. In fact the dachshund is hard to catch in the act because of those little short legs and furry underside making it pretty tough to know when a leg is being lifted at all. So it's belly band to the rescue! B wears his in the house all the time and my carpet and furniture are grateful. When we stayed in hotels with the dogs, I always mentioned that the dogs wore them in the hotel room and they were very appreciative when I explained what they were. I can remember one desk manager who was thrilled and stated that they should keep a supply to hand out to dog owners.

The downside is standing in the checkout line at the store with the jumbo box of Poise pads. I'm sure people look at me and wonder why someone as "young" as myself needs them. Of course, checking out with sanitary pads probably also has people wondering why an "old" lady such as myself needs those too!

life is good

2011-06-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Although the rainy, cool weather persists, Bentley is very happy that it's warm enough to be in the sunroom. When he's in his favorite spot, he can relax and keep an eye on his world. Everyone should have life this good.

mmm, watermelon!

2011-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all of the well-wishes left on the last post. It has been a rough week but I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm nearing the end of the pain flare. The migraine left me a couple of days ago which was a huge relief. Chronic pain can certainly take the joy out of life.

Anyway, it's been easier to dye yarn than to sit in one position for long. The latest dyeing was for a specific project.

I decided to make the colors a little stronger than the ones in the picture which looks like a baby sock to me. If all goes as planned, the Watermelon Stripes Socks will be a gift for a certain young lady.

And I will leave you with some pictures of Mr. Greenjeans. No, not the lovely cardigan pattern - Cooper. Dan cut the lawn then went to do some garden chores. Cooper watched him and raced around on the grass as a light rain fell, making his white legs a lively shade of chlorophyll green.

Here's a close-up.

yarn love

2011-05-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

I dyed some yarn last week. I'm very happy with the results. More info about them can be found on my Stash page on Ravelry.

First up are a couple of superwash BFL/nylon. The yarn is high-twist making it perfect for socks.

I also dyed some superwash merino/nylon in my favorite Delft blues.

And I finished some handspun laceweight BFL/Tussah Silk from a Spinning Awesome Good roving.

I've been dealing with a pain flare and migraines so I'm in a fog and haven't decided whether I will sell these skeins or keep them.

Our weather has been cool and rainy which isn't helping my pain. The forecast is for more of the same. I don't know how many more days of this pain that I can cope with.

this and that

2011-05-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

I finished weaving the (acrylic!) baby throw. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy with the result. Here it's posing in the new little leaves of a lilac bush. Too bad the lilacs aren't blooming yet because they would totally match.

Now on to the sock update. The new pattern stitch isn't working with the yarn so I'm considering reverting to plan one after all.
The Scrolls pattern on the right is very pretty but it gets lost in the mottled colors. I'll save it for a solid colored yarn. The thickly textured lace on the left (Giotto/Go With The Flow mash-up) doesn't disappear in the swarm of pink and white.

Dan and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on the 20th. It sure doesn't feel like it's been 33 years and I thank my lucky stars that we found each other so long ago. I dearly love the sweet man. His birthday is tomorrow and we are going to see Burton Cummings in the evening. That not only dates us but also demonstrates our Canadian-ness.

I'll end with this photo of the cool bug I noticed on my kitchen window sill last week. I wanted to set him free outside and debated how to do that without hurting those fragile long legs. I ended up putting a small bowl over him and gently sliding him over another bowl until he was trapped inside. It worked and he was set free without harm.
Life is so much more interesting when the weather warms up.

floofy

2011-05-13T19:05:00.001-07:00

My latest weaving project is another baby blanket but this time I'm using acrylic baby yarn (!) including some novelty stuff. It was a pain to warp the loom with the acrylic yarn but I'm delighted with the weaving process.

I generally hate working with acrylic yarn but, as this will be a gift for someone who likely doesn't want to hand wash baby items, it seems like a practical plan. It's great fun to just weave random stripes of the different colors and textures. I know I would hate to knit the floofy yarn but weaving with it is easy.

I dyed some sock yarn to make girly socks for myself. I'm not a very girly girl but I want pink lace socks for some reason that I don't understand. I started Giotto for the cuff but switched to Go With the Flow for the leg because I think the Giotto stitch count would make it pretty big for me.
Quite lovely but something about this just wasn't sitting well with me. Even though the yarn is delectably soft, the lace pattern was making the sock fabric very textured and dense. I don't think it would be comfortable on the top of my feet because I have these sissy, wimpy, need-to-be-babied diabetic feet. I abandoned this sock start in favor of a new start using the Scrolls pattern. I haven't knit enough of it yet to know if I'm going to like it better. I didn't frog the first sock start, just cut the yarn, so I can go back to it in case I change my mind again.

Last night Dan and I were lucky enough to go to our second Elton John concert! It was just as wonderful as the first time we heard him live. I tried to get some pictures but most of them didn't turn out at all. These two were the best of a poor bunch.

This is actually the large screen shot. It turned out better.

And finally, in the totally random weirdness category:

If a tree falls in the forest, do more people eat pizza?
These Pizza Hut flyers were in our newspaper the other day, all 22 of them! It makes you wonder what went wrong with this plan. Good thing we recycle.

the little tea towel that could

2011-05-02T20:13:00.001-07:00

My latest weaving project was a learning experience to say the least.

I was aiming for a baby throw and I wanted to plan the warp and weft to get a gingham effect. I used stash yarn, TLC Cotton Plus(discontinued) in Spruce and White and got this:
much more resembling a tea towel than a baby throw.

I debated crocheting an edging all around it but it just didn't feel right. This went into time-out for a while because I was disgusted with it.

Once I thought more about it, I pulled it back out and twisted the fringe then cut it very short so it wouldn't get caught in baby fingers. Then I decided to cross stitch something onto it. That turned out to be a bigger project than I thought.

I surfed the web for some suitable cross stitch patterns for a baby garment. Then I realized that my woven squares aren't square at all - they're rectangles. So I found knitter's graph paper and turned it on its side so the "squares" were taller than wide. I then had to trace my pattern outline onto the graph paper or it would have been distorted, and flip the pattern for a symmetrical match.

My first pattern of spindling sheep ended up not looking like sheep at all so it was back to the drawing board. Ducks worked much better. I tried using leftover perle cotton from my Hardanger days for the cross stitching but it didn't pop on this fabric. Splitting the TLC Cotton Plus yarn in half (two of four plies) worked much better.

The result:
much better; not what I had in mind but less like a tea towel for sure.

I've tucked this away and will pull it out when a baby gift is needed. I made a trip to Michaels and bought baby yarn to try another throw. There will be more texture in the next try. I'll keep you posted.

so much water!

2011-04-25T20:48:00.001-07:00

Southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba have serious flooding problems due to the unusually wet and snowy condition of the last year. Lakes and rivers are at record high levels causing many home and cottage owners major grief.

Even our own Wascana Creek which meanders though our neighborhood has turned into a swiftly flowing lake.

I took this photo in November, 2008. Here's how the same field looked late this afternoon (taken with my crappy phone camera).
Beautiful to look at but not good at all.

Our weather has turned into summer. The last couple of days have been absolutely gorgeous! We are so enjoying the balmy, sunny warmth! The downside is that I have smacked two mosquitoes already. All of the water could make this a fertile mosquito breeding season. I hope not.

2011 rhubarb pic

2011-04-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

Happily, yesterday's snow melted and the weather forecast is much improved for the next few days.

I noticed the first rosy shoots of rhubarb poking their little noses out of the cold, wet earth today. About time.
You have to look really hard to see them because they're still very small. I drew pink arrows to show where they are

I took a look back in the blog to see when the rhubarb came up in previous years. Last year it was April 3. I missed taking one in 2009 and 2007 apparently. Here is 2008 and 2006. I was surprised that the 2008 pic was taken on the same date as today's although the rhubarb was much further along then. Early April is more common for the start of spring.

I noticed from the sun room that one of the dogs had sneaked a rawhide outside. Austin was chewing it and Cooper used the situation to make a game of it, getting goofy and running in circles around him.
Coop is such a happy dog! Austin was enjoying the situation too.

pretty little nests

2011-04-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I took a bunch of fiber and dyed it in the oven. It was a mix of Corriedale/Outaouais and Targhee locks, merino, silk, and nylon. I have been slowly combing it on hand combs to remove vm. Then last week these showed up at my door.

Blue Mountain Handcrafts 4 pitch English style Wool Comb and Hackle set. I ordered this set with the hybrid comb shortly after Christmas (well before all the expenditures lately that have caused an acquisition embargo around here) and it was worth the wait. I motored through combing and blending the fiber and this is the result.
I have about an equal amount of fiber left over from the combing that will go through the carder one of these days. The chaffy stuff went into the compost pile. There may be blue fluff in the birds' nests this year*.

I was afraid that my body would protest about using the hefty comb for several hours. Although I had a sore shoulder muscle the next day, it didn't trigger a flare so I am impressed. I think the comb is well balanced and heavy enough to do most of the work for me.

This set is extremely well made and beautiful! I'm sure it will get a lot of use.

I took the above pictures this afternoon in the sun room. Although it wasn't warm outside, the sun was shining and it was pleasant. Then I looked outside at supper time and it was raining ice pellets which soon turned to snow. Again.
Click to embiggen if you want to see the snow more clearly. You know, if you have masochistic tendencies.

After I took this picture the snow got heavy and we now have a few centimeters on the ground. Winter just will not go away. I wonder if it will ever warm up enough to plant the garden this year.

*I heard the screams of Peregrine Falcons the last couple of days. I hope that they move elsewhere before the other birds have nests of babies.

phooey

2011-04-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

After we had a few days of near normal temps, a lot of the snow had melted and thoughts had definitely turned to spring.

The downside is that the quick melt has caused major flooding in many parts of the province. The valleys are huge lakes and some people have had to evacuate their homes. There are busy highways and roads that are under several feet of fast moving flood water. It's not good.

The last couple of days have been cooler which should have been a good chance to slow down the flooding and let the ground soak up some of the water.

Instead, this is going on.
Just what we need - more moisture that the ground can't absorb.

The dogs don't seem to mind though.

five new wheels

2011-04-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Really. Not an April Fool's Joke.

I sold the Roberta espinner a few weeks ago, then used the funds to buy a Majacraft Suzie Pro.
It was a bit of a gamble. I sold my Majacraft Rose because it was causing knee pain. I was operating on the assumption that Suzie Pro's heavier drive wheel would provide greater momentum and my knees wouldn't have to push the treadles to keep it going.

So far, so good. I haven't spun a lot on the Suzie Pro yet but my knees have been fine with it. The Majacrafts are such lovely wheels, both esthetically and mechanically.

It was just after I bought this wheel that we learned that a major home builder here in Regina has offered our son a big painting contract. So we have been setting him up in his own business. It's an exciting time!

Dan's van, which is in good condition considering its birthdate is 1994, will now become Geoff's shop vehicle. Dan will take the 1998 van that I currently drive because he needs the room to transport his hockey equipment. That meant shopping for a vehicle for me.

The criteria was comfort. It needs to be comfortable for me to get in and out and to sit in because there are fibromyalgia days when I don't move very well. We decided to check out new vehicles so that we would get a sense of each manufacturer's seating.

That was a mistake.

After sitting in a GMC Terrain, nothing could compare. The Terrain was first produced in 2010 so there aren't used ones floating around yet. We bit the bullet and bought a new one. Here are my other four new wheels.
This was a huge purchase for us. We aren't new car people. We usually maintain and drive our vehicles until they are almost held together with twist ties. But oh, what a sweet ride it is! It has AWD for our winter roads, a back-up camera, Bluetooth, OnStar, XM radio, and heated leather seats. I can plug my ipod into its port and get my music through the "infotainment center".

I found a nifty fabric barrier that goes behind the front seats to keep the dogs in the back and a seat cover to protect the back seat from them.

All of this means that there will be no more impulse spinning wheel buying for me. I'm glad that I already have my fiber tools because my budget will be much, much slimmer in the future.

You can see in the above picture that we still have a lot of snow but it has been warm enough the last couple of days to melt quite a bit of it. There is a huge lake in the back yard. Lest we get too excited about the late arrival of Spring though, the forecast is for a huge snow storm on the weekend. Like we need any more precipitation in these parts. Sigh.

Mrs Brown Gets A Bikini Wax

2011-03-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

I tried a bikini wax one ill-fated day a long time ago. After doing one side there was no way I was about to do the other. Took ages for the bruises to heal. Let's just say I can identify with Mrs. Brown.

that's how I feel about it too

2011-03-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Found this today on Sandi Wiseheart's blog, wiseheart knits. Sandi's blog posts never fail to crack me up.

Japanese tsunami

2011-03-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

This brings tears to my eyes. My heart aches for the people affected by the earthquakes and tsunami. Please, if you haven't already done so, consider making a donation to a relief agency of your choice. This is mine.

puddlicious

2011-03-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

I guess it doesn't matter what kind of "kid" you are.

vernal equinox in Sask.

2011-03-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't really know it was Spring today by the weather in my back yard.

It has been snowing all day. The temperature is just below the freezing point so a lot of the snow is melting as quickly as it's falling but it is depressing just the same. If you're a human that is.

The dogs don't mind the snow one bit.

It's the perfect accessory to Robbie's formal black attire.

Austin and Bentley happily eat it and make snuffly snow tunnels with their noses.

Cooper is happy all the time, snow or no snow. He was very interested in the camera today.

first handspun

2011-03-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

I was rooting through a bin of fiber looking for some that I could use as waste on the drum carder to make sure that it was clean before starting a new project. I found a bag of white Romney that would do the trick. When I opened it up I discovered this:

my very first handspun yarn wrapped around a paper core. I made this in the summer of 2006. How my spinning life has changed since then!

We are finally getting some milder weather (seasonal, at least) and the big melt is on. It's so lovely to be able to be out in the sunroom on sunny afternoons again!

my favorite comedy sketch of all time!

2011-03-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

wascally wabbit

2011-03-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

The big old jackrabbit that has been sneaking into my garden through a hole in the fence was caught in the act. I had just brought the dogs in and saw the perp through the kitchen window.

He (or she, I have no way of really knowing, of course) went over to the back fence and hopped back and forth along it for a bit. I think he was checking to make sure that the dogs weren't in the yard. Then, as fast as a bunny (sorry, couldn't resist), he scooted to the neighbor's open gate, bee-lined to the hole in the fence, and hopped right into the compost bin.
Look at the triangular structure in the corner of the garden. See the opportunistic bunny sitting on it?

I have to admit that I look for him every day now. I think I'm getting sort of attached to the critter.

a lion, definitely

2011-03-02T14:32:00.001-08:00

There was never a danger of March coming in like a lamb in these parts. March is still most definitely winter. Yesterday, we broke a weather record for the coldest March 1st daytime high in 130 years, -25C (-13F). Yesterday morning the wind chill felt like -41C (-41.8F) (C and F are approximately the same at -40).

Honestly, when I took the dogs out into the backyard it really didn't feel that cold. The sun was shining and we were sheltered from the north wind. Then I opened the front (north) door to get the mail and the wind hit me. It felt like an alternate universe, such is the power of the wind on the prairies.

March is a tough month in Saskatchewan. We feel like it should be spring but it rarely meets our expectations. Sometimes Mother Nature teases us with a balmy day or two but then smacks us upside our heads with another cold spell/blizzard. If it does get spring-like, the snow melts too fast for the frozen ground to absorb and we have problems with flooding (not at our house but lots of other places that are on lower land). The ground was saturated before it even snowed last November because last year was ridiculously wet and we have had a ton of snow since then. A slow melt would be best but it's hard to like that option at this time of year.

The upside is that the daylight hours are noticeably getting longer and the sun has warmth as it shines into the windows even on the coldest days. The big old jackrabbit that's been venturing into my garden through a hole in the neighbor's fence isn't snowy white anymore but looking more salt 'n pepper-ish.

I haven't been very productive lately. I got tendinitis in my thumb so I've had to stop most fiber activities to let it heal. I'm not sure what exactly brought it on but it may have been a longish spinning session. The depressing part is that, out of my whole body, my hands are probably in the best shape. They get the most exercise and are rarely still (ahem, unlike the rest of my body). So I've been trying to take a break from spinning and weaving and only do a little bit of knitting.

I do have a picture of a Pimpelliese shawl that I've been knitting out of handspun BME Snow Capped merino/bamboo/silk. It was fractal spun and the color sequences are blending nicely.

something new for me to obsess over

2011-02-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

I have long dismissed the notion that I could become a weaver because of my pain issues with TMJ and Fibromyalgia. I saw weavers bent over their floor looms and my neck was sore just looking at them. That is so not a good position for me.

Then Ravelry started buzzing about rigid heddle looms and I bought Jane Patrick's new video Weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom to see what it was all about. Once I realized that the loom can be tilted, which makes all the difference to my neck, I ordered a 15" Schacht Flip and made this.
So cool.

Back to spinning.... I received this comment from chevyrell on the post "a subjective wheel comparison":

This was such a great post! I'm in the market for a wheel and have been shopping for quite some time. My passion is extra bulky art yarn and I want a wheel that's capable=) Currently I am looking at an Ashford Joy with the Freedom Flyer, but have been drooling over the Majacraft Aura since xmas. I would love your input on these! I will get a chance to try the Aura at an up coming fiber fest in March. However, I'm trying to decide if it's worth the extra expense or if the Joy would suit my needs for years to come. I would love any advice you have=)

I wish that I could be more helpful but I haven't had the chance to spin on the Majacraft Aura or the Ashford Freedom Flyer. I'm sure that the Aura would be a terrific choice for bulky art yarn and likely gives you the most control over your yarns but the Joy with the Freedom Flyer should work well too. My advice for you is to think about whether you want a wheel that will travel easily. The Joy is a great traveler and its bag protects it very well. I don't think that the Aura would be as light or compact. If you ever plan to spin other types of yarn than the bulky ones, the Joy is pretty versatile too.

You might also consider the Louet S-10. It's the original bulky spinner and does an exceptionally good job. It has large bobbins and is easy to treadle because it is a bobbin lead Irish Tension wheel. I love mine! I'm not sure if the flyer allows large add-ins though.

Another possibility is the Lendrum wheel. It has a jumbo flyer and bobbin and is another of the original art yarn spinners. There is even a quill head available if you want spin yarn with large add-ins that won't fit through a regular orifice. The Lendrum is a very versatile wheel for spinning a variety of yarns.

Hope that helps!

drum roll please....

2011-02-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

The random number generator chose the 11th comment on the 5th blogiversary post and the winner of the two skeins of Fearless Fibers sock yarn is Amy (knitterofhats on Rav). Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments about my blog!

5!!

2011-02-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that this blog is celebrating its 5th birthday today! It doesn't seem possible that I've been blogging for the amount of time that would be needed to raise a newborn to a kindergartner.

To celebrate, I have a prize package of these two cheerfully colored skeins of Fearless Fibers merino sock yarn for one lucky commenter.

Just leave a comment on this post before Monday night at 11:59 pm (CST). Make sure to include some way for me to contact you to be eligible. If you are on Ravelry, leave me your Rav name as that's safer than an email address. If you need to leave your email address, write out the AND and DOT parts to foil the spammers.

good one

2011-02-15T13:51:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed this. Thought you might too.

you know you've been married a long time when....

2011-02-14T14:34:00.001-08:00

Dan and I exchanged cards today.

Too funny! I guess what they say about starting to think alike is true.

We've been married for almost 33 years. What do you suppose happens when people are married for 70 years, which I've seen in announcements in the paper?

still playing with fiber

2011-02-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

I decided to wash some individual merino locks in cotton hankies as Judith MacKenzie describes in her video (A Spinner's Toolbox, I think, but it might have been one of the others. I have all of them. Huge kudos to Interweave for making spinning videos available by download. I watch them on my iPad and learn so much!). I carefully pulled some locks that were about the same length out of the fleece and wrapped them burrito-style in a hankie, then simmered them on the stove in soapy water. It worked great!

Here they are after drying.
The stained tips weren't an issue as they came off with a gentle brush of the flick carder.
I didn't worry about keeping the tip ends sorted while I flick carded because it's easy to tell which end is the tip by gently rubbing the lock between my fingers. The lock will "walk" toward the tip end. I spin from the tip end for consistency.
These little locks don't need to be combed. They spin lace weight yarn beautifully from the lock.

In other news, we are back into the deep freeze today after another unusually warm few days. According to the forecast this cycle will continue as very mild temperatures will be here by the end of the week. (I hope I didn't just jinx the warm spell by actually typing it here.)

I was out with the dogs the other night and the trees were so pretty! There were little icicles hanging from the branches while soft snow coated the tops of them.

I just received the following blog comment from Keri,

What beautiful results! I'm a little nervous - I too have a superfine merino fleece and just ordered the mini combs but not the extra fine mini's. Now I'm starting to worry I should have ordered those. Did you get bad results with your regular minis?

I didn't have much luck combing my super-fine merino fleece on the mini combs. The fiber was neppy. However, the mini combs are superb for general use and easier to use because you don't need as much strength to pull the fiber through the combs. My suggestion is to have both if you can swing it.

q and a

2011-02-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

I just came in from the back yard with the dogs and it's raining. Raining!! Needless to say, the weather has done a complete turn around this week. It's actually gorgeous outside now but the rain is freezing once it hits the ground so the roads will be a mess.

I received some questions lately in the blog comments so I'll answer them here.

Mickey asked,

How do you like the Russian lace spindles?

I'm not very good at spinning with the Russian spindles. My hands are just starting to figure out how to park-and-draft with them. I'm getting better but no where near proficient with them yet. It's tempting to ditch them and just used the top whorl spindles but I feel the need to persevere with them for the sake of honoring the culture's history. And pure stubborn-ness because it's a challenge for me.

Your sock yarn looks wonderful. Do you use 2 or 3 plies?

It depends. I like to aim for 3 plies most of the time but will do 2 plies with stronger fibers like BFL that I haven't spun as finely. The Shunklies Humbug BFL fiber was 2 plied. I didn't have enough fiber to do a 3 ply that would yield enough yardage for a pair of socks.

The art yarn was interesting. I found myself trying to fit my hand into that shape and I am afraid I don't have the concept, you spin a core and wrap in one pass? Are you adding the locks to a prespun core?

No prespun core. The core is spun and wrapped in one pass. I remember reading about Judith's wolf yarn in her book The Intentional Spinner but it didn't make any sense to me until I watched her video A Spinner's Toolbox. It's one of those things that is easier to understand by seeing it. I just did a google search to see if I could find anything and lo and behold, someone made a little video showing the technique. I discovered that it's easier to do quickly than slowly. And here's a skein of it finished:

Monika said,

I just read yesterday, that Canadian Winter is getting milder. I've been here almost 15 years now, and I've been saying that the last three years or so. when we first came here, boy there was so much snow, and long, cold winter month, but not so much the last few years.

That doesn't seem to be the case on the Prairies. We've had a couple of cold, snowy winters. We went through a spell of mild winters for a while but the last couple are like what I remember from my childhood.

Jody said,

I need a little workhorse like the Louet for plying. That looks like quite a large bobbin....how much does it hold?

The Louet bobbins are big. Not as big as the jumbo bobbin on the Lendrum but close. I think they must hold about 8 oz. of fine yarn but I haven't tested it yet.

deep freeze

2011-01-31T23:12:00.000-08:00

As I am writing this at 1:13 am (why yes, I am a night owl), the temperature is -35 C (-31 F) with a windchill of -46 C (-50.8 F). Thankfully the cold snap isn't supposed to last too long. Warmer temps are forecast for Wednesday. Good. This is ridiculously cold. It makes a person want to just crawl into bed and hibernate until it ends.

Even though I haven't been posting much lately, I have been keeping busy. Shuttleworks had a sale on Louet products and I was itching to try a venerable S10 DT so I bought one.

My intent was to use it for plying so that I would have easy treadling with the Irish tension (bobbin led) and be able to get into a rhythm for consistency. As much as I like my espinners, I find that I have an easier time gaining plying consistency when my feet and hands are co-ordinated. In order to gain speed for plying fine high-twist yarn, I ordered a couple of fast bobbins in addition to the regular ones that came with the wheel.

I didn't really think that I would fall madly in love with the S10 but I have. It's a truck but it does its job amazingly well! I quite like the kate that comes with the wheel too.

Here it's plying some Shunklies Humbug BFL for sock yarn.

I liked the Humbug BFL a lot too so bought some from International Fleeces to play with dyeing. Here it is with the finished Shunklies yarn.

I have some lovely Cotswold locks from Wooly Wool of the West in my stash. I scoured and dyed some to play with boucle singles a la Judith MacKenzie.
After a bit of practice I was able to get the hang of spinning a thin core yarn with my back three fingers against my palm and using the thumb and forefinger with the other hand to pull out teased locks to wrap around the core. It's pretty fast once your hands "get it" and yields an art yarn that is quite usable as a single. It's light but strong.
Fun!

(The Roberta package is for sale again if you are interested. The price has been reduced to $1100 including shipping within Canada and to the US.)

a family picture plus one

2011-01-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

I decided to take a picture of my spindle collection. I've been steadily accumulating spindles over the last couple of years and I love them dearly.

I rounded up all the strays that were tucked into project bags and set them all in pottery mugs and a jug. We had an exceptionally beautiful day today, not a common occurrence in January to say the least (it was less than a week ago that we were in the deep freeze), so I was able to take the picture in the sunroom (it was actually room temperature out there in the sunshine this afternoon!!*).

Aren't they lovely?

As I set about putting them all back where they started from I came across my beloved Bosworth Moosie. How could I have taken a spindle photo shoot and not noticed its absence? So Moosie gets its own picture like the star of the show.

*Days like today remind me of reading C. S. Lewis' "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" to the kids where it was always winter and never Christmas while the White Witch controlled Narnia. Today felt like Aslan was on the move and winter was starting its transformation into spring. Of course, days like today are anomalies and there is no doubt that winter is about to smack us all upside the head again soon enough.

a little happy camper

2011-01-14T23:41:00.000-08:00

Normally, Bentley doesn't like it when I spin because I won't let him sit on my lap while I treadle the wheel. He is very happy when I spin on the Hansen miniSpinner though because my lap is available.

Notice the tongue poking out of his mouth as he snoozes.
He is a very entertaining dog.

combing merino

2011-01-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

I bought a lovely merino fleece from Jean Near a while back and was at my wit's end over how to deal with it. Apparently I'm not the only one who has had this problem - a quick check on Ravelry revealed a number of people who have sworn off processing merino fleeces at home.

I didn't have any trouble washing it. Lots of very hot water and some Ecos HE laundry detergent (my new secret weapon for scouring fleeces) worked great, better than Orvus, dish detergent, or the specialty wool scours that I've tried.

Merino is a short fiber that doesn't lend itself to being combed with most wool combs. It's very fine and pills up if you look at the wrong way. Flick carding it to remove the vegetable matter resulted in many nicks to my fingers. I had resorted to hand picking it and then carding it but still got a lot of nepps in the batts.
I wasn't happy with the results and was starting to regret buying the fleece.

That all changed when I got the new Valkyrie Extra Fine combs. I already had the Valkyrie Mini combs and like them a lot for most of my combing so decided to try the extra fine ones. They are perfect for fine, short fibers like merino.
Mini comb on the left and extra fine comb on the right. I like to use both with the comb pad. These are not really mini combs; they're substantial and sturdy, especially the extra fine ones.

I clamped the comb pad securely to my kitchen counter which is a perfect height for me. Finding a really sturdy table is very important for the extra fine combs. There is a lot of resistance to the comb due to the narrowly spaced teeth.

I was able to fill the comb about 2/3 full of fiber.
I spritzed a mix of water with a bit of baby oil in it and then starting combing just the tips, working slowly up to the comb, then transferring the fiber from the working comb back to the stationary comb in the same way. I could get more nice fiber if I used my other hand to help pull the last of the long bits with the working comb. There was a lot of waste but about half of it was free enough of vm to save for future carding projects.

Here is what was left after a few passes-
beautifully uniform and silky merino.

I dizzed it off and coiled it into a little nest of super soft, perfect sliver.

Here is what I had after a few hours of work. I weighed these little nests and found that I had only produced 29 grams or about an ounce. It's definitely not a fast way to produce fiber but the results are exquisite!

happy new year!

2011-01-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

Yet another You Tube video but such a lovely one. I'm showing my age again but I love ABBA.

We saw the new year in with our good friends Rhonda and Al and my sister Darcie and family. Dan and I have spent every New Year's Eve but one with Rhonda and Al for about 30 years. We are blessed to have such dear friends. It's always a nice quiet evening, very comfortable and laid-back, with a casual supper and board games. Even Darcie and Dallas' kids Christopher and Katie made it to midnight last night for the first time.

Happy New Year everyone! May 2011 bring peace and tolerance to the world.

Hallelujah Chorus -Quinhagak, Alaska

2010-12-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

The teacher in me loves this. The human in me loves it too.

Merry Christmas everyone!

winter solstice lunar eclipse

2010-12-21T20:54:00.000-08:00

I have told you before that I am an incurably nocturnal being. That meant that I did not have to set my alarm to see the lunar eclipse early this morning. I saw it before I went to bed!

This picture was taken at about 3:30 a.m. as the eclipse was waning. So beautiful! It was cold outside and taking a picture was tricky because I didn't want to take off my gloves but I managed to get a good pic out of a lot of duds.

Most information out and about says that the last lunar eclipse that occurred at the same time as the winter solstice was in 1554. Apparently that's not entirely accurate. At any rate, it's a very rare event and we certainly won't see another one in our lifetime.

fly by posting

2010-12-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of pics to share with you today.

Anthera posing over a plate to show the design. I used my handspun Cormo/Sheltie/Targhee/Angelina yarn.

A couple of Gotland nests of combed top. I used my Valkyrie mini combs with one clamped to the table, Dutch comb style. They work better than the Majacraft combs for this longer stapled fiber.

for your weekend's entertainment

2010-12-18T16:02:00.000-08:00

who needs diamonds?

2010-12-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

When I took the dogs out late last night, the ice storm had ended and there were strong winds blowing a skiff of snow over the ice crystals. The back yard glittered in the yard lamps. It was so pretty that I ran back into the house and grabbed the camera.

You really need to click and embiggen these pics to properly see how lovely these little crystals are.

blogging malaise

2010-12-14T19:30:00.000-08:00

I have no excuse for my break from blogging. I don't know why but I've had blogger's block. It's not that I haven't been doing anything - I've actually had a lot of fun the last few weeks.

I've been taking Cooper to dog classes and we've been having fun getting a taste of obedience, agility, and flyball. Cooper's favorite is agility so I've signed us up for an agility class starting in January. This dog has a lot of potential with appropriate training. I figure fate sent him to me to get me off my duff. He needs to be kept busy. The challenge will be finding the balance between his needs and my aching body some days.

I've also been taking an intermediate spinning class and challenging myself to spin yarn that is outside of my comfort zone. Here are a couple of projects that I produced for the spinning class.

220 yards and 80 g of 2-ply cotton and silk noil. Spinning cotton is not my favorite thing to do so it was good that I forced myself to practice on this yarn. I have to admit that I am much better at it now. I dyed it with periwinkle acid dye and was surprised that it took the dye so well. I thought that only the slubs of silk would take it but there must have been more silk distributed over the entire yarn as I spun than I thought. You can see a bit of the wool yarn that I tied the skein with on the upper left side of the picture to see the difference between this blend and pure wool.

Then there's this:
so far out of my comfort zone that it's scary.

It's Spunky Eclectic Tuxedo Rose Romney, the September club fiber. I wanted to see if I could anchor beads into a singles yarn. I pre-threaded the beads onto thin strips of the fiber and then spun the strips right into the singles. By incorporating twist into the fiber before and after each bead as well as beside it, it is quite secure. Lightly fulling the yarn after spinning helped too. I have 173 m and 114 g of the plain singles (top) and 88 m and 103 g of the beaded one (bottom - you can see the beads more clearly if you click on the picture). It was an interesting project to spin but I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with the finished yarn.

I got my Christmas present early. It's a Louet Victoria.
Shuttleworks has them on sale. It's a very light wheel and very easy to tote which my body appreciates. It treadles lightly using both feet or just one foot. So far I actually prefer to use it as a single treadle which surprises me because I usually find double treadling easier. Spinning my default fine worsted yarn is effortless. It's not a wheel for chunky or art yarns though but I certainly don't plan on churning out art yarns any time soon. The beaded one above was enough to hold me indefinitely.

The Victoria folds down and tucks neatly into its bag which can be carried by handles, a shoulder strap, or as a backpack. Louet planned this wheel very well.

As I sit here typing I can hear ice pellets hitting the windows. We are having yet another winter storm with freezing rain which will turn into snow overnight. I'm sick and tired of winter already and it doesn't even officially start until next week.

I'm including the Environment Canada weather warning for your perusal. It seems that knowledge of punctuation and sentence structure isn't a job requirement for the person who writes these things.

Freezing Rain Warning

Issued at 10:24 PM CST Tuesday 14 December 2010

Summary

Another hour or so of freezing rain.

Details

A major storm system continues to affect much of Southern Saskatchewan this evening. At 10:20 PM radar indicates that the leading edge of the precipitation is just pushing into Melfort..And approaching Yorkton from the west. The precipitation generally is falling as a mix of freezing rain..Ice pellets..And snow..With the major area of freezing rain now affecting the Regina-Estevan area. Highway 1 has now been re-opened between Moose Jaw and Rush Lake. However in general most highways in the affected areas are reporting ice-covered, slippery conditions..With travel not recommended. The remaining areas under the freezing rain warning will likely see freezing precipitation continue for another hour or two..Before changing to snow or ending. As the precipitation tracks eastward tonight it will change to snow as it moves into colder air. Total snowfall amounts of 10 to 20 cm are forecast by noon Wednesday over portions of the eastern grainbelt.

not a weather post

2010-11-29T17:09:00.000-08:00

It seems that all I've had to blog about for the last few weeks has been the weather. Today, however, I have some fiber things to share.

I finally finished up the gift socks for my physiotherapist Rachel. I used yarn from the stash, Nova Sock Print color 303, doubled. I bought the yarn from Golden Willow Natural Fiber a while back and it's quite nice - I should have bought more at the time; the price was right. The socks are thick and warm. I hope she likes them and that they fit.

I also finished up the yarn for the shawl. I posted a picture of the first singles of merino, silk, baby alpaca, sheltie, and angelina that I carded and spun woolen in the summer. It took me quite a while to spin up the second singles of worsted silk brick; I don't like spinning silk by itself so it was slow going. However I do like the finished yarn.

The finished yarn on the bobbin:

And after being fulled in the bath:
I haven't decided on a pattern yet but there are lots of contenders.

it might as well be January

2010-11-24T20:45:00.000-08:00

It's been cold here. We seem to get a new dump of snow every 3 or 4 days. It's hard to believe that it's still November when I look outside.

I think we've had just about as much snow already this year as we get all winter in other years but that might be stretching it a bit.

Although the shelties still like the snow, even they start lifting up their chilly paws soon.
I took a couple of pics of Austin and Robbie before they got too cold this afternoon. I had to use my gloved fingers to snap the pics.
B and Cooper weren't as co-operative about the picture taking today. Poor little B almost has to swim through the snow drifts and comes into the house covered with snow. I don't think Cooper slows down long enough to get cold.

Dan got bronchitis which developed into pneumonia even though he was on antibiotics already. He missed a couple of weeks of school. His lungs can't tolerate the cold so we have really appreciated that Geoff has been clearing the driveway and sidewalks. Geoff will be moving out at the first of December. Dan and I will become empty-nesters for the first time. I told Geoff that he wasn't allowed to move out until the snow stopped falling. I don't think he is going to listen to me.

I've been taking a spinning class at Golden Willow and loving it as usual. Cooper and I started a dog class introducing obedience, agility, and flyball. He thinks it's great fun, especially the agility part.

I had a request to make a little video for Ravelry showing how the Hansen MiniSpinner can be used as a bobbin winder/quill with my trick of using a chop stick and an orifice reducer. It was my first attempt at recording myself using my laptop so the production quality is less than stellar to say the least. I learned a lot in the process though. Some of my spinning class friends asked that I post it here too so here it is for anyone who is interested.

snow finished for now

2010-11-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

This snow storm wasn't nearly as bad as the one we had a couple of weeks ago. No snow bomb this time. We had about 18 cm (just over 7 inches) of snow as of yesterday. Again, the shelties are happy. The forecast is for cooler temperatures so I'm afraid this snow might be here for the duration of the winter.

I'm still not ready for winter but I don't think I ever will be. However it seems like a non-issue compared to what so many people have endured and continue to endure during wars. I am very fortunate that my life is so peaceful that only worry about the weather. I am forever indebted to the many who have fought for that peace.

it's ba-ack...

2010-11-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

So if

Red sky at night,
Sailors' delight.

and

Red sky in morning,
Sailors' fair warning.

are true, is this true too?

Purple sky out there,
Much snow in the air.

purple rain?

2010-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

After a few days of record-breaking warmth, we had showers today and we are getting some snow this evening. Right around sunset I called the dogs in from the back yard and noticed that everything was purple.

These two photos are exactly as the camera took them with no editing or retouching.

I don't remember ever seeing the sky that color before. It started snowing soon after so the heavy, cool clouds must have affected the colors in the sunset. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

now that's more like it!

2010-11-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

What a difference a few days can make!
It feels like spring. Most of last week's snow, except for where it drifted or got shoveled into heaps, is already gone. I'm so glad. I wasn't ready for winter just yet.

It was 12 degrees C today (54 F) and the forecast is for more warmth. Bring it on!

a beumb

2010-10-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

I shamelessly stole that title from a clever column by Regina's own Ron Petrie of the Leader-Post. Go ahead and read it for a giggle. I enjoy Ron's columns. Apparently we share the same twisted sense of humour.

If you didn't go read it just now I will translate. What Clouseau called a "beumb" is indeed a bomb, weather bomb that is. It's the weather equivalent of a hurricane only it happened inland. It was responsible for the storm that was dropped on us this week. Environment Canada's senior climatologist, David Phillips, called it the "king of storms". I certainly don't ever remember a weather bomb on the prairies. This year has been nothing if not unusual for weather in these parts. Our forecast is for a warm-up next week and I sincerely hope that this snow melts. It is too soon for winter to stick around just yet.

Dan and I went to the Reba McEntire concert last night. It was very good. I'm not a die-hard country music fan but I like Reba. I still liked Blue Rodeo's concert better though. More my style of country music.

Just in case you aren't tired of my links to the Leader-Post here is one more. Dr. Roberta Bondar arrived in Regina during the storm and had some interesting comments.

brutal

2010-10-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

Winter has made its early presence known with a vengeance. Here is a picture taken through my kitchen window yesterday afternoon.

And here is one from this afternoon.

The RCMP closed the Trans Canada highway for a while because of the poor visibility in the blowing snow and the icy conditions. A good portion of city streets were impassible as well and others were blocked with stranded cars. I was quite happy to cancel my appointment this afternoon and hunker down at home.

The snow has now stopped and the wind has calmed down. However the temperature has dropped. The wind chill factor is now -16C (3F).

Considering that most of October was lovely and warm (I didn't need a jacket when we went out for dinner on Friday evening), this has been a huge shock to the system. I'm holding out hope that it will warm up enough to melt this snow. Dan doesn't think it will get warm enough to get rid of all of it.

first winter storm

2010-10-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

We woke up to the first winter storm of the season.

Weather Warning

Issued at 10:32 AM CST Tuesday 26 October 2010

Summary

5 to 10 cm of snow today into tonight with occasional blowing snow.

Details

A powerful storm system over Central Minnesota late this morning continues to intensify, and is bringing the season's first snow to Southern Saskatchewan today into tonight. The snow is accumulating in most areas from Saskatoon and eastward, along with strengthening northwest winds, now gusting into the 60 km/h range. Wynyard has reported 10 cm so far, with many other areas approaching 5 cm. The snow will continue tonight before tapering off early Wednesday. General snowfall amounts of 10 to 15 cm are expected over eastern regions, with possibly as much as 25 cm over the higher elevations of the moose mountains and duck mountains. Lesser amounts of 5 to 10 cm are expected in the weather warning area including Regina. In addition to the snow, strong northwest wind gusts will likely strengthen into the 70 to 80 km/h range, and compound the situation with poor visibilities in heavy snow and local blowing snow. This will be the season's first Major blast of winter weather over Southeast Saskatchewan so residents planning on travel today and tonight should be prepared for treacherous winter travel conditions including on the Yellowhead and transcanada highways especially towards the Manitoba border. Environment Canada continues to closely monitor this situation and will be providing updates through today and Wednesday as the storm develops. Please refer to the public forecast for further details.

There are many unhappy motorists today but there are some very happy shelties.

When they got the zoomies even Bentley joined in although his little legs had to really plow to get through the thick, heavy snow.

price reduced by $100 on the Roberta package

2010-10-20T01:46:00.000-07:00

I have dropped the asking price for the Roberta and accessories so it's now $1150 including shipping to Canada and the US.

hey, the moth has a name!

2010-10-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Nolie for leaving a comment with a link to this Bug Guide page. It seems that my pretty moth's name is Metanema Inatomaria or Pale Metanema. Now I can't get this song out of my head -

Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Metanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah....

p.s. Robbie has obviously been putting his paws on my keyboard again. My apostrophe key had morphed into this:
è.
Luckily I still had Kelly's solution from the last time I had a problem with the apostrophe (only then it was a French accent without the e). So I tapped the Shift and Ctrl keys a few times and voila, problem fixed. Except that now I don't know how to do the accent thing over the a in voila.

the Roberta could use a new home

2010-10-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

I've convinced myself that two espinners is redundant so I'm looking for a new home for the Ertoel Roberta and accessories. It was purchased one year ago from Shuttleworks.

Includes flyer with O ring sliding hook, 3 jumbo bobbins, 3 regular bobbins, orifice hook, built-in kate, pause control, 12 volt plug in, lubricants and original paperwork. Also included is a WooLee Winder with 4 jumbo bobbins that was purchased a few months ago so there are 10 bobbins in total. (The WW flyer needs a spacer to snug up the fit which Nathan Lee has said that he will provide. In the meantime, I've been using a rubber washer and it does the job. I can forward the spacer when it arrives.) Everything is in great condition.

I'm asking $1250 shipped within Canada or to the US.

fickle swatches

2010-10-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

Case #1:

I have a plan to make a pair of surprise socks for my physiotherapist Rachel for Christmas. I hatched the plan several weeks ago and got the receptionist at the physio clinic to spy on Rachel's shoes to see what size she wears (9.5/10). I made note of her usual attire - subdued colors - so that I would make socks that she would like. I specifically ordered yarn online for them. When it arrived, I swatched (in the round) and started knitting.

It's a good thing I gave myself lots of time to complete the gift. As I was finishing the gusset of the first sock it occurred to me that it was looking rather small. I stuck my own size 7.5 foot into the sock.
Perfect fit.

So I had to decide whether to frog and start again or keep them for myself. Considering that one sock of a pair is nearly done and they fit me anyway, I decided to try again for Rachel's socks. So I went stash diving and I think I have something sort of suitable that can work. Merry Christmas to me. Pictures of the new sock to follow when there is enough to bother photographing.

Case #2:

I posted here about plying Falkland handspun with wooly nylon for sock yarn.

I was anxious to see how it would knit up so I swatched, at about the same time as I swatched for Rachel's socks (hmmm... coincidence?), and started knitting myself a pair using the Fluted Bannister Socks stitch pattern thinking it would look nice with the gradual color changes in the yarn.

So I'm trucking down the leg of the first sock and decide to put it on to try on. Snug. Maybe because the sock is on dpn's? Knitted it onto two circs. Tried it on again. Snug.

Not exactly too small because the yarn has a lot of bounce from the wooly nylon but it's..... snug.

It has been shoved into time out while I knit Rachel's current pair. After that, I'll decide whether to knit on and see if the sock can be pulled on over my ankle or whether it will hit the frog pond as well.

Remind me again why we knit swatches, will you?

the Judith MacKenzie experiment

2010-10-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

I recently watched some spinning videos (on my iPad, LOVE that thing!) including Popular Wheel Mechanics by Judith MacKenzie. She advises people to get to know their wheels by seeing the range of yarns that you can produce with it using your default spinning speed and adjusting the whorls (or pulleys, as Judith calls them) and tension.

I decided to do just that with the Lendrum. I used beautiful Polwarth fiber that I combed and dizzed so that the fiber and preparation would be consistent. It was a neat exercise.
I used only the regular flyer with its three whorls. I let the yarn ply back on itself as soon as it was pulled off of the bobbin. I tried to maintain my usual treadling speed (which is pretty fast) and let the whorl and the tension setting dictate the size of the yarn. My drafting speed did vary a bit.

You can see that there is quite a range of yarns from that one flyer. The top yarn was the thickest that I could spin because the fiber had been dizzed to a fairly small diameter. I didn't draft it very much while spinning. Could I have spun a thicker yarn with just this flyer? Maybe a bit but I think I would have to consciously slow down my treadling to do so. The plying flyer, which I didn't buy, would likely make the job easier because the whorls would be larger.

I didn't have any trouble at all producing the finest yarn because the lovely Polwarth fiber drafts out beautifully and because my hands really, really like fine spinning. I have the fast flyer but didn't use it for this experiment. Because I treadle quickly, I don't really need the fast flyer for spinning wool but it is great for cotton. Lendrum does make a very fast flyer but I can't imagine ever needing it although some people like it a lot.

This was a very useful exercise and I recommend it. One of these days I'll get around to repeating it with my other two wheels.

Run For The Cure update

2010-10-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

I told you about Geoff's half-sister Chloe becoming team captain for this year's Run For The Cure in honour of her mom defeating cancer ten years ago when Chloe was a baby. She sent an email with these pictures of the run last weekend.

As you can see, she did shave her head and donate her hair to make wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment. She proudly shared that she raised $5,588 and her team total was $11,348!

Way to go Chloe! We're proud of you!

catching up

2010-10-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

First, I'll answer a couple of questions from recent posts.

Jody asked how fall looks on the prairies. She said that the trees were at their most colorful in Ontario these days.

Our Saskatchewan fall isn't as colorful as fall in the eastern part of the continent. Most trees have leaves that turn yellow when cool air arrives. The grass starts to turn golden and brown. Actually I think that fall is golden in the prairies; it's the color of the changing plant life and the gorgeous golden glow of the slanting sunlight.

This was taken in my back yard last week.

And here's one taken in the front yard looking down the street.
A strong wind blew for a couple of days after I took these pictures and the golden trees are now leafless. There are still green trees that don't panic at the first frost and hold onto their color for a while yet.

Marguerite asked if the moth was large. Yes, it was - probably 2 inches wide. It disappeared for a while and then I saw it flying around the window of the sunroom the next day. I tried to convince it to go out of the open door but it wasn't interested. I haven't seen it since.

The dogs and I visited the Regina off-leash dog park for the first time today. It was fun! There's a large fenced grassy area around the creek near the airport. It was a busy place today because of summer-like temperatures.

All of the dogs were friendly and tolerant of each other. Several of them were in and out of the creek. Mine didn't show any interest in going in the water. They checked out the shoreline but that was as far as they ventured.

New friends were made.

Cooper got the zoomies.

Bentley enjoyed the fresh air.

Austin and Robbie stayed pretty close to me the whole time. They've been trained very well over the years. Whenever I looked down, there they were.
Good shelties.

We'll definitely be going back. It was great exercise for all of us.

check it out

2010-09-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Check out this little lovely who came to visit my kitchen last night.

I've never seen a moth quite like this before. I'm most impressed with the pretty wing markings and the cool Phyllis Diller hair style.

After a few weeks of cold, very wet weather, Mother Nature has gifted us with this gorgeous day. It reached 29 C (84 F) this afternoon. Such a nice change from temps hovering around frost!

I'm also happy because I finally got to groom my dogs this week. I couldn't get at it for a few weeks because of a fibro flare and they desperately needed a good brushing. It feels so good to get it done.

I'm in love

2010-09-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

with this.

I told you how much I was enjoying the iPod Touch. Well, one thing led to another and this (the most basic) iPad came home with me this week. Could I truly afford it at this time? No. But I convinced myself that I couldn't live without it and I sold the Majacraft Pioneer so that partially funded it.

This is iPod Touch on crack. It is amazing and wonderful and mind-boggling and beautiful. When I think back to high school computer programming class in the mid-70s I feel like I grew up in the dark ages. There was one computer for our use and it lived at the university. It filled a massive room there. We learned flowchart programming skills (of which I remember nothing but the words Fortran and Cobol) and used ticker tape-like cards (that would be the technical name) to send our work to the university. Who would have believed that about 35 years later we would have mini-computers in our purses that operated wirelessly to connect us to the entire world?! I wish my dad had lived long enough to see it. He died in 1970 but had advised me to learn about computers because he truly believed that they were the way of the future. How right he was.

That is all I have time to blog today. My iPad is calling me.

for charity

2010-09-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

I have posted before about our wonderful LYS Golden Willow Natural Fibers and its owner Sharon. She received a large donation of wool this summer and sent out word to local knitters that she intended to knit hats for Souls Harbour Rescue Mission with it and could use help. There was no shortage of help offered once word got out. I took a skein and here are my finished hats to donate.

I don't know what the yarn is but it was very nice to knit and washed up even nicer. I think there must be mohair in the blend because it is soft and has a nice halo. It is a rustic yarn - I picked out bits of vegetable matter as I knit so I don't think it was mass produced. I'm sure it will help some people stay warm this winter. I won't be taking any more yarn to knit hats though because my hands really, really don't like knitting with anything heavier than sock yarn. I was happy to finish up this knitting and give my hands a break.

I also finished spinning some sock yarn with Spinning Awesome Good Falkland fiber in the Hydrangea colorway, one of the club offerings. I'm enjoying this fiber club. Shelby offers plenty of choices for each month's fiber and even will dye this month's fiber from a photo that each member provides for her. I'm excited to see what she does with a picture of Austin that I sent her.

Anyway, back to the Falkland.
It's the first yarn that I have spun on the new Hansen miniSpinner. I'm very impressed with the Hansen! It's so easy to use and I love that I have great control over my spinning with it. I spun two plies with the Hydrangea and plied them together with a strand of light blue wooly nylon for extra durability. Wooly nylon is serger thread that I buy at a sewing machine store. Some people carry it along with their sock yarn in heels and toes for strength. It's so fine that it could be carried for the whole sock. I hate carrying two strands of yarn as I knit so decided to try just using it as a third ply. It was a little tricky to ply from the little spool that the wooly nylon comes on but once I figured out how to manage everything it worked okay. The end result surprised me a bit. Due to the wooly nylon's elasticity, the Falkland plies puckered up somewhat and the yarn is quite delightfully bouncy! My plan is to start a pair of socks with it right away so that I can see how it knits up.

this is lovely

2010-08-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

after the bath

2010-08-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

These two singles

became this fractal spun, 2 ply yarn.

Bee Mice Elf “Snow-Capped”; 50% merino, 25% bamboo, 25% silk;
228 g, 1150 yds.

it's a learning tool

2010-08-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

It's a learning tool. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It's my sister Darcie's fault. She bought an iPod Touch and told me that I really, really wanted one too. At first I didn't think I would use it much. Then I started looking at the available apps for knitters and spinners and changed my mind.

So I'm now the proud owner of one of my own and have developed a kink in my right shoulder from using the computer mouse to explore all of the cool apps in the iTunes store that I need for it. I also have sore thumbs from playing an evil, addicting game called Angry Birds. I spent most of the day launching birds at pigs. Freaking pigs.

But the Touch is not just a toy (remember my story from above). There is an amazing app called Planets. It shows you the night sky exactly where you are in the world at the time. That's how I found out that the bright orb in the sky near the moon is actually Jupiter. Jupiter!! I didn't even know that we can see Jupiter with the naked eye but there it is! It's bright enough that my point-and-shoot camera can find it.
How cool is that?!

And don't even get me started on the joys of the Knit Gauge app....

getting better finally

2010-08-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

Bentley is finally starting to feel better. I took him to the vet clinic to see Jo-Ann yesterday and she gave him anti-parasite medication. He is feeling much better today. I'm not sure what caused the parasite problem. We went for a few walks in the park last week so maybe the dogs picked up something there.

See this rabbit with the Mohawk hairstyle?
B helped himself to it while we were in the waiting room at the vet clinic. He was carrying it around the clinic with the cardboard packaging still on it so of course I had to buy it for him. The Mohawk hairdo was styled with Dachshund Spit Hair Gel because the rabbit spends most of its time in B's mouth.

He even had it close by while he kept an eye on the outside world.
Bentley is the only one of the dogs who sleeps on my bed. Yes, he's spoiled rotten. Anyway, I woke up with the rabbit on my head this morning. Do you think he likes the rabbit maybe?

2010-08-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

I ordered a custom made bag for my Lendrum wheel from Lauren on Ravelry. She has become quite busy these days with orders for her bags for good reason.

Her bags are stunningly beautiful and extremely well-made as well as being very reasonable priced! I was able to choose the fabric so of course chose these pretty watercolor blues and violets.
The bag is sturdy as well as beautiful. It's fully padded with reinforcement on the bottom, has padded backpack style straps, pockets, and this neat elastic strap to keep the wheel centered in the bag.
I also bought a padded bag for the flyer assembly. Lauren sent the small bag as a thank you gift. It's to hang on the wheel and keep small accessories available.

In other news, I am now officially Majacraft-less. I sold the Pioneer to a spinning friend (the Rose went to a different spinning friend; Majacrafts are easy to sell). I really didn't need the Pioneer now that I've got the Lendrum and the Hansen. Before the Pioneer moved away, I finished this bobbin of merino/silk/baby alpaca/sheltie/angelina.
I am spinning the other singles of Bombyx silk. It will be a two-ply yarn and I'm planning a shawl.

I also finished up both singles of this Bee Mice Elf “Snow-Capped”; 50% merino, 25% bamboo, 25% silk, fractal spun.
I did finish plying them but haven't skeined or finished them yet so pics to follow.

I have a sick dog today. A couple of days ago Cooper had some diarrhea. My first thought was that I hoped the maniac hadn't eaten another rock but he seems just fine in spite of some loose poops. Last night Bentley started vomiting and having bloody diarrhea. He's a sick cowboy today. I don't know how there can be anything left in him at this point. I'm not sure what is making them sick. We went for a few walks in the park last week so maybe they picked up something there. So far the other two have been just fine and I'm hoping it stays that way.

Chloe

2010-08-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

Chloe

As most of you know, we adopted our son Geoff when he was a baby and he has great relationships with his birth parents. His birth mom Anita is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed ten years ago when her youngest child Chloe was a few months old.

Anita and Chloe, October 2000

Happily Anita's cancer has been in remission since her treatment and I have no doubt that she and many, many others have benefited greatly from the work done by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

This year Chloe has decided to form her own team for the CIBC Run for the Cure on October 3. She is also planning to shave her own hair and donate it to have a wig made for someone undergoing cancer treatment. I don't know about you but for a ten year old to make that commitment just leaves me gob-smacked (and a little teary-eyed).

I have already made my donation. If you would like to help Chloe's Cancer Crushers with a donation of your own, here are links to Chloes's Run for the Cure pages:

Chloe's personal page
Chloe's team page

Chloe and countless others thank you.

good grief!

2010-08-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of July I decided that it was silly to keep a wheel that made my knees hurt. So my beloved Majacraft Rose was sold to fund the purchase of a Hansen miniSpinner. The spinner finally arrived yesterday!

It's amazing! Small, light, whisper quiet; it's an espinner that can easily spin the fine yarns that I like because of its Scotch tension. Here are a couple of sample yarns that I spun as soon as I took the spinner out of the box. On the top is cotton and below it is silk. The orifice hook is included with the spinner.

It has a tap on/off control and the WooLee Winder bobbins are huge. It can be plugged into the regular power outlet in the house, a 12 volt outlet like a cigarette lighter, or a power pack. I had already bought an Oh Canada Zuca bag and a little power pack from Canadian Tire for it so I was ready to go. It sits nicely on the Zuca bag for spinning and pops inside for transport.

The Zuca bag has lots of pockets and compartments for fiber and accessories. It's easy to pull along because the handle easily pops up and it has double skateboard wheels in the rear.
I didn't have much time to play with my new toy because I had an appointment and some errands to run so didn't get a chance to get back to it until after supper. I plugged it in beside my chair in the living room and set the spinner on the Zuca bag so it would be ready to go. As I happened to glance down before sitting down and saw the power cord in a brown puppy's mouth. He had already severed it in half in the blink of an eye. If there had been an interested party available, I'd had given that trouble dog away on the spot! Dan managed to splice it to get it working again and found a new one today when he was out and about. So I guess I'll keep Cooper after all (although I fished a rock out of his mouth again today, aargh!).

a small sample

2010-08-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

I made a wee sample of plying the light blue and light green singles together and I like it. I'm a little surprised that the green doesn't overwhelm the blue because of the difference in value. I'm also a little surprised at how the green makes the blue seem more lilac than it is in the singles yarn. It's about 21 wpi which places it in the fingering weight range although I don't think I would like socks made with 50% bamboo and 50% merino. The bamboo doesn't have enough memory for my liking. It would make a very pretty, soft scarf though.

a tale of two batts

2010-08-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

You probably remember this blue/green batt that I made a few weeks ago.

I dyed 50 grams of merino/bamboo top then carded the colors together to make the batts. Normally when I dye, I play mad scientist and use the colors as they appeal to me without worrying about reproducing a colorway. For this batt I decided to record the colors in case I liked how the sample turned out.

So here it is a few weeks later and I decided to dye some more to make enough yarn for socks. I started with 50 g of the same top, and prepared the dye solutions in the same way (or so I thought). This is what I got.
Not even close. Pretty but not a duplicate of the first sample at all. Several things are likely to blame. If I remember correctly (I did not write these things down in my notes), I placed half of the fiber in each of two crockpots the first time and only used one crockpot this time. I also must have warmed the dyes the first time and not the second. And I must not have waited for the dye bath to reach the same temperature when I added the dye. Now I know that to reproduce a colorway I must record EVERYTHING, not just the dye colors and dilutions.

Here are the two batts together.
Besides the obvious color difference there is also a value difference as you can see when I make the photo black and white with my photo software.
I sampled a bit of spun singles from each and plied them together. The darker yarn took over and the pale blue pretty much disappeared visually. So I carded the darker batt with an equal amount of white fiber. Here you can see the lightened result beside the dark one, in color then in black and white.
And all three together.
Hmm, now I have three different values. Hard to believe that all three came from the same colors and fiber. I'm stymied about how to proceed and I guess I will have to do more sampling. I could blend all of the darker stuff with white and then ply it with the blue. Or do a 3 ply and spin a singles with each of the batts. Or try to reproduce the first batt again and see if I can come closer.

Now I really know why you should buy all of the same dye lot before starting a knitting project. I will use a larger pot and dye all my fiber at the same time in the future.

but of course

2010-07-29T16:11:00.001-07:00

It occurred to me when I posted yesterday that I was enjoying a lack of pain that I should probably not say that out loud. Sure enough. Fate just couldn't let that one go. Dan had just got home from playing hockey last night and left his honking big bag at the top of the stairs. I was coming up the stairs and thought I could sneak around it but caught my foot on one of the straps and went flying. Now I am one big owie from top to bottom. I have a few scrapes and bruises but mostly my muscles hurt from being jarred. My muscles don't like being moved at the best of time; they are loudly protesting my lack of grace. Dan feels badly for leaving his bag there but I don't think it would have mattered. If you tempt fate, fate bites back. If not the hockey bag, I'm sure there would have been some other obstacle that would have been in my way.

Anyhow, on a totally different tangent, here are some pics of my back yard.
After a soggy start to the summer, everything is now lush and happy. We were lucky to escape the more severe storms and flooding that happened in other parts of the province.

Dan has been doing a good job of tackling the weeds in the garden.
We had our first feed of green beans and beets the other day. This is a good time of year for eating.

clean, whew!

2010-07-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

So all four dogs have been bathed and groomed and my neck is in pretty darn good shape considering. If I always felt this good, I could get a lot more done around here. I wish I knew why there are times that I feel relatively pain free and other times when a pain flare takes me down for the count for weeks. Anyway, I'll take this lack of pain while it lasts and be thankful.

Today is a perfect summer day. The sun is shining, a slight breeze is blowing, and it's a balmy 24C (75F). The dogs and I enjoyed a little back yard time.

B had a tennis ball (or two) tucked near him and gave Cooper the eye as if to tell him to just try and take one away. Of course that was too tempting for the puppy. Here you can see him stretch out a foot to touch the ball.

Which led to this (it really wasn't about the ball),

then this,

this,

and finally this.

Austin and Robbie were much more dignified.

There is a lot of noise around here these days. We have a few Peregrine Falcons around and their screaming cries are almost constant. As cool as the falcons are to look at (and I can appreciate the efforts that have been made to keep them from becoming extinct), I wish they'd leave because there are no other birds to see and hear. They've either been eaten or had the good sense to leave. I'm glad that I have no little puppies to tempt them.

full moon

2010-07-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Pics taken last night. The full moon illuminated the clouds as they floated across the sky.

Yesterday was dog bathing day. Today they are lovely and clean but they all need to be brushed out. There is light, fluffy, clean undercoat drifting in the air currents in the house and into my eyes. Another muscle relaxant and I am off to groom them.

still spinning

2010-07-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

I don't know where the days go. With Dan at home it seems like I don't buckle down to anything for long. The days have been lazy and unstructured which is good but not very conducive to accomplishing a lot.

However, I'm squeezing in some spinning time for Tour de Fleece although not as much as I planned to at the outset.

Here's the latest bit on the Lendrum.
Bee Mice Elf "Snow-Capped"; 50% merino, 25% bamboo, 25% silk.

While I was snapping the pictures of the yarn on the bobbin last night, this was going on beside the wheel.

When Cooper noticed that I was aiming the camera at him he paused long enough to give me this look, as if to say, "What? You've never seen a sheltie rolling around belly-up before?"

therapy dogs

2010-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to some interesting facts about therapy dogs for your reading pleasure today.