so much water!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Japanese tsunami

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

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

vernal equinox in Sask.

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

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!

wascally wabbit

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

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

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....

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!!

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

I enjoyed this. Thought you might too.

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

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

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.