the winner of Blogiversary 6 is....

Cindy aka Yarndevil on Rav won the draw and I have sent her a message to arrange the yarn transfer.  Congrats Cindy!

and then there were 6!

Today marks the sixth anniversary of my blog.  The date almost slipped by me this year because I have been busy getting stuff done and organized before our trip.  When I realized that the blogiversary is today, I went stash diving for a couple of skeins of yarn for a give-away and these were the ones in my hands when I surfaced again.

 Lana Grossa Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch

 70 wool/23 nylon/7 elite

Colorway:  712

100 g, 400 m

 

Lisa Souza Supersport

100% Superfine Superwash Merino

Colorway:  Electra

4 oz., 375 yds.

If you would like to enter the give-away leave a comment on this post by 10 pm CST, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012.  I'll use a random number generator and pick a winner.

Please note:  you must leave me your contact information, either your email address (spell out the @ and . parts to avoid getting spammed) or your Ravelry name, in order to win.

CVM/Romeldale

I bought a lovely CVM/Romeldale fleece from sheepgirl on Ravelry a few months ago.

Here is some of it after washing.

The discolored tips didn't completely come off after flicking but I decided to use that to my advantage by dyeing the locks semi-solid denim blue.  The tips took the dye differently than the rest of the fiber so add depth to the color.

 

Flicked then loaded onto the comb to be blended and dizzed off into puffy top.

 It's very soft and springy!

Oh, and I haven't shown you my new fiber prep station.

 

It's a marble-topped kitchen cart that was on sale at JYSK.  It's counter-top high which is so much easier on my back than table height and the tools clamp onto it well.  Extra storage shelves and wheels for portability are always good too.  The marble top would be great for its intended purpose of rolling out dough.  If I decide to do some baking I'll wheel it to the kitchen and give it a good scrub before I put food on it but the urge to bake hasn't hit me for a long time.

I finally finished weaving the Austin shawl and am messing around with beads to dress up the fringe.

Fussing with beads hurts my neck and shoulders.

some things accomplished

I've been bemoaning the fact that I haven't been getting much done the last few weeks but when I started pulling out various project I realized that I've done more than I thought.  It's just that I have so many things on the go that the work that was accomplished is spread out among them.

Here are the in-progress ones.

Pimpelliese using my fractal spun merino/silk fiber from Bee Mice Elf.  I have passed the half-way point and started the decreases.  I really love the subtle color gradation.  I think it's the perfect pattern choice for fractal spun yarn.

I succumbed to knitting the Noro Striped Scarf pattern and am on the home stretch.  I have no plans for it at this point.  It may be a gift for someone.

I have done some spinning too.  I finished processing some lovely Corriedale/Rambouillet fleece from Val (woolywoolofthewest on Etsy).

Each skein is about 320 yds. and 170 g, woolen spun from batts.  I dyed the fiber to co-ordinate with my winter coat and am thinking about making myself some Newfoundland mitts.

I spun up the Spunky Eclectic Emerald City fiber from my stash.  It's Masham and was the club fiber from November/10.  I spun it as singles and was pleased with the result.  Masham is a long wool, sturdy enough for singles.  It can get wiry if it's over-spun.

I got 300 yds from 220 g of fiber.

I couldn't resist taking another picture of it in direct sunlight because it's so pretty.

This skein will be for sale at Golden Willow when I get there next.

more fun in the back yard

 We have had two cold weeks this winter, one in November and the other a couple of weeks ago.  It's been lovely the last few days.  It was warm enough to be in the sunroom this afternoon without a coat!  It's unbelievable weather for the end of January.

The dogs and I have been happy to be in the back yard in such lovely weather.  I found out about a new game that Cooper adores.  Dan keeps saying that Cooper has no interest in doing his business and only wants to play when he takes them out.  Cooper keeps bringing in a little squeaky ball and Dan keeps throwing it back out because he says it's Cooper's favorite toy.  I didn't understand why he figures it's Coop's favorite toy because Cooper only retrieves it two or three times when I throw it for him before losing interest in it.

Turns out I wasn't playing the right game with the ball.  Cooper doesn't want to fetch the ball nearly as much as he wants to play goalie for a soccer match (I know that most people in the world call the game football but that's a whole different game in Canada).  Dan doesn't throw the ball - he kicks it.  So I tried it.  Goodness, that dog would play that game all day long!

I'm not very good at getting the ball by him.  Dan is much better playing faux soccer than I am.  Cooper doesn't seem to mind my ineptness though.  I captured a bit of the game on video for you yesterday.  I'm a worse soccer player when I'm holding a camera than usual and then Austin got into the game by "killing" my feet, to boot!  (Get it, feet/boot, I kill me.)

Meanwhile, Robbie knows he looks gorgeous against the snow.

 

So does Bentley (when he stands still) but boy is it tough to get an outdoor picture that shows his dark face nicely.

If you would like to see some real soccer moves here's a video of David Beckham impressing some cameramen while shooting a Pepsi video.  There is some controversy over whether it has been digitally enhanced but David Beckham says that it is all legit.

more wacky winter weather

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

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

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?

 

"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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.