Faaaat yarn.

The other day, I began to spin some 'fat yarn' as I will call it for now.  It will be made into a hat for my little, great niece. :) I always tell my spinning students to embrace the fat singles they spin in the beginning.  I continue by saying "When you're an experienced spinner, you won't be able to easily spin yarn like this." We can call this yarn 'novelty' yarn.  They usually look at me as if I'm just trying to coddle them to make them feel better about their fat to skinny to fat, lumpy, bumpy yarn.  In all honesty, I am trying to make them feel better, but for a very good reason. 

It's been a very long time since I've wanted such a fat yarn for any project.  I really didn't think too hard about the difficulty involved in transitioning from fine to fat again-until I sat down to spin on Monday.  It is so contradictory to allow so much roving  from my hand into the the spinning triangle and then into the yarn.. I've spun nearly 1.5 ounces of this lovely white, Peruvian  wool roving. This yarn might have to become a project for something else.  There are so many places where I've gone from the thickness I want, to something much more fine.  There has been a lot of eye rolling and sighing happening as I spin.  The words to my students come back to me, echoing in the sound of my s-l-o-w-l-y- spinning wheel.  "It will be difficult to spin thick yarn as an experienced spinner."  Yeah, right..... @@

 

This is the lovely little hat that will sit upon my lovely little great niece's head this Winter.

I will just persist until I get it right! 

Happy Wednesday.

Life is Good

It rolls along at it's own pace, not bothering to see if anyone is lagging behind or getting ahead which is not possible.  The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind and had nothing to do with fiber aside from cleaning around the massive stockpiles.  This results form what I like to call F.A.D.  For those of you who don't know that's Fiber Accumulation Disorder.  Many of us suffer from it and actually live to tell about it.  Suffer though, is a rather strong word.

This last week has brought interesting changes to our household.  A very loud and electric thunderstorm passed over us Monday morning and destroyed our old (very old) computer-thus necessitating it's replacement.  The new computer is wonderfully fast and large with all the newest, coolest bells and whistles.  But when I attempted to plug my phone line into the nonexistent phone modem,I had an aha moment.  I had never considered the fact that new computers might not even have phone modems.  These days, everything is either dsl, cable or wireless...We were about to step even further into the here and now with a new form of internet connection.   Our end result since only one of the aforementioned internet connections are available to us.  We are now the proud  (and poorer for it) operators of our own wireless hot-spot.  (Insert huge grin here)  Now, using the internet has become a sharply contrasting pleasure compared to where we were before.

So even though jumping ahead of life is not possible, we feel through our new technological advancements, we might just be one step ahead of the game. I think, I might just have more time for fiber now.  lol

Have we talked about Yaks yet.... ::grin::

It's putting a smile on my face to even think about them. But I'll back up and give a little history.  In 1992,  I began raising sheep.  They were part of my fiber philosophy-I wanted to raise my own wool and process it myself right from the beginning-and I did.  My little darlings multiplied like rabbits and soon, I had wool coming out my ears.  I sold it, spun it, processed it, dyed it, wove it, felted it and knitted it!  Hence my title of "Shepherdess".

Nearly 22 years have passed since then.  One by one, due to their age or various illnesses, my sweet sheep have all left me.  Lulabelle, my last remaining sheep, passed away over a year ago.  Do I miss her!  :/  Chip the horse misses her too.  They were buddies.  But I digress... 

Ruthie (front) and Lulabelle (rear)

Yaks are hauntingly beautiful creatures.  Their fiber is fine, soft, quite expensive to purchase and dreamy to spin..  Secretly,  I've longed to have my very own Yak.  But I imagined they were cumbersome and ornery creatures.  A couple years ago, I found an article in Country Woman magazine that lead me to believe none of the above is true!  A female Yak is approximately 4 to 4-1/2 feet tall.   They are reported to have sweet and gentle personalities.  They don't appear to eat much either.  This is yet another fine quality in a fiber animal!

Ohhhh I want her!

The fiber from this soft and beautiful creature can be gently plucked or combed.  They are very bovine-like  in their care and feeding.  I have read Yaks are efficient at browsing scrubby pasture and basically prefer it.  Sounds like a winner to me.  I can't wait to have one!  Although, I'm sure I'll have to. Yaks are not inexpensive...  But when I do have one, think of all the Yak jokes you can send me! :)

Pioneer Woman... Book review?? lol

I hadn't been a fan of Pioneer Woman-Ree Drummond, only because I didn't know that much about her.  My wonderful sister gave me a copy of "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" for Mother's Day. This book is the story of how she met the infamous Marlboro Man and how their relationship developed.  I had heard a little bit about her husband "Marlboro Man"  and was curious to know the rest of the story.

For those of you who might not be familiar with The Pioneer Woman (yeah right), she is a blogger who has been entertaining readers since 2006 with her stories of  transition from city life to a rancher's life and all the recipes that go along with it. 

I began reading this book and could not put it down.  My eyes blurred and teared (from weariness and laughter).  I read every available moment.  I seldom devour books like this anymore. I think it has something to do with the 3 children my husband and I are raising...At any rate, I finished my book shortly after receiving it. I loved it.  Every word. I even spent a few days in a mini-funk because I was done living in Ree and Marlboro Man world. We actually had quite a bit in common.

If ever I could recommend a book that would make a person feel good-even though there are a few parts that aren't happy, this would be the one.  As I would read into the night next to my snoring husband, I could even overlook the 100 decibel snores emanating from his head.  I could do this because Ree's book made me remember the reasons why I fell in love with him in the first place. 

I even made her Chicken Spaghetti recipe (from the back of the book).  It's comfort food and I really needed some last week.  It was yummy.  Thanks Ree.


If you have the chance, I highly recommend "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels".  It's one I know I will go back and read again and again. :)

It's done, it's done, it's done! :)

After several months of knitting in seed stitch, my Great Niece's coat is finished!  This sweet little coat was to be one of her Christmas presents.  But it took this semi-experienced knitter, nearly 7 months to complete!  I didn't knit my every waking moment on it's completion.  There were several stops along the way attempting to decipher the instructions for button holes and the collar.  Both were ambiguous...to say the very least.  Fortunately, with the help of the experienced knitters around me, I finally finished it.  In the photo, the coat is  hanging on an adult size hanger and makes it appear disproportionate.  The coat is really a 24 month size and will hopefully fit my adorable little Great Niece for a very long time!

 

 I cannot wait to see "E" in her new coat! :)

I love these beautiful little buttons purchased at Enchanted Yarn and Fiber. At the time, they were in Russellville, Kentucky and have since moved and opened a lovely store in Sango (Clarksville), Tennessee.  The yarn is a Merino, Alpaca and Donegal Tweed blend in "Lemon Curd". (Mmm...the yarn was' purchased' and not spun by me, as I wanted a specific color and fiber blend).  I used ivory buttons and velvet ribbon.  I'm so pleased with this little coat.  I stepped outside my normal range of garments; mittens, hats, socks, scarves, etc., when I began this project.  Some parts were difficult, because of the poorly written pattern.  But overall, I'm very glad I trudged through it all.  Step outside your fiber or other comfort zone once in a while and see where it takes you.  You might be pleasantly surprised! 

Break-

I took a break on Friday afternoon, from all things fiber and otherwise to keep track of the impending weather doom.  I am very grateful the doom was not meant to be for us.  I managed to capture more beautiful clouds.  The sky was so angry, yet beautiful. When I'm able to put my fear aside, I see beauty. 

Isn't he adorable?

 "Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from."
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

I think this is where I missed the boat...

I did not get this memo.  In the book from which this was taken, (shhh), I read where the author writes...not to be tempted to comb the warp.  @@  My guess is her warp doesn't contain 32 ends per inch (e.p.i.) Oh yes, and this weaver has a friend.  Maybe the cats will lend a hand/paw to help expedite matters! 

A demain mes amies!

Warping Tea Towels Alone without Tears.

I know there has got to a book out there by this name or-something similar...  There will always be snags in the whole weaving process.  It just goes with the territory.  However, this is one lesson, I seem destined to repeat over and over again. 

This is my lovely tea towel warp hanging in front of my loom-waiting for me to untangle it.  Sigh. Somewhere around here, I have really great wide toothed pick. It was part of an Estee Lauder gift.  What a great item for combing through tangled warps. Since it's currently missing,  I will use my fingers to comb and untangle.  Mind you, this happens to all weavers to some degree while transferring a warp from their mill or board.  This particular yarn has an affinity for sticking and in general making a mess of itself.  I remember winding this same material on my loom several years ago.  I was weaving  2 overshot (Orange Peel-pictured on the right side of my blog) table runners for my sister.  At that time however, my good friend Debra was here to help me.  It's ever so good to have 2 sets of hands (and such a good friend) when attempting this process!   I am cognizant of the fact that, one day, soon,  I will prevail...

The above is what I've already untangled and wound. For the time being, this will be my lesson in patience.  Heaven knows I need it.   Once I have it wound around the warp beam, it will be smooth sailing... I think.

Tea Towels

Well, after a weaving respite, I've finally begun the process of weaving 6 tea towels.  I've wound the warp, chained it off and transported it to my loom.  I'm always surprised when I begin this process.  While winding, any warp, there will be some variation in length on any given end.  Mine however always seem to be quite long on the end that was wound first. I suspect the problem is the pegs begin to push inward from the pressure of the warp thereby making subsequent windings shorter!.  So, I've tried to correct this by not winding the warp so tightly.  It never works.

At any rate,  I'm on my way to enjoying all the processes/steps of weaving.  Each one is quite distinct.  You can't go on to step B without fully completing step A.  This erases any confusion as to what comes next! It's just a small part of why I love weaving.  If you follow my drift, you're a weaver.  If you don't follow, I apologize.

With my next blog entry, I'll include some photos and maybe it will be clearer as to what I'm doing! :)

Happy weaving! (to me)

Sunsets and Ethereal Clouds

I am absolutely enamored with clouds.  This is two in a series I took the 2/15/11.  The shape and color of a cloud at sunset changes with such rapid speed.  Unless each photo is taken very quickly, what you get is an ever changing array of glorious colors and shapes-all painted by God.  I'm just the lucky girl capturing tiny little fragments of such masterful art.

:)

Energy?

What is this stuff.  The hubby, was not feeling well this morning, so he took the day off.  I got the little people ready for school and dropped them off.  I came back to the house and had my coffee/Frasier/knitting ritual. I don't like to miss that and it appears that I may be doing exactly that soon!  -More about that later though.  I proceeded to get up and start cleaning my kitchen. This job was long overdue.  I worked on laundry, installed a new ink cartridge in the printer, folded laundry... bla bla bla.  It's odd for me to have this much energy lately.  It's all part of the no/low motivation to do things creative or otherwise.  As I was in my cleaning frenzy, I remembered my outing to the YMCA yesterday. I took a friend's 'yoga stretch' class and afterward, walked about 3/4 mil on a treadmill. I wonder if the small amount of exercise I had is contributing to my slightly higher than normal, energy level... This is something with which I can ponder and experiment.

As the miles and miles I have to go pass by me ever so slowly, it's occurring to me that I will need to go find some type of employment.  Then I will have an even better excuse to not be creative.  Unless someone can come up with a way for me to earn a regular paycheck and be creative as well....  ;)

At least my house will be cleaner than normal today-and on any day, that is a good thing.