Wednesday, April 22, 2009

It's Spring ---

We have had a really long winter. We got spoiled here, because of the Chinooks, and because winters have been rather short in the past. But this year was very odd... although most old-timers will tell you this is quite normal.

So the snow has finally all disappeared -- there was no run-off oddly. It just seemed to evaporate! I think a lot has soaked into the ground, which is a good thing. Our water table was quite low. We still need a lot of rain, and I suspect we will get that in May.

The last few days have been absolutely wonderful! Yesterday, it went up all the way to +21.4C -- which is pretty darned nice. I loved it! I had to go out at noon to warm up...it was colder inside than outside!

Of course, that was yesterday. Today is a different day, different story. It is +2C right now at noon. Oh, I am not going out for lunch today! And it is getting colder. They are expecting more of that white stuff this evening -- the weather-man is calling it "flurries". Oooh.. I don't like that word!
[Edit: This is a view out my window about 9 am]
Here is a pic of that same view at 4 pm today. Crazy, huh?

I've been spinning a lot lately, just to keep myself occupied. I take my spindle with me when I have some waiting to do, as I do often. And little by little, I have accumulated a lot of singles. So last week, I went on a plying binge, and plied up almost that was lying around. I could do that while watching movies so I didn't feel as if I was wasting my time!

So these skeins were piling up, and last night I decided I may as well wash them all and put them away. I always wash my yarns when I have plied them, before using them. I filled my tub (I had a lot) with hot soapy water, and then threw them all in, and walked away. It's very important to go away and resist the temptation to touch. I had some lunch, and then came back to see what they were doing. Well the water was fairly brown (I had a lot of brown this time) and the suds were all gone. I squeezed them all out (so many) and filled the tub for the rinse. Again I walked away for a few moments.

I squeezed them out, rolled them up in many towels (there were a lot) and then hung them up to dry. Whew! I counted 17 skeins. About 10 were all spindle spun and plied. The others were wheel-spun and plied. They were mostly dry this morning, but I will leave them until tonight. I will twist them up into skeins again, and put them into a box. I have some plans for all this brown, and I'll see how far I get with it. I have to take a look at all the browns I have, see what I can make with that combination. I'll have pics another time.

So I have not been idle. Just busy. I have great intentions about posting things here, but by the time I get home, I've forgotten that it was only written in my head! I need to learn how to download them from my brain to here. Anyone have the appropriate USB connection?