It's happened again

It happens twice a year – regular as clockwork. Well, actually, it IS clockwork!

Since the first day of summer, the sun starts its slow trip back to the south. At the height of summer, it rises far up into the north-east, makes its way to just a little south of us at noon, and then the slow descent to set in the far north-west. During a couple of weeks in June, you can actually see it sneak across the north just below the horizon to come back up in the east. At the summer solstice, we get about 16 hours and 38 minutes of daylight.

The avenues in our city run directly east-west, while the streets run north-south generally. At this time of year, and earlier in the spring as well, the sun rises directly in the east along the avenue. When I am walking to work in the morning, the sun is very low in the east and directly in my eyes. Everything in front of you is in dark silhouette; there is no colour! It makes driving very difficult. Walking is bad enough!

In spring, this occurred on April 9 or 10 this year. These are the only two times in the year that the shadows of the street signs and trees on the avenue are all parallel to the curbs. It’s a curious phenomenon. I’m sure that most people don’t even notice it at all, but I find it pleasingly comforting in some strange way that we can always depend on the sun appearing in the exact same spot year after year after year. I seem to like everything to line up in some way, for it all to be in the right place.

There is little in our world these days that can be said to be dependable like this. It seems everything and everyone is in a state of flux, very changeable. The only rule to follow is: “it depends”. There are too many variables in play to be able to make any kind of prediction with any reliability. We shall see what we shall see.

There is a change in the air already. I can feel a chill in the shadows, and in the air at night. The sun is still warm, but not with the burning intensity of mid-summer. I know fall is pushing its way in, and winter is not long after. This is my least favourite time of year. I have a feeling of dread, of foreboding, and of general dismay. I’ve always gone into a slight depression at this time of year for as long as I can remember. But being aware it is happening helps in the struggle to get through it.

I am working on a colourful afghan in fall colours! It has brown, rust and orange, so at least that is trying to put some brightness into my life. The pattern is very plain and oh-so boring to do, but I keep on plodding. Of course, it’s not a small item, so has been taking a long time to do, and I’m not sure of the final size. I was planning on working until I run out of yarn, but it just seems to go on and on and on! I keep thinking of doing a border all the way around it, and I may do that as well; that is still in the planning stages. It depends (see, I told you!) on how much yarn I have left when I finally determine to terminate this whole process. More about that later.

The Fall Equinox is in another two weeks, so enjoy the last few days of summer that you can. We’ve had just a hint of frost this past week, and this weekend, we are forecast to reach a high of +29!! (That is in Celsius, of course – I don’t know what that would be in American) We’ve only had a couple of days of +30 this summer as it is. As I said, everything is quite unpredictable. Very.

A fine day

This week, on our regular spinning day, I took the day off work so that I could enjoy our year-end outing. The ladies usually like to plan a little trip somewhere to go and spin and have lunch. This year, we travelled about an hour south of the city to a small farm of a spinner. It was a lovely day, with sunshine and gorgeous blue skies! We haven't seen that for ever so long. But being the first day of summer, we were so fortunate in getting this. I do think, however, that this may have been our summer! For the forecast for the next seven days is clouds and rain. Great.

The lady at the farm has a couple of sheep, of unknown heritage. They are free range, and there wasn't any control of which ram bred which ewe, so there is a large mixture of probably everything in these. She had one fleece there for us to play with. She had a pot of dye on the stove, and welcomed any of us to take a handful and dye it. She also told us to take some home with us, if we wished.

I did take a lock and spin it on my spindle. It is quite a long staple, with good crimp, and fairly fine quality. After spinning 2-3 locks, I decided I would take some home, wash it, and spin something fine with enough yarn to knit a small delicate something.

Here is a pic of the washed fleece. It wasn't too dirty, although some sections had a bit of VM in it. I tried to pick out the better section, and the longer staple. I washed it with some soapy water, not very hot, so there is quite a lot of lanolin still in it. Feels nice on the hands as I spin! I was careful to pull out the locks and lay them out all in the same direction as best I could. I combed each lock, laid them out together, and then made some roving out of them.

Keeping the direction the same, I spun the singles keeping the hairs all in the same direction. I could very easily tell if there was some hairs that were turned around, for it didn't flow as smoothly.

What will I do with it? I'm not sure yet. I will make a 2-ply and then see. I don't know how much I will get out of this small handful. But I am getting good yardage out of the little bit I have spun so far -- and so I should, seeing how fine I am making it!! I may have enough for a short scarf or something like that. That is yet to come.

Alpaca-Merino

In my cleaning up after the flood, I found this bag of some alpaca-merino blend. I had completely forgotten about it. I can't remember where I got it, but it appears to be from a farm that no longer produces alpaca fibres.

It sure does feel yummy!! So I had to spin it up! I used my wheel for this, since I felt guilty that it was being neglected. It wanted to be spun fine, of course, so I just let it. I filled one bobbin, and then another. When it came time to ply, I put them on my lazy kate, only to realize that they were different shades. That is, one ball was noticeably darker than the other. I could clearly see the difference! But it all came from the same roving. The only thing it could be was it was not uniformly blended, and there were some darker fibres at one end.

As I plied, I could see the barber-pole effect. I didn't like this at all! I was still so shocked to see that there was this much of a difference in one roving! I didn't realize it could happen like this.  But I continued on.

When it was all done, and I wound my skein, I thought there is some of it missing. Surely, I must have had more. It seems so little to come from this bag. I haven't weighed it, but I think I had perhaps 225 gm... but I don't know for sure. After I washed the skein, the colours seem to have subdued somewhat, and it looks alright. There is a slight difference which only seems to add some dimension to an otherwise plain skein of alpaca. It's not too bad after all. I wish there was more, although I think I have quite a bit of metres out of this one. I still am not sure what I will do with it, but as I was spinning and plying, it seemed to be telling me it wanted to be a shawl of some kind, and in lace naturally. Shall wait and see what becomes of this. In the meantime, here's a pic of this new skein in my collection.

OUCH!!

Last night, I had heated up some oil in my nice cast iron frying pan, and had sliced up some potatoes. Then I dropped them into the pan, but it was too hot, and they splattered. I got caught with my hand a little too close, and one finger got burned with hot oil. Yes, it hurt!!

I ran some cold water to cool it off (and not hurt so much) and then I sprayed it with salt water. For some reason, I find that the salt water seems to allow my skin to heal faster. I repeated it several times during the next couple hours, until it stopped hurting, and then went to bed.

By morning, this is what I had!

I'm trying to be really careful that I don't accidentally knock my finger against something, and break it. I will let it stay this way for as long as I can, and then maybe drain it, and cover it. I may sprinkle some cayenne pepper on it before I wrap it up. That seems to really speed healing of minor skin scrapes and cuts. And no, it doesn't burn when you put in on a cut! I've used that many times, and always am amazed at how fast it heals up with barely any scar at all.

Oh, yes, I've been spinning too. I have some pics and will post them later on. I seem to be spinning faster than I can take photos to post here! But I have to keep busy, you know. Otherwise, --- well, you never know what I might get into!!

What a Difference

Of course, around here we are used to having the weather change almost instantly. I will look out the window and see a bright clear sky. When I walk around to the other side of the building, I can see white-out conditions with a snow storm! And through another window it will have cleared up. It's not that we have different types of windows in this building, but that the weather can change from moment to moment. If I am not quick in getting a photo, it will be gone!

So it snowed off and on for the last two days. Incredibly, there is not much snow accumulated on the ground. The streets are wet, there is a lot of slush but I think another day or so will dry it all up. We are predicted to have temps of +12 by Friday!

This morning, in the morning sun, the mountains looked gorgeous with their new white coats, and they were just brilliant in the west. I didn't get a pic for you right then -- it was a crazy morning around here -- but I did get one now. It's always a good day if I can see the mountains!
I haven't been to the mountains for many years -- it's so close and yet so far. But I do get to enjoy seeing them most mornings. Sometimes they are better viewed from a distance!

I was able to view a cam set up near my brother's house in Saskatchewan. They have had very little snow this winter, and it was almost all gone. But when I looked at the live feed yesterday, I was shocked! I didn't understand where this was coming from -- everything was covered with nice, white, fluffy snow about a foot deep. I haven't seen anything like that for many years.

Apparently they received this storm just overnight, and are now digging their way out. My brother did think about waiting for the +12 temps to clear his drive, but wouldn't have been able to open his door, so he decided he had best clear a path at least. Of course, another brother has just returned from 7 weeks in Mexico, and he deserved this! Serves him right for going somewhere warm and leaving us to suffer through a Canadian winter! I'm sure he must have thought it was a wonderful coming-home present.

Spinning is continuing at my house. I will get some photos up one day soon. I really need to do some plying as well, but the spinning is more fun! I also need to do more knitting, and I have umpteen projects in the cue, but there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day, what with work, eating, and spinning. I just don't understand how some people do it all!

It's Back!

Just when we think that winter is finally over, and we can now look forward to some sunshine and warm weather, winter slams us hard. It will not leave without a battle!

We have been teased all winter this year. It's been an odd year. The forecasts were for a very long and cold winter. They kept telling us that we've been experiencing mild winters for several years and this year was going to be back to "normal", whatever that means. So we were all prepared for the cold and the snow.

We waited. And waited. And it started late, which we didn't mind. Then Christmas came and it was quite mild, there wasn't the snow we expected. And the January had a week of really cold -20C temps, but we could stand that. And so it went.

Then this week, we've experienced very nice sun and quite warm weather. Even the shorts were out! You could go for a short walk on the streets at noon in just shirt sleeves. That is pretty good for January in the land of ice and snow!

But this morning that all changed. Winter came back once more to remind us she has not left yet, and she will make us pay! Here is a view of what we had last week:


And this was today:

It's been snowing all day long, and should continue into tomorrow as well. But for all the snow flying around, there sure isn't any accumlation on the ground! I suppose the streets are not that cold, and with a bit of traffic, it is all turning to slush and melting away. I don't mind. I don't like the slush -- everything gets all dirty and splashed with mud -- but I will put up with it. I know it will only be for a short time.

With the first snow for many long weeks, we had a ful one-quarter of the staff stay home! I walk, and that 1 cm of snow didn't phase me a bit! But for some reason, some of the girls at work suddenly took a sick day! I sure didn't feel like getting out of bed, but I still made it. But that is me. I'd rather be spinning!!

And a new year begins

This is the first day of the New Year -- on the Old Calendar. This gives an opportunity for those of us that have messed up the first two weeks of the year, according to the new calendar, to have a fresh start. Sometimes we just don't get it quite right the first time we try it!

For me, my year hasn't started out that well. I was hoping that all my bad luck was over now, and I can look forward to a better year. Just not working out that way.

I had quite a horrible week at work this past week, I even missed an important appointment. Because I was so fed up with all the craziness, when the end of the day came, I just went home! It wasn't until 20 to midnight that I remembered my appointment!! It was a full moon, you know. Oh,well, nothing I could do about it now.

On Friday (another bad day at work with just too many crazies still running around loose), I was on the way home, and could see flashing red lights in front of my building. Not again!! And then I see that a police wagon has blocked off the street to all traffic. Would I be able to get closer to my building and see what the trouble was?

But the sidewalk was clear, and as I got closer to my building, I see that the fire trucks are parked oddly on the street. There is a little riverlet running down the gutter on the street. And there, right in front of the building, is a little bubbling gurgling spring! I guess the water main has sprouted a leak and was causing some flooding. Just great! The temperature is set to drop to a very cold -20 on Sunday; I've always wanted a skating rink outside my front door!

I got home, made supper, and then noticed that the water was running really weakly. There was no pressure at all. By about 11, there was no water at all. By morning, there still was no water. Normally, I wouldn't care too much, but I had to go out early that morning to meet some people, and I would have liked to at least have a shower! Oh, well.

I got home about 3:30 in the afternoon -- still no water. The water crews were out there digging a big hole in the recently paved street. But now there are some tanks outside our building with drinking water. We can go and fill up bottles and buckets, and pots and pans for our use. Not a big help, but it's something. Still can't have a shower, and can't flush the toilet. I warmed up some supper of leftovers from Friday night, and I was alright.

And about 10 at night, the water came on again. What a nice surprise!! I guess they finally got the break repaired and we are okay. I imagine they will need to flush the pipes to get any grit out of the lines, but I'll leave that to the rest of the building.

I was thinking today that I am having a really hard time trying to find anything good about living in this building. As hard as I try, I am having almost nothing going on the positive side of sheet of paper! The only thing I can say that is good is that I am close to work that I can walk over in less than 15 minutes. I can run home at noon, if I have to, grab a bite to eat and make it back to work in time. I sure would hate to lose that! But I can't face moving right now. I just can't take it.

So on the start of this great and wonderful New Year (for second chances), I want to wish all of you a very healthy and prosperous year. New year is the time to forget every bad memory of the past year and start your life afresh. Each moment in a day has its own value: Morning brings HOPE, Afternoon brings FAITH, Evening brings LOVE, Night brings REST. I hope you will have all of them everyday. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

Last socks of the year

So I started these socks in early November, hit a bit of a stall when I wasn't sure how long to make them, and then the disaster hit near the end of November, so they were put on hold.

But I've cleaned up, and to keep my sanity, I worked on the socks. I finished them a few weeks ago, and haven't had the time to post any pics!

These were meant for my Mom. But I don't know her size, and since she wasn't nearby so I could measure against her foot, and since my foot WAS here, I made them my size. So I guess these will have to be for me! I'll make another pair for Mom later on.

These two balls of yarn have been sitting here for years, calling out to me nearly every day that they want to be socks. But I didn't have the right pattern until one day I stumbled across this one. It is called SKYP because you do the cable cross with a YO. It was a fun little manoeuvre, and look quite nice. Because I like to twist thing just a little bit, I made the twists in the opposite directions for each sock, just to be different. You might not even notice!

This is a 75% wool/25% nylon by Patons called Kroy socks, 50 gm ball. I wanted to use it all, with nothing left over, and so I had to do them toe-up. I used my own heel design, knit the leg as long as I could, and when there was just a bit of yarn left, continued with the established 2/1 ribbing until the yarn ran out. I had about 20 cm left after binding off the first sock... and I had just enough to barely make the last stitch on the second sock. It would never hold that way, so I "borrowed" 5 cm from the left over and spliced it in to do the last 2-3 stitches. All's well.
I like the way they fit. They feel very comfortable. I wore them the rest of the day after taking these photos. I probably won't wear them every day, but once in a while, when I think of it.

Now, to find more yarn (somewhere in this turmoil) to knit another pair. Oh, yes, the repairs have been done, I have a new carpet, but they didn't feel they had to rip out the walls, thankfully. I now have to move everything back in from storage, but first I need to sort it out, and get rid of a lot of stuff I don't need any longer, or was too damaged to salvage. This will be very painful.

Best Wishes of the Season

(This should have been posted a few weeks ago. I don't know what happened)

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and colleagues, but it is difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on her advice I wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer or winter solstice, depending on which side of the equator you live, holiday practised with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practise religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that our country is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee .

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Best Regards ( without prejudice )

Name withheld ( Privacy Act ).

Oh, the hell with all of this! Merry Christmas!

Disaster!

It's about -20C, and midnight. My stupid dumb idiot neighbour has gone away somewhere, and left her windows open! Idiot, I know! And you know what happens next, don't you?

So the heating pipes burst and started a fountain in her apartment. Of course, because I had the misfortune to live next to her, I have been flooded. The bedroom that is against her wall is used as my storage room, piled high with boxes and boxes of yarn. A flood is not the thing I need.

So the disaster people are here, mopping up at her place and finally shut off the water. They can't get into my place because it is so crowded with "stuff". In order to clean up, I will have to move everything out, and very soon, to get it all dried up before mould sets in. This is NOT something I need right now!

So I've been mopping up the water as it is flowing into my place, trying to keep it confined to the bathroom and the bedroom. That was a joke! It looks like the flow has abated somewhat now, but it is seeping up into my stash -- I can hear it! LOL I needed to cut down, I know, but this is not the way I would have wanted to do it! As long as it is only the acrylics that are at the bottom, but I doubt it. I knew I should have put the useless things on the bottom as a cushion! Will I learn -- for the next time? I wonder.

Oh, the joys of living next door to an idiot!!

It happened!

Yesterday, about noon, I could see this wall of white coming in from the north. I was too busy to pay much attention to it. But suddenly, when I looked out, there was nothing! The building across the street was gone. It was all white. There was nothing!

The wall of white had hit us downtown. All you could see looking out any direction was faint ghost images of buildings that I knew were still out there.

Of course, we knew it was coming -- it is the middle of November after all. It was predicted that we would get some of that "s-word" stuff before Hallowe'en and it almost did. We had a faint sprinkle overnight of Oct 30 which disappeared by evening. And the weather man has been threatening us with that white stuff since the weekend. I knew that eventually he would get it right!

So here it is. Most of the time, it was coming in at us sideways. It blew through very quickly -- a matter of a few minutes -- and then was clear. Well, for a short while. Then another wall ran over us. And of course, accompanied with all this, is a very cold temperature with a good wind. Perfect.


There isn't much we can do about it anyway. Perfect weather to sit inside and knit. Or spin. Or watch movies. And I've been doing all of that. I can knit without paying much attention, and getting better at doing a few stitches just by feel. I can spin on the spindle easily enough and that is my usual fall-back activity while watching some old TV or movies; otherwise I would fall asleep! The socks are coming along, and I hope to get them completed maybe by next week. I only get a few moments a day to work on them, and they are taking far longer than I would have expected. But what else do I have to do??

New Socks

It's been such a very long time that I have knit anything, let alone socks, that this is a momentous occasion! I've been wanting to knit something but could not decide on what it was to be. I did want to knit some socks for my mother, who really liked the last pair (the first for her) that I knit a couple of winters ago. She always comments on how well they stay up for her.

I had this blue yarn sitting here, calling out to me that it wants to be socks, and I finally found a pattern that I liked as well. I am doing them toe up, because I like doing them that way. I actually wasn't sure how long to make them, so this seemed to be a sensible reason. As I am now nearing the heel, I need to decide when to start the gusset... and not having my mother near to measure, I am going to guess! I am hoping I will be close enough because fit is extremely important for socks.
This pattern is called Skyp and I found it on the net somewhere. The pattern does look nicer when it is on the foot, and I may have to take a pic of them that way. I am doing both at the same time, working on first one and then the other, trying to keep them at about the same point. When I get to the gusset and heel, I may do each one separately, or do each section on each so that I knit them the same. I have the habit of "adjusting" a few things here and there as I need at the time, forget to do them on the second one and so the socks then are NOT be the same! I will try to avoid that happening with these.

That line of red yarn is my row counter and beginning of round marker. I find these to be the most versatile of all markers I've used, and will continue to use them, until someone can come up with something better -- but I don't see how you can improve on this.

I have quite a bit of spinning done, still some plying to do, and I will show you that another time. I had some idea that I wanted to knit a scarf, and dye it, but now with this very fine yarn, I may have to reconsider. I don't look forward to all that knitting with this yarn for a scarf!! But that is for later.

Test Six

I sure didn't realize I would have to make so many test swatches, just to find out all the possibilities of plying. There are probably a few more colours I could try out, but this will have to do for now.

After doing the white, I realized I didn't try the opposite end of the scale and use black. I have some nice soft shiny black of unknown fibre content which I've been spinning for about a year, off and on. I don't know what to do with it. But it will work great for a swatch.

So I plied a small sample with more of my colourful singles. This is the ply on the spindle.
Again, you can see the barber pole effect and it shows the eveness (or not) of your plying. The colours do seem to be a bit brighter, don't they?

I then knit up a sample swatch, as always. And this is what I got:
You can quite clearly see that the colours are much brighter when put next to the black. The white seems to weaken all the intensity of the colours, while the black will increase whatever colour there is.

For comparison purposes, here they are side by side.
It's a little hard to believe that these are the very same singles, plied with a white and a black. If I hadn't done them myself, I may not believe it either. I've known that white tends to wash out colours, and have seen that in some examples of knitting, but when it is shown like this in side-by-side swatches, you just can't deny it.

Now, the problem is that I am not sure which would be best to use for plying. I had an idea in my mind when I first started this so very long ago, and with all these samples, that idea has become muddied a bit by the results. I mean, there is nothing that is entirely wrong. Each swatch I've done has some redeeming qualities, and depending on what effect I was trying to achieve, and what item I was knitting, one of them would be the correct thing to do.
Here are the other four samples, with (from left to right): grey, blue, red, itself. I am looking at them now, admiring each of them, and can see that each would be quite perfect for a different kind of item. I can't say No to any of them.

So now I have another dilemma -- what is it that I want to make with this yarn? I think it will have to sit for awhile longer, letting them stew for a bit, and one of them will finally jump out at me and tell me what needs to be done.

In the meantime, I've been working on another bag of delicious combed top in another range of variegated colours. Will I have the same trouble again? Let's hope not.

Test Five

So one more test that I wanted to try, since I haven't done it yet, is to ply with white.

Now, we all know that if you are using two very different colours, you are going to get a barber pole effect. Not my favourite design in yarns, although I have knit some socks with that kind of yarn, and it actually looked okay. So I am not saying no without at least giving it a try.

I spun up a fine white single on the spindle, naturally. Then I plied them. The neatest thing was the barber pole I got! I liked it! And the thing is that you can easily see how even your plying is when it is lying next to each other -- that angle of the ply really shows itself, and when you have several yarns laying side by side like this, you can see if the angle (therefore your plying) of the ply is all the same. Cool!

Then I knit up a sample tonight with this plied yarn. It's very interesting. Nothing like any of the rest. The white, because of the fine yarns, and the tight ply, produces a speckled effect, and when knit up, it looks quite heathered. The white doesn't interfere too much with the colour of the other single, letting the colour differences show up nicely. The white does tend to wash out the colours a bit, but that is minor in this sample.

So now there is one more sample I need to do. This time, I think this will be the last. No, really. There isn't any more I can do -- after this last one.

Testing Four

Well, I'm really venturing out further and further from my initial vision of what this yarn was to do for me. Someone has asked if I have tried plying with itself. And I have to be honest and say I did not. I wasn't planning on doing that, and hadn't even thought of doing a sample! The obvious, I know, but have not done it.

So now I have plied a sample with itself, just so I know what it will do, and then I could dismiss it as not being what I want. Here it is:
I've knit a swatch from it as well.
I dunno --it's not that bad, actually. Not quite what I was visualizing, but still quite acceptable. There is some variation showing through, it is not all blended together. Who would have thought?

Well, okay, so now I have one more idea. Darn these samples! You can't just have one.

Testing Three

Okay, so now I'm going to get really brave, and spin up some bright red/pink and see what that does. I don't have any. But I do have some orange/red mohair -- it will have to do. This is the skein I got:
And this is the knit swatch:
Quite different, isn't it? So much can change just by which colour is used as the background. Actually, I can't tell which is background and which is the main colour!

Now, that I've done this much, another idea strikes me. Okay, more spinning to do.

Testing Two

Since that last sample tended to produce a rather dull lack-luster over-all tone, I needed something that would pickup one of the colours in my original, without being too strong. I do have some dark blue and spun up a small bobbin, and plied with my purple/pink single. This is the skein I got.
I then knit a swatch to see what it looks like. You can never tell what will happen just by looking at the skein!
This is better. I notice a bit more brightness in the colours now.

Hmm... now I wonder what would happen if I used something a bit brighter. Okay, one more test.

Some testing

There hasn't been an update for some time on the spinning I've been doing. So much has been happening that I have neglected to tell you the latest. So here is a bit of what I've done.

When I was spinning this roving, with all these colours in it, I kept thinking of how to ply it. I didn't want to ply with itself, since I would lose some of the variation of colours. I felt it would all blend together. And, because I only had a limited quantity, I wanted to stretch it as far as I could. At first, I thought I would use another strand of the purple/pink colours, to use as one of the plys and to tie the whole together. But that is not quite a colour that I would use. I had no plans for this yarn either, so what colour it was really didn't matter much!

I did think that a darker neutral colour would work well, since it would not overpower the subtle colour changes in what I was spinning, and a darker colour would tend to let the colours stand out a bit more. A white would make it all quite pale, I felt.

So I was able to spin up a little bit of grey alpaca to ply a small bobbin. The results are below.
I did knit up a small swatch with that skein. I am not quite sure whether this has achieved what I intended. The gray does blend it all together, but the colours are not as bright as I would have liked.

Obviously, more testing is required!

Conference treats

In early June, the provincial conference was held here in the city on June 10-12. I am not a member (yet) but I always like to go to see the public displays and the vendors area. I had decided I needed to treat myself to a really nice spindle. I got a little extra money for my birthday, and I thought it was about time that I got myself something special. I love my CD spindle, but by now I deserve a real fancy tool.

I was holding a garage sale that day as well, and it was very cold and windy. Not a good day to be standing out on the street trying to push some yarn!!

By noon, I made my way to the venue, carrying my umbrella because it threatened rain. I finally found the place (they sure hid it well this year) and tried to find the display and the vendors. I ran into an old friend I haven't seen for a long time, so we had to catch up on what we've done for the last few years. And then there was another friend that I hadn't seen for awhile. I've been out of the weaving community for some time, so I have lost touch with many of these ladies.

The public display was rather disappointing. There were very few entries, the prizes were not very obvious -- they used tall wine glasses with fragments of woven material to signify the placement of a prize, but I had no idea which was first or second. There were many entries by the same person, and the others were the usual people who always enter these kind of shows.

The vendors were spread over four rooms. Which meant I had to stop into each one to get a general feel of what was available, and then spend time to find that exact thing I wanted. The first thing I noticed was that I could not find a single spindle in the whole place! In fact, one of the vendors actually asked if I had mine with me, since she wanted to try out some fibre. I was greatly disappointed -- it's not often that I am willing to spend money, and here no one wanted any of it!!

I did find some nice fibre. Okay, I found a lot of really nice fibre! So then I went around touching (we always have to touch) trying to decide which I wanted the most, and the second most. Not easy! And there was so much to choose from: merino, alpaca, bison, silk, angora... and blends of any of these as well! What's a poor person to do?!? It's been quite some time since I bought any fibre, I think I lost any skill I had in that area. I have been spinning up some wool that was sent to me, and also finding bags of nice fibre I got several conferences ago. Now I needed to replenish my stash!

I did end up getting some really great roving, and will be spinning that shortly. I spent all the money I took with me, and so had to leave. I also told myself that when this shopping bag is full, I'm done. But some nice merchant offered to get me a bigger bag!

But I just wanted to show you this. I agonized over this for so long, trying to visualize how I would spin it, and what would I make of it. She had two very similar colourways... of course I liked parts of both. I started spinning this as soon as I got home.. well, to see how it works, naturally, and maybe I would go back the next day and get more if I liked this batch.
Of course, it's so difficult to get the right lighting to show you the exact colours. This is the best I could do.

I'm spinning it quite fine... well, what else is new. That is what it wanted to be! honest! I tried hard to convince it to be a little softer and thicker... but it had other ideas. I am trying to keep the colours separated, but because of how the roving was dyed, I'm not being too successful there. I still haven't decided how to ply this. I had thought of plying it with itself, but I only got 227 gm and that is not enough to make anything substantial. I may want to ply it with one of the main colours in the roving... if I can find some. I still haven't decided which colour yet. I just may have to do that dreaded "s*****", but I didn't say that! I'm nearly finished spinning the whole batch... so I need to decide quickly.

Rainbows

Even on a bright sunny day with blue skies, life will throw you a few rain clouds.

That is what seems to happen to me most often. It’s really hard to say it’s a good day or a bad day – it seems to be a mixture of both, and then I don’t know what to feel!

It seems that for the last several weeks, it has been extremely busy for some reason. There seems to be more and more things that need my attention, and I have less and less time to do it all. Am I really getting involved in too many activities? Is time really getting shorter? Am I only getting older and can’t keep up any longer?

Last Saturday was the 20^th anniversary of the local knitting guild. There was a bit of a celebration with some displays of the past (we soon forget what we have accomplished in our own recent past) and some mini-workshops on a variety of knitting techniques, and a big dinner in the evening. I just didn’t want to get up on Saturday, and it took a very long time to get myself ready and to get to the hall where it was all held.

The guild had arranged for some door prizes to be given away – always nice. I wasn’t there for the 2 o’clock drawing, so didn’t get anything then. I hadn’t yet arrived for the 3 o’clock drawing, and didn’t get a prize then as well.

At the 4 o’clock drawing, my name wasn’t in the basket either, since I hadn’t quite made it to the venue by then. It is a long ride on public transit to get there, plus a long walk, and I was a bit late. I kept thinking to myself that I will NEVER go to another event that is so far from home! By the time I got there, the mini-workshops had nearly all completed, and the prize drawing was done, so I missed all of that. But since I had already purchased a ticket to the dinner, I felt I had to go; otherwise, I’m sure I would have just stayed in bed for most of the day.

It was great to get a chance to talk to some people that I don’t see very often. Almost everyone was knitting on something, so of course, everyone was in a great mood! The dinner was excellent. Everything was very fresh and tasty and well-prepared. They used a well-known caterer and everyone was very pleased. After the dinner, there were a few speeches from long-time members about their memories of some outstanding events, and we also remembered many members that are no longer among us. They did the final drawings for prizes since there were a few things left. I really would have liked the book by Franklin Habit “It Itches”, but it went to someone else. And as I sat there, hoping they would call my name eventually for anything, it seemed doubtful they would find my one piece of paper with MY name on it.

Then suddenly, when I wasn’t paying attention, they did call out my name! I had given up hope by then. And I got a book by Lucy Neatby called “Cool Knitters Finish in Style”. This is all about finishing techniques for your knitting. I never learned how to do seams, so all of my knitting was either flat or in the round. Several years ago, I took a class from Lucy on finishing methods, and learned so much! She is a great teacher. This book is based on those classes, with more details, and I will treasure and use it a lot.

I got home early enough to be able to run over to a friend’s house who was having some people over that I wanted to meet. So I was able to be there for a couple hours. When I finally got home and checked on some internet things, and this and that, I was still wound up that I didn’t get to sleep until about 6:30 am! It was a very long day.

I was so pleased with how the day ended finally, that I didn’t mind all the inconveniences of getting there. So even though there may have been a few storm clouds, there also are some rainbows, and that is alright too.