Crafting on - dress, socks, and control

 I am working on two projects related to this card. The first is I want to improve the consistency of my spinning for the purposes of earning my COE, and I want to keep a record of my spinning. I read that other spinners keep track by using cards or tags and keep small samples of their yarns both as singles and after the ply. If you can think of anything else I could add let me know. The second project here is a joint effort sweater for my children's godfather. I will do the spinning and another friend will be knitting him a cabled sweater. We got to talking about spinning and knitting and what kind of yarn is best for Aran style sweaters and now I a spinning samples. Then she will knit samples and we will decide which to work with. The samples will be:
2-ply, oiled, spun z plyed s
3-ply, oiled, spun z plyed s
2-ply, oiled, spun s plyed z
3-ply, oiled, spun s plyed z
and her favorite of above un-oiled.   I am researching old methods of spinning, hence the oiled wool, I have spun the first sample and am undecided about my opinion of the oiling of the fleece before carding.

This photo is a twofer as well, in the foreground is my knitting - socks as a Christmas present. The pattern is Grand Central for the NY collection by the Knitting Expat. I hate the colorway and am thinking of overdyeing it, however, someone said she liked it. So there is that.

The fabric is for the dress I am making for my interpretation work down at Garfield Farm Museum. I am hoping to get it done by May 21st, but am toying with the idea of hand stitching it, mostly. I have it cut and basted, which I did by machine. I think I will try to hand stitch it but do the gathers by machine.

This is the pattern packet front.


Joining in with the Crafting On today, I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is working on.

Monday Musings - May Eighth

Now...
The house is quiet, the washing machine is going. Jim is working in his office, Beaver is waiting for a ride to his field trip. The others are at school. I made bread yesterday and crunched on it in the car while I dropped the girls off. I finally have a cup of coffee, in my mug for my mother-in-law. The mug reminds me of something that I might be served in at the Green Dragon Inn. "it comes in PINTS?"  I am sitting here trying to organize my day.

Over the weekend...
 Jim came home from his business trip on Friday and we spent the evening with old friends. Our hostess made these yummy plantain chips and now I want more. We get together roughly every two weeks to play pathfinder and we had a good time. Most of the weekend was taken up with cuddling, we cuddled Jim because he was home, we cuddled Bunny because she wasn't feeling well (better now) and we cuddled Badger because she didn't want to be left out and her sister was getting all the cuddles. Mouse had homework, he is struggling with the workload required by placing him in classes at his readiness level - three grade ahead in Math - it is not the work itself, just the change from low to no homework to work every night. He has been reading a ton, but not recording it for his teachers, this weekend was a lot of digging out books at his reading level and convincing him to pick one, write it down and start reading it. Once he picked, he sat down and read hundred pages - he is starting the Dragonriders of Pern series - with out problem and enjoyed the book. I re-arranged part of one bookshelf with books I think he will be interested in.

Plans...
Tonight is the girl's violin concert! I have some video work to do for the video I an putting out this week and some for the next one. I am making a new dress for my interpretation work at Garfield Farm Museum. I am working on increasing consistency and record keeping in my spinning for my COE work and trying new techinques. This week oiling wool. I would really like to finish my sweater this week, but it would take a miracle. I would like to get to the gym.

Spare Time...
work on sweater and watch videos, thankfully I can do both at once!

Prayerful intentions...
I will be praying for my dad, who was much healthier before he retired. I will be praying for my friend's dad, who is in hospital while they figure out what is wrong with him. I will be praying for another friend's step-dad, who's grief is destroying him as a man.

~Julia