Monday Musings - April the third

Now...
 I have been sick for all of March. Many different sicknesses, which thankfully hit me much harder than my family. I am finding that getting back to normal is very slow going, I am struggling against napping and not eating much before I am full to the point of feeling ill. I had lots of plans on what I was going to get done today. I have wasted the day, I fell asleep taking a bath. No worries it is a small tub, but now I am stiff and got nothing done.

Weekend...
The girls had a sleepover birthday party on Saturday. Beaver has joined the La Crosse team and had another game this Saturday. It was their fifth game this week and their first lost in nine. I felt bad that they lost the first game I managed to attend. He really loves this game. His girlfriend was there wearing his jersey. She is very sweet. Mouse took advantage of the siblings being gone to play some long board games with Jim (Agricola & Caverna.) Jim and I cuddled and talked all Saturday night, it was a nice date night.

Plans...
I need to warp my loom and weave some charity scarves for my weaving guild. The yarn is donated to the group - they give lessons for seniors and they have all this yarn the students can use, but most prefer to bring in their own, so the cupboards where quite full and they are expecting another donation. So we picked some yarn out and are making 4-5 scarves each that will be given to an organization that helps the homeless. It lets all of us help out and lets those of us would are less experienced weavers get in more practice. I have chosen two shades of hunter green and a brown.

I need to finish a video I have been working on and make another. I have neglected my business and household equally. In working on the next video, I have fiber prep and spinning to do.

If I get some time for myself...
I will work on my socks and sweater.

I am grateful for...
Cuddles, giant piles of stuffed animals covering me when I woke up from a nap, my girls getting to be older in that they can be sent to clean up their room and do it without too much fussing, and Yorkshire puddings.

Prayerful intentions...
This week I am praying for health and healing in the lives of several babies and young children, and in thanksgiving for a friend's pregnancy.


Join me in musing by linking your post in the comments.

hi world it's me Julia

I took a bit of a break from blogging. At least from actually sitting down and writing out a post, I written hundreds in my head. What the quiet has taught me is I take more pictures and had something to look back at a remember exactly what I was thinking at the moment rather than what I think I was feeling from the point of view of where I am at now. So I will be fitting in more time to record my thoughts.

Finally finished the hairpin lace throw I made for my Grandpa from yarn I inherited from my Grandmother's Stash. He loves it and has shown it off to all the ladies at the senior center. They are impressed with me and with my Grandma for teaching me.

I washed a lot of wool.

Did a lot of craft fairs selling my work and my Dad's these are his work - bowls, pens, crochet hooks, wine stoppers... He is amazing.

Canned a bunch of stuff - only balanced like that for the photo, I am not completely crazy - these are tomato sauce and grape jelly.

We bought property to vacation on, Grow with and eventually move too. It is on a river flowage. I love the idea of my kids running all over this land, finding nature's hidden joys and secret places. Just being in the woods, calms and brings out the kid in my husband. It has been worth the budgeting and the frustration of the search just to see the stress and care fall from his shoulders as we explored the woods. Even if I didn't love it in it's own right - which I do - I would love it for that alone.

I took up weaving and gave some of the family handwoven placemats for Christmas. I really enjoy doing this.

I started writing a novel. I hide in a local coffee shop read while I eat their yummy breakfasts and write for a while. I have about 70 pages, hand written, so I have only just begun, but it is a bit like a date with myself as I intended to be in high school.

Lots of baking, brewing - beer, wine, and cider, I tried making sausage and cheese and plan to explore that a bit more. I've also worked more on the garden this year. We'll see, I like gardening but more in the planning and harvesting and processes aspects that in the tending it aspect.

Woolly Wednesday - boucle and friends

Join us for Woolly Wednesday at Spinspiration!

I did a fair amount of spinning in February and did some dyeing.

This is Paduck sawdust. I am working on the ratios for dyeing. I did up 4oz of East Friesan wool with this. It turned an orangey pink. I then took half and after-bathed it in an iron solution. It is an interesting pink/purple. I think I needed to use more wood dust to woo.l Next time!

This is a woolen spinning of a BFL and  mohair mix that I got at this year's Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival.

First skein of the same as above, I normally spin worseted and fair fine, so this was something new for me. It is very soft. I am thinking I will spin up all that I have of this and try weaving with it - first project one my loom?!  Maybe a lustery white/cream for the warp or a deeper blue....

Following instructions in an old Spinoff Magazine, I tried my hand at boucle. The wool is Polwort and tussah silk.  After the first plying(of three) I was certain I would regret this, but it turned out nice.  Due to running out of sewing thread to ply it with I ended up with 2 skeins, one 198yards long and the other with a copper strand (pictured) at 110 yards.

I made this one at a crafting retreat. I had nearly run out of wool (with me) use a little black left, so I spun it fine to make it last. When I ran out I bought (well more wool,) but also a yarn by Mary Maxim with sparkles and some mohair content.  I strung a bunch of large-ish glass beads on the commercial yarn and plyed it to the yarn I spun. I love the results.

I blended some wool I got for Christmas - a 3# bag O' crap from the Sheep Shed - I think it has some mohair in it but can't be sure.  I really like the colorway and as I had Lord of the Rings on while I was spinning it, I think it is a elven forest yarn.

I took some orange (I think it was suppose to felting wool, but it spun great) and mixed it with a cream wool and sparkle for this one.  A friend, who makes beautiful dolls, kept saying I made Rapunzel's hair.

My wonderful husband, who is clearly tired of me drying wool in the kitchen and bathroom, hung these hooks above the laundry sink (completely on his own) for me. The skein hanging there is the first boucle skein.

 I hope you are spinning up a creative storm! ~ Julia

Yarn along - and going and going

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? -- Ginny at Small Things.

I am still working on Mouse's Sweater -the green- but limited by my hand pain to between a half an inch to an inch at a time. It is going slowly but looks good and every time he sees me working on it I get a kiss. The red and pink things are socks knit toe up and two at a time. These are the practice version, the author suggested a practice pair in non-matching colors to aid in learning the technique and lessen confusion. These are a second practice pair as the first are done.  My kids were all very excited to see whose feet the practice socks would fit! It was a sock lottery, tiny feet trying out for the role of Cinderella or in this case sock owner.  Butterfly won. So I am knitting a second set to give her two matching pairs for Christmas.  These knit up very fast and the naughty little voice in my head is saying something about 'if I get everything else done, I could knit a pair for each kid, in time for Christmas!' I am thinking about drowning that voice.

I am still reading (more like staring puzzledly at) the weaving book from last week. Not to sure about it, the beautifully written and engaging historical sections have past into technical descriptions that make reading how to program a vcr easy.  I am adding this book on gardening plants used for dyeing, I have not started it yet, but many people have recommended it.

I love my tea cozy - a present from Resee last year - and could not resist adding it to the shot.  In the pot is cold earl grey tea brewed yesterday and left overnight with the tea in. I forgot to grab more coffee last night when picking up the kids from school, being distracted by realizing the Butterfly was sick.  She is home from school today and bored.

Meet the new addition to my studio family:

I am very excited to try it out!  My parents sent away for it as a birthday present and it arrived yesterday.  I am a bit irritated with the postal worker who left it on the bench by the door without even ringing the bell. She did not need to wait, but I was home and would've liked to bring it in right away. I had been watching for it but she arrived much earlier in the day than she normally goes around.  I only got it in the house before kid pick up time because the boys competition team (both boys paint figures and build models in an internationally placed team) stopped by to bring the boys there models and medals from the show in Chicago.  Beaver took Silver and Mouse (who made the team in July) took Bronze. I'll post pictures of the models tomorrow.

I am excited to see what everyone is working on!
~Julia

Yarn Along - bring on warp speed.

Linking up with Ginny and the other wonderful ladies of the Yarn Along.

Warp speed knitting - when you suddenly realize that you have way too many projects to get done before Christmas. I am warp speed knitting. The real problem is I have been have this pain in my left thumb. It starts after I have been knitting awhile or knitting tiny for a long time, it will if I push it eventually cause my wrist to hurt and hurt badly enough to stop me from knitting (switching to spinning after it was hurting did not help) for a few days. It seems to bother me less when working on larger (10) needles or switching from small to large sizes. I am worried and aggravated by this new problem.

On my needles, I have the sweater for mouse in green tweed wool and a cowl in mohair for my cousin. I can get about one repeat in the sweater before having to switch projects so at about 1/2 and inch a time the sweater will be taking a while. The cowl is wool I bought at my local yarn shop, the knitting instructor was stash busting her home and brought in all this wool she would never get to. She had packaged it in bags with a pattern and enough wool to complete the pattern.  I bought this ball with two others and a shawl pattern for $10. I hope to make a few cowls with it. It is so fluffy and soft to work with, this is the second cast on as I managed to twist the join on the first and had about 2inches on when I noticed. 

I am working on reading up on weaving so that I can play with my loom.  I would really like to make a table runner - just a simple rectangle here nothing fancy - as a Christmas present. so I need to get on that. This book Weaving A Handbook for the Fiber Arts by Shirley E. Held is a very interesting read with lots of history and charming side facts. Well written and engaging as a history text, I do think I was looking for more of a how to but maybe that is in later chapters.

Hope your projects are going well and your needles are going clikkety-clackety at a reasonable pace! ~ Julia

welcome to the studio

I was help out at the Pike River Rendezvous explaining the artifacts that had been recovered from the Resique Tavern site, which is at the same place as the Rendezvous.  The tent next to us had this beauty for sale.  I hemmed and hawed about it all day, then decided to buy it.  I was driving my Saturn, but the lady told me it fit in the back of their car... Yep you guessed it.  I am hot, sun-burnt in fact, and standing there with the man who sold it to me, no way to get it in my car and it is threatening to storm. Neither of us have any tools with us to take it off the stand.  Disaster!  When suddenly, a very nice total stranger said "if you are not going far, it will fit in my mini-van. I'll follow you."  I live about an hour from where we are standing, but a dear friend lives only a mile or so and I saw her at the Rendezvous.  So we load it up and take it to her house, but she is not home! luckily her porch was, so we unload it as the rain starts.  I call my parents, who only live about 20 minutes away.  Dad is at a woodworking conference in the next state and won't be home until late.  I call another friend - it was her wedding I was making dresses for - and she is home.  She and her husband race to rescue me.  It won't fit in her new car either!  They have not moved their tool bag into the new car, so her husband drives back across town to get them.  We manage to get it disassembled and into my car, then go back to their house to relax, wait out the storm, and eat some yummy homemade chocolate hazelnut ice cream.  When we got there I realized that not only did she drop everything when I called she did so in the middle of her dinner!  They say a real friend helps you hide the body, in my world a real friend drops everything to help you, even when the help you need is completely due to your own poor planning.