Monday's musings coming on Tuesday

I didn't get to the musings yesterday so here they are a day late!

This weekend...
We played board games, I did lots of dishes and knitting, the kids worked on cleaning their rooms. The grownups realized that mostly the problem really was too much stuff in too little space. We are going to have to work on this. We had a quiet and pleasant weekend.

Right now...
I am sitting with me leg up, I did a bunch, but not all of, errands this morning and am tired! My shoulder is hurting so no knitting right now. Soon I will make bread for dinner - we are having turkey - I just finished eating lunch. I made salmon pate and ate it on whole wheat crackers with pickled onions.

Plans, how last week went.
I knit on both the socks and the tank top and resisted the urge to cast on a Lillietind Hat. I did not cut out skirt fabric. I did darn Bunny's bunny socks. I did read the Handspinning Art & Techinques book and it is a slog! most of the info is out of date so reading it is really work. I did work on my German every day, but mostly really late at night. I did not do inventory or film a tutorial. I did work on the house, but not on the 4h stuff. I did not write in my book.

Plans...
I want to cruise on one or both knits so I can cast on the Hat soon! I want to spin the yarn for the hat - only about 75grams - I want to spin for a little bit each day to work up my endurance again. I think I should clean my studio before starting a sewing project. I need to decide if I am continuing to read this book or switching to another. I want to work on my German in the early afternoon so I can focus on it better. I think I will set up a time in the week for writing. I am going to remember that I am still healing and try to go for a walk each day and to be gentle with myself.

Prayers...
I am praying for calmness and strength this week. 

Mondday Musings

New for this segment next week I will cover how well I met my expectations.

This weekend... Friday night was school movie night, Jim took the girls to watch. Mouse stayed home with me and did homework. He is a brilliant boy but has poor time management skills and is often in some imaginary realm when he should be buckling down and getting the work done. That in combination with advanced topics and the expectations of a self-directed school program lead to many nights of me asking if his homework is done. If one of us sits next to him and re-collects his attention when he drifts off he can get the work done quite quickly, and sometimes we do that, but we want him to learn himself too and notice when he needs to refocus. This makes the lesson less of Geometry and more about self regulation and knowledge.
Saturday was kind of a Jonas day for me, I was woken suddenly and believed it to be in anger. I couldn't shake the idea that those around me were upset with me and mostly for for things I couldn't reasonably be expected to have done. This is on me. I am frustrated with my body and healing - yes it is coming along but it has been so long and so much has been left undone because of it. I ended the day having made everyone around me upset.
Sunday we were all easy with each other, I have a cold and dosed off and on throughout the day, Jim and the kids played many board games and it was nice hearing them play.

Right Now... The bread is cooling. The sauerkraut or rather what hopefully will be sauerkraut is macerating on the counter. My parents bought me some fermentation lids for Christmas. The kids are doing homework, Bunny while signing. I have a cup of honey lemon tea for my cold and I don't intend to leave the house again. Jim is taking the girls to violin. Soon, I will be re-taking all of these duties but not just yet.

Plans... I want to work on my socks and my spilt back tank top. I would like to cut out fabric for a new skirt. I need to darn a pair of Bunny's socks. I want to encourage more music practicing. I need to read another book for my COE - This week Handspinning Art & Techniques by Allen Fannin. I have been refreshing my German on Duolingo and want to continue on with that. I need to get some organization brough back into my business which I mostly have not done much with, in specific to take inventory and make new listings to launch a shop update.I also want to have Nate help with filming a tutorial while he is home. There is also some clean up work I need to do for our 4h club. I am slowly cleaning the house and plan to also slowly de-clutter everything. I want to set a small amount of time aside every week to write a novel that is rolling around in my head. I don't know if it will go beyond getting it out of my head but I want that.

Prayerful Intentions... I pray for understanding and healing. I pray for friends who are struggling with family members terrible health.

Sheep and wool

what had to come home with me.

 Plying thread from Interlacements.

 This is Texcel wool, Mom and I are splitting a 8oz bag. She will be felting I will be spinning. Texcel is normally a meat breed, but I want to try all the things.

 One oz samplers from Hearthside Fibers Whitefaced Woodland Sheep, Shetland Sheep, Egyptian cotton, Baby Llama, Masham sheep, and  Swaledale Sheep

 Welsh Mountain Sheep, Perendale Sheep, Hemp, Rambouillet Sheep and Gotland

 This is one oz of Columbia wool from All American Mill

 5oz of Flax from the WoolGatherers

 Two 2oz braids of Nylon from Hello Purl

 A cute thing also from Hello Purl

Weld from Handspun by Stephania.
A tiny Shawl pin By Ingrid the Crafty
A Nalbining needle and a comb clamp from Mielke's

 A pair of knitting pins from Celestial Designs Fiber Art

 This cute shawl pattern

 These two old books from the Woolgatherers

And this signed copy from Jilliano Moreno.

I also got a Paula Simmons book on wool as a cottage industry. Most of this will be used in pursuit of my COE. Mom and I camp for the whole time and really enjoyed ourselves.

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

Yarn along 4 - Socks! a bit late.

I am a bit late! I finished my socks! and got through the decrease row on Mouse's sweater, So I will have pictures that are more interesting than endless stockinette in blue next week. I am pausing the book Bloody Old Britain as I have read about two pages since last week. Hoping that leaving it on the nightstand will prompt slow progress but a book about a breakthrough in the way archaeology was conducted through aerial photography should have more photography and less flowery turns of phrase. I am re-reading or perhaps reading as a novel instead of a reference book, Aiden Amos' Handbook Of Handspinning, working towards my COE.

I did this too.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xscHYIi-5ts&t=8s)


I started a podcast on crafty- fiber-y goodness where I talk about what I am working on and challenge myself to stretch, there will be more working videos & tutorials in the future. 

Joining in on the yarn along a bit late week! ~ Julia

Yarn Along

Well it is a my picture is upside down kind of day.

On the needles: is my Christmas Sweater for Mouse. It is  Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system, with one inch 2-2 rib on all the cuffs. On size 4 needles, the Key is 162 stitches and the gauge is 5 stitches to the inch. The yarn is a German company's sport weight, 100%wool, which has been hiding in my stash for years after I picked it up thrifting, I think it was 99 cents a ball. I am sure you will never see it but the yarn is navy but up close there are fibers of gold, purple, and green within that blue. I want to do a colorwork yoke in some geeky pattern but have 8 more inches and two sleeves to figure out what one.

Books:
I have been slowly reading Sir Winston Churchill's The Birth of Britain Volume 0ne. Slowly because while it is interesting and his writing is everything you might guess it would be, I kept it on my nightstand. I am breaking that trend this week and hauling it around. William the Conqueror just died - to let you know where I am. 
The COE Handbook. Which is a awesome and intimidating look into all the work I will have to do to get my Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning.
Spinning for Softness and Speed by Paula Simmons, which is one of four pages of suggested reading for the course and interesting. I plan to work on learning the technique - which in involves only using the palm, ring, and little fingers of one hand to spin and she claims completely eliminates over-spinning and you can do without looking after you learn (hoping that claim holds up.)

Joining along with Ginny and everyone at the Yarn Along.

Coffee and COE

This is my answer to the death of my coffee maker. It cost 4.99 for the plastic and two bucks for a big box of filters. It takes a bit longer than the pod thing I had before and makes a much stronger cup than I had become used to, but this protest coffee works for me.

I started talking about the Handweaver's Of America's Certificate of Excellence in Hand-spinning, yesterday. I have been wanting to do this for awhile. It is a written and work project with roughly 40 skeins and at least 7 swatches. Your work is reviewed by a panel anonymously. This will be a ton of work but I am really excited.

Monday Morning Musing - Nov 7

Good Morning, Welcome to Breakfast!

Now... I am sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a soft boiled egg in one of the lovely egg cups the family got me for my birthday, I cracked it with the gizmo they got me for that purpose. I have almost got a handle on how to use it! I have coffee - first time in nearly a week - and a little fruit salad. I have the radio going and my dishes are not done, but the laundry is started and I am oxycleaning my dish towels in hopes of brightening them up.

This Weekend... Was recovery. We got the plague, or maybe it was only a stomach flu or two. Jim and Beaver never succumbed but the rest of us were out for the count! Truthfully Jim looked a bit green at gills at times and Beaver was working too much to be here to get it. But we are up and everyone is on to there tasks. I spent a bit of time worrying about how I would get everything that I had planned to do in two weeks done in one before my show on Saturday, the answer is of course that I won't.

Plans for this Week... Finish bleaching the house! Lysol the house! seriously this bug sucked and we don't want it again. Finish making stock for the holiday craft show in Elkhorn this weekend, tag all the stock I have not yet, list it on Esty and Square, make or buy table clothes and a little tree for our booth, Dye more. Plan Christmas Presents and next week's 4H Meeting.

Plans... Flip through the Certificate of Excellence in Hand Spinning  bibliography to determine what I have to read. Yes, I buried the lead I am going to try for my Certificate. It is a ton of work and just completing all the work is not enough. I want it to be really well done.  I will likely be testing in 2019 and I plan to post here about the work and my progress. I ordered the handbook to see if it was possible to make the next testing date - September 2017 - and I just don't think there is. have until February to make this decision so I think I will say that if I have read 3/4 of the reading listing, answered all the written work and finished - excellently - half the required skeins and corresponding swatches, I may decide to go for it.

If I have free time... I won't.

I am grateful for... Everyone feeling good today. A sick little Bunny last week, curled into my side with me reading her Agatha Christie Mysteries. A tiny Badger who needed Mom to be right next to her the whole while she was sick and figured the reverse was also true, she woke  at 3 am one morning when I crawled back into the bed too sick and exhausted to even pull the blanket back over me, she tucked it gently around me and held my hand. The not so little Mouse who terrifies me with his stoic nature and independence. And for my great big boy, Beaver, who turned 18 this past week.

As for Prayers... I intent to pray for our nation this week. I love my country. I hope that this country can move into something more civil, more encompassing, more loving, and more rational. I believe that words have power, that if we say often enough that our government is broken, or our country needs to be made great again, or our neighbors are horrible hateful people we make it so. We internalize these messages and make them true. I intend to pray for forgiveness to enter my heart for those who are making choices I feel have the power to destroy us. I pray I never have to hide anyone in my attic, but there is room if you need it. I love you, I am interested in your life, I hope it only gets better.

~Julia