Catching up two weeks worth of stuff

Argh - I've been trying to post for days, but there is always something which has distracted me so I'm sitting down and just doing it.  Actually, I'm supposed to be dressing the loom right now.  That was the plan, but I didn't get the rest of the warp wound yesterday.   I'm waiting for a delivery of dirt - a dump truck with 4 c yards of triple mix actually, to fill raised beds.   The only place I can see or hear the truck come in is in the living room.    If I had the warp wound, it would be perfect, but my warping board is permanently attached to a basement wall, so I wouldn't hear the truck.    I need to be able to show them where to dump the dirt and not have them dump it on the driveway!

So FOOL, or Fruits of our Labours was fun.   The weather was undecided.  It was very cool at nights, rained in the morning and had enough glorious sunshine to make us forget the rest of the weather.   There were some awesome classes.  Sir Edward ended up having enough time on his pole lathe to make this bowl.    Since my phone camera is acting up, this is the only photo that I took, which turned out half way decentlyOnce I got home, I did laundry - oh,always so much laundry after an event - got rested up and then caught some nasty virus or something.   I spent some time looking for a stainless steel rectangular roasting pan to dye with.   Way too expensive right now as the cheapest I found was $99.   I checked on line and local stores.  I even checked thrift stores to no avail.   Not sure what the next step will be, but I do want to try some of these new techniques for modern dyeing that I've read about and watched.   

I did take advantage of the hot, sultry and very abnormal May weather to wash up some fleece.   I emptied the bag with the lamb's fleece.  It washed up nicely.     I've started on the box of remaining fleece from my Master Spinner in-depth study.   That was a huge fleece for sure!   Not having a good way to wash large amounts of fleece in the winter, being able to dry it outside is a boon to productivity.   It does take time though, 3 washes and at least 3 rinses.  It takes a little longer using the laundry sink instead of a basin, but I can do so much more at a time that it's worth it.   

Otherwise, I've been playing in the dirt. I've got two pots of Japanese Indigo planted,which are loving the hot weather.  The Dames Rocket is flourishing in the Winter Onion patch!  I made Rhubarb/Apple crisp - yum.   The deck planters are almost filled.   I need another trip to the garden centre for a couple more plants.   

The  seeds for the raised beds have been purchased.   I also found two awesomely nice looking blueberry bushes for only $8 each, so they came home with me.  One will replace a sad looking blue berry bush which never really grew well and the other will go on the other side of the bush beside it or they'll go in the front flower beds.   I haven't quite decided yet. 

The red currants and gooseberries are already heavy with green fruit.   If the weather holds and the birds don't get them, we may have a very early, bumper crop!

Wind storm productivity

The windstorm blew through our area, knocking down trees, hydro poles and creating a mess.   After a brief shudder in the electrical system, it all shut down.  We were lucky in that we were without power for just less than 30 hours.   I had someone ask me what we did and how did we survive?   Well, mainly, once the wind had died down, we went outside.   Wood was split.  Wood was stacked.   Branches were picked up.  Sticks were raked.   A quick run into town to get more gas for the generator which keeps our sump pumps running, also resulted in brunch at a fast food restaurant with wifi, so I could check my FOOL event email.   I was surprised at how many people had their tablets out while we were there.  

 Finally, tiring from yard work, I dragged out a bit of fibre that I had dyed two winters ago and only got part of it spun up.   I started spinning the rest.  I realized that I hadn't divided it into two, so when I started on the second bobbin, I made sure to use one with the same finish as the first.  Then when I was almost done, I weighed them both and divided the last of the sliver so that they equaled the same.   I was off by a couple of partial grams, but in the end that resulted in one bobbin having 2 yards more than the other, so I wasn't upset about that at all.    I plied them together, but with the busy day with yard work, I was literally falling asleep while plying.  I had to force myself to stay awake so that the cats wouldn't demolish the yarn from the Lazy Kate to the wheel.   Once it was done, I soaked it for a bit and set it to dry.  The next morning I took a good look at it and was pleasantly surprised.   Half of the yarn was spun by task light and candle light, in the near dark.   I was expecting some very noticeable inconsistency, but nope, you cannot tell that this was half spun in the dark!  Yay Me!

I love hyacinths.  I love how they look and especially the scent.    I like to take my tea and my spinning wheel or banjo out on a warm, still, spring day and watch the leaves grow while the scent of hyacinths lingers in the air.    We've had nothing but windy days so far this spring.   I've scented the flowers once, when I was on the ground taking this photo.   I fear that with the way the flowers are popping up and speeding through their growth cycle, as if to make up for this year's lingering winter, I shan't get to have my day bathed in hyacinth scent.  

Yes I realize that this photo is on a weird angle.  Just as a warning, don't get down low to take a photo when the chooks are about.  They are curious birds and like to know what you are doing.   They will walk on you, peck you gently or not so gently and generally just get up close and personal trying to figure out what you are doing, trying to slither on your belly to get that perfect shot, which won't be so perfect in the end, when you jump out of the way of Ms. Curious Hen.  (They poop indiscriminately too, so watch out for that as well)

Bobbins Emptied! Yay!

 Ta Da!  I've emptied 9 bobbins of bits and pieces of the tail end of whatever I'd been spinning and either ran out or got distracted.   The 10th bobbin is holding reeled silk from level 6, Master Spinner at Olds College.  I need to wind that off onto holding bobbins. The bobbin isn't needed immediately,so the silk is safe where it is for the moment.  It was interesting digging up all the bobbins and figuring out what was on each one.   It turns out I'd stashed the bobbins together, so the hunt for them wasn't all that difficult, once I'd figured out where I'd put them.

There was a bit of natural green cotton left on one bobbin.  It was still wet and wouldn't cooperate with being turned into a skein.  I'm pretty sure the larger white skein is Merino.  I'm not sure about the small one, because it's a little bit whiter, but it feels just as soft.   The Merino/Cashmere/Silk is easy to identify because I'd dumped a bunch of it into the exhausted vat of Japanese Indigo, just to use up the last of the dye.   I've a large zip-lock full of it. 
The Ramie isn't an end of bobbin but was a 50 gram bag that I'd spun up.  The colour is oddly called sunrise, and I'm presuming it is the sky colour at sunrise.  However if I had ordered this site unseen on colour alone, I'd have been quite surprised.  This bit of ramie shows that all commercially processed sliver and roving isn't the same.  The dark blue that I'd spun before (aptly named midnight) was long fibres, smooth and easy to spin.  This stuff was chock full of short bits and neps.  The short bits were less than 2 inches long, often only an inch and a lot of the neps just got spun in as they were well blended into the fibre.   Even when picked out by hand, they wouldn't budge.  It took a lot more concentration to spin this pale blue ramie.  If I'd gotten this bag of Ramie the first time I'd ever spun it, I'd be turned off the fibre.  However Ramie is generally lovely to spin and a nice bast fibre.

I've often mused over why the packaging of so much fibre in 50 g amounts.  It's great for sampling, for sure, but I find it not so great for actually using in a project.  I'm going to have to just keep getting 50 g of Ramie and spinning it up until I have enough to use for a real project, instead of just decorating a bin or basket.