RIP Cat

 So yes, we had a cat named Cat.  His name was actually Mu, as in the Greek letter, but when he was young,  he was the only cat we had, and whenever anyone commented on him, or his whereabouts, it was always something like "Where is the cat? or Has anyone fed the cat?".  One day we realized that he responded to the word cat.  He'd look up. Sometimes he'd come when he was called and so his name changed to Cat.

He was almost 20 years old.  He was really my daughter's cat.   She was a good cat mom, but suddenly found herself in a situation where she had to work 2 jobs and I think she was still taking classes at uni, and Cat was still quite young.  He wanted attention, but she was really only home to sleep.   She came home for Christmas, and asked to leave him with us for a couple of months, while she got back to a normal situation.   Of course we said yes, but when she left to go back, we couldn't find Cat.  He was in hiding and had determined he was staying where he was.   As soon as she headed out, he popped out of hiding.  For years afterwards, she come home and he'd hide.  It was kind of funny.

He was a good cat.  He was playful for many years.  He loved playing with a hand under a blanket.  When we lived in a home which had a gap under the bathroom door, he would play for ages just chasing a finger back and forth in the gap.   He had no idea how to play fight or wrestle, but he'd chase a guitar string around the house if you pulled it along.

 When I had my hip replacement, he parked himself on my new hip and stayed on top of the incision until the staples were removed, when he moved to my feet.  Two days later, when the little staple marks had healed, off he went back to his normal routine.   He regularly looked after me like that.

He didn't like strangers, thunderstorms or mice.  He'd run and hide.  Except for when the farmer next
door was combining.  He'd sit on the table, looking out the patio doors, watching that combine go back and forth, with no fear at all!   

He crossed the rainbow bridge on Sunday night. He will be missed.  He was handsome, caring and a very good pet.  

Projects and Kevin update

This is a 238  skein of white Egyptian Cotton, 2 ply.   It took forever to spin, mainly because sitting still for hours at this time of year just doesn't happen.   It's a nice skein and will go into my stash of handspun cotton skeins for a future project.   I only spun 1 bobbin full, then I wound about half onto another bobbin for plying.
The cotton is a commercial sliver.  When I first started spinning cotton, I had to card this sliver into punis before I could spin it.  I realized half way through this bobbin, that I had started spinning from the sliver, with no thought about it.  Really, it's all about practice, practice, practice..

I had a bit of an idea pop into my head and decided that I would weave up some inkle bands.  My inkle loom is very pretty, and is beautifully hand crafted.  Unfortunately, it has a little bit of an issue with the placement of the pegs, making for a very small shed.  It made the whole project take much longer than I'd expected and it was frustrating at times.  I used 4/8 cotton, so it should have been pretty nice to weave with, but it seemed like I was wrestling with the warp the whole length, and it wasn't horribly fun.    However, I need to weave off another 6 or so lengths, so I'm going to have to figure something out to make this work better.   I had suggested my sweetie might want to make me a new inkle loom, with some small adjustments to the pattern, but the roof needs reshingling first and apparently that comes before fibery activities.  ;)

I did make this little narrow wares width guide for my next project.  It's just a strip of plastic, folded in half.  I used the plastic from a 10 litre water jug that I found in a recycling bin.   I think a juice or milk jug,  would be easier to work with.  This was pretty tough cutting.   It may still be too long as I put on both 2 inch and 2.5 inch markings.

My sweetie woke me up this morning at 6 am, to tell me that a chair had tipped over and there was a pile of green yarn on the floor.   Sitting nearby was Kevin, just looking around as if nothing was wrong.   While he normally isn't a playful kitty, when he does play, he goes all out.   This was a freshly dyed skein of 4/8 cotton.   While I can see some of the figure 8 ties, the rest of it is so tangled up that I'm not sure I'll be able to use it.    And my husband wonders why I call Kevin the" Bad Kitty".

A busy start to the New Year

I've been spinning more cotton.  I've tried to do at least a few yards every day, although some days are definitely more productive than others.  The brown is the last bit of coloured cotton - I have some samples yet to spin, but this was the last 100 g bag.   It's boiled up and is more of that lovely soft brown.   I'm super happy with this yarn.  The white above it is a bit inconsistent in a few places, mainly due to lack of attention: hockey games, Dirk Gently, more hockey and the latest Star Trek movie, which was in my stocking.

This was the coveted present from my husband this year.  It's a vintage bobbin winder, which works like a dream!   It is fast and smooth.   I almost think it is faster than the borrowed drill I was using.  It escaped the water damage from the fallen tree thankfully.   I chose it - there was a new Leclerc bobbin winder there, but this one seemed faster and was definitely quieter. (Prettier too, but apparently that is no reason to purchase items like bobbin winders and cars)

New Year's Day had us out and about to pick up this.   I had to time it so that we'd be back in time for the World Junior's Hockey game.  It was tight, but we got home just as the game was about to start, so all was good.  
The rest of the week, I've been replacing worn out weird bits - like 18 yards of elastic tape and resetting the shafts because they were way too high and rushing off a test piece, so that I could adjust the tension.   Once I got it set up, the old gal turns out to have a fabulous shed.  The brake took a few minutes to get used but it holds an amazing tension for a jack loom.   I'm not sure about the texsolve heddles yet.  The move in weird and different ways than the metal heddles, but they work perfectly.  As well, they are so light that it takes no effort at all to treadle and quiet - I don't think I've heard a loom that quiet.   The test weaving was only 14 inches wide, so we'll have to see how a large piece does.   The next one though, will likely be the twill homework gamp, so I can get it done and out of the way.

Gratuitous picture of Kevin being cute -

Guardian Cat to the Rescue

Cat snuggled against the hip incision

Soooooo, my cat does not like to sit on people.  His idea of a good cuddle, is to sit near you, but not touching.  He will sit on the back of a comfy chair while you sit on the chair, or he'll sit on the cushion at one end of the couch, while you sit on the other end.   But sit on your lap for a nice pet and a snuggle, nope, not ever.

Yet.......... if I am not feeling well, and not a I have a cold unwell, but really unwell, he is right there checking up on me.    When I got home from the hospital, we couldn't keep Cat away.  He normally asks me to feed him as soon as I'm up, but he didn't once mew pitifully as if he would waste away without his morning tablespoon of wet, gushy food.    Instead, he spent his days and afternoons cuddling up to me.  Either right beside my incision or trying to get on top of it.  As long as he could be touching my right leg in some rather overt fashion, he would make himself at home and cuddle up.

Cat snuggled up on my right leg

Yesterday he was still finding ways to perch on top of my leg.    This morning however, he decided that perhaps it was time for me to begin feeding him again, although it will be a little bit longer before I can actually access the kitchen for his food and manipulate the tins to his dish.   He has also decided to take his morning nap someplace other than on my leg.

 That can only be good news. It can only speak of good things for the awesomeness of kitty healing powers.

Cat snuggled up on top of my right leg.

Cat migrated to a more comfortable position

The Cat ate the Cashmere!

Kevin, looking cute despite being a holy terror.

It was a grey, cold, wet and windy day.  I had finally started my level 4 homework.  I spent the summer playing around with trying to spin Lopi type singles, practicing with cotton on both a takhli and the wheel and then pretending that I like to spin novelty yarns.

  Finally, I felt energetic enough to start my homework.  After the fiasco of the 3 ply spiral attempt, I set to spinning Cashmere.  My first assignment was 100% cashmere, which turned out nicely, despite my not really liking it much.  It's soft, fluffy and lovely, but not something I'd really use much of as it's way too expensive to use for weaving,  too expensive to make into mittens for the  wool sensitive menfolk around here and too frou frou for anything I'd use such a fine yarn for.  However I washed it up and it turned out even better than I expected.  I set it to dry.

100% Cashmere yarn with lots of Kevin chewed ends

Then Kevin decided he wanted to go outside.  He's still not putting weight on his hurt leg, despite the passing months, so he's not allowed outside yet.   Then he wanted to sit by the screen door to gawk outside, but it was, as above, cold, wet and windy; not a day conducive to leaving a drafty screen door as the only protection against the elements.  I shooed him away and shut the door.  Then Kevin wanted to play in the Icelandic fleece I was sorting and prepping to wash.  I had to pick him up and move him away.  Finally, he grabbed the prepared packets of sorted wool locks that I was ready to wash.  He started wrestling and rolling around with them.  I took them away and started to wash them.   Kevin wandered off sulking.  In a few minutes he came back, rubbed up against my legs and went off to take his morning nap.

When I went to set the packets of wool locks to dry, this is what I found.  The darned cat chewed up my 100% Cashmere yarn.   Don't tell me they don't have some sort of miserable thought processes which seek revenge or try to make a point.   I'm going to have to spin a whole new 100% cashmere skein.  I hope I have enough fibre left.

Polwarth/Cashmere yarn which is delicious.

I mixed up two blends with the Cashmere, one Merino and the other Polwarth.  The Merino turned out to be too long to really work as I'd hoped.  However today, I finished plying the Polwarth/ Cashmere blend, which I love.   It's soft, bouncy and yummy.  I've way more than I need for a sample, but not enough to really do anything with.   I'm keeping the details on how I spun it so that once I'm done with the rest of my Cashmere homework and have a bit of time, I might be able to spend a bit of time spinning up more.  It would make an awesome shawl.

The test shawl

 It didn't take long to dress the loom.  It was only 360 threads which went quite quickly.  First thing yesterday morning I had only to tie on the warp to the front beam.  Normally I use a long nylon cord and lash the warp bouts, which creates an easy method to evenly tension the warp.  However, my nylon cord seems to have been turned into a cat toy and I didn't want to figure out if and where I had put the rest of the cord yardage, so I just tied the bouts onto the apron rod.  It turned out to be quick and easy, so I was happy.

Weaving went quite quickly.  Last night I finished twisting the fringes.  The yarn is quite old and felt somewhat scratchy and stiff after weaving.  It almost felt like I had the sett way too close, but I was sure I hadn't made that mistake.  I ended up tossing it in the washer with a bit of laundry detergent in order to clean out the many years of grime build up and the old spinning oil. 

Out of the washer came a much softer and more drapey piece of fabric.  I lay the shawl on a dryer rack in front of the fire and had to fiddle with the placement to keep the fringes from hanging at the kitten's eye level.  This morning the shawl was dry.  It's decently soft  and still has a pleasing amount of drape. The final measurements of this shawl are 78in x 26 in, not including the fringe.  It's a nice size.   I've tied off the warp at the reed, in knots so the kitten can't undo them.  It should be quite long enough to tie on the handspun shawl warp.

The final seal of approval!  After taking the photo, I turned my back for a few minutes to upload the piccys.  When I'd finished and put the camera way, I went to then put the shawl away and found this cute sight.  Kevin must have curled up on the shawl almost as soon as I'd turned around.  I wonder if one can sell a shawl with the benefit of kitten approval?

Kevin

This afternoon I had to pop into the feed store to pick up chook feed. I went in to get a couple of bags of feed and came home with this little guy tucked on my shoulder. 

I didn't actually go in to get a kitten, but the poor little guy had been dropped off.  He asked for a pet but when I tried to put him down, he grabbed on and clung to me, purring away.  He even tried to follow me around, with little cries.  After a last pet, he ended up snuggled in so nicely, that I felt there was no option.  I tucked him in the cab of the truck and home we went.  He's settling in quite nicely.  The only thing is that the menfolk around here decided that if I was going to bring home a kitty without consultation, they were going to name it.  So, may I introduce Kevin.  No romantic names like Lizzie Bennet or Mr. Darcy or Austen.  No funky, fun names from other parts of history or anything else... Nope, male or female (since it's very fuzzy kitten fur is still hiding all the important bits),  it's name is Kevin and oddly enough, the name has stuck!   He/she is obviously a fibre cat, which is a good thing and he's a cuddly, lap, kind of floozy kitten too.  I hope that cuddly bit stays as having a cat which likes to be petted sometimes would be nice.

Bits and Pieces

It's been an odd week, but a busy one.  We've had a lot of rain -thankfully rain and not nearly as much snow - but so much rain that it's just been puddling, with standing water all over the place. It's been quite funny watching the chooks decide whether they thought the puddles or the snow was the lesser evil.  Most decided wading was better than the snow - funny birds.

I finally rinsed out the solar dyed fibre experiment .  Well, mainly rinsed out.  The excess dye just kept coming and I was starting to be concerned about fibre felting.   The colours in the photo are just a tad more saturated than in real life.   I'll have to do more research into Lac recipes and how to get red instead of purple.  I can get those purples with Logwood and Cochineal as well.  Good reds are much more difficult to find.  The Madder though, yielded a nice red colour with the solar dyeing.

I've started quilting my daughter's quilt.  The centre log cabin blocks are stitched in the ditch.  The bulk bamboo batting only had washing instructions, (wash after quilting) and no quilting instructions.  From doing a bit of web research, it seems that a number of the bamboo battings need to be quilting no further than 2-4 inches apart.   I decided to go with the 2 inches, just to be safe.   It was easy with the blue quilt as all the stitch lines were 2 inches apart.   The wonky log cabin blocks are fine as they are narrower than 2 inches, but the wonky stars in the corners needed a little more fussing with as the odd shapes have somewhat less equal dimensions.   It's going to take a little longer to quilt this one up, but it's still a lot faster than hand quilting.

The cat is undicerning about what quilt he sleeps on.  He did however choose the quilted blue quilt over the plain log cabin top.  Once the layers were together, it no longer mattered to him, which quilt he occupied.    He seems to like sleeping on the treadle sewing machine when it's open.  He can survey the room easily and still gets the heat from the woodstove!

I wound off a new warp for some tea towels with 2/8 cotton.   I'd been dithering over 3 different projects.  I printed out the specs for 2 of them and decided on project number 3.  I proceeded to wind the warp for project number 1.   It's not so bad, but of course my excitement to quickly dress the loom has slightly faded.  Mainly though, I realize that getting the quilt finished has to take priority.  Once it's done, I have several little project bags to make as presents and then I can dress the loom.at my leisure.

The dark blue fibre which I've been spinning on the Mazurka is almost finished and the bobbin is just about full.  I thought I had another lot of the dark blue, but all the other blues I can find are substantially lighter in colour.  I may  ply this with a lighter blue of a similar weight.    We'll have to see what I can come up with.  It's a little to fine to ply back on itself.  I find that with the singles are very fine, self plying tends to end up with tangles unless one is very careful.

In other news, I may never get a chance to keep my new white mittens clean.  I've put them in a safe spot and cannot find them anywhere!  I'm quite sad about that.

All your quilt are belong to us!

 Over the past several days, I've been working on the quilt.   I marked the Double Irish Chain blocks in two stages, so I wouldn't get too confused with the patterns.  Quilting on the treadle sewing machine went fairly quickly, but it was a whole new use for those shoulder and arm muscles, so I ended up having to take breaks.  Every time I wasn't working on the quilt, and one time when I was, helper kitty was "helping".  Each of these photos was taken at a different time and there are more!  He really seems to like that quilt. He is the ultimate project manager!

Filling in the spare time...

The past few days have been busy...

On the treadle sewing machine -  7 tablecloths, pieced and hemmed.   The fabric came from  long, narrow tablecloths.   The owner gave them to me to change over to sizes correct for the tables at our Canton's next SCA event.   There was enough of the blue for 6 and I'm turning the brown into another 2, each slightly larger tablecloths.  Because they are rectangular, they'll work for both round and rectangular tables and 8 should be plenty for any contingency.

100 grams of Clun Forest rovings, spun semi-woolen.  I put them on the rug to photograph them and the cat decided he had to investigate.   He then took a nap on the skeins!


 I've almost finished the wide purple stripey socks.   I've had enough of ribbed socks for a while and will do a different pattern for the next pair.   I still need to graft the toe together.   I'm not fond of that process, although it doesn't take long.  It's fussy to do neatly.   I'm happy these are done.   They've been the least enjoyable socks I've made.  Not only did I not enjoy the colourway, but the yarn wasn't my favourite to work with.    Interestingly, the large purple stripe managed to fall in almost the same spot by totally accident.   I had a partial skein left from the first sock, so use it to start the second sock, rather than switching to a new ball.   Despite the second ball being wound opposite to the first, so the stripe order was reversed, and randomly starting the new ball in the middle of the 2nd sock, the purple stripe in almost the exact same place on the foot, off only by a row or two.  Bizarre....  At least the socks are comfortable, if that's any consolation for having ugly socks! I do love the blues and greens though.. so it's not all bad.

Nope, the garlic isn't planted yet... it's been raining here the past few days.   Instead of doing yard work, I'm off to make cookies..

Gah! More Stanley Cup Spinning

I'm officially getting tired of this project.  I realize what the problem is though.  It's just mindless spinning.  The past few years, I've become more specifically project oriented and just spinning for the sake of spinning is fine sometimes, but it seems like I've been spinning miles and miles of yarn forever, with no destination!    Well, the Stanley Cup Playoffs do seem to run forever, but still.   So, only one more game in the semi-finals and the finals start next week.  So in all, there are only 5 - 8 more games left.   With any luck, I'll be able to see it through and finish up what is turning out to be the nearly endless bag of roving!   The bag of white shetland that I'm spinning right now, while is getting smaller, doesn't seem to be doing so with any appreciable speed!  I think I've been at half a bag now for a week!

My original basket was overflowing with skeins.  I had to find a second basket.    It was much more impressive with the smaller basket overflowing with skeins, but honestly, it wasn't horribly practical.  It was spilling out all over the place.  I'd totally forgotten about the lighter grey, which was hiding at the bottom of the basket!  This is mainly grey, white and black Shetland.  The few skeins of white are tucked in the back.  I'm leaving them there because they are from a different fleece.   They are not quite the same texture or colour as the fleece that I'm spinning now.  The darker grey is Romney.    I've been spinning it all about the same grist, in hopes that if I want to combine colours for one project, I can do so.  

This is the moorit and the white Shetland.  The white is being plied using the jumbo plyer in order to get huge skeins.  With any luck, it will help me identify them as I go to use them.  There probably close to 1200 yards (plied) of the white.  I'm thinking that is getting close to a usable amount for something other than scarves or mitts.   I'd love to make a blanket from all this, maybe in a checky. It would be a good bedcovering for camping and Regia reenactment events.   But I'd have to sit down and do the math first..  recount the yardage on the skeins... work out the total yardage for the project and then the separate amounts for the checky pattern.  It probably seems like more work than it is.  I've been stalling on getting a project back up on the loom and not sure why.  I think I've got too many projects in the planning stages, which always slows me down.  I think I just need to queue them up and do them one at a time.

I started this bird design last weekend, while teaching a friend how to do the embroidery stitches from the Bayeux Tapestry - stem stitch and laid couchwork.  I brought it out once I'd unpacked but then set it in a work basket and covered it with a cloth.  What was I thinking, because I had to actually hunt it down this morning, having no idea where I'd hidden it.  I'm using stupid skinny yarn for this - Jaggerspun super lamb, so it's taking longer than I'd first planned.  However the first stitches I did in a thicker yarn, looked much too chunky for my liking.

Gratuitous cat photo 'cause he's just so darned cute when he sleeps with his eyes covered like that :)

Rainbow of Yarn

I was playing around with blending coloured fibres the past few days.  Starting with 3 primaries, I blended the colours to make 3 secondary and 6 tertiary colours.  It is so cool to see the colours changing while carding them.   I carded them with hand carders first but the blue fibres were pretty sketchy; shorter than either the red or yellow fibres and with a different texture.  They didn't blend easily at all.   In the end, I had to run the two colour ranges with blue though the drum carder and even after multiple passes, I couldn't get it to blend evenly, due mainly I think to the variances in staple length.

Regardless, it was a fun activity but time consuming.  I think I've spent a good part of this week just working on blending and spinning small amounts.   Each colour range took  much experimentation to get it right and none of the "recipes" were the same, so I couldn't just assume that because blue and yellow took a certain ratio to make a secondary green, that red and blue would take the same ratio to make the secondary purple. 

I also finished plying the hood project singles.  I've a bunch of skeins ready to go, especially if I ignore the plying twist differences.  I also spun up a small skein of Dyer's Knotweed dyed roving from earlier this fall, just in case I needed a bit more colour.  It's a pretty blue.  I ran the roving through the drum carder to blend it nicely, for a fairly even blend.  I say fairly because there are a few differences and I didn't take the extra step of blending the carded batts together to get a more even colour.   This is merino rovings and I didn't want to risk getting any neps or noils, so stopped when the batts were lovely, light, fluffy and perfect.  I tried to match the Knotweed merino in size with the Romney hood project yarns in case I wanted to make something out of them, so I'd have enough yarn.   But my little old imagination keeps on wandering toward the rainbow colours.   Except that I really don't want to blend and spin enough for a blanket or some such thing, wouldn't they make a cool colour gamp project?

I ended up fulling the hood fabric a bit more.  I tossed it in the washer for a few minutes but got distracted and it was in there for a couple of minutes more than I'd intended.  I spun out the water and layed the fabric over the kindling bucket to dry in front of the fire.  The cat looked disdainfully at it until it started to dry a bit.  Then it was deemed a good place to sleep!   In the end, I'm really happy I left it in the washer for the few extra minutes.   It's soft and yummy now.  It will make the perfect hood!  It's interesting that the stripes show up quite well from the Z/S differences but the broken diamond pattern is lost.

Homework Half-way Point........

I've passed the half-way point in my course homework. Phew... While I can't quite see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, it's getting done. I'll have to say that most of these little piles of skeins have 2-4 10 yard skeins in each pile. There is also a box of samples and bits and pieces and a huge file full of write ups, essays etc. Yesterday I broke down and took a break from spinning. I may ease off a bit for the next few weeks so I can get some sewing done, however there is still much spinning between now and the final requirements...sigh...
I'm considering not spinning at all on Saturday. You know, just to shake things up a bit!

In between spinning sessions I've been drying herbs. The Lovage is huge and I've nipped back the growth tips in hopes of it branching out a bit more so I can get at least another harvest or two from it this summer. It has a celery like taste - sort of but not quite. It's a bit stronger and doesn't seem to have that bitterness that celery has. I've been using it in pasta sauces and salads.
Sage is something I didn't really like until I had it freshly picked. The Dill is really something I don't use a lot of. However, it's volunteering in my garden so I'm harvesting it You never know when you might need some, and it's there. I've lots of Basil as well, only I'm not certain I like it dried enough to go to that much trouble. I may chop up the basil leaves and freeze it in a tiny bit of water so that I have frozen basil cubes to use during the winter.

Gratuitous Cat Picture, just because!

On Scarves, Hearths and Inspector helper kitty

I decided that I would unpack 2 "sewing room" boxes on Wednesday. Sewingroom really means miscellaneous craft supplies or we don't know how to label it so we'll put sewing room on it and leave it for Mom to deal with later! The first box I found had yarn, yarn and more yarn in it! Well, as it got unpacked and I was distracted. I found the green wool from the Summer Solstice dye pot and a bunch of handspun bits and pieces, all in grey! Of course, I suddenly needed to dress the loom. You know, a small project like scarves really takes little time to wind off the warp and little more to thread the heddles and reed. It really only took a couple of hours to set up! Sometimes it's really nice to have something work up quickly. The grey warp is about 4 or 5 different handspun yarns, in different shades of grey and slightly different thicknesses. One is some of Wellington Fibres mystery rovings which I split to maintain some of the colours, so there is a bit of blue and purple in there as well. There is enough warp for 3 scarves on the loom. The first weft is wool dyed with apple leaves in an iron pot, done back in June. It's a very pretty green and I wish I had more of this colour to work with as it really does remind me of spring! It's woven off and I'm just waiting on finding the skein of handspun black yarn I wanted to use for the second scarf weft. I may have to change my mind if I don't find the box it's packed in soon! While having a project on the loom always looks nice, I hate not getting it woven off as there is always another project waiting in the wings.

It took 2 days more to get that second box unpacked, but I did 2 more to make up for my inattentiveness. If hubby hadn't shifted some boxes, it might have been even more as I'd just found a box with books and binders packed in it. It was like finding an old friend. It was slow to unpack but enjoyable. I got a couple of books put away and found my Tudor costuming binder and then he shifted some boxes and I can't find the half unpacked box of books now!

The fireplace insert has been ordered but we don't yet have an install date. We were hoping the stove would be installed next week sometime, but I'm guessing that it won't be. The weather is getting rather cool and the wood burning insert should be able to heat most of the house. Hubby is starting the hearth repairs and upgrades. There was carpet right up to the fireplace and a hole in the floor with a fan in it as well. Both of these are code violations, so they need to be fixed up before the stove gets installed.

We need to extend the front of the hearth at least 16 inches of a non-combustible material. We're putting in 18 inches of ceramic tile over concrete backer board. It was fun choosing tiles. While the sales guy at the store thought we should co-ordinate our tiles with the carpet, I really wanted it to look like fireplace, not the greyish colour of the rug. The tiles are extending the hearth the whole width of the fireplace.

The first step is for hubby to measure out the tiles so he knows where to cut the carpet out. Then it's fixing the hole by putting in stringers along side the joists - one was cut for the fan hole, sigh.. and then patching it with a piece of wood the same height, in this case 3/4 in plywood. The helper kitty decided to play inspector to make sure the job is getting done correctly. It's pretty ugly right now but will be much prettier when done!

The black wool with all the veg matter in it has turned into a not so bad project after all. While spinning it is a bit of a pain, it knits up really, really soft and yummy. It's rather nice to work with after all in terms of the finished project - which isn't actually finished yet.

Madder, linen and cats, Oh My!

Last Sunday I was part of a Guelph Handweavers and Spinners Guild sheep to shawl team at the Drumbo Fall Fair. The guild fielded two teams. GHS team A came first while we came in 2nd, by only 1/2 point. The first place team scored 88.5 and we scored 88. We were pretty happy. The team is an amazing group of gals and it's so much fun to work with them. It was a great day and a really nice break.

Between scrubbing and packing extra stuff away, I actually got some more fun time in. I cut the madder dyed tabby woven fabric up. That was a pain as I didn't have quite enough for the pattern I'd wanted to use and had to set the pieces of a regular T-tunic several times before I could fit them on the fabric. I could have done an apron dress with ample fabric to spare, but it's too late now. It cut beautifully and I had almost nothing left over. I did save some of one selvedge edge as it is so nice and straight.
It's half sewn together already, however the cat has decided that he likes the madder dyed wool. I've put other wool pieces down for him, commercial wools, but he's having nothing to do with them, my cat of descerning tastes.
In between times, as the fairy tale goes, I've been spinning straw into gold or spinning flax. I've tried both line or flax strick and tow flax or flax top. Both required more spin than I'd expected. I wet spun them - don't use too much water, just dampen your fingers or you glue a whole fat bit together, which you don't want. Interestingly enough, I wasn't able to fill a bobbin as the flax doesn't spread out to fill gaps in the bobbin as wool does. It just piled on top of each thread, so I wound off at half a bobbin full. I got about 250yds - 360 yds per half bobbin, so that is pretty good. I have enough spun to use for the weft of a good sized tea towel. I'm out of flax fibre though and I want to spin more ... bwa ha ha ha ha... It's quite satisfying to spin flax that I can actually use for weaving more than a sample bit. The skeins are quite fine, pretty even and not many more little ends sticking out than the commercial linen singles I have. By the third bobbin, it was actually really nice.