Not as Planned

Today did not go as planned.  Eric has a 5 day vacation from his program.  I wanted to go to the mall and take a walk and do a bit of shopping.  Instead we stayed home.  We watched PBS kids most of the day.  

So I caught up on washing the rest of the yarn from the Tour de Fleece. I caught on laundry the started washing a fleece. This was the dirtiest fleece that I have ever washed. It is still washing now. 

I fixed the the error made in assembling the loom, warped it and started weaving. I have found out that I can not use a 20" shuttle when weaving in Eric's room.  There is just not enough room. Almost 3" are already woven.  

I think my foot was not quite up to as much double treadle spinning as I did last week.  My foot is a little unhappy.  So I will give the Ashford a break for a little longer.  

Baby Blanket

RI finished this baby blanket today.  All 378 rows of it.  I thought it would take a week, but it took a little over 2 weeks. 

The back story on the blanket is that I was suppose to teach the mom to be how to knit so that she could knit a blanket for her baby.  We had a hard time finding a good time.  In my humble opinion we ran out of time. So I went into my stash to pick out some yarn.  I thought it would only take me a week. The most important thing is that it is finished before the baby decided to come.  So here is the blanket. 

Tune Up

The Ashford Travler needed a tune up. It was squeaky and sounded like it was going over railroad tracks. So one by one I tightened up all the loose screws. I oiled all the areas I could think of.  I got all but a few rattles are gone. I think I might get John to trouble shoot the last squeaks. 

I am almost finished with the baby blanket and I should be able to give it to her Monday.  Actually Eric wants to give this present.  

I took a map instead of warping the loom, so I guess that will get done tomorrow. 

Progress

I have hit a new stage in my zenning. Instead of finding more bags or boxes to get things put away. This week I started condensing things. Getting rid of extra bags and boxes.  I have 2 less bags of projects that need to be started. I am down 1 box on weaving supplies. All my circular needles that are not in current projects are now put away.  I have also filled the recycle barrel for the 3 rd week in a row.  

I also had a lot of help from John in setting up my new loom. He did a great job. Although I did not have time to warp the loom.  Maybe tommrow. 

The up side of all of this is that I have more time to knit, spin and now weave. Who would of thought that this would have happened.  The answer is John ,Teri and Lisa. 

Fiber Friday and More

I am almost at the halfway point in the baby blanket I started last Friday.  In spinning I almost finished a single that I am going to try to Navajo ply tommrow.  The picture is below.  

I got to see Eric at his talent show.  He did a great job playing the bells. They were very clever and put them on his afo's so when he got excited the bells went crazy. 

I am exhausted and am hoping for a good nights sleep tonight.  

Monsoon Friendly Roving.

Today I had great success with an alpaca silk roving. I started this roving a few months ago and it was almost impossible to spin.  The fiber flew every which way. I spent most of the time fighting with the fiber. I even tried using a blend of oil and water to try to tame it. That just made the roving feel yucky. 

Fast forward to monsoon season 2014. With the humidity around 40% instead of the usual 5 to 10%, the roving spun like a dream.  So my conclusion is some fiber just spins better in higher humidity. So this is my Tour de Fleece spin of the day. 

You Don't Look Old Enough

I was offered a senior discount for the first time today. Then the cashier said I did not look old enough to get the discount, so I had to pull out my id to get the 20% discount. I felt like I was 30 all over again trying to prove that I was over 21 and entitled to buy a glass of wine.

Age is a funny thing. It not only takes genetics, but a whole host of factors such as how much time did you spend in the sun before 20. How many sun burns did you get? Did you wear sun screen or baby oil while you were out in the sun? Did you wear wide brimmed hats or did you insist on the perfect hair all the time? Do you use moisturizer and sun screen daily on your face and hands even in the winter? Did you try to eat healthy or eat nothing but junk food? What type of life style did/do you lead?

I can say that I have been wearing wide brimmed hats for a long time. I have been using a moisturizer with sun screen since my early 20's. But is that really it. I can remember at 16 when I took my brother and his friend to Magic Mountain for the day. I had to pull out my drivers license to prove that I was 16 and old enough to supervise the 2 boys. The cashier still charged me the 12 and under rate because she said I did not look 16 and was sure that the license was a fake, but she still let us in with me as the supervising adult.  The heck with what the drivers license said.

On the other hand I know people who can pass for 5 or more years older than they are and no one gives that a second thought. Some are taller and some are shorter, so it can't all be the height thing. All I know is that it starts to happen at about 6 months of age. So if you look younger than your age have that id ready and get those senior discounts.

Day 3 of Tour de Fleece

I did not spend the day spinning so I do not have any finished skeins.  So here are pictures of the work in progress.  

Tour de Fleece Day 2

2 skeins spun today. The top skein is from Cloudlover.com.  The bottom skein is from Into The Whirled .com.  Both wee fun to spin.  Yes I got all 5 loads of laundry done too. 

Tour de Fleece 2014

Day 1.  The second picture is a single ply mohair in red and blue.  The first one is a Cloudlover super wash BFL in Neptune's Wrath.