Busy

Last week Eric had a 5 day vacation from his day program. All he wanted to do was rest in bed and watch tv. My plans included going to a movie and a haircut for Eric. Guess who won? Did you really need to think about that?

So I spent my days spinning, weaving and knitting. I think I should have spent a little more time cleaning.  Well there is always what is left from this week to clean. 

This week I also started the initial shopping for a kitchen re-do. There are so many decision to be made.  I think the hardest part will be is finding a glass top cooking surface that is compatable with my LeCresut cast iron cookware.  Other than that I seem to be drawn to the less expensive appliances.  

It seems my eyrpy boy has settled down for the night. So I think it is time to call it a day. 

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.