Vacations

It is amazing what can be done during a vacation. Even though school is starting to pick up (just started a mini boot camp for incoming Kindergartners), I am  still finding time for me. Last weekend, I spent the day at the annual dyeing party for our guild. I tried the painting of a sock blank (will load those pictures when working on that project) and dyeing a warp and a fleece.

There is actually 4 chunks of fleece. This fleece is from a german dairy sheep from Blewitt Pass. I visited the sheep last summer and they looked like happy fleece (especially when it was time for the milking).

Over 3 days, I finished up the spinning & plying. Still need to work on not overspinning but I still like the product. Not sure if it will be part of a hat or something else (I think there is less than 50 yards). Will need to think about it...

Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece: Custom-Color Your Favorite Fibers with Dip-Dyeing, Hand-Painting, Tie-Dyeing, and Other Creative TechniquesHand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece: Custom-Color Your Favorite Fibers with Dip-Dyeing, Hand-Painting, Tie-Dyeing, and Other Creative TechniquesTeach Yourself VISUALLY Hand-Dyeing (Teach Yourself VISUALLY Consumer)

Pickled

This summer has been an eye opener for me. I am reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral  and really thinking about the food I eat. I signed up for a share of local produce from the local CSA. I am trying new vegetables because of this (which means I am looking up new vegetables).

 I tried the jam earlier and will try not to buy a jar this year. Now onto the vegetables. Between my produce box and sister-in-law. I had enough beets to try to pickle them. I had never tried a golden beet so I look forward to opening that jar.

 

I love the colors of these jars. What I am learning is patience. With jams, you can crack open one of those jars and enjoy (and also find out if this grand experiment worked). With pickling, you have to wait. Before this batch, I pickled wax beans. Only have to wait 2 weeks for those. With beets-not even supposed to touch them for 24 hours, then let them sit for a week to develop their tastes. As I told my husband, it is going to be a long wait.

Summer projects

I love the summer because I have time. I don't feel like I have deadlines to meet, standards to achieve, parents/school expecting things of me. This summer, I really took a break from teaching. Yes, I taught for 1 week at a math institute (my way of giving back to the profession) and I attended a Writer's Workshop in Olympia to work on a piece for publication.

Some of the things I am working on this summer...

So I tried planting potatoes in a black garbage bag. I am not a gardener and I thought this could be the simplest way. Now it talks of watering the plants every day. I didn't. They talk of adding more 'starts' as the plants grow. I did once and then forgot about it. This weekend, I noticed the plants dead and it looks like my dog, Bonnie, had been rooting around. I was actually quite surprised that I had potatoes. Will probably roast them with some fresh zucchini.

So the guild is sending around pre-warped looms to work on a color gamp. This is the front.

This is the back.

And here I am almost done. Pretty. Now of course I have to wait until the other weavers are done before I get my section back.

Having time and a loom in the craft room means that I can then do my own. Still working on towels. I figure they can always be great Christmas gifts (especially the surprise gifts that always seem to be needed).

These are towels 4 & 5. There is something very soothing about doing twills & tabbies (not shown). Of course when all done, I will post my towels.

I even learned to tie a string heddle because somehow I missed a # 3 shaft (had done it on #4 and tried the cutting and bending the heddle back on-would not recommend to anyone).

Slow Wool

Fleece-I seem to have it everywhere. I find that it is easier to clean the white fleece just because you know when it is clean. The brown fleece is a challenge. I'm not sure but I think that a brown fleece just has more lanolin in it. I really try not to over wash the fleece but I have a feeling that I am not washing the brown enough. My hands do feel good after working with it.

So I thought I would try spinning the brown. Well-too much lanolin and it is looking like an arty yarn. That is okay but it wasn't what I was looking for. I tried felting it and haven't seen it felt. Maybe too much lanolin. So now I am experimenting with mixing white with the brown.

The white doesn't seem to have as much lanolin so maybe mixing the 2 will do the trick.

So the white wants its' spot on the batt and the brown wants to stay separate.

Interesting mix. What I am finding is that even after carding the wool, I need to then use the hand carders to really mix the 2 fleeces. Maybe I am starting a new trend-instead of slow food, I am making Slow Wool. Off to spinning now.

Letting Go

There are things to be learned if you  just open your mind to it. I have learned about tension from my loom. Now I am learning about when to let go. People hear that I am enjoying my fiber crafts so things get donated my way. Some of it is good, some bad, and some just outright ugly. Now the fleece in mind isn't necessarily ugly. It has sat in a bag for a good 5 months. Lovely shade of light brown. Not sure what the animal was-definitely not sheep. Couldn't feel that lovely lanolin. This weekend, I decided it was time to try to clean it. Every time I had looked in the bag, I saw leaves and little bits of dry grass & weed. I thought I could handle it. I sat on the rocks in the front yard and tried to clean it. It just wasn't worth it. It gave me no pleasure, like when I had cleaned the wool fleeces. None of the dried grass, weeds, or leaves seem to want to leave the fiber. It just wasn't worth it to me. So I let the fiber dry on the racks (and got some strange looks from the dog walkers) and will be throwing away a large outdoor garbage bag of this mysterious fleece. In a way, I feel much lighter already.

Time

So school was officially over on the 17th. The plans to spin, weave, and knit were all in place. Sometimes life happens. I volunteered to help at a math institute in Quincy, WA. So every day, I was back up an my normal school day getting ready to team teach 2 groups of students moving into 1st grade. It was fun but challenging. On Thursday, we had to stay late because the institute had a math night for the migrant families. It was fun to meet the parents of our children. Many did not speak English but you could tell the love & pride they had in their kids. These are hard working families that are doing whatever it takes to help their children have a better life.

So between 3-6 p.m., I sat in my classroom with my partner teacher and worked with fiber. She is knitting a scarf for a foreign exchange student that is returning to France and I brought my spinning wheel. This was a 50 gram package of pencil roving. It was wonderful to spin (merino). I am getting better at having more consistent thickness. I ended up with about 106 yards. Not sure what I will do with it-give it away, knit a scarf...who knows. I do have one more package. Maybe do some mittens?

Oh I love going on fiber tours. Our local shop organized a tour to Spokane and I had a blast. I won 2 books (actually stole them doing a book giveaway-it pays to be the only spinner/dyer). The pattern booklets were on sale for $1 a piece. Hopefully I will try the skirts in the booklets (the real reason for buying). I also was able to feed the weaving (lease sticks for table & floor loom) and 3 cones of thread. I even had a $20 credit for fiber to spin. It is hard to tell but the bag has teal blended fleece. Now that I have my new wheel, I will have plenty to do this summer.

Now I just need to get the craft room finished organized. Then I am going to have a great summer playing with all of this. Pictures will be posted as I start & finish projects.