Silk

Hand-dyed silk tussah ~ 100 gms (give or take with all the fluff sticking on clothes) and no idea on the yardage. I lost count somewhere past 100 wraps on the the niddy noddy. Again, Navajo plyed. I love Navajo plying. I love the results.

It's hot today...~ 29 deg here. Not complaining but it would have been perfect if the change was a bit more gradual. Nothing like going from heavy winter clothes to summer tank tops in 3 days or less. Tried to do a bit more spinning but the silk kept sticking to my fingers.

Sunshine!

Ok, sunshine can hide a multiple of faults. The skein doesn't look too bad...at least I can tuck the faults inside. It's Navajo plyed to keep the colour blocks a bit more together. There were a bit of barber poling but not too bad. It still needs to be set and whacked.

Didn't get around to do any dyeing today. It was too nice to work that hard on a day off. I did finish spinning the silk I've been working on FOREVER and even started plying it. A little silk really does go a long way. It's going to take a while to ply all this.

Pst! Angela, can't remember the name. Do you know where T&T is in Chinatown? The restraunt is in the Tinseltown mall, upstairs near the food court. They have a dinner buffet too (haven't tried it but heard it's good too) with lots more selection and lots more seafood.

All you can eat Sushi

...is a bad idea for lunch. It's scary how much one can really eat at an "all you can eat" place. Good sushi, good selection, good service...all for $9.99. That's a lot of sushi.

I feel like crawling under my desk for a nap now.

Woohoo!! Long weekend!

Technically, next Tuesday is the Stat Holiday. July 1st is Canada Day. As much as I wish I was taking Monday off to make it a super long weekend, I'm ok with just taking Friday off and making it a normal long weekend. Monday will be fairly quiet and hopefully the rest of the week will be uneventful. <--wishful thinking on my part with the upcoming game happening on July 4th.

As usual, no big plans for the weekend. I was thinking of dyeing some fibre on Friday. Sunday morning is the Fibre Party at the Farmer's market. I needed to pick up fresh veggies anyway...and hubby is going kayaking so I don't have to worry about him.

BTW, just finished plying the Yummy Yarn fibre last night. I won't bother with pictures. It does reinforce my thought that I need more practice spinning wool again. I've been spinning so much everything else that I can' remember when I spun any wool last. BFL is REALLY easy to spin and there will be fibre for sale there on Sunday. (I know...I know...it's not like I don't have any wool...it's just that I don't have any handdyed BFL fibre.)

I've been trying to figure out if I have enough heddles on my loom to weave the huck lace project. Counting up how many heddles I'll need on each shaft, I'm short. I've ordered extra heddles but wondered if it would be a good idea to dress the loom and add the extra heddles when they arrive? Ok, after reading this over, even I can see it's not a good idea. I'll have to be patient and wait.

WoW content...
It's the Fire Festival on WoW right now. That has been a lot of fun, running around putting out fires...you get really good xp for just doing that. Hit 60 and got my super fast mount! Man! It really is fast! It's a bit nerve-wreaking to think that I'm getting up there...almost high enough to play with the big kids soon. I do need to do more battlegrounds for practice and honor points but I just can't bring myself to do that yet. Thanks to Drop Bears and my son, my druid is ready gear-wise but I'm not sure I have enough experience yet. I keep telling myself a few more Outland quests and I'll do battlegrounds.

International Knit In Public Day

...was a big success. Knitters all over the world got together & knit in public. Locally, we had groups meeting up on the Skytrain, beaches, & community centres to knit. A lot of the information got out word-of-mouth through Ravelry, an online knitting forum.

*photo courtesy of Inara

Yup, knitters come in all sizes and colour and there are girls on the internet.

Highlight of the event was me winning the draw from Yummy Yarns.

It's being spun up right now.

Thankful for:
1. A few hours of sunshine today.
2. Roses are blooming.
3. It's summer!

A Very Full Weekend

It was our 21st wedding anniversary, Internation Knit In Public day, Father's Day, and my son's high school graduation. Luckily, the weather was nice.

I wish I could say I was organized enough to bring my camera to the Knit In Public but I didn't. Forgot I had my cell phone camera with me. It was so much fun! Lots of local knitters came by. Some of us brought our spinning wheels and we have a new wheel convert now.

(Sorry Maryhanna...it was just a matter of time, you know. Did I mention that the Little Gem is a great accessory for your new Suzie?)

For a knitting function, I got very little knitting done. Lots of talking and socializing happened. And Yummy Yarns did a prize draw at the end and I got new fibre for my stash. :)

The commencement ceremony went well. The kids all had a great time and it was a little sad to see them all so grown-up looking.

Thankful for:
1. My son for turning out so well despite having a crazy woman as his mother.
2. My understanding hubby who puts up with my obbessions.
3. Everyone at the Knit In for all the fun.

Oh Dear!

Last night, after playing many hours of WoW, I stayed up later than usual knitting...just so I wouldn't dream of killing giant spiders all night long. Top that off with a very full lunch and your eye lids will droop in the middle of the day. I have two very long and boring meetings this afternoon and I'm not sure I'll survive.

Help!

Better go get another coffee...

The new shafts are here! Picked them up Saturday. It was a busy day but I had to insist that we make a stop at Rusty's place to pick up the stuff. It was hard waiting until I had time to put it all together though. Finally, on Monday it was done!

It was pretty straightforward. One thing I didn't think of was to order extra heddles so I don't have to move them around. I'm lazy that way. :)

Everything works and everything looks great. The only problem I ran into was removing the old rod from the treadles. It has a locking washer on both ends which the instructions say to pound one end of the rod with an hammer. Not a good idea as it mashed the end so the treadles can't slide out. I ended up using pliers to pull off the washer on the other end and everything slid out.

No warp on the loom yet.

Sometimes my husband surprises me. I was looking at the apron on the table loom, wondering if I should move it the floor loom. He looked at it and said that it's just a piece of cloth so can't you just make one?

Light bulb moment. I have canvas...lots of it.

The rest of the day was spent quietly spinning & knitting, with few rounds of WoW in between.

Leveling up on World of Warcraft is going slower now. I've been playing "tourist" and exploring a bit more. For me, the game is not all about getting to level 70 as fast as you can. It's a fun game with so much going on that you want to take the time to play and poke into corners and buildings to see what's there.

Thankful for:
1. Rain - I love how lush everything is.
2. A week off - no explanation needed.
3. New toys. :D