Two more LONG days!!

I am really looking forward to having next week off!! No set plans yet as to what we're going to do. So far, we've changed our minds 4 times. I would be perfectly happy staying home vegging in the backyard and knitting or spinning.

The silk I'm currently spinning is going fast. I'm using one of the lace bobbins with the very narrow core and it's still filling up fast. I've almost filled one bobbin. No idea what this will be yet. This will probably end up in a basket with all the other single skeins of silk & whatnots.

Thankful for:
1. Vancouver is a great city to live.
2. Feeling very blessed.
3. All the things that goes well but you don't want to say out loud because you're superstitious and don't want to jinx things.

What did you do this weekend?

Me and a friend thought we would just hang out at the bottom of the Sunken Temple.

Silk: The Spice of Life

Dyed silk always looks like something the cat threw up. Silk is absolute magic! You take your silk and "pop" it and it turns into a shiny cloud of softness. I can't remember when I dyed this but it was done with the starter Procion H from Maiwa.



It's not like I don't have other spinning projects on the go or I'm out of things to do...I decided to start spinning this silk today. Just because it's Saturday and it's sunny, I guess. Reasons enough to do whatever you feel like.

Silk is my favourite fibre to spin...not that I would give up all my other fibres but silk is the best. :D

Thankful for:
1. Cool breeze coming in the house.
2. Laundry is done and folded.
3. Going out for dinner so no cooking.

It's not raining!

I just didn't think of it but this long weekend would have been perfect for blocking my grey cardie. Someday, it will be done.



Finished the Monkey Socks and the heels match! The temp yesterday was 24 degC. Today is looking a bit cooler but still not sock weather. But I'm ready.

Next OTN will be another pair of Elfine Socks. Not only is it a great pattern but I love the book reference.

The Spirogyra are well on the way. The right hand is done except for the thumbs and I'm up ~1/3 on the left hand. I spend too much time on WoW.

It's going to be a strange day today. My son's grad is this evening so from 4pm onwards, I'll be a basket case. As hard as it is, you gotta let go sometime.

Thankful for:
1. Beautiful weather and shady backyards.
2. A fantastic kid for a son.
3. Fibre distractions.

Priorities...

This morning, at work, we are getting ready for a MAJOR PRESS CONFERENCE. It's a big deal. Those of you who knows me IRL and have read the daily newspaper probably know what I'm talking about.

Exciting stuff but I'm more excited that I just put in my order for another 4 shaft for my Minerva loom. I am SO excited I can hardly type!!! I've been planning my next project & now wondering if I should wait. No, I think I would like to get something on my loom. It looks lonely when it's empty.

I'm also excited because it's Friday before a long weekend and it's sunny. And I'm also excited because I found a nice guild of players on WoW. I had been thinking of transferring my toon over to Draenor so I could play with the other Ravelry people when I met up with Drop Bears but I rather stay here. They're a fun group with a good semi-serious/casual attitude. It's amazing how serious some people take this game.

Thankful for:
1. Friday before a long weekend
2. Knitters and fibre freinds online and IRL
3. Magnolia tree is blooming

Testing, testing

Not the best picture in the world but I wanted to try uploading pictures from my cell phone camera. At only 2 megapix, it's not terrible. The blurriness could be contributed by me having too many cups of coffee tonight.

At the very last minute today, I asked if I can have Friday off. Usually, the Boss is not big on last minute requests but he was in a good mood. I have the day off tomorrow. It's supposed to be nice so the plan will be to sit outside & spin. If it's not nice, sit inside & spin.

Bah! Monkey!

As much as I was hoping that WoW and knitting would somehow mesh together, it's probably not a good thing. Monkey socks are done but the second heel is shorter than the first. It bothered me so it will be frogged. Bah! That's what happens when you knit heels while playing on the computer.

I started the Spirogyra with one of the Trekking yarn but decided it would be better as socks. I'm using the yarn we (Twisted by Choice) used as mop-up yarn when we did the sock yarn dyeing. I've done three repeats of the pattern and but haven't decided if I'm going to keep going for the long version. I like to think that I'm a pretty fast knitter but it's kinda scary how much knitting I got done this weekend while playing WoW. It's those long flights.

One of those days...

Today's kind of day is my favourite kind of day. A quiet boring day at work. A short staff meeting. I got cake & chocolate (Denman Island chocolate). Came home and no one felt like cooking so it was dinner out. I got yarn in the mail. Any day that you get yarn in the mail, chocolate, AND cake is a good day.



Thankful for:
1. A boss who thinks meetings should start with pastries from Thomas Haas.
2. Good coffee done in a french press to go with said pastries.
3. Yarn in the mail.

DING! 40!

A momentous occassion! Thymeformom, the Nelf Druid, hit 40! I got my mount! I think I'll call her Spot, the spotted Frost Sabretooth.

Westcoast Colours

There's something so appealing about fibre and sunshine. I love the colours! This is the Superwash Merino/Tencel I got from Fibre Fest. I felt like spinning on Saturday and it was too nice a day to spin grey (Ping - yes, that's still a WIP).



Thankful for:
1. The local Art Knapps.
2. Sunny Saturdays.
3. Lots of fibre fun to chose from.

Yay! It's Thursday!

It seems that I have been remiss in updating projects and stash enhancements on Ravelry as well. According to my Ravelry stash, I have 19 different yarns. heh! It just seems like a lot of work to put photos on Flickr. As well, unless you have a paid account with Flickr, you are limited in how many photos you can store.

The last Monkey sock is half done. Just one more repeat & on to the heels. I changed all the purls to knit to make it an easier take-along project. Did I mention it was the Trekking Pro Natura that I'm using? I love this stuff!

Can't wait until my yarn order arrives from Webs so I can start the Spirgyra. I ordered more Trekking. :) Some of the yarn is for the WoW Knitalong - a project to be knitted only when playing WoW. Another great thing about Ravelry...you can do a search on just about anything and you will find other knitters AND there will be a forum set up to discuss your obsessions. Athough, I'm not sure I want to measure how much time I've spent playing computer games by how much knitting I get done! lol!

Thankful for:
1. Tulips are up and looking very spring-like.
2. Twisted By Choice - I really missed you all the last month.
3. Boring days at work - once in a while, it's good to have a quiet boring day.

Shhh! Don't tell!

I haven't finished twisting the fringes and the thread ends are still hanging out and it hasn't been washed yet. I don't care. I wore my scarf anyway today. It was so cold this morning.

Snow? Really?

When I heard that we were expecting snow on the weekend, I was doubtful. It didn't snow on the weekend but it did on Friday. BIG FAT FLUFFY FLAKES OF SNOW! Luckily, it didn't stick. There was nothing on the ground on Saturday.

Jean's Finishing class on Saturday was everything I thought it should be and more! It was fun and tiring at the same time. My brain was so full! Good thing I brought a thermos of coffee with me. I even had enough to share. :)

Now I have no excuse not to seam up my grey cardigan. That's a project for next weekend.

The rest of the weekend was spent gardening in the sunny areas (coz the shady areas were so very cold!)...and playing WoW on the Ravelry guild while knitting my Monkey socks. I was hoping the Trekking I ordered would arrive last Friday so I could start on the Spirogyra gloves for the knitalong.

Warning! Lots of WHINING

/start of WHINE

What can I say? I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (although, falling through space would be relatively peaceful in comparison) it just has been very busy...and stressful lately. I had hoped things would settled down at work with this new position but new things kept popping up. That very reason was what kept me from taking this position years ago. It seemed like the right thing to do this time but I'm having doubts. When work interferres with RL, I'm not happy. Usually, it's busy in the Spring season and I'm hit & miss with fibre functions but this year has been the absolute worse.

/end of WHINE

On to fibre stuff...

I am so looking forward to Jean Wong's workshop tomorrow. All my swatches are finished, labeled and ready to go. There is very little that compares with a full day workshop with other crazy knitters who are equally obsessed with fibre as oneself.

The monkey sock is still plodding along. SOMEONE played with my row counter and I lost my place. It took 4 rows before I noticed and ripped out the offending rows. It looked messy and since I was still so close to the beginning, I ripped it back to the ribbing. I'm knitting these socks in the green Trekking I got from Fibre Fest. It's a wool/bamboo blend and it feels really nice. Knits up nicely too.

I ordered some more of the wool/bamboo Trekking in different colours. One of the colourway reminds me of Murloc scales so I'm going to use it for the WoW knitalong. :)

Finally finished the scarf on the loom. Reason #423 why you shouldn't warp with only silk boucle...it makes really ugly fringes. Now, I just have to weave in the 6 zillion ends and it's done.

Wow! Busy couple of weeks!

It's been crazy here. I thought it would be quiet with the kid off to Europe but it has been very busy. Two weeks goes by so fast. He'll be home tonight. I took the day off to meet him at the airport.

We've been spending most of our free time (time other than working or sleeping) helping my MIL pack & ready to move. Thankfully, my brother-in-law will be in town to help with the actual move tomorrow. Good thing because I wasn't able to get both days off. Given the choice of taking the day off to pick up my son or go help my MIL move, I'll be selfish.

Friday is his 18th birthday. Poor kid might still be too tired to celebrate. Saturday will be Easter dinner at my mom's place. Sunday and Monday will be do nothing days. Really looking forward to those days!

There is very little going on fibre-wise. I started the monkey socks with the Trekking I bought at Fibrefest but have not gotten far with them yet. I have about an inch done on one sock...which is just the ribbing. That's it. Too lazy to wind the yarn into two balls to knit both together.

I think I will make Sunday an all day fibre day.

Thankful for:

1. Mini daffodils in my garden.
2. My sweet violets made it back again this year.
3. Son will be home soon so the dog will stop moping around.

Fibrefest 2008

I laid out all my Fibrefest goodies & realized I don't have a camera. The old one has no juice because the battery pack went to Europe as the back-up battery.

Oh well.

It was a fun day as usual. Lots of gabbing with old friends and made new ones. It's always fun to run into people I haven't seen since last Fibrefest. It was at a new place this year and it was a bit of an adventure finding it. Other than that, it was still fun.

Since there will be no pictures, I'll just list out the stuff:

From Princess Farms:
2 - 100 gms skeins of 60/4 cotton & silk
2 - 100 gms bags of Cria baby alpaca roving in grey (so soft!)
2 - 50 gms handdyed stretched merino roving (you have to see this stuff!)

Misc Venders:
Handdyed superwash merino & tencel roving
220 Cascade wool (for my swatches)
Trekking sock yarn
Dark brown alpaca roving from Sterling Farms
M&K Eco Cotton
Four Harness Huck booklet by Evelyn Neher
1 Schacht slim boat shuttle

The only thing I had on my shopping list this year was to pick up some yarn to do the swatches for the Jean Wong workshop. The rest was just to go & see what was tempting...and there was a lot to be tempted with.

When I got home, dinner was already made.

Then I spent some time on WoW. Usually, I muck around with one of my son's lower level characters but I decided it was time I had my own. I'm Thymeformom on Moonrunner. :D

Time flies

Been busy with family stuff, knitting, and other fibre stuff. I should have taken some pictures first but the camera is being charged up, ready for my son to take to Europe. It's been a whirlwind of activities here trying to decide what he should take and what he would really need. Two weeks and a zillion different stops. That's the kind of trip one takes when one is young and has a lot of energy. Tomorrow, we pack the last minute stuff and he's all set. All the kids are so excited! They've been working hard towards this trip for over a year now. The teachers are great...this is their 6th trip. Over half the kids going are kids he's grown up with. It's so strange to see them as young adults. I still see them as little wee guys running around our backyard.

What am I going to do for the two weeks he's gone?

I think I'm going to play WoW until my eyeballs fall out! :D

Thankful for:
1. My son.
2. His group of good friends.
3. Wonderful teachers at his school who organized this trip.

I love this fleece!

This was all the grunge that was picked from the fleece, pre-washing. No second cuts and VM to speak of. A good fleece.

The fleece was carefully divided up and bagged in mesh lingerie bags. These are great! They're a dollar at the dollar store and are perfect for dyeing and fleece washing. The bags won't last forever but the price is right.

Sunday was a good day for fleece washing - it was warm and sunny. I usually do the first two washing outside because I'm paranoid of the grease clogging up my washing machine. After the initial washes, the rinse/soaks are done in the washing machine with no agitation.

Wet fleece drying on a rack...to accentuate any home decor. I'm just itching to start spinning this.

Thankful for:
1. Fibrefest is two weeks away.
2. I got the Friday off to go to Fibrefest with my friends. Yay!
3. Daffodils and tulips are coming out of the ground.

Perendale/Romey fleece

Canada Post is great! Why? Because they bring me all the neat stuff I ordered. Yesterday, 2.5 kg of smelly Perendale/Romney fleece (plus an assortment of silk fibre as well) arrived for me at work in a little itty bitty box. Good thing the people at Treenway pack well. I can just imagine people coming in my office, wondering about the odor. I love the smell of raw fleece. The best part is opening up the package and have all that fleecey goodness explode out of the box. I did that yesterday but didn't have a chance to look through the fleece until tonight. It was a Guild meeting tonight and if it wasn't for the fact that we had a special speaker, I might have decided to stay home to play.


Not sure if I can fit this all back in the box.

The washed sample came out really nice and fluffy. No plans for the fleece yet except wash it this weekend.

I love the colour but that's going to be a lot of grey wool. I might dye some of it. That's what I love about raw fleece...unlimited potential. You can change something at any stage of preparation and that will change your final product.

Thankful for:
1. Kindness of strangers - a very nice bunch of people let me in the line up ahead of them at Costco. The amazing thing was that it was three different groups of shoppers...each with a very full buggy.
2. The person who left a box of Ferrero Roche on my desk. :) Chocolate is always appreciated.
3. Snowdrops in the front garden have started to open.

I'm so ready for Spring!

It's snowing again. It's not supposed to happen here. I can't believe I was actually wishing for rain. Enough already!

These past three weeks have been just a blur to me. Life at work is always insane at this time of the year. Made worse by the fact that now it's my department and I feel, well, a bit more responsible for things. I have to remember to take deep breaths and fondle more fibrey stuff.

The poor old grey cardigan is still languishing in the knitting bag. I looked at the cabled shoulders yesterday and just couldn't find the energy to work on it. But I did find the energy to start a new sweater...Bianca's Jacket from Interweave Knits - Fall 2006. This is a pattern that's tailored-made for knitting in one piece.

On the loom, I have some silk boucle as the warp. In hindsight, I probably should have used the boucle as an interest yarn - as Rusty suggested, rather than for the whole warp. (Next time, I'll email you first.) It did seemed like a good idea at the time. Another reason not to do things when you're tired.

No luck in finding my missing charts for the shawl. I have the swatch sample so I guess I can rechart the pattern from that. Not looking forward to this at all.