Rooing

 Just checking in here quickly to share a couple of photos.  Life has been pretty busy lately, and I ended up sick again for about a week :(

Spring has certainly sprung here, and I thought it might be fun for you to see what we do to roo the sheep - our sheep are pretty small, and I can handle the yearlings on my own.  This is a picture of Yadira, partway through the process.  You can see the area that has been roo-ed is darker, over her front leg.  The roo-ing process allows me to pull most of the wool, leaving the hair behind.  The roo-ed wool has almost no kemp in it, either.

And because he is so lovely, a picture of the ever-curious Yves.

Hope all is well wherever you are,

Lisa

Spring here at Leaping Shepherd Farm

The star of the show today was Yves, the young wether on the right (he's the sheep with horns in the foreground of the picture).

Had I known what the day would bring, I would have taken the camera out with me in the morning before all the excitement, instead of taking pictures at the end!

When I went out to feed the sheep I could see that Yves had begun to drop some of his wool -so, being the curious fibre-loving girl that I am, I had to try giving a little tug...

Twenty five or so minutes later, I'd liberated all of Yves last year's coat. This is his lamb coat, and the final pre-cleaning dry weight was 7oz.  It's lovely and light, fluffy and smells all sweet and lanolin-y.  Max came out part way into the process and helped me with this little fella.

For those who are not familiar with sheep, the trick is to roll them on to their bottoms, belly up, supporting their weight against your legs. If you can keep their little hooves off the ground, they will not struggle.  Sweet Yves relaxed into the process without much struggle at all.  We took little breaks from time to time (for grain), and I was able to roo his whole coat in a surprisingly short period of time.  To roo a coat, you pluck away at it much in the same way as you would pull at a dog's shedding undercoat - it lets go with very little resistance.  Not every breed of sheep can be roo-ed, but Soay can.  In the spring, the previous year's coat gets a weak spot in it and, left to their own devices, the sheep will lose the wool in clumps as it gets caught on sticks and branches. Roo-ing is the process of plucking or pulling the coat.

Our sheep have fast friends within our little flock, and Yadira and Yves are close.  Yadira (the blonde) followed Yves around for most of the rest of the day, sniffing him and keeping an eye on him.

He hadn't minded the whole experience all that much, and had come back to us for more grain after Max and I'd finished with him, so we know that he hasn't become hand-shy.

She sniffed and sniffed at him, almost like she was asking, "Are you okay? - how about now?  Really? Okay?"

 The other sheep stayed nearby during the process, and didn't seem terribly bothered by the whole thing.

Yorick, our Ram, showed that he's not above eating hay out of the other sheep's coats, and spent some time rooting around in Winniandy's ruff, looking for tidbits.

You might be able to see in the background that most of the yard and field is still under a foot of accumulated snow.  The sheep's foot -er, hoofpaths are all cleared down to the ground, but the rest of the field is still blanketed in white.  It was a sunny and glorious day, and little Youella spent a good amount of time sunning her tiny self.

Max and I spent a few hours walking on air after the experience.  It was so much fun, and easier than expected, all 'round (I have a hunch that Winniandy and Yorick will be another story altogether).

Hope you had a lovely Easter Weekend.

:)
Lisa

I woke up this morning to the sound of a cricket somewhere nearby in the house.  Every so often it chirps and chirps, but I haven't been able to locate it yet.  I'm always surprised that critters like this - especially crickets - can survive in a house with boys clomping around, two cats, and a large dog who quite likes to snap at insects.

It's really quiet in here this morning.

Randy has gone back to work after his Christmas break, and the boys are away at a friend's house for a couple of days.

Maybe the cricket has been chirping for a week and this is the first time I've heard it.

Last year around this time I took a few days and made myself a planner for the year.  It stemmed from having used planners for 20+ (gulp) years, and not really ever having one 'fit' my life.  For a long time I loved the Polestar Family Calendar, but found that it had more pages than I needed and whole sections that I didn't use, year after year.

The one that I made last year worked really well.  There was enough room in it for all of life's unpredictability, and for the rhythm of the week.  The boys could add important (and goofy) messages to it, and it spent most of last year firmly parked on the kitchen counter within 2 steps of the whiteboard that we use to keep our whole family's week straight.

By some miracle, I kept the template from last year with the stamps, and was able to put the one for 2012 together without much fuss or bother.

There are a couple of modifications, but not many.  The main one is that I made the date numbers substantially smaller, and the month itself doesn't take up quite so much room on the page.  The basic layout is the same, with a week per page, and all the page's dates close to the spine.  I cut the corner off the pages last year as the weeks went by, and occasionally lost part of a phone number or name, so this year will be a bit more mindful about where things will be written. The new book has a 'contacts' area, and a 'frequently used numbers' section, as last year's did.  There are dividers with pockets at the point at which the school year becomes summer, and where the summer meets the school year again.  There is also a pocket divider at the very end of the year (this was really handy for receipts and other papers that had a longer shelf life than a week or two, but not a long enough one to warrant filing).

Once again, I used stamps to show certain things...days with a bird stamp are loved ones' birthdays, and days with a peacock feather stamp are anniversaries.  The above photo shows the week of Randy's and my anniversary last year, and in the year to come. It would seem that summer is not about relaxing!  Last year I pasted little things into the book throughout the year (pictures, fortune cookie fortunes), and doodled. I can see that this year's will be the same in that regard.

 I've been pretty decadent about my time over the holiday.  I found time to finally finish the sweater that was started in the summer, and to start another sweater.  Nelson's needlework and craft store closed this week (sniff), and I bought myself a little cashmere yarn as the doors were closing.

I still need to buy proper clasps for the completed sweater (the photo here shows it being held shut with stitch markers), and block it.  In the meantime, the new sweater I'm working on is coming together rather quickly as there is plenty of sitting-around-in-the-evening time right now.  The new sweater is acid green and seafoam stripes...mmmmmm, cashmere......

Randy has been finding time during the holiday to work on the house.  He built doors for the boys' bedrooms, (yay!) and the caps for our posts.  Bit by bit, the house is coming together.

We're all getting ready to jump in to the new year around here.  Last year my resolution was about drawing, and I managed to keep it going in the intended way for about 3 months.  After that, I started including drawings I was doing for work or other purposes as my drawing 'resolution drawings', but knew that I was cheating myself!  It's funny how we can convince ourselves of things that are so contrary - part of the point of that particular resolution was to ensure that I had a place to invite drawing back into my life in creative, non-commercial ways...and promptly started mentally using my 'work' drawings as my 'recreational' drawings.  Hrm.

So this year I've opted to do a similar (non-commercial) thing in a new way.  I've joined the Sketchbook Project. The whole works has to be wrapped up and sent in by April...and that's about as long as I was able to make my resolution stick last year.  I have to pay to participate in this one - hopefully that will help with my stick-to-it-ive-ness...and at the end of it all the book will be available online for all to see, and in their library in Brooklyn.  I like the idea, too, that all the books will travel around the US, and that someday I or people I care about could go and view the book in it's new home.  I loved the themes and was able to choose one that has a lot of meat on it's bones for me, and can't wait to get in there and start working on it.  I've already been doing a bit of research and getting some ideas down.

Now I'm off to tidy up and reorganize my workspace...my little corner of the loft is completely torn apart right now as I prepare for the art-ing and craft-ing year ahead.

Cheers!
Lisa

Sheep!

Here they are, at daybreak, the first morning on our farm.

Our starter Soay flock consists of 5 sheep, all from Carla at Rhyant Rock Farms.

*ahem-later edit* SIX sheep.  There are SIX sheep. 

It was really nice to meet Carla (and Larry, too!) after the last few months of correspondence.  She was tremendously generous with her information and infectiously enthusiastic about the sheep - and sheep in general.  Not that we needed inspiration for enthusiasm! The boys have helped through each stage of the process of researching and getting ready for flock's arrival.  

 All 4 of us have been so excited about becoming Shepherds!

The oldest of our little mob is Winniandy, and she is the undisputed leader of the group right now.  She's two years old and has come to us with her ewe lamb.

The sheep are very small, even as adults, and are supposed to be good 'starter sheep': they don't need their tails docked, or to be sheared.

 They seem to have settled in okay, and are busily munching down our back pasture area, the area that will eventually be more for the rams.

I think our learning curve is entering it's steep phase...there is certainly a lot to know.

And, for the fellow fibre lovers in the audience, I have already spun up a teeny tiny sample of fleece (Winniandy is still shedding) into wool...it's a short fibre, so I'll probably end up blending it with other fibres until I get better at spinning it.  I've been reading about Soay-specific spinning and fibre preparation techniques, and am chomping at the bit to play some more.

We've taken about eleventy-seven-hundred photos of them all already, and are still getting to know who is who a little.  Three of them are very distinct looking, even to our untrained eyes, but I keep getting two of the ewes confused.  As long as they don't expect me know each of their names to call them to dinner, I think we'll be okay.

:)


 The ram lamb's name is Yorick, which I absolutely love.  He's very cute, with lovely markings and colouring.

So, in among all the other changes we have in our lives right now, we are now a farm (as Max said, "We're a REAL farm now, because we have farm animals").

For those who have been in closer contact lately...yes, we did sell the van, but it won't change hands until later next week.

Randy leaves tomorrow to go to the coast in preparation for his knee surgery, which will take place in the middle of next week.  Our thoughts are all about his speedy recovery and increased mobility. His pending surgery would completely occupy my head if I let it.

The course that I've been writing with my colleagues launches on Sept 12, at Selkirk College.  I'm still working on aspects website which will be the portal for the course, both in this iteration as a pilot, but also in the iterations to come. More pieces of the site are there, but not visible until we go live. We're currently putting the finishing touches on everything, and getting ready to work with some real live students.  It's so exciting, I can hardly stand it when I think about it sometimes.

So, yeah, lots going on right now.

Change can be really good, not baaaaad.

:D
Lisa

Recent finishes

 This past weekend I got a lot of spinning and knitting done...

Most of the fleece from Bella is spun into yummy thin singles.  I'm doing wool that's about 15 WPI (wraps per inch) as a general rule, which makes me happy!  I found that the secret with this particular fleece seems to be: comb, comb and comb again.  The final wool from this fleece is much softer than what I was spinning up from the previous one.  There could be a couple of reasons for that:

• Greater time and care directed to the carding/combing process
• cleaner fleece
• more experience
• soft undercoat hairs distributed well throughout the wool

I'm getting better at the spinning part, too.  This fleece has been easier to spin straight from the rolags without pre-drafting.  Again, I'm not sure why that is.  I'm sure more experience will teach me.

In the meantime, I made the thrummed mitts above using purchased Merino roving (that I originally intended to do needlefelting with and now will probably just spin) from this pattern.  For those who are not familiar with thrumming, look it up!  It's Canadian!

The first time I saw a pair of thrummed mitts was a pair my friend Frances was wearing at an Elementary School assembly that we were both attending as parents.  In those days, Monday mornings would consist of walking the boys to school, then heading to the gym to watch the weekly school assembly...and catch up and visit with friends!  Considering the size of the community and the groups of parents who would routinely attend on those mornings, I think most of the behind-the-scenes connections for volunteer powerhouses such as soccer league, youth society projects, etc., were made during that brief weekly convergence at our kids' school.  Funny, I haven't thought about that in quite a while!  It was a real gift to be working at home during those years, to be able to attend things like that.

The other thing that got finished this weekend is my short sleeved cardigan...with wool that was a Christmas gift from my Mom and Dad. (THANK YOU!!)  I would link up the pattern here, but it seems to only exist as a Ravelry download.  If you are a member, look it up as 'Star-cross'd love'.  You should be able to find it through the pattern search function.  Or write me, and I'll hook you up to the .pdf.

I managed to get it done and blocked and was able to wear it to work on Tuesday this week...one of my co-workers, whenever I was working on it during my lunch break, would come over and say, "So, watcha making for me?"
The first time he did this, I said,"A vest, but I think it's going to be a bit small for you." We had a bit of a laugh, as he is quite a bit bigger than I am... and it became a bit of a running joke.  He would ask how his vest was coming along, etc.

So I made him a little vest.

A very little vest.  It measures about 1" wide, finished and worn by the little man at left.


Tuesday morning, I left it in his mailbox at work.

You see, he never asked what I was making for myself!
:)
Lisa

Bella and 'Surrender'

 Okay...so it's not a finished picture, but it's progress.  I think this one might end up being something that I work on digitally, using the tablet and Corel Painter. 

The idea of this is from the ruminations about the word 'surrender'...the idea of surrendering to the blank page, to the process of the work, not to work only with the finished product in mind.  Though I love having finished products (and producing them), having had the shop (Threads in Motion) for all those years helped to dissociate the joy of making things with the need to possess them.  To truly surrender to process, one must not need to possess the outcome. 

Culturally, here in North America, that's a pretty rebellious idea. 

It always amazes me that all the minuscule, incremental decisions and accidents that happen along the way are what ultimately add up to the final product, whatever it may be.  I had a drawing instructor 'way back in College (a College that's now a University...that's how long ago it was that I attended) who encouraged us to make every single line on our page one of intent.  He would not accept 'scribbles', and certainly not as an excuse for shading.  He was, however, the teacher who introduced me to the idea of the 'character of line': that the intentional mark on the page could have uncontrolled elements to it - thick and thin areas, slight meandering within the path, and lighter and darker points along the line.  This 'found' or 'accidental' element within the intent and decision making of drawing is really all about our surrender to the process of drawing...the cumulation of all those tiny decisions.  And ultimately, it's what gives a drawing it's dynamism, flow and personality.



 Speaking of surrender and of process...

(a little heavy-handed for a segue, but it will have to do! :) )

The fleece from last post's sheep is working up into wool of lovely character. 

The singles are about 12 WPI (wraps per inch).  I'm hoping to ply them together into an aran weight yarn.  The first project from this particular wool will be a beret for my neighbour's daughter, in black, as requested.  The ewe that this comes from is named 'Bella', making for a 'Bella Beret'! 

I've spun up 9 oz of the fleece so far, into about 208 M of yarn.  The soft undercoat of the fleece is a charcoal grey, the outer coat is a dense black.  They are coming together into a heathery black colour that is quite lovely.  I keep thinking that the icelandic wool would be beautiful knit up into this - especially in this gorgeous grey-black.

I've completely surrendered to the rhythm of spinning, the process of making yarn.  Each moment gives little chances at decision making for the final product, and opportunities for the yarn to dictate the way that things are going to go. 

As I spin, I can't help but think of the multitude of generations that had to rely on this fibre process, this hand-intensive process, for clothing and furnishings.  To completely outfit a family and home would be a huge undertaking, especially in a climate like this one.  That the health and welfare of the family would rely on the health of their animals is a foreign concept today.  The idea of the wealth of the family being expressed in the quality and quantity of their garments, and in the skill and speed of the family's clothiers...well, it is just not something that we think of in a first-world country where we are so dissociated from the origins of our possessions, the things that give us comfort and protect us from the elements.

Food for thought.

Lisa

If you're not a fibre freak, turn off your computer NOW

A little magic happened here for me yesterday.  After spinning up several 50M skeins, I tried my hand at plying.

Mmmmmmm.  Yummy.

I've read a lot about plying and there are many good technical articles out there about HOW to ply, but nothing about WHY one should ply.

What I discovered is that - at least with this yarn - the singles knit up a bit scratchy.  Plying the singles into a balanced 2ply yarn made it squishy and soft.  That was the magic...the transformation from scratchy to soft.

I downloaded an app about spinning for my iPod...it's pretty cool, really. It's full of information and different calculators, twist, grist, etc.

My calculations were a little off. 

I thought that my roughly 13 wpi (wraps per inch) singles would ply into a 6 wpi yarn that would be a worsted weight...as it turns out, it came out more of a chunky weight.

I was so entranced with the squishy softness of this yarn, that I started knitting a toque last night with it...and finished it this morning.  It's sitting blocking now, waiting to go to it's new home.

My neighbour spent some time with me yesterday, carding up rolags.  Much of the wool he carded is spun up into this toque...



Yummy.

:)
Lisa

another thing to do with fleece

One of the things I got up to last weekend with the fleece was making felted soaps.  It's really very easy and low tech...and the results are so worth it.

Why felt soap?
Gentle exfoliation.
Subtle, natural antibiotic properties of fleece.
Regular contact with wool ;)

There is a wonderful soapary (is that a word) up the Valley from us - Mountain Sky.  The greengrocer down the hill from us carries end cuts (or off cuts) of this lovely soap in a big bulk bin.  The pieces can all be different kinds, and non-standard sizes, but are always first-rate quality.  I had a bag of these in the cupboard that I used for my project.

It's very simple.

Have ready some rolags or combed fleece, a sushi mat (or washboard), some chunks of nylon stocking, a towel, soap and a drying rack.

Wrap the soap in fleece, making sure that all the corners are covered, and that there are no thin spots.

 Stretch the chunk of nylon stocking over the wrapped soap carefully, to not shift the fuzzy fibre coating.  Because I was doing several, I did each step to all the soaps, production style.

The picture at left is a bit decieving...the nylon stocking is only tied at one end.  It's twisted and tucked underneath at the other.  If you tie both ends of the stocking, you'll have to cut the stocking to get the soap out...and eventually your stocking pieces won't be big enough to do anymore soap!

Dribble a bit of dishsoap on the nylon-wrapped bundle, then dribble some hot water on it.  Start rubbing it in your hands...you can be pretty vigorous!  If it feels too dry at first, add more water until it's all frothy and foamy (you don't want it dripping wet).

Rub it on the sushi mat (or another ribbed surface) to speed along the felting process.  Make sure that you rub each edge, end and flat plane of the soap.  When it starts to feel like all the fleece has compressed evenly, you can slide it out of the stocking.

Keep rubbing it in your hands and on the sushi mat until the fibre is completely compressed and not loose around the soap anywhere.  Rinse it in the sink, roll it in the towel to blot out most of the water, then set it on the drying rack to dry. Et Voila!  Finished!

I made about 8 of them for gifts.  It's got me thinking about other things that I could felt. Hmmmm.


:)
Lisa

Yes, yes. There's always room for one more craft...

 My kind neighbour has become my new enabler - he gave me the fleece of one of his Icelandic sheep.  He had three sheep at shearing time this year: one brown, one white, and one brown and white.  Given my choice, I asked for the brown and white fleece.

Man I love fibre.  Who doesn't, really?

I haven't done any spinning since I was a pre-teen.  Back then our family was given the use of a beautiful spinning wheel from one neighbour, and several raw fleeces from another.  I can remember washing wool in buckets in the greenhouse shed...picking crud and vegetable matter (VM) out of it, carding it with hand carders, and spinning it on the wheel.  I don't know how much I really did at the time, and have no wool left from then to show.  I remember the fella who gave us the fleeces when I was young asked me to knit him a scarf...and I think I crocheted him a hat. As an adult, I recognize his lovely social grace in accepting the hat rather than the requested scarf (wherever you are - thank you, Misha).

It's funny how pushing my hands into all this wonderful smelling wool brought so much of that back.  I remember sitting in the unfinished part of our basement (with radio plays from the 30s and 40s on my new 'ghetto blaster'), bits of frass and VM falling on my lap and the floor as I spun.  This is when I first learned about S-twist, Z-twist and plying.  Now, I can't help but wonder how my Mom knew so much about the process!  She is the one who showed me how to use the carding brushes, helped me learn to wash the wool without felting it, and set me up with the spinning wheel.  I have vague memories of her showing me how to use a drop spindle as well - a wooden, bottom/low whorl spindle. The spindle was frustrating, but the wheel was fascinating.

I washed this new fleece this week by filling buckets of uncomfortably hot water and submerging large handfuls of locks in it to soak.  Before the locks were put in, I put a little bit of dish soap in the water to help degrease the fleece a little.  Apparently lanolin melts at 107degrees, so I used as hot water as I could from the tap.  Each bucketful of locks was rinsed by the same method (sitting in a bucket of clear water), with as little agitation as possible.  I used the spin (SPIN ONLY) cycle on our front loading washer to get as much water out of the fleece as possible before setting it up on the rack to dry.  One spin is fine (on my machine it is 11 minutes), two begins to felt the fibres.  (Yes, I found that out the hard way!  Lucky for me the fibres are not so well on their way to felting as to be unusable for spinning.)

Because I'm not the most patient person on the planet when it comes out to new ideas, I elected to spin one spindle-full with unwashed wool (something spinners call 'spinning in the grease').
Some of the current web information about spinning is in favour of 'spinning in the grease' and some is in support of spinning with washed fibres. I love the smell of unwashed fleece and have concrete floors...so am not all that worried about having bits of VM and short fibres fall on the floor as I work.  I learned that there is a big difference between spinning 'in the grease', and with washed fleece in terms of feel.  The wool that I spun before washing is thicker and loftier.  I think that is due to the stickiness of the fibres (more stiff to draw), and the stickiness holding the wool together well enough that I didn't have to put quite as much twist in it.  For the technical types out there, that 1st skein has 42degree Z-twist, at approximately 10-13 wraps per inch (wpi), considered to be a heavy Aran weight.  It is quite slubby (thick and thin spots), due to my learning curve. I made about 40M/110g of yarn (single, not plied) in that first skein.  I washed it after spinning and skeining to set the twist.

As I have no proper hand carders any more, I bought a dog brush that matches the one from the cupboard to make a pair of ersatz-carding brushes.  In my spare time, I've been combing up diminutive little rolags.

The spindle I'm using is the one originally posted about here, modified by crazy-gluing two scratched CDs to the top of the whorl.  It's working surprisingly well!  At first I was spinning by predrafting each rolag and the 'draw and park' method shown here, but have since figured out how to keep the spindle spinning while I draw and am making much more even, thinner yarn.

The wool spun 'in the grease' and the wool spun from washed fibres ended up the same colour after the 1st skein was washed to set the twist.  I think I'll continue to spin from the washed fibres, just because I feel more control with the spinning process with the washed fleece.  The smell is not quite so sheep-y, and my hands won't be as soft, but the longer process before spinning makes for less seeds, dung and short fibres by the time I get to the spindle.

Washing ahead also seemed to make it easier to pick out the short, unspinnable fibres from the fleece.  Something I would do next time with a fleece is to take the time to spread it out and pick out as many of the really short fibres, burrs and dung bits as possible before washing.

I'm on my third skein now (each averages about 50M in length, and about 15wpi.

I knit a beret from the first 1.5 skeins off the spindle using a pattern designed to show off the loveliness of thick/thin 'designer' yarn.  It went together really quickly, and without incident my the slubby yarn.

Now to knit Todd a toque to say thank you.  Or maybe a scarf?

:)

Happy Saturday,
Lisa

Back again! With lots of knitty content!!

I guess the boys and I didn't get enough of camping with the family and had to - just HAD to - go back for more.
Much as we missed all the cousin action and the laughter, the lake was pretty tranquil with just the boys, one of their friends, and me.




The weather was gorgeous, not too much smoke made it down the valley, and we all got a lot of swimming time in!


When I wasn't swimming, I was beach sitting.  It gave me a great opportunity to get some knitting, journal writing and drawing done.   Every year, at least once over the past few years, I've drawn Saddleback from the vantage point of the beach.

Typically I've got watercolour pencil crayons in my bag, along with some coloured pens.







This year I also brought some pre-cut artist trading card sized cards of different weights and textures. 

And, because I'm that knitterly kind of girl, I finished up two projects that I've been working on for a while.







This shrug, from this pattern, has been on my needles for only about a week from start to finish - pretty big project considering the gauge!  The yarn is one of my all-time favorites, Noro Silk Garden Sock. It's a blend of wool, silk, angora and nylon meant for sock knitting, but I think it's far to lovely to hide in my shoes.

For the curious, I used colourway 268 - colours that coincidentally completely match this season in this area.   Something that doesn't really show in the photos is the beading in the cuffs.  This was my first adventure with beading in knitting, and it's spawned loads of ideas for my next projects.  Now if I could just settle on one and get started!

The other major project that I finished was this big red cardigan.  It was originally started as something to keep my hands busy while I sat on my rear recovering from my broken toe.

Please excuse the cheezy self portraiture - it's hard to set the camera, run around to the front and quickly look natural!!

For those who are interested in the process and modification notes of either sweater (or in seeing more photos of how they go together), there is a great deal more information on my Ravelry page.  Look me up, if you care to - you'll need to be a member or become one to sign in - you'll find me there under the username Threadsongs.

Ciao!
Lisa

Reflecting

It's late morning, DH has gone off to work after 3 weeks of holiday and the boys are still sleeping (one out on the deck, the other up in his bed).

I turned 40 last week.

The day itself was pretty anticlimactic, in a way, as lovely people in my life have been celebrating it with and for me for over a month already!

My dear girlfriends from Nakusp whisked me off to Lillith Fair in July to see amazing performers(Sheryl Crow! Erykah Badu! Sarah McLachlan!) and be silly for a couple of days. If it weren't for these girls I'd not know the what chicken gizzards taste like (yummy), that dollar store beads can colour skin in beautiful hues, or the multifarious meanings of the word 'Schrag'. I can't begin to say how wonderfully silly and profoundly deep my experience of these women is... but they've certainly been heavy influences in my growth and emerging adult womenhood over the past 15 years.

As we do each summer, we camped for a week with the extended Thiessen side of the family. I continue to be amazed at the connections made and tended amongst us all. I know I'm very blessed to have such loving and welcoming in-laws - ones who are not afraid to create some high silliness in honour of milestone birthdays! Two of my sisters-in-law also reached the 4 decade mark this year, and the family rose to the occasion with a ceremony complete with hand carved staffs, paper towel gowns, tiaras, champagne and (literally) jumping through (hula) hoops.

My own family honoured the day with lovely notes and calls, unexpected gifts and beautiful sentiment. I can't seem to write about how that made me feel without tears springing up.

Through all of this I've been knitting and drawing, jounaling and thinking, and just letting the summer soak into my bones. I've been counting my blessings and feeling deep gratitude.


Somehow I wanted to weave into this post something about my hands...just how grateful I am for them, how they have been the locus of my interaction with the world, the place I learn and the place I create. Though people flatter me with saying that I look younger than my 40 years, I think my hands show each day of that time. They're strong, wiry and capable. The skin is showing my age. And that's as it should be.

Lisa

finishing is so sweet

And now, for the knitters in our audience...

I finished it. That's right...the sweater I've been working on since the beginning of the year.

It's from a book by Martingale called Dazzling Knits. I bought the book for the cover sweater pattern after seeing photos of ones other people had done on Ravelry.

The whole sweater is made modularly(in small units that all fit together to create the whole). Part of my attraction to the sweater was the method, as I've never done anything like this before.

The pattern and book are well written - if a little preachy about colour- and well worth the read, if only for the tips and techniques that are of interest to us yarny-types.

For those who care about such things, I used Noro, Ella Rae, Gallway and some Jojoland wool. By the way, it was 30 degrees C outside while Youngest was helping me out with the photo shoot! Not the weather that I intended to be wearing this sweater in when I started it in January!

I guess there's something to be said for sitting on my duff for a few days - and my foot is doing much better, too. The swelling has gone down a lot, and it's no longer quite such a bright blue. I think it'll be better sooner than the doctor thought.

Happy stitching,

Lisa

Changes in plan

I had a bit of a mishap last night....and fractured a bone in my little toe. I caught it on a deck fixture that I'd been stepping around without issue, but as I went to start the BBQ, I nailed it good and hard, in full stride.

The upside is that I get to spend a bit more time knitting, I think, as this poor ped of mine needs to stay elevated. Knitting on the deck - doesn't that sound nice?

With school having finished, it was expected that things would slow down around here...but many, many things that had been put off for a long time clamoured in to fill the space. Some

days I don't know where all the time goes.

We had a houseguest for the weekend, which was part of why I was running out to start the BBQ last night - and the weather was perfect for cooking and eating outside. I had this

week set aside for more deep housecleaning, and lots of different plans for the boys. No more!

This is my new plan:

Sit. Knit.

Hopefully I'll finish the sweater in progress in the next couple of days. All that's left to do now are the sleeve cuffs.

:)

Lisa

June's end

I managed to finish up my final classwork for the last class of my diploma the other night. It seemed anti-climactic, somehow, to end two years' work by clicking 'upload', but that's the way online learning ends! Last year, at the college, we had a day devoted to closing, there were all the goodbyes and hugs and promises to keep in touch...

So, with my classwork done, I've been indulging myself in the activities I was putting off - such as knitting. It's the wrong time of year to work on a big, heavy wool sweater, but I can't help myself! The colours and texture of this project have been whispering to me for months, telling me to put aside my schooling and immerse my hands. I was so good, and resisted - but don't have to anymore. Last night I managed to add another long chevron and am looking forward to getting back into the rhythm of this project.

It's sunny and beautiful here as we count down the last few days of school. Oldest has been done since last week, but Youngest and I (because we are in the Elementary part of the system) close out our year on Tuesday of the coming week. The close of this school year marks the end of this job for me. Being a school district employee at the level I'm at means some uncertainty at this time of year, as I don't really know what position I'll be in come fall...and most of the students that I spent my days with are moving on to other schools. If I stay at the same school, it will be with other students; if I stay with the same students, it will be at other schools. Change is inevitable.

I think my 'to do' list for summer might be a little bit unreasonable, but who knows? Maybe I can get everything done. All the little things that have been calling out over the last few months are on the list, plus new things seem to be emerging daily. Today, though, I will have another cup of coffee, knit a little, hang out with the boys and take it easy. Summer is stretching out in front of us, and I think we should begin by taking it slow.

:)
Lisa