July....

It was an exciting July!  It started off with a simple week of simply getting ready for the next one. followed by shipping my oldest child off to Nova Scotia for Canadian Jamboree 2017.  Let me tell you, as much as I knew he was going to be fine, I found it hard on the heart!  It was a good thing I kept myself busy at the beach with the other two.  They swam, I spun.

I also filled the week slowly pluging away at doing a small remodel on my Daughters room, one step at a time.  Wash walls, mud holes, sand, re mud the deep holes, sand again, wash again.... Shall I go on? It really is a lot of little annoying jobs to do in order to redo a room! It was a success though!  Even if it took 2 weeks.

Of course it was Tour de Fleece, so I could not do some spinning, even if it wasn't the amount of spinning I'd have loved to do.   I had picked up a section of a fleece from Eileen at Fat Ewe Farm, and  spun it up 4 different ways.  The fleece is a Karakul fleece, and as such dual coated.  I spun from the flicked locks she had prepared, carded some of them for a lopi style yarn, and separated the tog from the thel and spun them worsted and woollen as suited them.  There was also the beginning of the 8 oz of Tencel I need to spin as well, but it was one pass on the bobbin by the end the tour. Ah well. Something is better than nothing after all!

The second last weekend brought the annual Art in the Park at Grieg Lake. I had an excellent time!  I offered a drop in class, but there weren't any takers (except the small family that thought they would have gotten off the lake in time for the second one... Unfortunately there wasn't enough time left to squeeze them in...)

Speaking of drop in classes, I've been offering them every Tuesday this summer, and I'll continue into August!  So, if you're in the area between 2 and 4 on Tuesdays, please, drop in! 

As for classes in general I've got a large line up of basic spinning related classes in August.  Please check my Events tab on Facebook! It's posted publicly, so you don't need an account to see them.  If you're interested, feel free to contact me through the blog, or through my website! (which is spinheartspin.ca) 

There is not much for time left in July, summer seems to be slipping away, but hopefully August doesn't take the same pace as July.

~Happily Spinning~

           Kara

today's contemplations

So I'm sitting here, with a sick kiddo sent home from school.  Seems he's caught the sinus infection I picked up sometime over Easter.  Of course the others are home too, but none the less, having that extra sick kid puts a different feel to the day.   It kind of slows things down.  And oddly enough with things feeling slowed, it gives me a chance to think.  Mostly I'm thinking about my final project.
I picked up the shawl again last night and knit for a couple hours, only putting about 10 more holes in the darn thing.   That pretty much set my decision to change directions, yet again.   So now I'm going to spin up the BFL in basically the same weight as the grey long wool, and knit up some of these Legwarmies.  The fibre's almost all prepped (just a bit more flick carding), now just to get my wheel set up and ready to go!  Shouldn't be long now.

So while I sit and think about my final project, I'm going to share with you a scarf I knit.

This is the Helix scarf from the pattern published in Spin Off, spring 2011.  I knit it with a merino possum blend yarn from New Zealand.  It was a fairly mindless knit, but took forever!  I suppose that is what happens when your needles are a size 2....   I'm going to send it to my Grandma.  Hopefully she doesn't read my blog regularly.  That would ruin the surprise of a scarf in the mail!

I'm also going to share these two gorgeous and unique drop spindles that were made for me by Blacksmith over on Craftster.org.  He came along onto the fibre boards and wowed us all with his wood turning skills, and I just had to have one, so I sent him a message and we set up a trade.  Well he sent me two!   I sent him a skein of yarn and some fibre on return.  The solid one is just so interesting to look at, and spins a nice heavy yarn.  The open one spins forever! It also give a heavier yarn, but not quite as heavy as the solid.  I love them and can't wait to sit and spin on the deck with them this spring once it finally warms up.


Okay, off to finish that prep... or just veg and cuddle with my sickie.

~Kara