A week into Tour de Fleece

I can't believe we are on day 7 of Tour de Fleece already. I feel like I should be farther along then this:

Mind you I spent 10 hours doing this:

And maybe I should be farther along then I am because I took a day to wash fleeces. And I promptly got distracted with the idea of dyeing fibre while I was out there.* But I did take my support spindle out, and got some cotton spun for the Level 4 homework I've got to do as well. So I was still spinning, and it was homework.  Just not the homework I should be working on.

And yes.  I'm timing how long it takes me to do the sock yarn, because my goal for TdF is to get my socks for my Level 3 Master Spinner final project done. Completely done. Spun, dyed and knitted. And it needs to take at least 50 hours. Believe it or not, I've been doing the spinning for 5 hours already, and I'm not even 1/6th of the way through the fibre I need to spin.  It'll be a good solid 6 hours total once I'm done that 1/6th of the fibre.  And if that's the case, I'll need to spin for another 30 hours, and I'd like to be done all that and the dyeing by this coming up friday... 5 days to spin 30 hours. Plus 1 day for plying, which will hopefully only take 4 hours, and 1 day to dye. That's a LOT of spinning in 5 days... 6 hours a day, to be precise...  It kind of makes me nauseated thinking about it. And this is where I think maybe I should change the socks I'm spinning for. Maybe just go for a top down, straight forward plain jane sock, instead of the Little Cable knee highs I'd originally planned to make. 36 hours+10 Hours= 46 hours, and that's so close to 50, that I'm thinking, maybe, I'll be doing just that, minor change in plans. But that's alright. That's how these things go, and it's really good to know that that is how long it takes to make something. Or, I just go with it and get the socks I want, no matter the hours involved... So indecisive!  Oh well. I'm sure I'll make a decision soon, sometime while spinning for 6 hours a day...

~Kara

*I'll get you the drool worthy pictures of the dyed stuff soon. Just a matter of taking the time to take those pictures, which you know I'm in short supply of...

She who takes on to much.

Does anyone else do this?  Take on a responsibility, thinking it won't take up much of your time, but then, even that extra 2-3 hours a week seems to be a whole lot more then you expected? Even the things that should only take up an extra 30 minutes to an hour every week, it's like it takes up so much more of your time leaving you with no time for the things you really don't have a choice but to do.

These seemingly little -but obviously not- tasks/jobs have lead me where I am currently: feeling overstretched, over stressed and just a bit more then frazzled.  My children have even been showing signs of feeling that Momma's just.to.busy.  I was supposed to be at a knitting retreat this weekend.  I canceled last minute to spend some quality time with my middle boy, who get's the least of my time. I've gone and taken the dreaded extension to get my level 3 homework done. I don't have a choice. My blogging has been seriously lacking.  I like to do it, I enjoy sharing with everyone.  I feel it's one of the necessary things that is being neglected.  Same goes for my Etsy shop.  I've not had much time to keep it stocked up and advertised.  But, what's there is there. And hopefully someone stumbles on something and buys it.  And The Journey, let's not forget that.  Module 4 has come and gone, and is not complete.  I know it's not a hard and fast dead line, but again, I'm behind.  I know that while my summer schedule is pretty jam packed, I'll have more time once Fibre week is over.  The end of June brings to an end (albeit a temporary one) to two of the responsibilities that are eating up most of my time right now.

I try not to be bitter about these tasks, I did this to myself, and the people I'm doing these things for matter. They don't deserve a bitter me. So I drop my cranky overstretch self at the door, complete my weekly responsibilities with love and joy, and I notice that baggage is just a bit smaller for it when I leave. Maybe it's that I know that it won't continue on for much longer, or maybe it's the joy the little faces bring me when they get excited about something we are doing.

It's the last day of May. 21 days until I leave for Fibre Week and Level 4. The plan is to have the body of my workbook done and have only my final project to do in July.  It will all work out. And one day, I'll learn to be a bit better organized, and all the responsibilities won't seem so daunting.

~Kara

The least cool 5 point exercise

I have no idea why this exercise is only worth 5 points. If it were up to me, I'd make it worth 10, if just for the fact that it's entirely to time consuming.  40 yards of cable plied yarn takes an entire day to spin. Yes. An entire day, as in i woke up, fed the kids, got them off to school and sat at my wheel.  Then I got hungry so I stopped for lunch. Then I went back to my wheel. Then I got the kids from school and, you guessed it, back to my wheel. Everyone needed to be fed, so I did that, and I went back to my wheel one more time. So, aside from the required eating breaks I was at the spinning wheel from 9am until 9:30 pm.  It was intense. But it's done.  And I learned that unless I have a very special project in mind, I'll never spin a cable plied yarn again.  That was ridiculous.

One more exercise bites the dust. Only 20 more to go.  And the final project. May the spinning Gods smile upon me, and grant me balance, and speedy, successful spinning.

~Kara

Reasses

It's a few days into March and as I'd only set out a plan for February, I sat down to see where I'm at in terms if homework. I'm no where near done... February was full of hiccups and fails, an as such I was only able to cross off 7 items on my list. 7 out of 16. That's just not good. So now I've made myself an entirely new, more intense list. 20 items, that do not include the workbook portion. It's all spinning and swatching. 

I'm going to have to neglect things like laundry and cooking if I want this done. Time to buckle down and do it, I suppose. 

~Kara

Keeping on track.

Well, more or less.  I've had a look at the schedule I've made up for myself, and I'm behind, but definitely not for lack of trying. 

These are my first four attempts at recreating a commercial yarn. Yep. 4. Four tries. Four fails. The fifth attempt, after consulting the experts, was perfect.

Well, it's not perfectly perfect, but it's what's going in the book. It's homework worthy. Thank goodness! 

I've given myself 3 days off over the weekend, that I will probably just use to catch up. Still on track.

~Kara 

and so it begins

The final homework push.  I wrote it out. I have a plan.  It starts off today, with two skeins.  Module C1.  A wool silk blend, and a wool wool blend.  Should be easy enough.   After that, there's just one skien a day, or computer work and calculations.

It's not inclusive of every module.  So I'll be pushing into March. Which I'd hoped not to have to do.  But it's okay.  You can't rush this stuff.   I've got to get it done in a timely manner though.  I don't want to drag it out any longer.


I can keep this pace. The laundry and the kitchen may suffer from it, but I can keep this pace.  I know I can.

~Kara