Sometimes scissors happen

Happily plying along and this happens 

It appears as tho scissors went walking across my bobbin, and I can't find this guys twin.  In a move that surprised me, I did not loose my mind. I did not hunt out the offending little hand who gave those scissors legs. I took a breath and walked away.  It's not the end of the world. It's just a cut thread. It's disappointing, as I was set to have this yarn finished by the end of the night. Now it sits. 

A little mangled from trying to find that cut end, but still in decent shape. It's fixable, I can splice. If I find the end.

This probably helped my emotions

My 8 year old, shortly before the incident, walked in and grabbed an empty spindle, a handful of fluff and started spinning.  Completely on his own accord, absolutely no cajoling  was required.  It was nice. 

 

Today, I'll try to find that end, if I can find the time. It's my husbands birthday, so there are a few important things to do like cake making, and house cleaning, and I have to pop into work with the two littles tagging along.  It will make for a long day, but as Dori says 'just keep swimming' and that's what I intend to do!

~Kara

Journeys

I've come to the realization that life is not simply a journey, but a series of journeys intended to shape you in to your best you.  They can be journeys that challenge you, affirm you,  change your direction, propel you forward or knock you square on your butt. These journeys can be presented to you as choices, and you can seek them out, or they can throw themselves at you, or you can have made the choice before you even noticed you had a choice.

The Master Spinners course is one of these journeys that I went out and found. It was a journey I chose to take as a means to an end.  At the time of the decision, the end goal was a vacation. And at the time a vacation was something I felt guilty and selfish about wanting, but the thought of it as being education justified it, freeing me from my guilt.  The end goal now, being nearly half way through my journey is so much more then a justifiable vacation.  The end goal is a career as an author, a teacher, a skilled business person.  Some of these things will come naturally, some will require practice and training, but I'm up for this journey.  It will be long and present it's challenges, but I'm looking forward to everything this brings my way.

A new part of the fibre journey I'm on that was presented to me recently is the Journey to the Golden Fleece.  The original thought I had a week ago when I decided to take this journey, was that is was an escape from the rigours of homework, and technical spinning.  (see a trend here? so do I....) But after signing up and receiving the initial task I see that this will be more then a vacation for my mind.  This is creative journey, and one I'm taking as a journey of self discovery as well.  I know there is so much magic that can come from my fingers. I know the need to just make and the need for freedom screams to me some days, and I don't always get the opportunity to do that. With this course I will have to make the time to just create, and the guidance through out will help direct me.

As a part of this journey I've decided to do the "unapologetically me" thing.  I will be posting the randomness that comes into my head here, and on Facebook, and Twitter and Pinterest.   No doubt I will still be posting as much as I normally do (which is sporadically and infrequently but that's just how it will be for now) But don't be surprised when I start pinning really weird stuff!

If you happen to be a spinner, and wish to join The Journey to the Golden Fleece you still have time! They are accepting sign ups until the 15th of November.

Off to spin (some very basic and plain yarn ;) )

~Kara

Found it Friday - Happy Sheep Pictures

Just some pictures of sheep that make me happy today!

Colorful sheep!! I'll spin the wool of the guy in the back.   Love that blue colour!

Found on The Purled Ewe

A sheep groomed as though he was a prize winning show poodle!  Look how fun he looks! 

Found on MudFooted

The joy of finding these pictures is I have two new blogs to visit!  

~ Kara

What the? Etsy? Oh yes she did.

Excitement!!!!  I opened an Etsy Shop!!!  For now it will mainly be spinning fibres and tools, with a few yarns as I'm gearing up for craft shows, and have a feeling yarns will sell better then spinning fibres  considering the number of spinners in my area is small, but knitters and crochetters are everywhere!

Here's a sampling of what's available right now in my spanky new Etsy shop, SpinHeartSpin.

Happy shopping and thank you for checking out my new endeavour!

~Kara

Found it friday- Turn baking soda into washing soda!

Right this minute, my oven is pre heating to 400'F  so that I can turn my baking soda into washing soda.  Now, some of you may be wondering why one would want to do this, and just how does it relate to spinning?  Well,  washing soda is good for making laundry detergent, and general other cleaning things. But the very specific reason I want to do this is because in order to degum your silk cocoons, you need washing soda! And you need to degum your cocoons to make muwata (aka silk hankies)  It's sometimes hard to come by, and I'm thinking it's a bit more expensive per ounce then baking soda.  Don't quote me on that though. I haven't been on a big search for washing soda, and I have lots of baking soda kicking around.  So this is the easier solution.

But wait! It's found it friday!  Where did you find the recipe for this magical transformation???  I found this lovely post on Nature's Nurture, via a friend on Facebook.  Sarah (of Natures Nurture) links to her original source as well on her blog post.

I'll give you the basic outline of the process you need to undergo to do this bit of chemistry/magic.

1. Pre heat your oven to 400'F
2. pour your baking soda on a cookie sheet.  I lined mine with parchment paper so that removing it from the pan will be easier.
3. Bake your baking soda for 30 minutes, or until it looks grainy, more then powdery, isn't shiny anymore, and wont clump.

That's it. Simple! Now use in your silk cocoon degumming solution!   And spin those muwata you just made with the help of chemistry/magic.

~ Kara

Knit notes- Gentle on My Mind

It's all knitted and blocked but it turned out much bigger the I thought ( don't forget I tweaked as I went to make it bigger, just forgot that blocking often makes things even bigger!) So, since it's wool, I chucked it in the wash with the towels. Let's hope for the best!  But here's the before fulling pic! 

~Kara

Block all the things!

Apparently I've done a lot of knitting (for me) this year so far!  I've been done knitting two of the three of these projects for quite a while. I finished my modified Gentle on my mind this morning. I decided that today was a good day to block them all.  They are obviously just getting a gentle block, but it's better then none!  I really need to invest in blocking wires. That shawl could use a stronger block for sure.

I'll be sure to get them each their own post, but for now they sit and air dry :)

~Kara