A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

I’ve been playing around with the layout so this page may look a bit different. Let me know what you think!

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend . . . . .

now it’s Monday and we’re back to work . . . time to get motivated and do something!

We had a fairly low-key weekend. Thursday evening I had another knitting/spinning friend over along with A. (the 11 yr. old from down the street). We had a casual dinner on the patio, toured the fiber stash and critters and even managed to do just a little bit of spinning. There is talk about doing this on a regular basis over the summer, esp. as so many of us are trying not to shop right now! Much easier not to buy anything if we meet up at someone’s house rather than a yarn store!!! All in all it was a fun evening and I do hope we will do it again.

Silkworm update:

All of the worms have finished spinning!!!! Finally!!!! Now we just have a bunch of moths that are breeding and laying eggs . . . actually we have more moths than I planned on as I had delayed boiling the rest due to the heat . . . so I noticed yesterday that some in the basket that I was planning to boil had actually started hatching!!! So I tossed them into the tank with the others . . . what the heck! It should just be a few more days of that before they all die anyway. Then the eggs are off the the fridge to wait for next year.

I did end up boiling the rest of the cocoons last night (except a few more that might still hatch, they were some of the biggest!). We tossed 408 of them into the pot yesterday. That brings the total “degummed” to 615 so far!!! Not too bad for the first time! Of course, I still do have to finish picking the dead worms out of the silk . . . and since I hadn’t quite finished the first batch yet, I tossed the ones from yesterday into the freezer . . . . guess we know what I’ll be spending my time on evenings this week!

I’m still not a hundred precent on what I’ll make from this silk, but I’m leaning in the direction of spinning it on the fine side and making a lacey scarf or shawl depending on how much yarn it really turns out to be.

Friday we just tried to stay cool and to get a few things done around the house, but not much since it was so warm! We did have a little bit of a cook out that evening at dinner time with our neighbor and her kids coming over, but it was pretty low key.

Satuday, DH went to the horse track with one of his guy friends, which was fine by me! I tried to get some cleaning done since they might be back for dinner, but it was slow going in that heat! I did work on purple purse, getting the I-cord for the strap done and the lining cut out. Then we went to a friends’ house for dinner and later that evening I was able to stitch up the bag and put a button on it so it is now done except for some blocking!!!

Sunday we did nothing! It was great! We had a casual brunch together out on the patio, under the ceiling fans! We brought the bunnies into the “room” with us as their hutch was way too hot and let them hop around in there pretty much all day. They seemed much happier and cooler. I read some of the book that I got for the Knit Blogger’s book club; we’re reading Life of Pi, which so far is a little confusing as it doesn’t totally follow a linear story line . . . it probably is not something I would have picked up on my own but I think once I get a little further in it will be good. I also worked on the purple shawl, which is now about 75% done. I hope to have it finished this week. This is going to be my week for finishing up some WIPs!!!! The bag is done, I’ll finish the shawl and Marianna’s sock and that will take a lot off the WIP list so that I can start more things! Hmm, I think while I’m at it, next week I’ll go back to working on that lace shawl I started last winter . . . . it might come in handy this summer!

I also did a little playing around with spinning. I washed a few handfuls of Merino to blend with some silk and some angora with the idea of spinning a very fine yarn to make a shawl with later. Trouble is I was having a devil of a time spinning it! There were some bumps in either the wool or the silk that kept catching when I drafted . . . . not fun! I’m going to have to work at that some more to get the hang of how much twist it needs to stay together . . . . it was coming apart or breaking a lot and I think I might have to go with something just a little thicker than what I was trying for . . .

I have a number of odds and ends that I bought just to try spinning some different fibers and I think I want to use up some of it before the big batches of wool return home. That way the spinning pile won’t be quite so overwhelming. Of course that just creates more back up in the knitting pile . . . . Oh and I have 3 fleeces in the house that need to be processed. One I’m thinking of doing myself (soon as we get a cool day) as I want to extract the Lanolin to use in making some home made soap this summer! Why go buy it at the store when I flush tons of it down the drain!!!! And the other 2 I’m thinking of sending out, though perhaps trying a diffent mill just to keep things interesting. I really should do something soon since I’m sure sitting around in this heat can’t be good for it!

Oh, and I gave the burnt coffee colored wool/llama blend to A. to play with. She is now learning to spin on the wheel and loving it. She is even talking about saving up for her own wheel at some point (though as she doesn’t get an allowance regularly, this could take a while). In the mean time, I may have to fight for time on my wheel this summer! Thats okay, I just wish I’d had someone around to teach me this stuff when I was her age! Just think how much more experience I’d have at it if I had started at 11, gosh I’d be a pro by now!

Ah, well, guess it’s back to the work-a-day grind for me! Have a great Monday everyone!!!!