TDF Day 15

I have slowed down on my spinning....my wrists * have been sore;  my whole body is in a bit of a slump but I am still spinning , just not for long periods of time for now.

These are bobbins of Cormo wool, oh, so soft, and dyed in long repeats.

The four ounces of roving produced 343 yards of two ply sport weight yarn.

I am thinking this will be a hat.

I am still ahead of my goal for 'mileage' so even with the slow down, I am encouraged.

*MS is notorious for slamming you to the ground for the count and it is doing its best right now to shut me down.  There will be better days.......

You have the Floor....

We messed up our room big time this morning.

We shoved the bed way out of the way and rolled up the rug and padding.

Two years ago, the bathroom shower sprung a leak in the pipe and water seeped under the wall into our closet and even into our bedroom floor.

Our beautiful laminate flooring was rippled to put it mildly. 

The dressers were slid on cardboard into the hall to give us room! 

Then the scary part began!  See, the problem with ripping out only part of the flooring means you have that one final piece that you can't angle and slide into place like all the other pieces.

We had a general plan and right at the end, it all came together! 

We left the moldings and closet door, dressers and finishing touches until morning.... 

...but the flooring is finished!

It is so nice and smooth and covers the closet again.

No more tripping danger from the ripples!

It was a lot of hard work but another great project (almost) done!

Dye Day

I rewound a skein of bare Hawthorne yarn from KnitPicks so that the colors I had planned would have more 'room';  this antique weasel winds a longer skein than my newer one.  

Once I had dipped the yarn into the dye in the  repeat pattern I liked, I baked them in the oven to set the color. 

Once it dried, I have a very pretty skein of blue, grey and black yarn! 

I see a good knit ahead! 

Dyeing sock blanks has really gotten fancy-just check out YouTube or Pintrest to see what I mean!

I had a blank in the stash so I got that out to play with also. 

(a sock blank is a commercially knitted skein that  is sold for the express purpose of dyeing so you can rip it out and knit it back into whatever you want.  It is a gem to dyer/knitters!)

I used the same three colors I had made and made a zig zag pattern and then baked it to set the colors also. 

This is the sock blank!  I folded it in half so that both  ends were the same so I can get two socks out of it.

The thing is, everyone is making these elaborate blanks but I haven't seen one pair of socks from them!

I am curious to see what you get when you do all that work! 

So I unraveled the blank as I wound it onto the ball winder and now I have a very complexly colored cake of yarn just demanding to be knitted.  I couldn't wait!  I cast right on and I can't wait to show you what it looks like!  

Soon.... 

Since I still had some dye left, I stuffed four ounces of Cormo roving into the jars and mircrowaved them to set the color.  You can see the water become clear as the wool absorbed all the dye in the liquid.  Pretty cool.  

When it really cools, I pour the roving out, rinse well and let it dry in the sunshine.

(It doesn't take long because it is still scorching hot out!)

I broke the roving into smaller sections of colors and then put them in two sets of patterns and then wrote it down in case any cats mess up the order and then I spun half today for my 'mileage' for the TDF.

Tomorrow I will spin the other two ounces and then ply them on Thursday.

Then we will see if my plan works out!

Altogether, it was a good day to dye!

TDF 201 Day 9 RECAP

The Dorset wool is spun and ready for plying.

I was so happy to see the skein perfectly balanced right of the wheel!

430 yards of very soft Dorset yarn just calling to be knit!

My work so far for the Tour de Fleece! 

The colors all work together!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

I added the last of the whole tiles to the chimney face.  I started working very early because it was a steamy 97 feel like temp already!

Bill will help me cut the partial tiles early this week! 

Since I was on a 'mosaic' mode, I pulled out a treasure of a plate to use on another stepping stone.  This is from my Mom, it was the only one left of I believe my great grandmother's and she gave it to me to use!   

Here is a pic of the back for anyone interested. 

I put it in a baggie and did some gentle and specific breaks and then laid it out on the stone.

I added some other old pieces and voila!  I will have to let it dry for 24 hours then I can add the grout. 

I moved into the studio for some sewing and added the sashing to the butterfly blocks.

Ahh, sometimes sashing really sets off a design!

It still needs just the right border fabric.... 

I have quite a few quilt tops backed up on the quilting frame pile....I took forever to decide what to do with the hexagon quilt and the first thing I tried turned into a complete bust.

Ripping out is not a ton of fun but I had to knuckle down and do it.

I am having a terrible time with my vision and this really tested my coordination.

I would work on it and then take a break, work some more, etc until it was all done. 

I'm so glad I did because the new work with new thread and a better idea was much happier.

Now to work out the central design....

Just One Bite...

I joined in on the "9 inch circular needle craze" and can now 

cross THAT off my list!

I know that it really takes two weeks to learn a new way of doing something but I feel at my age, I don't want to waste two weeks doing something that hurts, feels wrong and is 

unnecessary!

My fingers fly with the magic loop method and I was glad to welcome back the tried and true for me!

Just one bite might be a good advice for a picky eater child but having been one, I wasn't impressed with the advice then 

or now!

Tried it, didn't like it.

Anyone interested  in trying this 9'"metal Hiya Hiya needle, leave a message or email me and I will mail it right out.

The only caveat I attach is that if you don't like it, pass it on to someone else also.

If you love it--blog it and let me know!

!

Dabbling

This is Dorset wool ready to spin. 

One 4 oz bobbin finished and on to the next. 

In between things, I make a blue block for the medallion quilt. 

Every time I walk through the studio, I rearrange the pinwheel blocks.

I think I have decided on this one! 

My big project today was working on the north side of the chimney.

I am doing all the full tiles and when I only have partial ones left to do, I will work with Bill.  It just took too much arm strength to use the tile saw last time I did it myself. 

I am using my vacation from watching Will because he is on vacation! 

At the end of the day, Nyki laid her head on my knitting and covered the roving so I only had 12" to spin and then.....

I gave up and went to bed!

TDF2016-DAY 4

First bobbin plied with the Gulf Native Sheep fiber. 

Lovely first skein. 

The skein is a fingering weight right now but I have a feeling that when I wash the skein to set the twist it will fluff up to a sport weight.

We shall see.

I had thought to make some socks out of this, now I am not sure.

I won't wear this color for a cowl or hat so I probably should make socks! 

Two skeins of this fiber completed.  I ended up with 9.2 oz and 653 yards of yarn!

More than enough for several pairs of socks! 

This is 4oz of a medium wool of unknown breed.  I spun it very fine so it took a bit longer but an enjoyable worsted spin.

Another bobbin next!

Happy 4TH !

I like to make a patriotic quilt for the 4th and this was what I made this year.

I used a panel for the center and then had fun with some striped fabric to make the surrounding squares.

I even mitered the outer border without too much trouble!

I hope you had a wonderful day of remembrance and gratitude for this great country we live in!

Tour de Fleece 2016

I am spinning for the Tour de Fleece 2016-the spinning event where spinners spin while the race of the Tour de France takes place.  You compete with others on Ravelry and generally push yourself to do more and try new fibers, etc.

I started out strong by spinning off and on all day-this is 9.2 oz of Florida Gulf Native sheep roving.

This is the roving I dyed with the prickly pear cactus fruit.

Next for the race will be plying these singles to make my 2ply yarn.

I will begin this tomorrow afternoon after church.

We will see then how many yards I have spun!

The last few days produced these three starflower dish cloths. 

I also sewed a pile of half square triangles.  60 to be precise. 

And these are the two blocks I finished.  (blue ones) 

This is Nyki sleeping on my bed-she was very comfortable I'd say!

The click of the camera woke her up just enough to see her eyes!  lol