Tuesday, July 28, 2009

What I have been up to.

Some more secret knitting (another test knit for a book that I can't show you)
well, I can show you this:




Other than that, I have been swimming with the kids, playing, doing crafts and Spinning.

My sister and I are going on a Spinning/Knitting retreat here this coming weekend!
I"m so excited.

I bought 2 pounds of Superwash Merino Fibre from Laurie at the Black Lamb when I was there for the Spin Out.

I planned out my spinning--decided on 10wpi for my finished yarn, to be worsted weight (as requsted).
Spinning 3plies at about 30 wpi takes a long time
(For non spinners: Plies are the number of pieces of yarn wound together, WPI means wraps per inch--30 wraps per inch wound together to give me a yarn that is 10 wraps per inch finished yarn--which is worsted weight yarn=good sweater yarn and the size yarn that the retreat requested we have...make sense??)


Yardage so far:

I am hoping all this works out--my original math brain thought it was on track...My revised math brain thinks that I am going to run out of yarn.

We shall see what happens.
If all else fails I will either:
a) buy more fibre from Lori (oh sad, I'll have to go back and look at her entire basement full of pretty things....or
b) Knit my sweater with short sleeves

We shall see, we shall see.

More spinning.....

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

More Summer Fun

Last week we went to my Mother In Law's cottage near Brockville Ontario.
The past few summers have not been easy at the cottage, since it's on an island it is surrounded by water and rock cliffs. We were constantly trying to keep an eye on both kids and keep them out of trouble (
ie: "NO, you can't go to the boathouse by yourself, No you can't play in the boat" "No you can't walk down the cliff" "No you can't go canoeing by yourself")

This year was fun and relaxing and as always a great time with family

True to this summer--it rained a little bit every day. It was nice to not have hot hot weather and we experienced the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen



These pictures cannot do it justice--it was bright and beautiful
There was even another rainbow which is hardly visible--but there.


We had music by Uncle Geordie,


lots of fishing,


swimming


and new this year--TUBING!


Grandma bought a tube and the kids had a blast.


Little man (who has no fear) was jumping off surf boards, the boat and the tube in the middle of the lake!
Princess B took some warming up (okay, some bribing from mom)--but she had fun and was soon begging to go again.



They played hard and slept hard

(I was playing around with the camera one night and took this shot, at midnight with no flash--pretty cool huh?)

(oh and this is the nightlight--cool things you can do with a camera)

I enjoyed being on the boat, having some afternoon naps and read two books.

The Black Donnelly's described the famous feud and the "end" of the
Donnely family. I had always heard of this feud but didn't know much about it. The book was written in the 50's s and included information from people who had actually been alive when it took place.

I also read The Memory Keepers Daughter--amazing book.
It tells the story of a Dr who delivers his own twins and when discovering that his daughter has
Down's Syndrome, sends her "away" with the Nurse to live in an institution. (This also was in the 60's where DS kids were thought to not be worth raising). The Nurse cannot bear to leave the child so she takes her away and raises her.
The writer tells parts of the story from the perspective of the Dr, The Mother (who doesn't know her baby girl lived), the surviving twin, the Nurse and gives depth to every character.

That was our week.
and this was my favourite picture from the week:

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Spin-In

Today Princess B and I went for a drive to Port Hope to visit the Black Lamb and we got to see lots of Spinners who were gathering for a Spin In Public Event.

I needed to buy some Superwash Merino for a sweater I am spinning and I wanted to buy some undyed fibre to dye for my Wool Club, and my store.

It was nice that the Spin In was that day too--I got to meet some "online friends"
Cindy Cole and Matt, who I "know" from Plurk and Ravelry

They had planned the even and people had been Spinning all day by the time we arrived.

First of all I shopped in Laurie's basement o' fibre (seriously--an entire basement full of fibre--the colours were awesome and she has a lot of undyed fibre)

I came home with this:



2 pounds of Turquoise Superwash Merino for a sweater for me


1 pound of "PINK" Superwash Merino that Princess Brenna spotted for a sweater for her


some lovely Superash Merino/Nylon for dyeing.

Matt gited me some Red and Black wool which I plan to spin into a hat for Aidan.