amnesia

GOOD GOD! it's been almost 5 freakin months since i've stumbled into the blogosphere. i haven't even had a chance to read and catch up on your blogs. WTF? where have i been? what have i done? it's all a blurr-time has been melding together lately and half the time i don't even know what day it is. yet i seem to make it to where i'm suppose to be going.

i guess i've already failed miserably at my new year's resolution to blog at least once a week! Oh crap on it- who needs stupid resolutions anyway- they just make you feel bad when you don't measure up! remind me next year- not to make any.

How can i possibly recap the missing last 5 months of my life? it's like i had amnesia and i've just started remembering things. -i guess i can give you a little photo documentation.

early last fall (yes, i'm talkin 2011) there was spinning at the celtic festival- an annual treat our fiber guild partakes in. always fun! my favorite "molly's revenge" was performing and i saw a bunch of new favorites but unfortunately with the passage of time my brain fails to recall the names. a lot of fun new punky celtic stuff.

there's been biking- lot's of biking. here's my bike....i love her!

there was biking in tahoe:

we biked the marlette lake trail which gets you to the famous flume trail-unfortunately we didn't get to do the fume trail as shuttles back to your car were closed for the season and we didn't want to ride the 9 up hill road miles back to our car-i know we're wimps!!! it was frickin cold- 30 degrees with fierce biting winds-

knocked a tree down luckily after we passed thru-

the elevation was kicking my ass- hard to ride uphill when you can't catch your breath. i'm usually not affected by the elevation but wow- it made for hard riding.
we did the stiff climb from spooner lake to Marlette lake.

the photo above shows the ride heading back from marlette lake. this is where i started weeping. it was so fricken cold and windy and i had fingerless biking gloves on. my fingers felt like they were being put into a meat grinder- the tears started coming when i thought (for sure) by the time we reached our car i would have black frost bit finger tips and they would have to be amputated and i would never knit again.

yes, i can be dramatic at times - no amputation needed! the next day was warm and fabulous and we had a great ride on the powerline trail and cold creek trail.

we did some coastal riding at point reyes. not the best mountain biking area. deeply rutted trails with california happy cow poop and hoof holes everywhere! we did get to see some roosevelt elk though!


there was local wild blackberry pie and jam making. yes, i finally made homemade jam and it came out awesome!

there has been lot's of knitting and spinning.

going to make some funky knee socks with this corriedale handspun!

blue helped me model some fingerless mitts i made for a dear friend as part of my hand made "pay it forward" project. 4 more gifts to go- don't worry friends- i haven't forgotten about you-just a bit behind.

i hand dyed some yarn for my new winter slouchy hat-

i chose to knit gudrun's norie hat from her shetland trader book. i love gudrun's patterns. this is the second norie i've made- this time i omitted the lace sections and made it shorter as i have a very small head. it turned out great -i love it and wear it all the time. unfortunately i don't have a photo of the finished hat.

finished some handspun fingerless mitts that i adore- they match a cowl i made in the summer.


what else have i been doing with my time besides homeschooling and egg raising? well, most of you know me strictly as a black tea drinker- no cream and no sugar- just good and strong. well, that all changed this past summer when hubby bought a stovetop espresso maker at a yard sale this summer-for only 2$. it was enough to get my addiction going and now i can't stop!!! ZOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can you say instant coffee addict?????? with plenty of foamy half &- half (gawd-please no wimpy 2% for this coffee chick!) and lots of sweetener as well..real maple syrup is the best but brown sugar will do in a pinch. i went gung-ho with this addiction and well as you can guess insomnia and some aggitational imperfections have begun to creep into my personality and i just may have to put the reins on this imbibing activity- not sure if i truly understand the meaning MODERATION!!!

there were several trips to lassen. i so "heart" lassen!


here's my boy's "John Muir" pose.



the colors were amazing everywhere- i wanted to dye wool capturing all the beauty i drank in.


bumpass hell



if you have never been- put it on your list!!!!! i think that's enough so...

i end with a bang!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! better late than never.

quik update

my goodness it's been over three weeks since i've posted! what's up with that? where the heck have i been? well, I've been to chicago and back, a celtic festival, put out another edition of the town newsletter, homeschooling and just dang busy. too dang busy. i start getting pissy when i haven't the time time to post- just ask the family. i have future blog posts planned for my trip east and the magical world of gaelic fairies, sacrifices and strong men in kilts-but alas, they take time. more time than i have right now...as i prepare dinner, weigh wool, look over liam's science paper, knit on 3 different projects simultaneously while working on my blog-oh yeah, did i mention all at the same freakin time. no wonder i'm frazzled. i just can't do one thing at a time.
all i have time for is a quick upate on knitting projects and a few misc. things.

here's my tidepool socks. i'm so loving this pattern.

i'm STILL working on the sleeves of my catamount sweater.

been doing some spinning:

this is some merino i dyed with "baby" items in mind. started another vest:

im also involved with the criminal minds mystery kerchief knit along-this is a very fun project!!!

been harvesting rosehips.

been cooking with our own garlic and now it's time to get a new crop in the ground! i'm so not ready!!! thinking of turning current garden into a goat/sheep pen this coming spring.

enough for now-need to get busy!

the process

i've dyed some beautiful rovings that spun up just okay looking-nothing to write home about. i remember thinking that i wanted to dye a really ugly roving and see how the finished project would turn out. i will show you this process. i chose a bright fuscia(in honor of cyndi lauper 's 80's hair dye) and a rust. i dyed or rather painted the merino roving. the wool turned out like this:

my water is very high in iron so the rust color had a lavender bleed to it. interesting. i spun it on "bozenna" my Polish spinning wheel. i think she liked it! then plied it on "henri" my wheel from Holland.

next i wound it into a skein:

then i let it sit in a bag in my studio(closet) for months on end....maturing, ripening-or maybe till i totally forgot about it and came across it while looking for the perfect retro apron to match my outfit that was shoved into the closet(studio) at amazing speed-avalanche prevention.

i decided something "baby" would be the perfect item for this skein. i needed to wind my skein into a ball for the knitting process. i use my umbrella swift for this job. it's a wooden devise you attach to your table that aids you in effortlessly winding your skein into a ball.

or not. argh! see previous post for more photos of this escapade. then, i got to spend the rest of my morning untangling this mess. deep breathing did help with this; along with a long colorful string of specially chosen cuss words. but finally...i did achieve "ball" status.


then i parouzed ravelry and found the perfect pattern- got my knitting mojo on, added some cute buttons from meadow farm and wa-laa! the project is complete. okay i lied-rowan parouzed ravelry for me this time!

okay-so i lied again, the buttons aren't really sewn on yet. but you get the point anyway, right? maybe i need to dye more ugly rovings:)


as they say it's not the destination but the journey.

touring the fourth

busy as usual!!!! the tour de fleece is coming along great. here's a photo of what i spun on day one and day two:

yesterday was day three. i started spinning this "funky carolina" roving while watching jane eyre:

the roving is shetland. i've never spun shetland before. i like it!!! it is believed that the vikings had something to do with the breeding of shetland sheep-

cute aren't they? i borrowed this photo from the "woolly matters" website. check out their site!!! i hope to finish spinning it tonight. then i will ply it tomorrow.

thought you might like a little tasting of what we did on the 4th of july. it is tradition that we head to D'ville for a small parade. it's so small in fact that after it has passed thru town it turns around and goes down the street again. here are just a few highlights.

smokey is always honored in the parade.

my favorite this year was the elderly woman wearing a red/white gingham dress in a wheel chair playing her fiddle with her chihuahua in her lap!

here's a close up of her fancy wheel chair detailing!

as usual, the parade ends with the fireless fireworks. they roll bubble wrap down the street so everyone can stomp on it! no fireworks here- too much fire danger!


then the family hiked the north fork and found a picnic spot-what a beautiful day!!!



we ate cheese sandwiches down by the river.

life is good:)

let the spinning begin!

wheel oiled- check
fiber ready-check
snacks and tea- check

let the spinning begin as today is the kick off for the tour de fleece! i am a proud spinner of "team
sierra spinderellas." today also marks the first stage of the 2010 Tour de France bicycle race. The race begins in the Netherlands and finishes in Paris on July 25th-with only two days of rest. this year's race covers a distance of 3596 km. that's a little more than 2234 miles for us americans. wow! photo credit-google images.


team spinderella, along with many other teams will be spinning fiber on spinning wheels and drop spindles on the days the guys race. there's still time to join if you want some inspiration and motivation to spin down that mountain or closet or shed full of stash you have(i know you've got it!) just go here-there are teams of all interests. sign up-there's even prizes and fiber discounts at groovy online fiber stores-not that i know anything about that!!

my goal is to spin down old stash- i dug into the deep dark depths of my closet and pulled out an array of gorgeous fiber delight-it was like my birthday or xmas in july!!! okay-i might be be a bit over zealous- but i'd love to get thru this pile by july25th! shall we take bets?

you must remember i'm a ADD spinner- i have trouble sitting still for long periods of time so i don't just plow thru fiber like some rock star spinners i know. i'm a little bit here a little bit there kind of spinner.

i think i'm going to start out using "henry."

he's from holland. henry was my first wheel. he's good for thick stuff. i usually use him for plying. but i want to try spinning thick and chunky again-you know- that beginner yarn you hated when you first started spinning and that was all you could do. little did you know you were creating some awesome "art yarns." seems like the more you spin the thinner your yarn becomes.

well hubby just asked me if this tour de fleece thing was a blogging thing or a fiber thing- uh, i guess that means i should get off this machine. he's right i need to start spinning.

on an ending note- my boy still picks me flowers: I HOPE HE NEVER STOPS.

whose got a bigger head?

okay- i guess i've tortured you enough with the suspense. a couple weeks ago our fiber guild(the coolest guild EVAR!) had a spindle retreat or "camp" you might say. we gathered for a 3 day weekend at a nearby resort for camping and drop spindling. the guild has been on fire lately with the use of these ancient devices.

sara brought a gorgeous bag she wove many years ago- everyone gushed over it. turns out it was originally suppose to be a hat. but as you see.......

the hat just wasn't going to work for sara. so she turned it into a bag. in walks barbara sue-and wah-la

it fits!!! a regular "spinderella" i'd say.

unfortunately, i could only attend friday nite. but what a ball. we had a mexican potluck, lot's of spinning action and lots of rain!!! my camera batteries were nearly dead so my pictures got progressively worse as the evening wore on. i took many pics-but boy o boy-i won't post them. you know how your camera slows down when batteries start to fail. you all would totally hate me if i posted them. you look like a bunch of half lidded, opened mouth drooling.....well i better not go any further. it's not politically correct to use that word anymore. trust me. i was going to delete them but hey -you never know when you might need a good black mail photo.(insert evil laugh) here's a few that are safe to post. sorry they are so dark. amy had an amazing aray of spindles:


i was a rebel and refused to drop spindle. i hate it. i've tried it many many times. no pleasure what so ever. so why waste my time right? so i brought my wheel-"bozenna." she is a Kromski sonata from poland. i named her "bozenna" because it is the polish named for happy. my wheel make me happy. it is also a czech name for happy as well. i am part czech so i thought the named fit perfectly.

i was spinning a merino/silk blend from sweetgrass wool of montana.

many other guild members blogged about spindle camp and have great pictures. here's the list i know of so far. birdsong, sharon, heidi and amy. check their blogs out!