Time

Have you noticed that time is diminishing, or am I imagining things?

Nope, I'm pretty sure time is getting smaller.

I mean, I thought I had a whole month to spend spinning and prepping for workshops.  I thought I'd get some knitting done, and keep up with the old blog.  I had great plans to do some baking, and stay on top of the laundry.  There was going to be time to hang out with friends, and have date nights with Steve.

My math isn't great, but I always thought that there were about 30 days or so each month, give or take February.  There are 24 hours in each of those days, or so we've been told.  That's 720 hours a month.  Even if you account for sleeping, which is something I haven't been doing lately,  there should still be 480 usable hours every day.  That's 28,800 minutes.  That's a lot of time.

So where did it all go?

In 28,800 minutes, I should have spun miles of singles.  I should have knit three sweaters and two pairs of socks.  I should have blogged at least once a week.  There should be stacks of pristine laundry everywhere, and freshly-baked muffins galore.  Friends and spouses should have been seen, and coffee consumed in their presence.

Instead,  I have just finished plying the Merino/silk that has been languishing on the wheel since before Christmas.  And I have half a sock knitted.  That's about what I've got to show for the last 3 weeks.

And I do not understand this, because I have been in the studio most days.  Working at the wheel.  Knitting,

Oh sure, there was the day I dug compost into the garden.  But the two achey days afterwards were spent spinning.  For hours.  And yet, so little to show for the time spent.  Where did all that time go, if not into mile after productive mile of string?

So, the only thing I can come up with is that time is shrinking.  A minute just isn't what it used to be.

That't my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Five Short Stories About Last Week

I once again find myself a delinquent blogger.  And for no good reason, except to say that the past week or so have been...well, odd.  Many things have happened, some good, some not good, most of them just time-consuming.  Just things that happen.  Here are a few of them.

1.  Insomnia
Ever since coming home from Vancouver, I have had trouble turning off the brain at bedtime.  So many great ideas, yarns and patterns, new techniques.   The logical solution seemed to be to go with the flow, which meant that I stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning spinning, knitting, sketching or whatever else struck my fancy.  I made some nice sock yarn...

...from some lovely Superwash Merino/nylon blend fibre from River's Edge Fiber Arts.  I picked the fibre up while I was in Arizona and just decided that I had to spin it one night.  The colors are amazing and they works well together to create a wide stripe pattern, but there is not as much yardage as I might have hoped.  It is my standard 3-ply sock yarn, about 18 wpi, but there are two skeins of only 125 yard each out of the 4 oz. of fibre.  Yet to be knitted up, but I'm thinking it's time to explore a toe-up technique.

There are other yarns, and other projects, most of which are in some state of semi-completion.  Where they will probably stay for a while, because the inevitable result of 3 weeks of 4 hours of sleep is, yes, you guessed it, exhaustion.

Naps and early bedtimes have been the order of the day for the past few days now.  Hopefully, balance will be achieved soon and life can settle down.

2. More Yarn
There has been other spinning going on, and two major projects started back in the January lull are caught up.  Or, at least, one is done.  The other is still waiting for plying. 

But I can show off the finished one...

...my Monet-inspired cable.  Spun woolen and fine, plied, then cabled to make the most of the color play in the fabulous Romney/Merino blend rovings from Lynne Anderson and West Coast Fibres.  The finished yarn came out at about 3 tpi and 12 wpi.  I loved it so much that, as soon as the skeins were dry, I was knitting.  I am free-styling a garter stitch vest/sweater, choosing the next step as I go.  A couple of those insomnia evenings were spent working out the front button placket, and the obsessive knitting continues...

3.  Plumbing Disaster 2:  The Revenge of the Airlock
You may recall that we had a plumbing crisis back in January.  It was not a happy time, and a great deal of time and money was consumed in solving this crisis and restoring functioning toilets to the Old Homestead.  And, of course, there was the little problem of the rain of sewage into the downstairs bathroom.  Pipes were plumbed, vents were cleared, toilets resealed, and all was well.

Until last Tuesday.  When the bubbles began in the toilet again.  Plumbers were called, and as we waited, the rain of sewage began to fall.  Nothing was found to be wrong, but the seal on the upstairs toilet had let loose again, resulting in the removal of said toilet and the resealing of the pipe.  Steve did this job, and may I just state here that there is something about plumbing that turns my relatively calm, intelligent, and gentle husband into some sort of surly, cursing, rampaging member of the rhinoceros family.  It was not pretty.

So, toilet back in place and everything clear.  Flush.  Glub, glub, glub.  The bubbles are back.  The call is in to the condo management company to get somebody out here to check our sewer connection, but they don't seem to think it is a priority.  Or, more likely, they know that there are expensive major repairs to the sewer line in our row of townhouses and are trying to avoid them.

Care and caution are being exercised by all who use toilets in the household until somebody, somewhere, decides what to do.

4.  Brace Yourself!
Or, more appropriately, I have braced myself.  I finally got to see the doctor I had asked to see five years ago when I first fell and hurt my knee.  He took one look at it and told me exactly what I had known all along.  There is torn cartilage and a damaged ligament destabilizing the knee, which is aggravating otherwise mild arthritis and making me a cranky old cripple before my time.  There will be surgery to repair the cartilage and rebuild the ligament in my not-too-distant future, but a fresh MRI is needed first.  Even with a priority status, that means a 3-6 week wait.

So, what to do in the meantime?  Wear a brace.  But not just any brace.  No, siree...

...the Uber-Brace!  Yes, 11 inches of Neoprene, Velcro and steel, designed to keep that knee bending in the one direction that it's supposed to.  And after only 48 hours of wearing this baby, I am walking the dog, going up and down stairs, and taking only half the painkillers I previously took to sleep at night!

I'm not too sure how I will feel about having this Behemoth on my leg when it gets to be a little warmer around here, but I'm so happy to be able to climb stairs and get up from a chair without a grunt of pain that I will just have to find a way to adjust.

5.  Goats Across Canada
If you can find a copy of the March/April issue of Goats Across Canada magazine, check out Page 26.  I will gladly autograph your copy!

So that's just a little sampler of the stuff that has been going on around here.  There has been gardening, and snow, and a spin-in, and baking, and nights out, and spinning, and knitting.  There have been trips to the grocery store, visits to Canadian Tire, and appointments galore.  There has been life.  Just life.

I'm So Excited...

...and I just can't hide it!  I'm about to lose control and I think I like it.

Yep, The Pointer Sisters really summed up my mood today.  It's been a really exciting week around here.  Really!

On Sunday, I hosted the first Wood Buffalo Spin-in for the growing local spinning community.  It was such a hit that we're doing it again in about 10 days.  There were 5 spinners in my tiny little living room, spinning and talking and eating goodies and just having fun.  I'm so excited that this group has gathered together, and that we will be doing it again soon.  (Though, sadly, Robin has left us to go home to Australia.  I'm sure she will still spin with us in spirit!)

On Tuesday, the excitement was in the form of a nasty injury.  I broke my toe, tripping over the track on the sliding patio door.  I was trying to take my spinning wheel out onto the patio to take advantage of the fabulous weather, and, bang!  My poor wee toe never saw it coming.  Things are healing up, with my toe a spectacular variagated range of purples and greens.  It only hurts when I dance.

Which is a bit of a problem, because I have been breaking into spontaneous dance for the last 20 hours or so.  Ever since I received an email from Amy Clarke Moore, editor of Spin-Off Magazine.

Yours truly has been awarded a FULL SCHOLARSHIP to attend SOAR 2010!

Big excitement, indeed.

So that high-pitched squealing noise you have been hearing since last night is just me, realizing that I AM GOING TO SOAR.  Then bursting into dance.  Then screaming because my toe hurts.  And then squealing again, because sore toe or not, I AM GOING TO SOAR!

Sooner or later, I'm sure I will settle down.  Probably when I realize that I can only take
one of the amazing workshops.  I have no idea how I will choose. Putting each workshop description on  a wall and throwing darts seems too blunt.  Reading the correct workshop in chicken entrails seems a little, well, icky.  Logically working through the list to choose something that will be interesting and challenging for me seems like a plan, but logic escapes me right now.

I'm so excited....I'M GOING TO SOAR!

Why Wash?

So, I'm home and settled in and getting caught up on my emails.  I found this wonderful question on one of the lists I follow, and I just couldn't resist the opportunity:

Hi everyone - I have been thinking about washing yarn and setting twist, etc.. When you spin a yarn you always wash it to set the twist and also to get out any yuckies that are left. Then when you knit with this yarn, you wash or wet the piece again before you block. Could one save a step and just spin, knit and then wash? Has anybody done any experiments with this to see if there is a difference doing it one way or the other?

Well, it just so happens that I have done experiments, and here is what I have discovered:

YOU MUST  ALWAYS WASH AND SET YOUR TWIST BEFORE KNITTING OR WEAVING WITH YOUR HANDSPUN YARNS.

Okay, so I'm shouting.  But with good reason.  You see, when we spin, no matter what fibre we use, we are stretching the fibre out to it's full length (drafting), and then holding it under tension as we force twist into those stretched fibres.  The stretched and twisted fibres are then pulled onto a bobbin, maintaining the tension.  As long as we keep those fibres under tension, they will hold the twist exactly where we put it during the spinning.  The fibres wills stay elongated, the twist will lay dormant under the stress of the tension.  All is good, right?

Well, as long as that yarn stays on that bobbin, yes.  Sitting there on the bobbin, that yarn looks all smooth and balanced and pretty.  But looks can be deceiving.  That yarn is under tension.  It is not ready to relax and cooperate just yet.  When you wind the yarn off onto your niddy-noddy to make a skein, you see what happens to that yarn.

A well-spun, balanced yarn should come off of the bobbin with some residual twist.  If your yarn comes off and makes a perfect U, your yarn is actually underplied.  You want to see this yarn twist up like this.

Why?  Because, in order to have enough ply to hold together in the working and create a balanced, smooth fabric,  you have to ply your yarns with 2/3 the amount of the twist that you put into your singles.  If you ply at 1/2 the singles twist, you will find that your yarn is unstable and that your fabric will seem uneven and may even skew.  Trust me, I've tried it.

"Okay, Ms Smarty-Pants," you say.  "I don't wind my yarns off onto a niddy-noddy, I use a ball winder."

That's fine, but what you're doing when you do that is maintaining the tension that the yarn has been held under on the bobbin.  Until you start pulling that yarn out and knitting or warping with it.  Then all that tension lets go and the twist runs rampant.  Little pigtails start snarling the yarn, and, invariably the yarn snarls inside the ball, creating a tangle.  Who needs that?

When you put yarn in hot water, something wonderful happens.  The individual fibres relax and try to return to their natural state, releasing the tension that we have tugged into them.  They fall into a softer arrangement, and create more space in the sideways direction.  The twist then finds more space to spread itself out and no longer tries to pull those fibres in it's own direction.  Balance is achieved.

Now your yarns have that perfect U. 

I did this little demonstration with two different fibres, treating them both exactly the same after they came off the bobbin.  The orange skein is Corriedale top (wool) and the purple skein is silk.  As you can see, the setting of the twist is vital for balancing the yarns in both fibres, but far more so for the silk.

When you go to work with the yarns, washed or unwashed, you will see a dramatic difference in the way that yarn feels and acts.

Let's look at the knitted samples before blocking.  The sample on the left is the unwashed yarn.  You can't see it in the photo, but it had a harsher hand and tended to snarl as I knit with it.  You can see, however, that the work curled and skewed as I knit it.

This effect was far more dramatic in the silk sample, which, let me tell you, was not fun to knit in the unwashed version!

Another interesting thing happens when you set your twist in hot water.  The wool sample came off the bobbin measuring 3 tpi and 14 wpi.  After setting, the same sample measured 4 tpi and 12 wpi.  The silk samples came off the bobbin at 6 tpi and 32 wpi, and was 9 tpi and 30 wpi after setting.  Ummm, the unwashed yarns are very different from the washed yarns.  Very.  And this will impact what they do in the fabric.

For one thing, the gauge of you knitting will be different.  The wool knitted up at 8 stitches/inch when it was unwashed, but 6 stitches/inch when washed.  The silk, 12 stitches/inch unwashed, 10 stitches/inch washed.

If you knit, you know what a huge difference 2 stitches per inch makes in the size of your garment.  If you don't knit, take my word for it--it's not good.

After blocking, you can really see the impact of washing and setting.  The top sample is the unwashed, the bottom is washed and set yarn.  I rest my case.

You will also notice that the unwashed samples are more open and less dense.  If I had a better camera, you would also be able to see that the stitches are not as tidy in the unwashed samples, showing uneven twist throughout and creating that notorious "bar" that happens when yarns with unbalanced twist are knitted.  And then there is the skewing...

So, does that answer the question? 

Good.

Some More Stuff That Happened

March is over, we are well into April, and my life is slowly regaining some semblance of what passes for normal around here...

What just happened?

I vaguely remember a trip to Arizona, then a blur of activity.  Perhaps some sort of hypnosis will bring back memories...

Wait!  There was a trip to Edmonton.  Medical appointments and shopping.  Many articles of clothing were purchased.  That would explain the bulge in my suitcase!  Hmmm...

Oh!  Then there was a frantic week of building and installing a set for Thickwood Theatrix's production of Honk! Jr.  Not a lot of sleep, and much crawling around on the floor with a paintbrush--no wonder my mind supressed the memory!  But the set turned out wonderfully, and the production was, as always, fabulous.

Fifty-four grade 4 to 8 students in an all-quacking, all-dancing spectacular.  Every year I am amazed by the dedication of the teachers who drive this production, and by the talent and determination of the students.  Valerie Gondek, Angela Fenton, Patti Zeglen, and the administration, staff and students of Thickwood Heights School, take a bow!

Then there is a blank spot, until I find myself on a bus two days later.  I think I may have actually slept.  I'm not sure.  There may have been some packing, because...

Suddenly, I was in Fort St. John, BC!   A seminar on recycling fibres, and two days of sock spinning with a wonderful, enthusiastic group of spinners...

...who look like they had a good time.  As always, there was much spinning and exploration.  I talked myself hoarse, again.  There was good food, and wine, and laughter.  And marvelous samples all around.  I sincerely hope the participants did have much fun as I did, because I had a great time!

So, weary and silent, I made my way southward to spend some time in Vancouver with the Miss Lexi, Miss Julia, Steve, and my father-in-law.  I arrived first and had a lovely day with Miss Lexi, then the rest of the gang flew out to join us for the Easter long weekend.  Once again, much food and wine was consumed, and there were hijinks galore.  A few of the highlights...

...include the big storm that blew in on Good Friday while we were in Stanley Park.  High winds and rain pummelled the park and the city, and we went walking on the seawall.  For about 3 minutes.  While we were warming up at Prospect Point, we noticed that there was no traffic on the Lion's Gate Bridge...

...which is pretty darned unusual.  It turns out that a tree had fallen across the Causeway leading onto the bridge, totally blocking it, and access to the bridge and Stanley Park had been totally shut down.  And the tourists from Alberta were blithely strolling along, watching giant Douglas firs sway above our heads.  D'oh!We got some awesome pictures, though, and had a lot of fun.

The next day dawned a little brighter, and we ventured out to White Rock...

...where my two beautiful daughters gamely posed out at the chilly end of the pier.  The weather was not warm, but we managed to stroll the beaches and consume ice cream, anyway.  There was an unfortunate incident with a fish and chips restaurant that we like to frequent near the beach, but, in the end, we found another place that we liked even better.  And Montgomery's had deep-fried pickles!  We have a new favorite spot, all thanks to some very poor customer service.  Funny how those things work out, isn't it?

We  ventured out to Steveston for an afternoon, too.  We had never been out there before, but we will definitely go back.  Still a working fishing port, there were fresh fish and shrimp for sale off the boats, funky shops, and lots of restaurants to explore.  But the high point was definitely the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site.  We sort of went in with our tongues in our cheeks, and shenanigans abounded...

...but it turned out to be a wonderful museum, too!  Parks Canada has done an amazing job of preserving the atmosphere and recreating the working conditions in an early 20th-century salmon cannery, and of making the exhibits interesting and entertaining at the same time.

Then, of course, we had to go to the Vancouver Aquarium...

...where more silliness occurred.

A lot of silliness.

It was a fun vacation, with all of us throwing away our worries for a whole week.  We had fun, and that's what a vacation is for. Even if the weather is dreadful. 

And that's what family is for, too.

There were the usual twisted and incomprehensible travel arrangements made for the return trip, so the others left the next day, and I followed a day after that.  We had a day in Edmonton, then decided to head home.  Which turned out to be a good idea.  We drove into some rain and wind, pursued by the same storm we had encountered in Vancouver and got home safe and sound.  Only to wake up to this...

  

...the very next morning.  Over 25 cm of snow overnight, and it just kept coming all weekend.  Our back door was impassable...

...but we ran out of coffee, so I had to venture out.  Once was enough.  I have been holed up in the studio, sorting treasures and popping out to change loads of laundry all weekend.  And spinning.

Wow, now that I take a moment to remember, I realize I did a lot in last month.  No wonder I haven't gotten any blogging or knitting done.  Uh, oh.  Now I'm home, with no adventures to distract me.   I think I have some catching up to do!

Billet Doux

I have really fallen down on the old blogging lately, though, in my own defense, there has been little time to blog.  This past weekend, I presented a workshop in Fort St. John, BC.  The workshop was well-received, but the participants had a complaint about my blog... apparently, I do not blog often enough.  So, even though I am still on the road, I had to sit down and rectify that situation.

March has been a busy month.  Actually, that is something of an understatement.  It would be more accurate to say that March was an insanely action-packed month.  Workshops, medical appointments, children's theatre and more workshops totally consumed the month, leaving me little or no downtime.  I'm now in Vancouver and looking forward to some of that downtime--a lovely week-long visit with Miss Lexi, with Steve, Julia, and my father-in-law joining us later in the week.  Stanley Park, White Rock, Granville Island, plus all of our favorite little haunts await, and the freedom to knit any old thing that strikes my fancy.  R and R at its finest.

I'm hanging out in my daughter's apartment tonight.  Last night, I was in a lovely home on the banks of the Peace River.  Three weeks ago, I visited two equally lovely homes in Arizona.  I have been billeted a bit lately.

The term billeting comes from an old military tradition of sending a letter (a billet, from the French word for, oddly enough, letter) to a community demanding that soldiers be given rooms in homes there.  Nowadays, it's a more generously offered accommodation, given to out-of-towners for any number of reasons. Billeting is pretty common for those of us who travel to teach in the arts and crafts world and, while there are those who find it awkward or uncomfortable, I love it.

I have been billeted several times, in all sorts of different homes.  Some have been spacious and elaborate.  Some have been cozy and homey.  I have had a private bathrooms and I have shared a bathroom with a family of 5.  I have met spinners, and their husbands, and their kids, their friends, and their dogs, cats, bunnies and birds.  I have eaten wonderful food.  I have been plied with coffee, with wine, with chocolate, and with oatmeal.  I have been taken to favorite restaurants and pubs.  I have been toured around towns and cities and shown the sights, many of which are wonderfully yarny.

I have had my several billets in the last few years, and they have all been wonderful in some way or another.   The generosity of those who open their homes to visiting instructors is amazing.  Non-coffee-drinkers get coffee in.  I jokingly tell someone that I am partial to cake, and a cake is baked.   Night-owls get up early in the morning to make sure I get a good breakfast before the workshop.  Red wine flows like water.  (Seriously, I am somewhat concerned that the entire spinning community in North America will one day be washed away by a red wine tsunami.  I'm pretty sure we keep several vineyards in business, just us spinners!)  And everyone who acts as hostess does so willingly, with great joy and enthusiasm.  I love these people!

Don't get me wrong--hotels are nice, too.  But there is something that just warms the cockles of my heart about being invited into someone's home, into their life, even just for a day or two.

The word billet also appears in the French phrase "billet doux", which means love letter.  So tonight I am sending a love letter to all those wonderful who have hosted me in their homes over the past few years, and to those that I hope will do so in the future.  Thank you for your generosity, your kindness, your candidness, and your beds.  You have enhanced each of my travel experiences by sharing your lives with me, and I appreciate it more than I can ever say.

Snapshots From the Road

I'm doing a touch-landing at home today and tomorrow before I'm off again on my next adventure--this one not fibre related, but an adventure none the less.  I'm dashing around like a mad thing, trying to get things ready for the next trip, organizing the household for another bout of Momlessness, and generally trying to keep on top of March.  Not a lot of time to blog, but I'd thought I'd give you a quick glimpse of my trip.

Bisbee and the class were amazing.  Once again, a room full of people as passionate about string as I am.  Awesome, smart, funny, talented people at that.  Simply amazing.  And waaaay too much fun!

So, on to the snapshots...

With my usual convoluted travel arrangements firmly in place, I drove to Edmonton, then flew to Las Vegas.  I booked a hotel room through Hotwire.com, which is a trippy experience to begin with, but it turned out to be in the Planet Hollywood Resort.  Which was fabulous in so many ways, including the view from my window...

...and the bathtub!  I very nearly never made it to Bisbee.  I could have happily lived the rest of  my life in that tub!

But I did make it to Bisbee.  Or rather, to Tucson, where I picked up by Joan Ruane, who was my hostess for the weekend.  Joan is a fantastic spinner, and a warm and generous hostess, who even humored my request to stop at Tombstone to get my picture taken at the OK Corral.

That shadow is Joan!

Then we detoured to the wetlands just near Joan's home to see the sandhill cranes who were passing through as they began their migration north.  To Wood Buffalo National Park, just north of us here in McMurray. (I hope they plan their travel routes more efficiently than I tend to!)

A good night's sleep, and off to the workshop...

...which would not be complete without a class dog!

Meet Ladybug, the constant companion of one of the participants.  Ladybug sat quietly and patiently while I gabbled on about the intricacies of twist, and was always waiting with a cheerful wag and a lick when it was time for a break.

Bisbee itself is a charming little community perched on hilltops and steep slopes, all surrounding a now-defunct copper pit mine.  The mine is alarmingly beautiful, since, as one of my students said, it's developed a patina.  We passed it each morning on our way into the studio and every morning, I caught my breath at the colors and light.  Stunning.

There are many wonderful stories about Bisbee, the class, the students, and the Art Auction (from which I came away the proud owner of a shawl woven by Joan!).  There was gourmet chocolate and Bisbee blue turquoise and fabulous food and  lots of laughs.  Hopefully someone learned something useful, too...

Then back up to Tucson with Elaine, who turned out to be another generous and gracious hostess.  I was subjected to this view over breakfast...

...but I think I coped very well.  Just breathtaking--I can't even imagine waking up to that kind of beauty every morning.  Elaine is an amazing weaver and has a studio away from this window, which I think is why she can be so productive.  If I had this to stare at, I would never get anything done!

Once again, many stories came home with me from Tucson.  I met with a group of knitters who knocked my socks off.  Fortunately, they were knitting more!  I got a tour of Tucson, and stopped in at Grandma's Spinning Wheel, where I got to try a Spinolution Mach II.  I also got to go to Tucson Yarn and found some yummy sock indie yarn that is now on the needles.  I visited the Tucson Fiber Arts Guild's rug study group, which was fascinating--especially show and tell.  Then there was the mad dash to the airport, which is a long story all on its own! All in all a wonderful visit.  And back to Vegas...

...where I had managed to Hotwire myself into Caesar's Palace, where I was upgraded to a honeymoon suite.  With so much to do in Vegas, I mostly just wanted to crawl into this gigantic bed and sleep.  But I didn't.  Most of the shows were dark because it was mid-week, but there was plenty of shopping and fine dining.  And a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.

I got back to Edmonton, then back home.  And I have been on the run since I got off the plane.  The next two weeks will be a blur, then I'm off to Fort St. John to give my Spinning Super Socks workshop and a Don't Throw That Away seminar.  Looking forward to more adventures.  And more snapshots!