Yay! Pictures!

I've sorta been putting off blogging lately because our camera has been missing. It's not that I don't have anything interesting to say, but pictures are sooo much more fun. Well, the camera showed up yesterday...in a truly bizarre spot, too. So without further ado--pictures.

Orlando sez: No knitting for you!



What the picture doesn't show is that he actually has his paws wound into the skeins and his nose burrowed in. Orlando loooooves wool and is always looking for a woolly nest to snooze in. He is also fond of chewing on handknit wool socks and mittens, which is not nearly so cute and charming. The yarn is the angora/merino blend that I spun up over the weekend for a hat and gloves for my daughter, then dyed yesterday. I was going for "coral", but I think I got "melon", but it meets with approval, so it's all good.

Since I was already making a mess, I decided to handpaint the yarn that I bought for my sister's Christmas gift.

The bottom yarn is from Silver Valley Fibres and is a beaded lopi. The top skein is a handspun looped boucle that I made a few weeks ago, and will serve as a contrast collar band. I love the colors (the picture doesn't do them justice!) and I may have to find another gift for my sister if it knits up as nicely as I think it will!

Global Warming My Asterisk!

It's cold.

Well, duh! I live in a northern community. It's November. You do the math.

Still, it's pretty tough to get up in the morning and get going when it is -35C outside and we have had a couple of feet of snowfall over the past week and a half. The roads are icy and there are a lot of newcomers to town who have never had to contend with these conditions. It's scary out there.

On the other hand, I spent the weekend blending and spinning a lovely angora and merino blend yarn for a Christmas gift, knitting on a woolly vest and a pair of mittens. The cold gives me an excuse to stay home and play with fibre, and who am I to complain about that? And my family is benefitting from my productivity. Everybody is warm in toques and mittens and scarves that I have spun/knit/woven, and if that doesn't warm the heart of a spinner, what will?

Catching Up

Where did October go?

Treasure Island wrapped up two weeks ago with a weekend of sold-out performances. We had waaaay too much fun...

I got to have awesome pirate teeth for my set changing costume, but they were eventually given to another actor, who couldn't speak in them. I think they suited me much better!

Director extrordinaire, Vern Theissen; Stage Management Goddess, Lauren Thomas; and Designer Genius Marissa Kochanski.

Long John Silver (Ross Jacobs) suffered a bit of a wardrobe malfunction on closing night. It was even scarier in person.

There are actual production pics available, but I have been too busy to run out and buy the disk. I suspect this will be as good as it gets for the old blog. It was great to work with such a young cast, but I really felt my age by the end of the run!

I rested and knitted for a day, then the Halloween preparations began. Halloween is a big deal around the old homestead, with two parties and a home haunt (pics to come when I find the camera!) We are finally more or less recovered from that mayhem and enjoying the breather before the madness of the holiday season begins.

On the spinning front: I churned out 500 yards of 2-ply painted silk for a boucle this week--the mohair singles is on the wheel as I type this. We've had our first big dump of snow overnight, so I have no excuse to do anything but spin. Yay!