Finally summer weather! This weekend was perfect – mid 80s, low humidity, cool evenings perfect for sleeping. I am ignoring the few leaves at the tops of trees that are starting to get that tinge of red. Today it’s in the 90s and the humidity is beastly.
Since Saturday, looked like it was going to be perfect weather all day, I washed this.
Remember this? It’s the California Red wool fleece we got this past spring. It’s lovely and although I was disappointed that there is not a hint of red. It cleaned up nicely and the crimp is great and it’s very soft, so it looks like it will card and spin up into something lovely. Once I got it rinsed and laid out on the back deck to dry, I headed over to the studio.
I love when it’s cool and quiet at the studio. It was so nice, I decided to spend most of the day there enjoying the cool breezes, a large Dunkin Donut’s Iced Coffee, NPR’s Prairie Home Companion on the radio and coloring fiber. I finished dyeing at least 18 skeins and I carded up some luscious grey alpaca. The alpaca is the one I got at the CT S&W in 2007! It was rather dusty when I first got it and I did rinse it several times last year, it’s still a little dirty but not too bad. It carded up beautifully. I only ran it through the carder twice and there was hardly any veggie matter.
Last week I had made 8 simple drop spindles from 2 1/2 inch wooden wheels and dowels. So I put together some Learn To Spindle kits – one drop spindle, a few ounces of fiber and written instructions. I was going to try to embellish the spindles but I’m running out of time.
I would love to get Lee, from the studios to teach me how to turn wood to make some spindles… or even better con talk him into making spindles. His wood work is gorgeous!
My friend Alicia and I are planning on playing with a glass melting kiln that works in a microwave. I’m thinking glass whorls for spindles 
and buttons!
So many ideas, so little time.
All this is in preparation of the Lowell (city-wide) Open Studios on the weekend of September 26th and 27th.
Then Saturday night I took Alicia’s daughter (who was home alone) to see Julie and Julia. We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Who knew Julia was not only passionate about food, but passionate about life and love too. I should have known. Now I am looking forward to reading her biography and memoir.
Of course after a movie of all that food, we were famished when we got out in spite of the popcorn we had devoured, so we stopped for some take-home chinese. YUM!
By the time I got home I was too tired to knit or even watch TV so I just jumped into bed. The weather was perfect for sleeping – cool and dry, so I actually slept in (8am) what a luxury.
Instead of the usual Sunday morning ritual of coffee in the sunroom with the talking head political show(s). I got ready and headed back to the studio to re-skein the now dried skeins that I had dyed the day before and card a little more of that alpaca. Cindy stopped by to pick up the finished skeins and some fiber cones to wind off into more skeins to be over-dyed. 87 more to be exact.
Again it was a lovely quiet day so I cleaned up the mess I had made the day before, and called it a day.
A quick stop to pick up some salad fixings and I actually got home in time to have an early dinner (grilled steak, fresh salad, and baked potato).
Before I settled my butt in front of the TV for the evening, I dragged out my wheel from the corner of the room, dusted it off, oiled it and dragged out all the singles that were languishing in my spinning basket and plyed them up (1 skein of a brillant white romney, 1 skein of charcoal shetland) then the carded alpaca started calling to me. This stuff is divine! It’s spinning thinner than anything I’ve ever spun before – real frog hair. I think it wants to be a shawl. Like I said there was little veggie matter, and I had rinsed this a few times when I first got it, but it’s still a little dirty. I finally had to force myself to stop and go to bed.
Tonight I will spin the other two batts, ply the singles and wash up the sample skein.
And now the start of yet another busy week filled with getting the car fixed (fan belt needs replacing), dentist appointments, and getting packed to go camping.
I’m so excited that Grace and I are taking the pop-up camper on it’s maiden trip to Hermit Island for a week. I cannot wait and hope to hell the weather stays like this! I doubt that I am going to make it to Fiber Revival or not, probably not as that is the last day to pack up the camper and care.
I think I will just have to settle for doing some demo spinning at the Westford Farmers Market tomorrow afternoon with some of the ladies from the Westford Spinning Group.
