spinning – mimimustknit

I have to say that I’m pretty excited. I posted in February that I was sure I had left my Fiddlehead mittens in Lake Placid in December. I couldn’t find them anywhere. There was no doubt in my mind that I had left them in the Starbucks. BUT, I was putting away the scarves and mittens for the summer and found them at the very bottom of my basket. Yahoooo! I was so excited… I may have performed a little happy dance of some kind.

I got some weeding done of my giant flower bed. Thank you Mom for coming to help me! I think she helped motivate me for all of 22 minutes.

I also got in a little bit of cooking. This is Tropical Fruit Gazpacho from my new favorite site.

Have any of you every tried to break open a real and still whole coconut? Let me tell you! I’ll never do that again. In the recipe, it states to use the dull end of the knife. That didn’t work at all. So, I flipped my knife over and used the handle. That didn’t work. I took out my potato masher. That didn’t work. I ran down to the garage and got out a hammer. That didn’t work either. By now, Jacob was curious enough to come over and see what was going on. He took the hammer from me and flipped it over to the spikey part (nail remover thing) and gave it a good smash. It broke the shell. FINALLY! What a MESS. Coconut water all over the place. Bits of shell everywhere. If you ever make this gazpacho, get a coconut that’s already been removed from its shell and inner skin – trust me… it’s for your own good.

I also managed to take some quick pics of the merino/tussah silk blend I spoke of in my last post. I just love this color! I’ve had a difficult time staying away from it this week. BUT, I’m cleaning again. The house feels cluttered a bit. And I haven’t touched the monster truck. Sigh.

Forgive my not-great-pictures. You get the idea though. I’m going for a three-ply. This is the first of 3 bobbins. Please don’t ask me what I plan to make with this yarn once it’s finished. I have no idea. I just spin cause it’s fun. I get what I get. If I can then find something to make with it, bonus. Otherwise, I’m perfectly happy just looking at it and fondling it every once in a while.

I’ve been doing some driving this week but I can’t say that I’ve minded. I love how green everything is getting. All the farmers have been out tilling their fields and getting them ready for seeds. Everything is just so beautiful this time of year. The green is so vivid and new. And the weather! We’ve had stupendous weather this past week in my neck of the woods. It’s been gorgeous and sunny every day and cool and breezy every night. I don’t know if we’ll get another perfect week like this. Fingers crossed!

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

I know that sounds strange to most people but… if you spin, you know what I’m talking about.

This past weekend was full of learning. Our spinning guild set up a workshop given by Robin Russo. She came in from Vermont to teach us. Honestly, I don’t know how she knows all she knows. It’s just amazing. I totally went on line and tried to creep her but all I found was a short Youtube video put up by Interweave. Dudes, she’s got a video with Interweave and she was teaching us. I think that’s so cool. When I asked her the following day if she had a website, or a blog or something, she said no – that she likes to keep a low profile. Admirable.

http://youtu.be/vXzL_gY-YN8

So, day 1 was all about carding wool. I have a carder. I’ve used it once and I wasn’t really keen on the result I got. So, I never used it again. The carder was practically given to me so I didn’t feel badly that it was collecting dust in my basement. Until Thursday.

I’m very pleased with the bats I made. Almost Etsy worthy! Hahaha.

I think day 2 was my fave – COMBS!

I love combs. I especially love the English combs (the ones with the most tines) but they’re a little out of my price range for now. So, guess what Bonnie? I’m going to be spending more time at your place. 😉

And, finally to wrap things up, day 3 was intermediate spinning. I think I was pretty smug going into the second part of our exercises – long draw. I do long draw all the time. But, when you’re using fine fiber, it’s not so easy. I managed, barely, to make some samples that were worthy of my “workbook”.

I had to stop on my way home. It was warm-ish and the snow looked like it was glowing.

My car got soooo dirty driving through all the back roads! I kinda like it.

Robin was all kinds of awesome. Again, I’m in awe of how much she knows. I can only aspire to someday be as knowledgeable as her. Actually, I would be satisfied with knowing maybe 50% of what she knows. She came very well prepared. We had binders for the fiber preparation portion of the workshop and another binder for the intermediate spinning workshop.

And she’s really a sweet lady. I got a hug. 🙂

We have such a wonderful group of ladies in our guild. I feel fortunate to know all of them. I’m the baby (that doesn’t happen often anymore) and I just love and appreciate all their knowledge and experience. I’m a lucky girl.

It’s been a wonderful weekend in more ways than one. Firstly, I booked the weekend off so, I’ve been off now for 5 days and I’m still off tomorrow. The workshop was eye-opening. I also spent some time at the range yesterday with Steve. He’s a great teacher. Not too tough, not too soft. My aim is getting better… when I’m standing still. Sigh. When the ground is dry, I’ll be able to move around and practice shooting on the move and hopefully be ready for some competitions this summer.

This morning, I went to my first Bigram Yoga class EVER. It was interesting, hard and fun all at the same time. It’s pretty hot in that room. I honestly saw stars a few times. Before the class started, the instructor told me that my goal for my first class was to stay IN the class. I managed that AND managed all the poses with surprising ease. I was thrilled when a lady in the class came to be as she was leaving and told me what a great job I had done. Yay! Made me feel good.

Now, I’m cleaning. Then, I’m going shopping for a lamp, some yoga shorts and maybe some yarn. Depends how much I can get crammed into an afternoon. We might hit the range again today. Then maybe the climbing gym. I see a good sleep in my near future.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Tag: spinning

Not Lost After All

I Seriously Love Fiber!