Rainbows

I was driving the kids home from school today and I saw a rainbow cloud. I have never seen this before so I took a picture of it.



Here is a closer photo if it helps at all. At first I was not sure if I really seeing a rainbow in the cloud so I asked the kids and they could see it to. It was about 70F today with a light breeze and and a few wispy clouds. I don't know what made this rainbow show itself this way but I liked it.



The rainbow got me thinking:

Remember the white roving that was so lovely to spin but bored me out of me mind? I Kool Aid dyed it today. I had no idea how to do this so I put my Easter egg knowledge to work. I pulled off a length of roving and put it is a clear dish. I put in just enough hot water to cover the roving and then I added a splash of vinegar and a dash of salt. I microwaved it for 2 minutes, let it sit for a couple and then heated it again for 2 minuets. I let the roving cool and then rinsed with warm water. I was very gentle, I did not want any felting.

This one I got creative on, I sprinkled orange one side and cherry on the other. I did not mix it, I was going for a mottled sort of look.

My rainbow:

Mr. Postman

Let me warn you before I get started. This post has been several days in the making, it is long and heavy with photos. Do you remember my list of things I wanted to post about once I got some computer time? This post covers several of those things, you have been warned.

I have come to love checking the mail. Most of the household bills are in Paul's name, the only bills I receive are my student loan, car insurance and my visa statement which I try to pay off monthly so it's often painless. We have lots of other bills mind you, but most of them are in Paul's name and I don't open them. Ignorance is bliss.

I ordered some fibre online a while ago and never showed it to you...until now. This is from Luxe she has a site on Etsy, if you are crafty or love handmade things check out the site it has some great stuff. I ordered some funky fibre stuff to play with. The next three photos are the same batt; as you can see it has lots of colours and texture to it. I can't wait to play with it, but I have not gotten to it yet.



There is an article in the newest Spinoff on how to control your colour when you spin, I am going to give that another read and decide what I want to do with this. I am not sure if I should just spin it as it comes or if I should try to plan a little. There is some brown and rust in their and I think it might muddy up to much if I don't put a little thought into it.



I like the way it looks as is; little curly locks that are as soft as could be.



This is what I went to the site looking for, super wash merino. This colour reminds me of summer berries. I think I have to spin this as it comes, it is randomly dyed and I don't think I can control much how the colour falls when I spin it up.



It is as soft as it looks.

I also bought this funky one: I don't love it as much as the first funky one, but it is fun to spin and I am learning a lot spinning it up. I have been pulling the black out of it as I spin it, it just makes it look muddy to me. I will use the black for something else down the line.

Here it is spun up, It is lumpy and bumpy and lots of fun to work with, it is a bit dirty and you can feel a bit of lanolin in the fibre as you work with it. I am really curious to see how it will it will look once it is plied.

You would think I had enough treats in the mail to keep me happy and checking the mail box on on a daily basis. There is more to come, lots more you might want to go grab a beer or a glass of wine.

You all have been keeping up with The Giggle Queen and her wonder trip across Canada. During her travels in British Columbia she came across this humming bird. It made her think of me so she purchased it and express posted it my way. I don't know if I can explain why I was so moved by this but I will give it a try.

The Giggle Queen is riding her bike across an entire country, carrying everything she owns on her bike. She is riding over mountain ranges, in the rain, in the heat, dealing with whatever mother nature throws at her. I know that a small bottle of conditioner for her hair was the only luxury item she packed, yet she sees this and it makes her think of me and it appears in my mail box. No note, it spoke for itself.

There is more. Only days before she left, we were camping together at the golf camp out and her and I were talking about humming birds (you may remember the humming bird pictures that I posted). In many cultures the hummingbird is a powerful symbol about living in the present and about drinking from the nectar of life. In the Medicine Wheel the humming bird represents our Grandmothers and Grandfathers, ancient memories and ancient wisdom. The humming bird is not built for flight but it achieves one of the longest migrations of any bird, drinking constantly of life nectar and making the impossible journey.

Powerful stuff isn't it.

About a week ago I received another package from The Giggle Queen. Very cool rocks. Anyone know how these are formed? Me neither.

I should buy my post person a beer for all the work! There is more. This is the yarn I spun and sent off to mom for a dye job. It left here looking like a sheep's grey pubic hair and came back 40 years younger. Now we know all moms secrets! It is so lovey now I can hardly believe I spun that little bit of heave up myself! It is going to be a felted bowl eventually.

This arrived from Mom on Wednesday: It is my birthday gift.

It is divine. It smells and feels like heaven. There are four decadent skeins of it, hand made in Alaska and going by the name "Russian Reds" 53% Mohair and 45% Merino and 2% Nylon. 600 yards in total. I am just going to sleep with it until it tells me what it wants to be. Thank you Mom and Darryl, you went over the top with this one and I love it.

Today I received my socks that rock for the month of June. They are my favorite this year, they may be my favorite ever. I feel like the yarn was dyed just for me, I love the colour way that much. I won't spoil things by showing you anything but the envelope.

Paying it forward. A little gift for The Giggle Queen. I was not looking so of course I ran across something perfect for her. Watch her blog, she should get it in about three days, let's see if she figures out how to post a picture. (She cannot pass up a challenge like that one)

Ponchette

The red blob you see above is the finished Ponchette before blocking. I finished it up last night. I was worried I would not have enough hemp to finish but rather than running out I had a Knitter's Nirvana: 1 yard left after binding off. That means I don't have to toss out a little bit of leftover fiber and it means that I don't have leftovers hanging around waiting for a "little project" I can use it up on.

I decided to go for it when it came to blocking this thing. I put it in a laundry bag and threw it right in with a full load of laundry. It is pretty stuff I wanted it to soften right up. I understand that hemp just gets softer and softer each time you wash it. I am excited to get this sewn together so I can try it on.



I blocked it while chatting on the phone to Shannon and took these photos after dinner. Shmoo would not leave me alone for the photo session and had the nerve to look shocked when I snap this one of her. How cat-like.



Accidental whisker shot:



The shaded artistic photo:

The close up:

I will let it dry tonight and get it sewn up this weekend. Maybe I can get Paul to model it for me.

Cripes!

A list of things I want to post about and nothing comes to mind now that I am sitting at the computer. Figures.

Paul went to Baltimore last weekend. A fly-by-night trip to check out a Spine-Med machine at the factory in...Baltimore. Spine-Med paid for the whole trip, and gave a class about the machine. To much technical crap to include here, and to much for me to think about after having a great workout, a beer and a hot tub.

I can only share my half of the weekend, I stayed home with the kids. They were very good, we had lots of fun and by the time Paul got home I was ready for a little time to myself. Tonight is the first time I have had a little and it felt wonderful. I feel decompressed for the first time in a few weeks, I think I will go knit a little now. Goodnight.

(Baltimore was on the list by the way...stay tuned tomorrow for "Mom's Dye Job" or "For the Love of Fibre!")

Up and Running, Sort of...

I still don't have my laptop back, for those of you that are counting it has been a month. I was desperate enough for a computer that I took our tower in to have it repaired. The tower is part of the Sony system that we bought around 6 years ago. Since then Paul and I both got laptops and the kids used the Sony to surf the Lego web site and to play on nickjr.com. The Sony crapped out a while ago and we never bothered to have it repaired. The kids used our laptops and everyone was happy.

I took the Sony in for repairs on Friday afternoon and was able to pick it up on Monday evening. Now that's service. The hard drive in it was toast and it is has been replaced. When it dies again I think the Sony will be retired. I figured it was cheaper to repair this one than to buy the kids anew one in few years when they will need for school. It will manage their work just fine for a while.

The moral of the story is I am up and running and I have so much to catch you up on that I made a list. You know how I love lists.

These are fun pictures of the kids (all four of them) from the weekend the Barking Cows went camping. That weekend was very hot, when played our game on Saturday afternoon it was 37C (I think that is around 95-100 F) but I am to lazy to look it up now.

That Sunday was slightly overcast, and it cooled off to a whooping 35C by the time we got back into town. The first thing we did (after the root beer floats at A&W) was come home to play in the water. Here are the kids on Spiderman Slip 'n' Slide. (Doesn't that just take you back to elementry school or is just me?)

And last but not least: The Biggest Kid.

I don't know why I did not give it a go but I didn't. I think I had just gotten out of the shower so I was feeling fresh without Slipin' and Slidin'. (I should pop up on some good Google searches for that one).

Moo Moo Moo

Not having my computer has goofed me up a bit, there is so much I have been meaning to tell you and now I don't know what I have shared and what I have not. I know it seems like it would be so easy to read the whopping two posts I got in last week, but NOOOOOOO.

We went camping again this weekend. We went up to Dick Heart Memorial Park for a little ball tournament and some camping. It is real close to town, only about a 30 or 40 minute drive. It is a great little place with the ball field right in the middle of camping area.

For some reason I have been a slacker about taking pictures as of late and this is the only kid picture that was on the camera when I downloaded it today: (Oh yeah I meant to speak to mom's comment about having no pictures of Judy posted on her last visit, only took one and it was too dark to post, I did not think it would be wise to post a not so good picture of my mother-in-law, I like her and she likes me, I would like to keep it that way :)



Here the cows are doing what we do best: grazing. Can you see the cow in the center of the picture, the one that is tiny. That's me. The trailers you see in the back, that's where we are parked. We like to park the trailers here so we can sit and watch the game with all the comforts of home. You do have to pay attention, there are some heavy hitters that will hit the ball out of the park and into our camping zone, but the beer is cold and view is good so it's worth it.



More cows: That's Denise on first in the blue and Sandy playing 2nd with the knee brace on, she's bionic, you want her on second. That is Mike on the pitchers mound with his back to the camera, he is a good pitcher and quite funny, I have seen him pitch an entire game with a beer in one hand and cigarette in the other, he is the only smoking cow. We offer to put him out regularly, he won't let us.



Denise is one of our heavy hitters, she is a great ball player but manages to come right down to our level. She runs the show (as much as you can direct a bunch of cows, who really just want to chew cud and wash it down with cold beer) We all have cow names on the back of our jerseys (hehe) she is Bossie.



Wow, look at this swing, he was going for the fence. Paul has won the home run trophy for our entire league every year that I have been a cow, I think this is my seventh cow season. He can smack the crap out of the ball.

We had a ton of fun, but we got our little cow hides beat every game. I suggested we change the team name to Dead Horse. But then mom would have to new shirts for us.

I still have no computer, maybe this week it will be done. They don't really know anything when I call. Should I be worried?