This Week

After a relatively quiet week activity wise, the boys told me they're "almost ready for school again"... emphasis on almost. We're keeping things pretty quiet for another week or two, then 1 week of day camp before we start back to school in early August.

On the Needles...

I'm still working on Ellie's cardigan, and I did cast on for Kernel- though it won't get very much attention until after Tour de Fleece. 

I read...

I started Ready Player One just the other day, but reading is slow right now until I get the Tour is over since I can't read while I spin. The boys are really reading a lot right now- to the point they are making specific requests from the library and we have had to make a few extra trips to the library in addition to our usual library trips. To be honest, I wasn't sure a day would ever come that I would have to tell one of my boys to "stop reading and go play oustide for awhile" but it happened this summer.

Just Keep Spinning…

I made 2 plying balls last night and I'm spinning the last portion of fiber. I'm so close to being able to start plying!

Learning all the time…

I ordered the remainder of our books for this year last night, next week I'll be able to set the rest of our plans up, and we'll be ready to start our year in August! I'm excited, particularly about several of our science selections. 

Garden...

We have some little tomatoes and jalapenos started on the plants, but nothing to pick quite yet. My mom has had a handful of cherry tomatoes in the last few days, so I know we're getting close too!

In Stitches...

I'm in for next week's edition of Kid's Clothes Week- are you? They have a pretty new site this time and it is lovely to navigate for inspiration! You create an account, sign up for the challenge and set up your sewing line up for the week. This challenge is running at the same time as Tour de Fleece obviously, so I'm petty sure knitting is going out the window for 1 week. How I would love a time-stretcher to give me an hour or two more in the day!

This weekend...

The boys of the family are heading out on a manly camping trip and us girls are staying in for a fiber/fabric weekend. Well, I am. I'm sure Ellie will be playing with baby dolls and trying to steal my fiber and eating all the snacks she can get her hands on.

Yarn Along: Stripes

{Yarning Along with Ginny}

My knitting is a little slow this week. I've mostly been spinning with my crafting time, eager to keep up with Tour de Fleece and also to finish up spinning the singles for this particular fiber so that I can practice my plying and then move on to my Nerd Girl Yarns fiber.

I did make a little bit of progress on Ellie's cardigan for fall, and made some final decisions about the stripes after experimenting with different striping patterns in excel. I'm always nervous about picking colors to go with each other for colorwork, so while it may not be a very big deal for some, I'm proud of myself for knitting outside of my usual color comfort zone. I tend to knit monochromatically if I'm going to knit with color, or to pair a single color with either black or white.

Am I the only one with colorwork issues? I'm totally good when awesome colors are all paired for me, I'm a little nervous about making those pairings myself.

I acquired some beads for the Knitmore Girls' "summer of lace and beads" KAL. The yarn and pattern are ready and now that I have the beads I just have to cast on. I haven't knit with beads before, but have been assured it's simple. There are only 36 beads to include in Kernel, so it will be a good intro for me. One more item crossed off on my list of fiber-y things to learn!


I just started reading Ready Player One. I can't read while I spin yet, so reading time has been minimized for the length of the tour!

Touring

I've been spinning every day for Tour de Fleece and today is day 10! Technically today is a rest day (as it is on the Tour de France) but my goal has been so low that I'm still planning to spin today.


My goal for the tour has been to spin for at least 15 minutes every day and longer if possible, working specifically on consistency and gaining more experience. I have only had to stick with 15 minutes twice so far, and other days I've been able to spin far longer in short bursts. I'm always concerned about making sure not to stress my arms so if I spin for longer I try to stop every half hour and do something else for a bit- get up and get a drink, wash dishes, switch laundry- *something* to keep from developing pain from the repetitive motions of spinning.


I thought I'd share some of my progress pictures with you from the last 10 days. Overall I feel like consistency is coming more easily and in general I'm spinning through fiber faster now. I'm not needing to park and draft very often after I get going and that feels like a huge success on its own!

The color of the fiber is closest to reality in the last picture- more of a mulberry red than a brick red.


I don't have a lot of fiber left, but that just means that I can move on to another bit of fiber I have and come back to these singles to ply them in a week or two. After the kids got to bed last night I spent my time while spinning watching plying videos since I have only plied 2 or 3 times before.

On to more spinning today! (after the library, and groceries and all that jazz...)