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...)

This Week

With leaving our baseball schedule behind for this season, this week has felt so very quiet! No practices, no games, no making sure that all the uniform pieces are together and clean and ready to go...

I worked a little, we played a LOT and yesterday was a lovely celebration of Independence Day and a recounting of the Revolutionary War with our boys. Unfortunately we ended up missing the official fireworks last night- I came into contact with something and had an allergic reaction. I'm heading to my doctor early next week to see about an epi-pen for myself and to discuss the next steps I should take, as this is the second time in the last 3 months I've had an allergic reaction to an unknown allergen and this reaction was far more severe. Today I'm left with hives that will hopefully fade in the next few days.

Our next door neighbors were doing sparklers and some smaller things out in the street when we got home, and they invited our boys to participate. Ellie and I went to bed and Brian and the boys went outside to enjoy the celebration.

On the Needles...

I shared pictures of a new cardigan for Ellie during Wednesday's Yarn Along, and I'm sorry to say I haven't knit on it since Wednesday. I worked all day that day and then yesterday I used every available moment to spin. It was time well spent, but I do want to get back to knitting a bit in the next day or two. 

I read...

An article on digital dimentia that got me thinking again about our screen time limits. Our family rules have always been that everything else should be done first before screen time- even for the adults. Have you been outside? Have you been creative? Have you read? Have you helped around the house? Is your room clean? Have you used your brain?

Most of the time this plan leads to no t.v. for anyone, particularly during the regular school year. But this month when we've *technically* begun a new school year but are *officially* on a break, the screen time does come in. We have just in the last few months allowed the boys to earn time on the Xbox 360, and they rarely use a computer, but I know that should change soon so they can keep up with the world around them. Not yet though. Still trying to decide when that point will be.

Just Keep Spinning…

I've been spinning every day for at least 15 minutes for Tour de Fleece and yesterday I spent most of the afternoon spinning while we picnicked with family. I've made some great progress I think and I'm getting better at catching and fixing mistakes. 

This is just what I've spun in the last 7 days- it seems like a LOT to me in my beginner state, but after looking through the daily threads I know this is barely anything compared to the more advanced spinners. I'm so happy to see this much complete! I also have another "bobbin" that I had finished before the tour, so I'm up to 3. Then I need to watch a few videos to remind myself how to ply and look up more information on plying with a spindle.

Learning all the time…

We officially started summer break almost 2 weeks ago and it has been lovely! We got our copy of the summer science special from Alphabet Glue and the boys helped me choose books off the reading lists to order from the library. Next week we will have our books and will dive in to the science issue's experiments.

Watching (Spoiler Free, of course...)

Brian and I are working through the DVR on the episodes of Once Upon a Time from this past January-May- I think we have 9 left that have just been sitting there waiting to be watched all this time.

Garden Things...

We have a lot of beautiful green tomatoes going and a few teeny tiny peppers, but nothing ready for harvest yet. We did get to pick 2 little cherry tomatoes off of my mom's tomato plants yesterday, but nothing from our own yet.

This weekend...

A little boy is turning 6 and going to enjoy a baseball game with "the guys"- and then coming home to feast on cupcakes I think. There might have to be legos. I have rehearsals and a performance, and there's a final baseball get-together Sunday night for a picnic with t-ball buddies.

Yarn Along: Little Cardigan

{Yarning Along with Ginny}

I finished knitting the gray shawl I was working on last week and I moved on to working on another little cardigan for Ellie that she can wear this fall, and maybe even next spring depending on how fast this little girl grows.

I'm almost through the yoke and then I have to really plan how I want the striping to work. I'm have a general idea of what I want, but sometimes my mental plans don't work out as well as I think in reality. Feel free to suggest striping plans in comments. I'm planning thin stripes emphasizing the purple over the blue and leaning toward the simple side of things.

Truthfully I'm not knitting very much over the past week because most of my crafting time is going into spinning for Tour de Fleece, but I still want to make progress on this cardigan around my TdF participation. My aim has been to spin for at least 15 minutes a day and I've gotten close to an hour each day so far.

It took a little longer than I had anticipated to finish Game of Thrones so I'm just in the first chapter or so of Ready Player One. Maybe I'll find a little more reading time this week!