Olds college final day

I was tired.
My throat was back to hurting.
All the bags were packed again in the van.
A few extra bags had mysteriously appeared.
Good thing I brought the mini van!

I arrived to class under cloudy skies.
It had rained and stormed quite a bit that last night.
I was not looking forward to the 3 hour drive home at 5pm.

We took a classroom test that I did ok on.
I forgot the two types of spinning wheel types:

Saxony

Upright

I have an upright.
I did remember the parts of the spinning wheel when labeling tho!

                                                

I was worried about this one.
The menopausal memory is crap.

After we graded and passed in our exams and evaluations,
our instructor talked about her passion for silk!
I understand that unknown until now fiber source.

She showed us cocoons with the worms still inside...
rattling around, dead of course.
She showed us her 12 strand 2 ply silk yarn she spun
and was knitting a beautiful lace shawl with.
I learned what a wondrous thing silk hankies are~
(flattened out cocoons into 8-10 layers of squares
which you stretch out across the room and spin with.)

We blended merino top with tussah and bombyx silk top.
(top is parallel fibers in a long roving)
I spun the best skeins I had spun all week!
Pictures of the differences hopefully tomorrow!

We all went to Mr. B's for lunch.
The ham and pea soup with grilled cheese sandwich was just what I needed.
Chatting about our dogs, homes, and funny stories was just a way to end the week.

When we got back, two of our classmates had baked cupcakes
for the class the night before.
They had asked who liked coconut, and I said I was allergic,
but not to worry about it....diet you know!
Well, I must tell you that those sweet friends made 4 cupcakes
with no coconut frosting.
AND there was one cupcake surrounded by its coconut free friends
so that no allergens could contaminate it!

A level 5 student came to our class and shared with us
her assignment books from levels one and three.
HOLY MOLY!
I have a lot of work to do this year!
We took a class photo and hugged and started a ravelry class page,
shared emails, and are so looking forward to being classmates next year
and for the next five years!

I drove home, hurting and exhausted, and very happy to see Hil and Chuck!
I tried to watch a bit of the Olympic opening ceremonies.....but.....ya.
I slept very well, and am ready to begin preparing for my studies.
So much fun and learning!

I appreciate Hil and hubby with as much interest as they can have.
It's hard really, when no one close to you shares your interest.
I have accepted that my classmates and one or two friends
know and understand my passion.
I know that at the end of this six year adventure, I will be a master spinner.
I am looking forward to improving my knowledge and skill level.
If only for myself.
That is enough for me.
I am blessed!

Olds College days 3 and 4

This week has gone by way too quickly!
As I am about ready to go to sleep,
yes at 7:19pm,
I am thinking of how very much I have learned
and how much fun I have had.
Day 3 was all about woolen spinning.
Worsted spinning, Day 2, is a smooth, fine, sturdy way to spin.
Woolen is the fluffy, warm yarn that is not the strongest of yarns.
Two completely different preparations,
and two completely different ways to spin.
You choose different types of wool for each,
based on what end product is desired.
Today, day 4, was the natural dye day.
We all brought white yarn skeins...
150 yards divided up into 25, six yard smaller skeins.

One skein was left undyed,
one skein was soaked in plain water overnight,
and the other twenty three skeins were soaked overnight
in an alum/cream of tarter mordant.
(a mordant helps the dye stick to the yarn)

We separated all the skeins into six groups,
and dyed with six different natural dyes:
Onion skins, marigolds, brazil wood shavings, osage orange, annatto, and cochineal.
Some known products, some technical names,
and one...crushed up bugs that live on cactus in Peru!
Interestingly, cochineal bugs are used as red food coloring,
since red #4 is bad for you.
You are welcome.

After half the dyes were taken out of the baths,
iron powder was added to the bath with the remaining yarn skeins.
What a difference iron makes!
Many beautiful variations of olive greens, deep purple reds, and yummy mauves.

I really will get pics up as soon as I get home.

Tomorrow is my last day of class,
a day of silk and merino blends,
a quiz, and a lesson on our final workbook requirements
to be completed this year at home.
We classmates have collected each other's emails,
and started a ravelry group just for our class.
Hopefully we will all take the remaining five classes together
in the next five years,
and will travel to Canada for graduation together.
I have really enjoyed my teacher Coleen, and other classmates.
Well, I had a problem with one student, as we all had a problem with her,
but we were all accommodating,
and the teacher has a heart of gold and so much patience with this girl.
I don't know if I would have been so patient.

Overall, it has been a wonderful experience
and I look forward to the upcoming year's homework and  assignments.
I plan on setting aside at least one day a week for schoolwork,
research and writing papers,
as well as lots of fiber fondling!
Again, thanks so much honey for this opportunity~
I am blessed!

Olds College day 2

Not much time to write today, as I have tons of homework!
Lots learned tho.....mainly how and why to spin worsted yarn.
It is different than spinning woolen for different reasons,
that I will explain later!
Took back to hotel, some sample skeins of romney, coopworth and
spun in the grease coopworth wool (dirty, not washed)
to wash in the hotel sink.
It is all drying on my hotel door.

My homework is to divide 150 yards of prespun wool for dyeing Thursday into
25 equal skeins.
This will take some time.
First I have to divide 150 by 25.
Then because I discovered that the niddy noddy I have been using,
and thought that it measured two yards of yarn,
actually only measures three yards.
Not only to I have to remeasure my prespun skein
with the newly acquired one yard niddy noddy,
but I have hundreds more yards of yarn at my house than I thought I did!

P.S.  A niddy noddy measures how many yards from a spinning wheel.
Then it gets rolled into a ball, or it could stay in the hank right off of the tool.

A measuring I go!

Olds College day one of actual class

How much fun this is going to be!
And how much work.
I can see that it will definitely take a year to complete,
after only reading the first three chapters of the workbook.

To start off:
I never should have gone off of my diet and eaten that reuban or onion rings!
Ya, I was in the bathroom from midnight until 4am.
I set my alarm for 7am.
I woke up with a sore throat and headache.
Blech!
Of course the coffee at the hotel is not Starbucks
and I only grabbed a small blueberry muffin for breakfast.
The shop where the class is held is only 4 miles away,
and I will be getting coffee across the street tomorrow.

I am enjoying my ten classmates and teacher.

Today mostly, we learned how to grade and sort a shorn fleece.
We looked at 4 fleeces
that had been shorn and then folded in thirds and rolled from tail to neck.
We unrolled each out onto the floor,
found the feet, back shoulders, sides
and britch (the nasty part).

We learned that the shoulders are the best to use, then the sides.
The back is usually weathered too much
and the legs may be too short or felted to use.
It makes a difference in the finished knit item if you use all the areas together.
My hands are silky smooth from all the lanolin!

We then separated the fleeces: southdown, romney, corridale and border leicester
for use in our year end project of ten sheep breeds.
That being a small report on each breed,
a 10 yard plied sample of yarn and a knit sample.

We spent the remainder of the day washing the fleeces
so we will have fiber to play with the rest of the week.

I relearned to spin on a  dropspindle,
once I bought a working one.
The one I originally learned on six years ago,
was poorly made and no wonder I hated spindling.
(To spin yarn with a drop spindle,
 you use a top like tool and spin the wool together without a wheel.
A slower process than a wheel, but very nice for thin yarns)
I must turn in 10 yards of this yarn before the end of the week.

In my reading I am learning some interesting facts:
For instance, before the Revolutionary war,
England's most exported item was wool.
It was illegal for colonists to spin wool or even have sheep.
It was an act of patriotism to make yarn.
Wool is still so important in England,
that the Lord Speaker in Britain's House of Lords
still speaks from the Woolsack and upon it rests the Mace,
which is the embodiment of power in that country.,
The Woolsack was originally filled with wool from Britain,
but in recognition that many Commonwealth countries also produce wool,
it is now stuffed with wool from all over the Commonwealth.

Enough interesting history.
I went to Walmart and bought some healthy food items,
have eaten my dinner and am finishing up my reading.
I don't think I will be spindling tonight, as I am pretty tired.

I have HEYTELLed with Hilary and Chuck,
so all is right with the world again!

I have been taking pictures all day
and will try to post some this week if not when I get home.
Good night South Bend!
I am blessed.

Day 1 olds college

Today is the first day of my education/vacation.

After church this morning, I loaded the van
with way too much stuff.
Seriously, you would think I was moving away forever.

A weeks worth of clothes,
with some spare undies,

all my spinning supplies:
wheel, bobbins, lazy kate, niddy noddy,
hook. scissors, flick brush, hand carders,
dye pots, dust mask, stir sticks, marking tags and masking tape,
notebooks, onion skins..and more I am sure I have forgotten here,
but did not forget to pack.

Gym clothes, bathing suit, books to read, Bible study and
of course knitting....two projects!

I have unpacked my suitcases, loaded up the dresser,
hung the clothes, unloaded all the bath supplies,
eaten dinner of a  reuban sandwich and onion rings.
(greasy and unhealthy and definitely not on my diet!)
I have showered and sent out Care ministry messages.

I'm tired from the drive of 3 hours. 
I am in Howell Michigan, an hour outside of Detroit.
Classes are from 9-4 starting tomorrow and ending Friday.
It's 8:30 and I am calling it a night.

So the adventure begins!
The antibiotics have finally kicked in
and I am hoping the sinus infection will not rear it's ugly head again!

I am truly blessed!
Thanks honey for this wonderful opportunity and all your support!

Poodles with an Oiy

I miss my poo today.
The blog title is what I call her
or PWAO
This comes from the Gilmore Girls tv show.
We swore that the writers were recording us somehow,
as we could see our lives portrayed here.

She calls me Llama.
When we went to visit colleges,
Grand Valley State University actually,
we spent the evening there in the dorms.
I believe we were the only ones who stayed this weekend.
We watched That 80's Show in the common room.
It was an all night marathon!
At some point we were walking on campus,
V said something to me,
and I  heard "the llamas are vacuuming."
We laughed and laughed!
Now I am llama or LAV.

Silly things and nicknames and a lifetime of memories.
Guess I am a little homesick for my oldest today.
She went to Austin TX yesterday for a week.
She is scoping out the city as a new place to live come January.

I already miss not being able to all her up and meet for coffee,
or reading magazines together at Barnes and Noble.
She has been moving forward with her life, and I am so very proud of her.
Breaking those apron strings is always harder on the mom,
but I think I am doing really well.

Both girls have their own ideas tho, how I am moping, pouting or judging.
Most of this is in their own heads though,
because I really don't want to be in charge of their lives any more.

We used to text good morning every morning.
Good night or I'm home when they finally got safely home.
I worried for a while.
Now I know that if I hear something, then I should worry.
I do miss the texts too.
Life moves forward.

Went through the empty nest when both girls moved in together a few years ago.
They decided to break me in one swift blow.
I am so very glad that they have their relationship too.
Things are always changing.
I am loving my own time, friends, plans, adventures.
I just really love spending time with my two favorite people too.

Here is to knowing that God has a plan for my girls.
V will thrive or not, in a new city.
If so, I will visit.
If not, I will always be around for hugs and a shoulder.
I know she knows that.
I also know that being independent is the most important thing to her right now.
Hopefully she will realize that family is as important as independence too.

I also know that she is flower frog shopping for me now in TX too!

Have fun poo!

five of eight, and summer fiber

For the past five weeks
I have been on a very strict diet.
No fruits, milk, breads, pastas, carbs.
The diet is called the Diabetic Miracle.
It actually was the first book Terry bought me for the Nook.
Nook on computer........still a die hard paper book fan.
This diet is supposed to restart my pancreas, and calm my liver.

I am so sick of meat and veggies
I have NO taste or appetite for them at all!
BUT...
the goal of this diet is to cut back/get off of my Type 2 diabetic meds
and to lose weight.
Both goals are being met!!!!
Because my sugars were consistently in the low 80's
and one day 64
(Normal is between 90/120)
my doc cut out one of the evening pills!
YIPPEEEEE!
And I have lost ten pounds.....
all of it in the first three weeks.
I have started going to a trainer at the gym once a week
and continuing and stepping up my workouts throughout the week.

I feel better and stronger.
I can do these last three weeks!
After the initial 8 weeks, I can have carbs, bruits, milks etc again,
but only so many.
SOOOOOO looking forward to that!

It has been so bloody hot here the past few weeks,
that Chuck and I have only walked in the late evening if at all.
I am really missing my walks.
I have been getting alot of spinning done tho.
                                                                 Some core spun,

Some multi color plied,

and some really soft silky blends I bought at the fiber festival.
I am going to ply this with the indigo I dyed earlier this summer.

I have been knitting with my online group a Knit A Long scarf.
I haven't done much lace, but this is pretty,
and easy to work on at night.

I bought an angora sweater at Goodwill this winter,
ripped it apart, and am now using it for this scarf!
I may or may not dye it after it is done.
A twenty row repeat is a pain in the neck tho.....
Lace patterns take a lot of concentration to follow.
No watching tv or playing with chuck in between,
and I'm not very good at marking which rows I have completed.
I am supposed to be working until the scarf measures 60".
I will be working on this all summer.

Yes, I know you are keeping track....
only 16 more days until I spend the week learning to be a master spinner!!!
And this will also be the week I can break the diet, and go to phase two!
What a way to celebrate!
Stay cool!