the inconstant blogger strikes again

I'm sorry friends, but of late I have not been feeling very witty, amusing or even conversational. No funny stories to tell, nothing inspirational, just feeling very blah and sorry for myself. I can at least share some pictures of the silkworms, and my Tour de Fleece yarn being dyed. I am hoping that the silkworms start spinning soon, the Mulberry tree is feeling rather harvested!
















And here is the 'pre dye' soak:















the dyeing:















and the final rinse:

What is up with these tests?

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

I really pride myself on being a weirdo-scifi geek-freak, off the radar, but in a totally harmless and interesting way. What is the deal with all these tests answers coming out completely normal? My funky inner hair color is Orange? Um, no- that is what color my normal outside haircolor is. I was looking for electric blue or burgundy with gold streaks or something cool like that. Orange. I've had orange hair my whole life. drat.

Fini!

drumroll please.................


Ta Da! My Tour de Fleece spinning is done, and just in time! My total yardage came in at 1732 yds. Whew! I'm so glad to have this finished in time. Now, if I could only pin Lead Dog down to a color, I'd get this pile dyed so that I could start knitting his sweater. I could conceivably get the sweater knitted in time for him to wear is this fall. (or maybe before winter ends- don't want to set up any expectations now, do I?
as if that was not impressive enough (ha! how is that for ringing my own bells!) I also have pictures of Mom's finished socks




The pattern used is Fancy Silk Socks from the book Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. Although the name of the pattern is Fancy Silk Socks, the pattern didn't call for silk, and I didn't use silk. I haven't even spun silk yet, waiting for my wormies to spin. I've spun soy silk on a drop spindle- didn't like it-and I digress. Mom's socks were knitted from hand dyed BFL, my favorite fiber. Knitting Vintage Socks is a lovely book, Fancy Silk Socks is a lovely pattern, and Mom's socks are lovely, but they did seem to take longer to knit than the other lace patterns I've tried, so I'm not in a hurry to do this pattern again. And anyway, I want to get Grandma's socks done- designing the pattern myself as I go along. Maybe I shouldn't say that I'm designing the pattern, what I'm really doing is borrowing parts of other patterns to make the exact socks that I want for dear Gram. What I will NOT be doing anytime soon is spinning WHITE or any other solid colored yarn!

Um, okay.

You Are 70% Normal

Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You're like most people most of the time But you've got those quirks that make you endearing You're unique, yes... but not frighteningly so!

How Normal Are You?

This was unexpected. Normal amount of normal, huh? Well, I guess I'll just have to work a little harder.

Fat cats and finish lines

These silkworm caterpillars are getting fat! Very gratifying to know that I can successfully raise an insect.



Tour de Fleece is going very well too. Grand total to date is 1476 yards! Only 124 yards to go, one semi full bobbin. I can whack that out in one evening in front of the TV! Woo hoo! And, grudgingly I will admit that I've learned something from spinning all this dang white wool. I've really been able to watch the drafting triangle and keep my spinning very even (with no pretty colors to distracts me- you know me, pretty colors and shiny things.....) and I've just about mastered the 'long draw' style of spinning. For non-spinners, this is a technique used to spin lovely, soft yarn, very quickly. And it involves 'letting go' of a lot of control- quit snickering! You kind of let the wheel and the wool do all of the work- it is really cool once you get it down. Now, I don't know if this will work with every type of wool, Merino- having a very short staple, is one that comes to mind as maybe not being the best candidate for the long draw, but the coopworth lamb/alpaca blend is lovely. Should make for a really nice sweater, if Lead Dog ever decides on a color. Pictures tomorrow of the yarn pile and Mom's socks. Finished, blocked and drying as I type. Gotta go cast on Grandma's socks. Her birthday is next Thursday, think I can finish in time? When I mentioned that I was winding the yarn into a ball for Grandma's socks, Mom said they'd make a nice Christmas gift- doh!

My fiber is here! Let me take just a moment to sing the praises of Nistock Farms www.nistockfarms.com They are fabulous. I've ordered several types of fiber blends from them and not only is the fiber wonderful, the customer service is unsurpassed. So, I'm back on the Tour de Fleece, and am cautiously optimistic that I'll finish in time. I do need to finish up the yarn for Grandma's socks before I can go back to spinning the lamb/alpaca blend, but I'll whip that out tonight.
The mailman also brought some very upsetting mail today. My primary care doctor is leaving private practice. I'm not sure I can adequately explain how disturbing this is to me. I've always had a fear/distrust of doctors, and prior to the past 5 years, I really never had a primary care physician. I saw my OB/GYN faithfully for nine months during each pregnancy, but other than that, something had to be broken or falling off for me to seek medical attention. Somehow, by the grace of the positive powers in the universe, when I desperately needed medical/mental help 5 years ago, I lucked upon Dr L. She has been such a steadfast positive support in my life, one of the pillars that held me up during the beginning of the estrangement from my boys. As if that wasn't enough to deal with, I also had cervical cancer spreading deep into my cervix. If it hadn't been for Dr L, I never would have had the procedures necessary to find the cervical cancer, already progressed to stage one, let alone the necessary surgeries and hysterectomy that I needed to be completely cured. (Ladies, please don't be as stupid as I was- have your pap smear every year. Cervical cancer can be cured so easily in its early stages, it is so slow growing, there is really no reason to let it progress like I did) See, she not only helped save my mind, but my body as well. If this is the right move for her in her life right now, I wish her a world of success, peace and joy.
Now to change subjects before I tear up! Here's the silkies:


they are getting nice a plump. I'm nervous that I'll mess with them while they are trying to shed their skin, so for the rest of the weekend, I'm just going to add leaves and not try to clean out the container too much. They should be ready for the first instar change in the next day or so. If disturbed while shedding, they can get stuck, and die. I moved them into a larger container last night, so for the next couple of days, it's hands off! I'll be sure to post any pictures that I catch of the shedding process, and in a couple of days I should have some pics of much larger, plumper silkies!

Man down! Man down!

Well, drat. I ran out of wool. I've spun 860 yards, 740 to go. And I did place an order for more last Saturday, but dang it all to heck, they only have 14 oz of that particular batch of roving left. Weeeeell, I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that 1- the roving arrives in time for me to spin it before the end of the Tour (7/22, I think) and 2- that 14 oz is enough for me to spin 740 yards out of. I'm trying to spin a double ply 'light' worsted weight yarn. We'll see! If nothing else, this little break in the action sure does add to the excitement factor for me. I was getting a little over confident, thinking "oh, this is cake- I'll finish early!" Ha! and the spinning Goddess looked down from on high and said "uh huh, sweetie, we'll just see about that!".
so, during my patient wait for the Fed-Ex man, I'm spinning this:

I need to knit up a pair of socks for Grandma. And finish Mom's second sock. And get a couple of CIC socks done before the end of the month. Life is good when there are so many projects queued up that I don't have time to think about how much I miss the boys and get all mopey. I started to backslide early in the month, but extra love and attention for the pups and LD have helped enormously. Here is a pic of three of them, and while they are giving me neither love or attention at the moment this pic was taken, it soothes my heart just to look at them

The silkies are growing and keeping me busy too. Here's the updated photo: *hmmmm- blogger is NOT letting me add the pic of the silkworms. I'll try again tomorrow. *

They have not made their first molt/instar change (hmmmm, I really should look up the proper terms before I start typing!) but that should be happening in the next few days. I did count them tonight as I was cleaning out the old chewed up leaves. I have approximately 120 hatchlings from a batch of 200 eggs. I can live with that.

Snow Blind!

Ugh! I thought that the challenge of spinning 1600 yards of yarn would be the yardage, but the real challenge is spinning white. White, white, white. Blech. Boring.
But the happy news is that I am up to a total of 688 yards, with only 912 to go. I can do it - I think! to break up the boredom of white white white yarn, in lieu of posting more pics of white yarn, I'll share some pics of my last 'dye day'.
I used a 'low water immersion' method, 4 large canning jars in a pot, squish the jars full of roving, pour the dye in, add enough water/mordant mix to come to the top of the jar. Insert a spoon handle and smoosh roving around to ensure that the color reaches all of the roving. Add water to the pot about halfway up the outside of the jars and simmer about 45 minutes until the dye is struck (water in the jar is clear). This is a fun and easy way to get nicely variegated yarn, but there is NO control over the color. Someday, after this Tour de Fleece is over, I'll happily post pictures of the yarn spun from these batts. ...and what will I make with the yarn? Well, socks of course!















Silkworm update: cats are doing well. Growing, but not a whole lot different. I'll post some pics of them on Wednesday, their 1 week birthday.

two day old silkworm. Very cool.

And a spinning update:



I'm up to 433 yards with a mere 1167 to go. I'm starting to have serious doubts that I will have enough roving to spin the whole 1600 yards from this one pound of roving. I'm fairly certain that if I order more today, it should arrive in time for me to finish the Tour de Fleece. I hope.

Happy Birthday little Kego!

Thanks to the brilliance of Michael at www.wormspit.com I've learned that the newly hatched silkworm babies are called Kego in Japan. It translates into hairy babies, which is totally appropriate, that is exactly what they look like! I never thought I'd say this about an insect, but they are durn cute! I'm having second thoughts about feeding them to Mr Draco, but I'm sure around the time of the third or fourth instar (skin shed-it's how they grow. seriously, check out wormspit, you'll learn soooo much!) I'll be ready to part with a few to make feeding/cleaning easier. And if not, well, Mr Draco can't miss something he's never had!

I'll close today with an adorable picture of the precious pup that holds my broken heart together with his two paws. -and can't you tell how much he just loves his momma waking him up to take yet another picture of him?!?

We Have Babies!!!!

Baby silkworms, that is! I've been getting rather nervous about the little eggies, wondering if the temp is correct (no, the thermostat doesn't ease my mind, those things can be wrong, you know!) wondering if the humidity (or lack thereof) is correct, and worrying that they will all decide to hatch an hour after I've left for work- and then all the little babies would die of hunger/dehydration before I got home to feed them (horrors!). So you can imagine my relief and joy when this morning (2am) I wandered downstairs in an insomniac blur and found one tiny, fuzzy little speck crawling around a bit. okay, crawling is probably the wrong word, waving around a bit is more on target.
So what did I do, you ask? well, I slipped on a pair of flip flop and ran to the mulberry tree in the back yard and started plucking tiny newborn leaflets from the end of about half a dozen branches. My silkworm babies will not go hungry! And I'm just thrilled that they've chosen the end of the work week to hatch, this way, I can spend all weekend making sure they are fully fed and happy. Full, happy silkwormies will equal lots and lots of silk. I am planning on allowing the silkworm moths to emerge from their cocoons- I'll fluff and handspin the silk, not reel it, but some of the silkworm will also be used as a treat for our Bearded Dragon- Draco:












Tour de Fleece update:



This is 172 yards. Only 1324 to go! I am not loving spinning all this white, but as said yarn will be made into a sweater, I need to dye it all in the same batch. Can't have Lead Dog running around in a splotchy sweater now, can we?

And they're off!

Woo Hoo! Tour de France day! Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I have very little interest in sports, but find a way to tie said sport into spinning or knitting, and I'm all over it! I've actually been watching the Tour pre show this morning! Holding off on spinning for the last day has almost killed me, and I'm on pins and needles to get started. A quick trip to the dog park this morning, then I'll be spinning happy all afternoon!

In other news, we had an exciting arrival this week:

What is it, you ask? Weeeell, they are silkworm eggs! Now, settle down, you know this is not the craziest thing I've ever done. When Lead Dog and I realized that we have a Mulberry bush/tree growing in the back yard, I started doing a little light research to see if I could find info about Mulberries, maybe find a recipe or two for the yummy berries, one thing lead to another, and poof, we are silkworm parents. silkworm farmers? crazy silkworm caretakers? whatever you want to call us, we are going to try our hand at it! For more silkwormy info, please visit: www.aurorasilk.com and www.wormspit.com and for the some of the funniest stuff I've ever read you have to check out: www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000398.php