Alison’s new smile :-)

Today was “debanding” day in Belleville.  Alison went in like this:

 

And came out like this :-):

 

She will have to wear a retainer for a year (that gets fitted on Thursday), then nights only after that.  What a gorgeous smile now!

Lamb Fleeces (the great experiment continues)

Dave came over to shear on Saturday, and while we were out I spent some time looking at our 2009 lamb fleeces.  It’s been an interesting experiment.

Here are the three 4H lambs, then a fleece shot for each of them

Paris, Claire’s lamb:

Paris’ fleece:

Loralei, Alison’s lamb:

Loralei’s fleece:

Babette, Iain’s lamb:

Babette’s fleece:

(Some of you fleece types may remember my comment at Babette’s birth … that she was born with a lab puppy coat rather than fleece.  It “seemed” that she was shedding out the odd coat of guard hairs.  I spoke with someone familiar with her grandma, and she mentioned that there was some Romanov in the lambs ancestry that could have spontaneously shown up.  However, although inconsistent across her fleece, she DOES have a fleeces, and not only is it crimpy, it is VERY soft and lustrous, and she has double the staple length of the other lambs!)

Claire’s lace socks done … finally!

This is the first summer I’ve actually continued knitting in the summer.  Generally, once lambs are born, then there are gardens … and I don’t pick up needles again until October or November.  Something about wool and heat … and our house become a terrarium in the hot weather!  Perhaps because we had a real spring this year, and it did not heat up too quickly; perhaps because I’ve created a handknit sock addiction in my family and there are not enough fall and winter hours to complete what needs to be done … whatever the reason, I continue (so far) to knit this year.

Yesterday I finished these (should have finished them a week ago but I tried to cast off on a car trip without instructions and messed up sock two … I use a purling cast off used in Russia that I can never remember properly).

They are knit with Tofutsie sock yarn (soy silk, chitin, wool, nylon blend) on size US 1 (2.25 mm) circular needles. They are knit using my normal sock pattern (figure 8 cast on, toe up, short row heel) with a slight modification along the foot to allow for the lace pattern (I borrowed a stitch from the heel needle during the pattern portions of the sock).  The lace pattern would have shown up more strikingly with a plain coloured yarn, however this is what I had in my stash at the time :-).

 

The lace rib stitch pattern is as follows:

(Multiple of 10 stitches)

Round 1:  k9, p

Round 2:  k2, k2tog, yo, k, yo, ssk, k2, p

Round 3:  k9, p

Round 4:  k, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k, p

Round 5:  k9, p

Round 6:  k, yo, ssk, yo, (slip knitwise, slip knitwise, k, p2sso), yo, k2tog, yo, k, p

Round 7:  k9, p

Round 9:  k3, yo, (slip knitwise, slip knitwise, k, p2sso), yo, k3, p

Claire’s Grade 8 Graduation, June 23,2009

What a wonderful evening we had at Claire’s grad. She was lovely and poised, and looked older than her years. Our friend Victoria once again worked her magic, and completely straightened Claire’s hair. Her Annie-hair is still growing out, but it looked lovely despite this fact.

Claire won three awards, which was pretty astounding since she was in a very strong class. She won the High Academic award (won by Alison last year!), the ETFO Award for History and Geography, and the Art Award (this is the only one she was secretly hoping to win!). Her Auntie Kim was particularly proud of the ETFO Award, which is sponsored by the Ontario Teacher’s Federation (Kim is on the executive). The theme for the night was “Hollywood” and the kids put a great deal of time into decorating.

Claire, leading her class in:

The Sophiasburgh Central School Class of 2009:

Mr. Stone presenting Claire with her diploma:

Nanny and Papa with the three kids:

Proud parents :-) … :

Us with all three kids:

Claire with her Principal, Mrs. “Pooky” (rhymes with bookie lol) Scott

Claire with some of her friends:

Claire and Kevin dancing the first dance, which by tradition at Sophiasburgh is a Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dance:

Claire, dancing with a BOY!! Gasp! (In fact, the “boy next door” … he invited her to grad as her date, however we don’t allow dating quite yet ;-) … )

One of Claire’s awards … check out the 2008 winner.

We had a genuinely great evening with Claire and her friends, many whom we have got to know over the last couple of years. It was awesome to be there to encourage them all!

The visit

A few days ago, we went on a family walk.  Iain and I trudged on a bit farther to go to one of his favourite “quiet” places, and came upon this little guy on the road.  When we approached him, he fluttered to the side of the road, but he didn’t look great and had some feathers missing.  I suspected he had hit a windshield.  I easily caught him, then held him in my cupped hand, and walked a km home with him happily peering through my fingers.  At home, we let him cool off for a couple of hours with food and water in our cage (make sure Myrt sees this mom ;-) ..), then once he perked up, we set him free out by the pond.

This little bird is a male yellow warbler, and as well as being very bright, was completely unafraid of the whole procedure.  We could put our hands in the cage and ask him to “step up” and he would hop up on our finger!  It was remarkable.

In the cage once we arrived home:

Letting T.J. go in the evening:

A couple of last pictures in the bushes by the pond:

We haven’t seen him since, but we hope he sticks around. Even if we don’t see him again, this special visit by such an incredibly brave, friendly little bird was a real gift.

Summer Plans 2009

It promises to be a busy summer here.  First, each of the kids has been blessed by a week at camp, here.  They are very excited … it’s been a few years since they were able to go to camp!

Plus, each of the kids has at least one job!  We have always encourage the kids to start working at a young age, and to volunteer to build up a good reputation.  Iain has chosen this year to start, and he is volunteering at a local Nursery called Arbour Gardens.  He has so far been twice, and has weeded and watered for the owners.  It’s a lovely place .. incredibly restful and a wonderful environment for a first job. The owners are very involved at the high school, and are educators at heart … so he will learn tons.  He is thrilled :-).

Alison will be continuing on at her job at the stable, with the added benefit of a pay raise this year.  A few months ago, her employer deemed her capable enough that along with the lesson she also receives some cash.  In addition, she is HOPING to get some weekend work at a local upscale restaurant called Blumen, due to a chance conversation I had in No Frills (Mom, I’m just SO MUCH LIKE YOU .. it’s scary!!!).  This one is not for sure yet, however.  She is a very talented cook and baker, and rather than a dishwashing-type or waitstaff job, he is considering her for dessert and meal prep (can I tell you how much I would hate being in a kitchen for work :-P; she finds kitchens restful.  So not related to yours truly!)

Claire also has a first “real” job this summer.  She will be working at a local resort belonging to our friends Scott and Sophie, West Lake Willows, where she will be doing various tasks including working in the office, watching their three young children, working in the store and cleaning (cottage turnovers).  She is SO excited!  She will work 3 6-7 hour days per week.  She has a high need for busy-ness, and was dreading a summer “doing nothing”, but didn’t think at 13 she would be able to find a job.  So if you are reading this, Sophie … thank you again!!!  She can hardly wait.

One more thing I will always appreciate about this place … there are infinite opportunities for kids who want to contribute to the local economy! 

Willow Garden Shetlands Open House 2009

 

Here are a bunch of photographs taken (mostly) by Claire, as I was pretty busy at the skirting table all day.  We had a PERFECT day weather-wise … ranging from overcast to sunny and a nice breeze so not too hot.

View Full Album

And here are a few photographs taken by a visiting fleece buyer.  This is the main yard.

Here is the fibre area of the yard … my skirting table was set up underneath the blue tent.  This was a great idea in principle.  Note to self, however:  very hard to see the true colour of the fleeces underneath a blue tent!  Since the majority of our fleece buyers were helping to skirt so they would get the best fleeces right away, we had to keep dragging the fleeces out to the daylight!  Dave Jones (our shearer) sheared for Bill this year, and he did about 35 sheep on Saturday.  He will be finishing the lot on Wednesday.

Here I am skirting a large moorit fleece … Claire is in the middle.

I saw very little of either Iain or Alison all day.  Iain helped a lot with parking, gates, and back field, and Alison spent most of the day helping the shearer and delivering fleeces to our area.  We didn’t get a photo of the amazing peg board put together by Jeff Gilbert with all the Wool Club members’ knit, crocheted and felted objects on it, but both of Alison’s amigurumi sold (the piggy didn’t even make it up on the board but was sold as it came out of the box first thing :-) ..)  Claire wasn’t feeling all that great, so she helped with tamer things like the skirting table and the bake sale.

In the photo album above, there is a shot of my spinning wheel, which I took, however I had absolutely NO time to spin the whole day.  Two other spinners arrived as well though … my friend Tricia from the County, and Elizabeth from Belleville.  This is the first year we had a very educational display and we had a lot of interested enquiries from visitors.  It was quite fascinating to present the whole process, from newborn lamb to finished skeins of handspun wool.  Elizabeth arrives every year faithfully to purchase Iris’s fleece … Iris is an older ewe of Bills who is a lovely mioget (golden) shetland.  She prepared a series for the guests (raw wool, washed wool, combed wool … and her current project which is a lace shawl she is knitting from the wool!)

We didn’t have the crowds we thought we’d have, and I’m not sure how good a fundraiser it was for the club, but it sure was FUN :-).

Tomorrow is the big Open House at Willow Garden Shetlands …

and here are photographs of Alison’s contribution to the sale table.  The winter fiber club was each asked to use some of the skill they acquired this year to contribute an item to sell.  Alison decided to crochet amigurumi … much to my chagrin because I do not have a brain for crochet work and could not help her at all lol.  Needless to say, she didn’t actually require my help!!!

 

 

Yay, spinning!!! And Alison’s last project in geography

I have to say that spinning is one of the most contemplative, meditative serene pursuits I’ve ever tried.  The fact that there is also an end product is icing on the cake :-).  Now, please keep in mind that these are my very first attempts …

 

Single ply (so far) … continuing my trend of only being able to spin lace weight :-P.  This is very interesting because my first attempts were at the bottom … what a mess, as I figured out the above-mentioned rhythm … and end at the top where it started to flow.

Here is my very first attempt at doing something other than lace-weight.  I also figured out how to ply it (SO much easier on a spinning wheel!!!).  So this is two-ply, and somewhere between worsted weight and chunky … actually, in some spots worsted, and in others chunky, lol.  But oh my … so fun!

 

I think I will knit a square from this … just to see what it looks like :-).

 

And one last photo … Alison’s geography project from this semester, finally finished.  She had to scale up an 8.5 x 11 map of Canada to bristol board size, and fully label and colour it.  She put dozens of hours in to this (and I even helped colour some of the water when it came down to the wire!!)

All for now!  A busy weekend awaits … big 4H fundraiser at WillowGarden Farms and the kids and I are all involved.  Once again, I am skirting fleeces … all day … :-P.  Heh, heh, heh.  Hopefully I will get some actual photos this year!

Learning How to Spin 101

The drum carder works beautifully, and I have a series of lovely roving photos that I will add shortly.  So now that the drum carder is functional, today I turned my attention to the wheel.  Here are the steps as I set up and began learning to spin today.

 

1.  Wheel is dirty.

2.  Dust of all wood pieces, all sides, use orange oil on them.

3.  Wheel is wobbly.

4.  Figure hey, if I’m going to tighten everything, might as well loosen everything and oil all moving parts as well.  So, dismantle entire wheel with great fear, and oil metal parts, and wax wood meets wood parts, and clean everything well.

5.  Put it all back together again (which, surprisingly, went smoothly save for one screw which I over tightened and it actually burst through the cap thingy at the other end.  See how technical I am??? :-P)

6.  Wheel now looks beautiful.

7.  Get out The Best Book on How to Spin that there is, and place on lap.

 

8.  Keep dropping book because lap keeps moving.

9.  Rearrange furniture so that end table supports book.

10.  Spend ages trying to master the knots that hold the leader yarn on the spindle. Literally, ages.  (Specifically, this would be a lark’s head knot on a bight knot).  Experiment with different types of yarn to find one that works well … (when in fact, it’s not working because I keep messing up the knot).

11.  Wheel is now spinning, spindle is now spinning, but the flyer is not.  I’m not sure that this is a problem until I notice that only thin roving is going around the spindle.  Hmmmm.

12.  One more search of YouTube (what a resource!!) to discover why .. no luck.

13.  Start nudging it gently to see if that helps.

14.  Nope, wrong direction.  That was bad.  Nudge the other way.

15.  And suddenly … it worked.  It squeaks, and bangs so there is more work to do, and my first 15 minutes of work was pretty sad, but once you get your rhythm it is FUN :-).

 

Oh, yes … the chore list for today … hmmm … laundry still in process … yikes.  More tomorrow :-).