Thursday, June 4, 2015

Summer is coming!!

Greetings to all!

June has sprung and we are in the last push in school, boys baseball, summer trip planning and gearing-up for various fibery pursuits.

School for my tribe ends in exactly 2 weeks and it feels like it.  The sunny days outnumber the cloudy ones now and there are field trips, sports tournaments and thankfully longer, warmer days.

I love baseball but I don't love adults who make it joyless for kids.  My youngest's baseball team suffered 2 losses yesterday and is now eliminated from further playoff action...there was a huge controversy with the first game two days earlier that ended in suspended play, in the bottom of the last inning, and then a very late ruling by the league that the teams needed to play a continuation 2 days later and right before my son's 2nd game.  My son's team (last in the regular team play standings) was winning by 3 over the 4th placed team and could taste victory.  In the end, Goliath won this game but my son's team played with honor and heart.  I consoled my 9 year old boy as only a mom can do after a few late night tears were shed and a brave, smiling face greeted me this morning.  It helps that today is a class field trip to the pool! The team will be back stronger and better than ever next year.

I had hoped that I could attend Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon this year, but instead will be traveling to visit friends across the country that I only get to see virtually (thank you facebook!) and maybe once every 5 years or so.  I am looking forward to seeing them and having some me/girl time.

To keep my fiber-thirst quenched I have signed up for several Tour de Fleece, not to be confused with the Tour de France, teams on Ravelry.  Join Ravelry here to see the linked pages in this blog post.  I am spinning for wild card teams: Team Southern Cross Fibres, Team Bosworth, Team Jenkins, Team Schacht, Team Ashford and will likely add one or two more.  The goal is to spin fiber every day the Tour de France rides, this year from July 4 through July 26.  There are standard teams like Peleton, Rookies and Lanterne Rouge.  Come join me!

I am also participating in Stash Dash, hosted by The Knit Girllls.  I'm going for the 3K but there are 5K and 10K options.  The goal is to reduce your stash by using it.

This month I am going to put a plan in place to organize my house.  I've let things go and it's starting to wear on me and the family.  My fiber stuff is now taking up prominent space in more of the common rooms than ever before.  I think a mid-summer destash and yard sale will be in order.

I've been busy spinning and finished an 8 ounce progression spin with a semi solid and a variegated braid of fiber from Southern Cross Fibre. It's VERY hard to catch an update from this shop, the best way to get SCF fiber is to get it through a destash on Ravelry - it's worth it.  Get on the wait list for the SCF Club.  Now . Go!
You can see more progress pics of this spin on my project page here

I am knitting slowwwwwly on my Meilenweit stripey socks and today I will experiment with a new tool I picked up during the LYS Tour at Tolt Yarn and Wool:

It's the Stash Buster Loom, a small hand held, all wood loom made by Purl & Loop in Texas.  Find it here.  Tolt Yarn and Wool carries just the loom; Purl & Loop carries them in a kit form with a nice carry bag and yarn snips.

I often have leftover singles after spinning a project and I have taken to chain plying them to clear my bobbing.  I get small skeins of worsted or dk weight yarn.  This loom is the perfect way to use those bits up and perhaps make a bag or scarf with all the woven squares:



One more reminder that summer is just about here, fresh from the garden this morning:


Happy Sunny Days to you.









 

1 comment:

byhandbyjean-knitting around said...

And sunning days to you too. Love your blog! Full of tasty information of what you are doing!