I am Still Here

No - I haven't flown the coop. Although the cold weather has set in - and Florida is sounding really good right now - I'm still here. It's just been terribly busy. Along with all the chores that have to be done to get ready for winter, I decided to
do a little spinning project for another Shetland
owner who had a terrible misfortune on holiday, and
lost her spinning bag, and shawl that she was working
on. I just happened to have some dark blue rovings
that were very close to the colour she was looking for,
so, I offered to spin them up for her, and in exchange, she is going to knit me a shawl for my Mother in
Law for Christmas.
I finally got it done on Sunday night, and mailed it out
Monday. I hope it is good enough for her to knit with. In the top picture, I spun 2 plies of wool with
a single gold strand of thread. In the second picture, I spun 2 plies of wool with a third ply of
multi coloured soy silk. The colourway is called Mermaid (by Louet). I was very pleased with this one - except my Victoria was a real pain during the plying - and kept seizing up, and causing the yarn to overtwist when it wouldn't draw it onto the bobbin. I'm going to have to do another test yarn to see if I can figure out what was going on.

Of course - right about the middle of last week, I
decided that I should come down with the Mother of
all Colds. I felt like I was going to die. Normally,
colds don't bother me all that much - one day, and
back on my feet. Not this time. Here we are a week later, and I still feel like I want to die. Part of that may be that I took "Buckley's" a few nights
ago, and it completely burned my throat raw.
As I was writhing on the floor in pain - it occurred to
me that I may possibly be allergic to something in the Buckley's. Never again. It's 3 days later, and my throat is still raw.

Other than all of this fun, I am trying to get ready for Christmas, and major surgery on
December 13th. As well - I am a potter, so I am trying to get ready for a show at one of our
local venues in a few weeks. Can you say - not quite enough hours in the day! I have a trip to
Kitchener planned for this Saturday to pick up some new pottery equipment - and then that's it for this year - I have to stay home and get some stuff done around here. I can see now that there are a lot of things that I planned for the barn that just aren't going to be happening this winter.
For my next post - I'm hoping to have a nice surprise (for me anyway). I am very excited.
Stay tuned.

Road Trip!

This past Saturday, my friend Barb and I took off on a day trip (we do this every so often). First stop was at the Hamilton Potters Sale. There are some very good artist's in this guild. I myself am a potter, and am seriously intimidated by most of the work I see at their show. In the first picture - you can see - a Raku Canada Goose by
Marlen Moggach. I had hoped to get one of her loons - but they were all sold out. This is a beautiful piece of art. For those of you that are unaware of Raku, it is a hit and miss way of firing the glazes, and due to the temperature extremes, a lot of pieces are usually lost.
The piece on the right is actually a small wall hanging. It is also raku, and is a background plaque, and on the front (in black) is all chinese words embossed on a piece of clay. In the raku
process - the black portion is left unglazed, and when it goes through the firing, the unglazed portions actually turn black from the smoke. You get some very interesting effects.

After leaving Hamilton, we travelled on to Glen Williams near Toronto, to view the "Women in Wood" show. It was also a pottery show, and was based on several Toronto area potters who built a wood fired kiln for glazing. Some very interesting pieces were on display.

From there, we stopped to visit my friend Cate, just outside Fergus, and we brought her a rooster. Bera (the rooster) had spent 7 hours in the back of the car - didn't make a peep. He's a very well travelled rooster. I'm going to miss him.

On to the next stop. We went to the Guelph and area Spinners Guild Sale. I didn't take any pictures. Lots of lovely spun, woven and knitted items.

Almost to the end of our journey - and we were getting tired by now. We headed into Elora, to the "Blown Away" Glass gallery. Where all the items are - you guessed it - blown glass, and
dichroic glass.

As you can see from the picture, I picked up 2
blown glass oil lamps. They are awesome.
My secret fetish is blown glass and millefiori glass. I have such a collection of artisan glass. I am going to give one to my Mom for Christmas, and keep one for myself as a Christmas gift. I just haven't decided which one yet, although I'm leaning towards the green one for me.

And then last, but not least - to the mill. Where I picked up
all of my rovings. Lots and lots of yummy, soft rovings.
I was so pleased. There were close to 26 pounds of Rovings. Wellington Fibres, just outside of Elora does a
wonderful job on my fleeces. They are so incredibly
soft, I can't wait to start spinning - but wait - I have to dye some of these first - Oh Jared!!!!!!! Are you busy!
Jared is a great young fella from the Kingston area - and he
has a way with the dyepot. Many of these rovings will be
making their way down to him to be dyed, and then coming
back to me for spinning. I can't wait. There are also several
spinners in the local area who are waiting to get their hands
on these rovings. I think I may be busy for a while.