The world keeps on spinning, spinning, spinning....

Not a lot of free time at the zoo to have a creative outlet anymore. But, that is ok. Busy is good. Taking MBA classes, working.....moving life forward. Last Spring I had inquired at a local (well, 45 miles away) fiber shop about spinning classes. They were not offering any at the time, but the owner Rosemary told me that she would put my name on a list and if they had one coming up she would give me a call. Sure enough, last week I got the call. 2 hours a week for 6 weeks. Spindle, wheel, everything spinning. I quickly called my sis and we didn't have much debate that it was time to sign up and move our spinning forward!

Thursday was the first class. Rosemary from the Rose Tree Fiber Shop armed each of us with a half a pound of raw fleece. She taught us how to pick it, "charge the cards", card the fleece with hand carder, and use our spindles. I quickly learned that using the hand carders is going to take some practice. I can't seem to remember each of the steps to transfer the fleece and get to the final step where I can roll my rolag.
A close up of the fleece. It is a grey Romney sheep from Iowa.

She sent us home with the supplies and a little homework. We are supposed to pick through all of our raw fleece (time consuming and yet hand conditioning with the lanolin), practice with the hand carders and create 3 rolags to bring to the next class so that we can start working on the wheels, and also fill up our spindle with yarn so that we can learn how to use the niddy noddy and clean the yarn. Fiber goodness.

Some people enjoy spinning in the "raw". I am enjoying the process, but think that most of the time I will tend to stick to my prepared fibers.

We have a small class (only 3 students) and so we are getting lots of attention and direction from Rosemary. She has such expansive knowledge and can easily point out what you are doing correctly/incorrectly. For example, when I am using my spindle, she pointed out that I was "de-gutting my rolag", which meant that I was clutching the fiber too tight, and not allowing it to flow quite so freely to my spindle. This was pretty funny to me, because it made me realize that is what I have been doing all along with my wheel & spindle, and that is why I would end up with a little "ring" of fiber at the end...I was de-gutting and pulling the fiber from the inside of my rolag out first! I loosened up how I was holding the fiber, and things quickly turned around.

What were some of your fiber foibles and struggling points as a new spinner? Do you like to work with raw fleece?

At the Zoo

It has been a while since you have checked in on the critters at the zoo. Well, they are up to their old tricks :)

Looking pretty cozy, isn't he? Well,the kitties have been enjoying their naps too. They are starting to get the fall air in their spirit (and zipping around the house), but I do have to tell you that lounging around is what they enjoy.

The past few days we have had a real taste of fall weather. Sleeping with the windows cracked, waking up all tucked up in the covers (poor hubbs, it is cover stealing season).....ah. Lovin' it. Yesterday morning, hubbs let me chose an outdoor activity to enjoy the weather. Of course, I wanted to include our buddy.

This is a butterfly hibernacula at a nearby lake. I especially enjoy this last picture. I wonder if you can spin those fluffy seeds :)

As for knitting, still cranking out on the Breckenridge Shawl. I am hoping to complete it this weekend, and still haven't decided if there is going to be any edging (fringe, beads....). Indigo Ripples Skirt is on the side right now, but still in progress. After working on 2 projects that are only one color, I am starting to think that my next project will bring some fair isle back. I recently picked up 1000 Great Knitting Motifs, and Knittripps had the great idea that I do another Nordic Lights (circa my 2005 finished projects), but switch up the fair isle and choose my own design. Tempting...very tempting....

How are you enjoying the weather?

Anybody home?

I hear that is what some of my friends are saying about this blog :) Everything has been crazy over at the zoo. My MBA classes have started, colds have been passed around our house, and knitting/spinning has fallen to the bottom of the list. Where to begin....

Last weekend was the annual 24-hour mountain bike race in Boone. This was year #5 and hubb's 5th year at the event as well. He has raced the event with teams a couple of times and has also raced as a solo rider. This year, was another year for solo. He had originally planned to do the full 24 hour race, but due to getting a head cold right before the race, he signed up for the 12 hour race instead. This way, he could get the endurance side of doing the race, stop at midnight to hang out and have fun, and get some sleep. It was a good event again this year (thank you especially to the Sedore family--Kyle does a lot for this event), and hubb's ended up getting 3rd place for the 12 hour solo riders. Woohoo! Even as a sickie he can throw down.

You may be wondering if we have moved or have sold our condo? Nope. Through suggestions of my sis and Dogs Steal Yarn blog, I recently purchased a St. Joseph statue for our home, went through the whole ordeal with burying him, etc. So far, he is not responding to us. We will be patient and continue to have faith in someone loving our place. I am not giving up though, these things take time.

MBA classes? So far I am really diggin' them. Pretty interesting stuff. Granted, the reading and outside of class work is cramping my style, but I think that it is good to be challenged to get outside of the comfort zone/daily routine. This week however, was pure suffering with the head cold. I forgot how miserable it is to be sniffling through a 3.5 hour class, a foot away from each of the people next to me. I felt like the plague. Yuck.

And yes...knitting. There has been minimal, but there are a couple of current WIPs. Funny thing is though, they are both KALs with Knitttripps! First, we have the Breckenridge Shawl (dubbed so because we began this in Breck) and then we also have the Indigo Ripples Skirt from Interweave Knits.

I have been going back and forth quite a bit on blogging. This could partially because I am now on Ravelry! Woot woot! After Knittripps told me that you could check your count, I found out that they had sent me an invite a few months ago and I never saw it! Quickly, they sent another out and I am in. Right now, I am struggling to upload prior projects vs. starting from current knits only.