Tour de Fleece

Goal: Spin a little everyday. No limits.
I can spin on a wheel or spindle. I can spin sitting down with my girls watching Buffy. I can spin standing in line at the bank or sitting on the back deck with a brew and friends.
I can spin a little bit or a whole lot.  I can spin anything my little fiber heart desires. Well, anything that I have here in my stash. And believe me spinning from my stash is no hardship whatsoever. Sounds good doesn’t it?
I know what you’re thinking well that is not really a challenge.  It is. For me it is.
I have been so wound up with the organizing and running of things and adjusting to the whole single parent thing and well its been a really long time since I spun. And I LOVE to spin. Spinning led me here. 
So I guess basically my goal is reconnection to my fiber soul.
So far I have a bobbin and a half of the singles as you can see from photo above. Its the BFL mix I sell in the Boobie 1 colourway. I love spinning BFL, add in the mixture of ecru and black an how it takes the dye and what’s not to love really. 
I’m hoping to have the second bobbin full tomorrow so I can ply it.
Off to finish packing so I can spin a little before turning in. Even setting the timer so I make sure this happens.

If at first you don’t succeed…

Even though you’ve tried seventeen ways to Sunday to fix it and still… You’ve tried every single way that makes sense at least to you.
Every single way that all the techies you know have told you to do including some creative put one hand behind your back and twist to the left and then plug it in but only if the moon is full in Cancer.  Like really if the moon is full in Libra, DO NOT plug it in to that port on the left.
Even if you’ve reasoned with it (just asking it to do the job I hired it to do) , singing to it ( it likes Abba way too much), bribing it ( I promised it brand new fancy coloured wiring and if it was really good a sexy new modem friend) and then finally, and I’m not proud of this, the threats. Something like you stupid piece of @#$%^%$#@@#$%^ I’m should just rip you out of the wall and be done with you.

So what do you do if none of that works and you can’t seem to find an expert to help. Yup, you guessed it. A bit of a temper tantrum.
I threw a big giant fit ( ask Debra she listened to my tirade).  I ranted and raved and stormed around and maybe shed a tear or two and then got smart and went for a cooling down walk. 

While I was gone I thought about what a network system is and what I’ve done with yarn and knitting and realized I was approaching this all wrong. So I got back and called my extremely smart and talented son and we talked through it and then we both opened a beer ( because networking requires beer) and broke out the brand new Cisco E3000 router and went to work.  We brainstormed and tested and tested some more to make sure we had the right problem to solve. It really kind of sucks to solve a problem you don’t really have. Ask me how I know?
Anyway I unplugged and replugged and moved this and that and wondered why they were even there and then plugged in the very sexy (it so is) E3000 and did everything it told us to do. Even though in all honesty neither one of us are that great at following step by step instructions. We did and viola it worked Like it really worked.  I went around to every single computer and tested the internets and printers capabilities and if it could connect to the server and… they all could and did.  It all worked and it worked way better than it ever had.  I did a happy dance and tickled the hell out of my son. I think he was maybe even a bit proud and certainly relieved.
And the best part. I understand this now. I get it the whole hub/switch box thing and the modems and router and all the wires from the barn and the dsl and and phone lines and server connection and who goes where and why.
I am no longer the blue moon network systems bitch. I am not afraid or intimidated by those wires and cables anymore.  We are all coworkers and are now establishing on a friendly relationship based on mutual understanding and resolution.
I even promised that next time maybe I would try the walk first.

Who’s the router?  Oh yeah this is the router. Meet my new friend the Cisco Kid.

So now that that dragon is slain tamed and I’ve dealt with my “stuff” about computer related wires. Hell it’s about the same as a sound system ( previous life as a sound techie) so seriously don’t know what my issue was here.
I’m going to spend the day in the barn dyeing silk.  Silk hankies, silk yarns, silk top, maybe a cocoon or two. So excited.

Dear Gail

I have been in the barn dyeing new colours this week. I was joking around with Debra and Anneli about how I was supposed to be working on hot summer hues but all I seemed to be interested in doing was dark with twisted flair ( name wise, you’ll see). All of them slid seamlessly unbidden from some deep dark place I seem to be working through.

I had to finally take all those dyes and put them back in their place on the shelf where they were at least out of sight if not out of mind.  I then stood there in front of an empty dye table at a loss. I looked around and watched all those lovely women I get to work with in the barn and thought of them, you know what they like, who they are. Debra with are her jeweled toned love, Anneli with her scummy ( we’re scum sisters) earth motherness, psychedelic hippie girl Becky, Paula with her rich golden warmth and Rosie, full of life passionate robot lovin’ Rosebud. I took them all in and stepped right over my dark self right smack dab into the brighter, warmer and certainly lighter side of the life’s colour wheel.

It took a bit of effort and Debra will tell you maybe some colour language was also invented, but finally through loving appreciation for these women and who they are, I got there. I had fun, created some really lovely colourways that I’m happy with and that I think others will be happy with and made them workmate happy.  All in all a good days work in the dye barn.

So Gaily the next day I walk out to the barn to say hi to everyone as usual.  Rosie has rinsed most of what I made the day before so it’s hanging up to dry right. I almost walk by them before they fully register in my over full brain. I’m stunned.

I stand there thrilled, thoroughly thrilled with all of them but most especially my dark side. Colour joy vibrating in all my cells. They turned out exactly how I envisioned and you know how much I like it when that happens right out of the dye jar.  I’m standing there tickled with myself and radiating it verbally to anyone who’ll listen and then my dear friend it hits me like a ton of bricks. Bricks, red bricks.
Gail, all those colours hanging there that I loved and I do. I Love them like a flower loves the sun, just can’t get enough. I want to dance with joy and then plan all sorts of projects and knit and spin and weave and maybe spread it all out on the barn floor and roll in it.  That kind of love!
And you know what they are Gail?

They are REDS!  Every single one has at it’s core some shade of deep red.

I wish you could’ve been there, you’d have laughed and laughed. I laughed until I could barely stand and then I cried. I just couldn’t believe it Gail.

RED…
Do you remember when I could barely tolerate anything resembling a shade of red? Wouldn’t even entertain the possibility. I do.  Then you waltzed into my life in all of your cheery ruby red loveliness and we became fast friends.
Ruby Slippers was all about you.  Remember?
We went back and forth over how I kept adding too much blue and not enough warmth. You kept wondering why I insisted upon ruining a perfectly good red.
I kept wanting to blue them all up to make them closer to a shade I could tolerate.  Then… one day while we were knitting and chatting I saw how content and happy you were knitting on that red sock in someone elses yarn ( I know, there are other really good yarns...) and I wanted to make you that happy so I went home and pulled out the dyes and added your warmth to Ruby Slippers.

Gail I’ll never forget the look on your face when I handed you that first skein of Ruby Slippers, such a blissful radiant smile, made my heart sing. 
It was a huge moment for me. Certainly because I was able to make you the red you wanted and in doing so give you the opportunity for joy.  It also afforded me an opportunity, because of that love for you, my friend, I stepped outside of myself and that seemingly small movement completely changed my colour perception. 

Gaily our friendship holds many treasures that I hold close and dear. Today I want to thank you for opening the door that led me not only back to my red self. (I’m not sure I could’ve done it without you.) but also helped me with my journey to see and love the many hues of life that I might be to see or appreciate, through the eyes of others.

You my friend are priceless gift I treasure.
Look out Gail lots and lots of reds are headed your way. 

I love you!

me

ps I was going to put a picture here but it is raining and gray again and you know what that does to red photography. Yup it blues them out and no way am I letting the camera blue them out.