yarn spinner: Popping by

This has been a long time between blog posts...it's not usual for me. Lots has been happening, but it's kind of overwhelming. Like, when the weather finally warmed up, and we had a radiator pipe burst in the basement. Like that.

When each challenge has happened this year, we've worked as a family team and well, just kept our heads down and dealt with it. Often, it means I'm doing home school/remote school with kids and dog while closed up in the guest room while the masked professor deals with a procession of tradespeople. But, you know, now our pipes work, our heat works, our hot water works, our dishwasher has stopped leaking, and even the mice influx seems to have finally stopped ... lots has been fixed while we continue to stay home.

I hear some people take exotic hot weather vacations. (not us) However, it's a pandemic, and last I checked, there are still 250,000 people ahead of us to be vaccinated in our province... so we just spent that money fixing stuff. Thank you, careful, masked tradespeople! Did each bit of damage happen for a reason? because of construction nearby? Because of the extreme weather? Because that one little dishwasher valve wore out? Who knows.

In the work department, I've had some articles published, but it's not been frequent work. In one case, somehow the article's comments became like, well, a real tire fire. I've been told by my Canadian friends that in Manitoba, people say "dumpster fire" to mean the same thing. When I say the words 'TIE ER FIE ER" --my accent comes out, straight from Virginia, with hints of my time spent in North Carolina and Kentucky. It's slow just like when you're driving on the highway and see the huge plume of black stinky smoke. Everyone ahead of you slows down to rubberneck and you're stuck in this horrible endless traffic jam. People are all aghast at the fire, which will take forever to put out and how did it happen? And what kind of nasty pollution will it leave? While the thing burns on endlessly and stinks. It's so awful that it's hard to look away. (OK, now you can imagine how negative the comments were.)

So, I'm not linking to that article. No need for anyone to go read those comments. Hint: it ran on the CBC and in this personal essay, I implored people to hold on, the pandemic's not done with us yet. I say this despite really missing my family and being so tired of this, we'd been lucky so far. We were privileged, despite losing a family member in NYC last spring. The article ran at the end of March, and well, here we are now, starting the third wave. Just. Not. Over... yet here, folks. (Sometimes the true news is an opinion that hits home. That's what people really didn't want to hear...)

While all this is happening, I am actively making things. Sometimes, it's lots of food to get ready for holidays. (We had a great Passover and spring break, and having a Zoom seder works fine for us. It's also awesome not to have to go anywhere and pack soggy matzah sandwiches for lunch...)

I've also been sewing, knitting and spinning up a storm as I find it a tremendous way to relieve stress right now. I made a really large scarf out of beautiful red silk from Japan (a deadstock fabric remnant sent to me from Fabcycle in Vancouver) and a tiny bit of coordinating floral print. I am knitting a sweater...probably for me, maybe a new design, but I'm sort of winging it so we'll see how it comes out.

I finished the big new wool bathmat from Churro and Hebridean wool. It's been a great addition to kid shower or bath time!

--Also, I was recently told by one of my twins that there was no way he was going back to wearing store bought pajama bottoms as the flannel ones I made were so much more roomy and cozy. But oh, by the way, spring is coming and both twins grew. So, now I'm sewing a pile of lightweight pjs in cheerful colours. There has been some dispute over who gets which fabric. (pretty much all from stash or deadstock remnants) I've encouraged both kids to realize that since they share the same room, they can always get to see the pjs across the room, even if they aren't wearing them. This seemed to briefly mollify them!

I've also been spinning up some Dorset/Rideau (I think) wool. This fleece was handed to me as a gift. It's really soft and cozy. The first couple skeins were ones I processed myself from start to finish, but then I decided to have the rest of the fleece processed by my favourite local woollen mill. The roving came back clean and lovely to spin.

Alas, despite everyone's best efforts, this fleece still has a lot of field left in it. At each stage, there's lots of vegetable matter to remove. I'm likely to still be removing it as I knit. However, the wool is really something...I have spun it as a chunky two ply and it will possibly make a sweater for one kid or another for next winter (after dyeing it) as they are growing like weeds.

There's lots more to tell you, dear blog readers, but no more time in a day to fit it all in. For now, I'll leave you with one finished pair of pajama bottoms and our table, set for the first Seder. It was great having my parents 'sitting' at the end of the table with us. The table was really long. Thanks to Zoom, it started in Virginia, and ended in Winnipeg.