away in wool and sunshine

I've been away from the computer lately, enjoying a visit with my father. The happy confluence of sunshine, warm fall weather, and time to be outside took precedence over all else! We had friends over to our sukkah for wine tasting and dinners and desserts. We had fancy cheeses and 2 kinds of fish and homemade potato/leek soup. We've had make your own pizza night and fudge brown pie and apple pie and...lots of ice cream on top. We also ate out at lots of restaurants with my dad. It's been a great few days together.

While my dad was here, we took a boat ride on the river. We happened to pass the Manitoba Legislature Building, and you can see from this shot that it was a) a beautiful day and b)we've had more than our share of rain this season. (Look at the steps...underwater.) You might remember this view from 2008, when I took the boat tour for the first time and spotted a spinner right here...where the water is now. Here's a link to another sunny day in drier times! When our boat ride went under one of Winnipeg's bridges, we saw the knitting installation that crossed the bridge 2.5 times! It was a weekend full of arts and activity here.

Also, because it was Culture Days, there were events all over the city. We stopped to watch First Nations' drumming and hoop dancers. We saw big hoop dancers...and little ones.

My father left on Monday morning and began his long drive home. He complained while he was here that he hadn't gotten to see any moose. I mentioned that wasn't surprising--they don't just hang out on city street corners waiting for tourists to spot them. Imagine my surprise when he just happened upon not one but several moose on his drive east through rural Ontario. He even got a photo!

My recent photos are of more domesticated things...In my basement, I've got, oh, about 10 fleeces or so. I spent today packing up 7 of them to be sent off for processing. In order to do this, you have to stuff the wool tightly into bags. It's a bit like putting your sleeping bag in a stuff sack if you're more familiar with camping terms. Imagine doing that for a couple of hours or so. Right. It's been sort of a long day in the basement.

The good news is that I've got them almost ready for their trip to the post office. We're taking a drive on Friday to mail off some things south of the border in the U.S. This isn't worthwhile, say, for one small package, but if you've got multiple things to ship and need a little drive out of town, it seems like a nice day out. I'm excited because the Sock Knit Along starts on Friday, October 1st. I seem to have organized several hours of knitting in the car to coincide with the start of the KAL, and I can't wait!

In the meanwhile, it's off to prepare Cotswold and Cotswold cross wool, Jacob/Icelandic cross, Icelandic, and Romney wool for mailing. Hope you're having a warm, sunny fall day!

festival nostalgia

I don't know how other people feel, but I find that the intense, short, and wonderful experiences I have at a fiber festival --any fiber festival--remain with me for several days or weeks after the event. In fact, it reminds me a lot of summer camp. At summer camp, everything is intense, short and sometimes bittersweet, too.

I mean, it was cold and wet last weekend. I didn't actually feel tiptop and I was sort of worried to leave 2 different sets of house guests to fend for themselves. However, that didn't stop me from having a great time at the spinning circle after I taught my class. On the left here is a candid shot of a bunch of us spinning. At any one time, there were 3 or 4 of us, and we created a "floor" in the dirt of the barn with an old sheet. I met some readers of my blog, some fascinated onlookers, and some shepherds who came by just to visit. The ladies nearby at the next table were selling pie. How could I have had better neighborly company than that?

While this was happening, my professor shot photos of possibly the cutest border collie puppy ever (see that photo?) and he spent time watching the show ring. He also met an entertaining kid who showed him all his digital photos and discussed bugs with him...never a dull moment for a biologist! The 4H sheep show part of this event was well organized. I was surprised to see how they numbered the sheep (on their rear ends) and that was definitely different than the arrangements I'd seen at the U.S. festivals.

I made connections with people I'd met on Ravelry or emailed with, and I admired some of the (few) fleeces that were entered into the wool competition. Sheep producers gave me their contact information. This week, since coming home, I've contacted 3 different Manitoba sheep producers. I'm expecting (at minimum...), 2 Cotswold fleeces, perhaps a Romney fleece, some Texel cross wool and maybe an Icelandic fleece or two to show up at my house sometime in the next month or so. Many of these farmers come to Winnipeg to do big city errands. My house will now be on their circuit!

The Professor joked that this fleece delivery system sounded a lot like pizza delivery, only it would hang around a lot longer. With the rate I've gone through wool roving for my weaving, I'm not so sure. :) Plus, we do need more insulation for winter, right?

Lately, it's occurred to me that teaching this graduate level writing class at the university 4 days a week is also a lot like camp. While my earlier class seemed almost leisurely at 2 days a week, this class feels like we're on speed. Several people have dropped out and I'm not surprised...we're on warp speed and I can barely keep up with grading the papers.

I managed today to get down to the Forks and saw my rug, carefully wrapped around a concrete pylon near the river. The colors matched and it looked like camouflage. The tag with any information had disappeared..so it did fade right into the scenery. Oh well..next time I'll have to do something a bit brighter. I went off to get myself frozen yogurt with fruit mixed into it...a great treat during my very quick distraction from work.

On my way to the car, the sun was shining. I ate my frogurt and saw an African man about my age with his 3 year old kid walk by, hand in hand. "Look," the man said to his little boy, "Did you see that beautiful lady!?" I stopped and smiled and said what I'd been thinking-- "Look at that cute kid!" Everybody was happy. It was a perfect moment.

the cold case of the fireplace

Once upon a time, some newcomers to Winipeg had a lovely old house, built in 1914. Said house needed a lot of tender loving care. It had some things that worked splendidly. It had some things that done broke a darn long time ago.

We have a chimney. It is your average chimney for our neighborhood. It has corbelling but not too much corbelling. (Yes, this was a word I've learned since moving here. It's in the dictionary...) It was built in a sturdy way, back in 1914. However, we now have a chimney where the bricks just rest gently on each other, touching intimately. No mortar between the bricks. At all.

This is complicated by the fact that we have these lovely original cast-iron coal burning inserts in the fireplaces. Two small fireplaces. Gorgeous. Limestone in the living room, and brick in the professor's study. Totally impractical for today's world. No, we do not burn coal. We do not burn anything, because if we did, we'd burn down the house...cause remember, no safe chimney, shallow fireplace, etc.

We've been doing research on how to fix all this. The options are ridiculously varied. Take down chimney. Rebuild chimney. Get a woodburning insert/woodstove/gas fireplace insert/gas logs/gas stove/etc. Put decorative flowers in there, put a note on the mantel that says NO FIRES and call it a day... All suggestions people have offered us.

Some things will not work. For instance, new gas fireplace inserts will not fit in our fireplaces, so we've had more than one person suggest they just cut up the masonry surrounds (from 1914) to make those new things fit. Does. Not. Sound. Safe....or historically respectful.

We've got lots of advice, including some from an architect (professor's father) and an engineer with experience in natural gas (my father) and several tradesmen in the area. However, neither father has ever been here, so I've put up these photos for them to see the fireplaces. Please, join in the fun! In my best case scenario, by next year this time, I'd still be admiring these cast iron coal inserts. I'd be sitting next to a gas fire. It would feel warming, and I could shut it off before going to bed. (a woman can dream, right?!)

Have I mentioned that all of the above options will cost something between $9,000 and 15,000 to come up with a solution? Oh, and that if we don't fix that dang chimney this spring, it's likely to just fall off the roof and kill a passerby in a stiff wind?!

Now, if the above scenario causes you hyperventilation problems like it bothers me (and believe me, this is just one of the interesting problems we've encountered this year, between new/old house, immigration, work, etc.), you might need to calm yourself. Quick. Look at this spindle. Breathe. Think peaceful thoughts.

The professor bought me this as a treat and it arrived yesterday. It's made of Walnut, 33grams, and it comes from this kind man:
Ray's Spindles
It doesn't replace the one I loved that snapped in my bags while travelling to write Fiber Gathering. However, it's a nice spindle, and if you look at that webpage? I have pretty much every variety of spindle he makes. I especially like the Turkish and Bedouin spindles. The kind that broke, a "hi-lo" spindle, is one I think he might no longer make. I do miss it.

I also have been weaving to "beat" the band. Or at least, beating the heck out of these roving rugs I've been learning to do. Here are a couple of pictures of my efforts. I've done 2 twill rugs, one plain and one striped. I've done 2 plain weave rugs, one plain and one striped. All the rugs are roughly 2 by 3 feet, with the striped plain weave one maybe a few inches longer. The wools used are Icelandic, Romney and Cotswold. The warp is cotton.

I haven't quite finished off these rugs yet, but well, warp #2 is off the loom and I'm fixing to start warp #3 with the start of the new month. As soon as I figure out how to use a warping board. See? I'm definitely learning something new at least every day. Good to keep the brain active. It sure does seem like a lot of work some days. Especially the hyperventilating while trying to make expensive house decisions part...