Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

Rebekah had a blast finding eggs after church today. Then she hid them and made Mom and Dad find them! That was incredibly fun for us!
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HE IS RISEN!

O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean In its fullness over me,
Underneath me, all around me, Is the current of Thy love;
Leading onward, leading homeward To my glorious rest above.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How he loveth, ever loveth, Changeth never, nevermore;
How He watches o're His loved ones, Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, Watcheth o're them from the throne.


O the deep, deep love of Jesus, Love of every love the best;
'Tis an ocean vast of blessing, ' Tie a haven sweet of rest,
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, 'Tis a heav'n of heav'ns to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, For it lifts me up to Thee.

One of my favorite ressurection day hymns.
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Saturday, April 23, 2011

A Little More Fiber Adventuring!

OK. 2  years ago my DH, Jim asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I wanted a drop spindle. I found one on Etsy made by Mainewoods. I ended up getting a Top Whorl and a Bottom Whorl and some roving to play with. I got the spindle in 2009 and tried to play around with spinning but had NO CLUE what I was doing. So I  put it all away and went on with my knitting and got into some dying and have had fun...

Recently, my BFF, DeDe decided to have a Fiber Adventure Week. She's been dyeing, spinning, weaving, playing with Silk, all sorts of thing having to do with fiber! So much fun to read her blog posts about what she was adventuring into each day. This spurred me on to doing a little creative dyeing myself with my daughter yesterday. Today I got a different bug.

My husband asked me later why I didn't tell him what I had planned when we came home from grocery shopping today. I scrounged my stash looking for those spindles that I had put away long ago...Ironically, it was Jim who found them for me! And then later had the nerve to ask me why I didn't tell him it was going to take up my time for the next 2 hours! Well what did that matter...he was content to watch the Detroit Tigers beat up the Chicago White Sox. Ah well. So I got on the phone and called up DeDe since she is the one who started all this Adventure stuff..

And I Predrafted fiber in preparation for spinning...I would have never figured this out if I hadn't had DeDe as a teacher...This is why I failed those initial tries 2 years ago! I had no clue how to get started! According to DeDe's instructions I predrafted a bit more...but found I was a bit afraid to really let the fibers slide apart to much. Need more practice!
Once it started to look like this, I was ready to start Spinning on the stick I had...this is practice for a brand Newbie spinner trying to learn over a phone...and let me tell you just having a Smartphone doesn't help in times like these!  Especially when that stupid Smartphone won't email or text pix while you are on the dumb phone...but I digress...

So I followed the instructions that I was given and within minutes I was creating the first steps of spinning yarn!! I was spinning it by drafting ( allowing the untwisted yarn to slightly twist while holding it away from the twisted, or spun, yarn) with my right hand and twisting it by rolling the stick on my leg with my left hand...I immediately changed hands and went the other way...much easier for me. Just a few minutes and some patient guidance via phone from DeDe and I had the beginnings of YARN!!!

I still have a long way to go and lots to learn. I was able to learn how to add more fiber to be drafted and then how to ply a short section together on my hand...I ended up with this...which has a long way to go and a lot of learning ahead...but I loved it!!  I am creating yarn! I still have yet to learn how to spin on my spindles...but I ran out of time..tomorrow is another adventure...







Oh...by the way...my first attempt has already been confiscated as a princess crown! High Praise indeed!

Our Friday Fiber Adventure

I have been watching my Best Friend's adventures in fibering this week and developing a jealous streak a mile wide. She has so many talents when it comes to fiber that I can only help but be jealous. So I got a little motivated to try something new with Rebekah today. It's the time of year we remember Christ's death and Celebrate His resurrection. Easter. Jim, Rebekah, and I colored some eggs as we have each year.

     Then we needed to find something to do with the leftover dye we had. I really did not want to just dump it out without trying something new and fibery with it. So here Rebekah and I used a 10cc syringe and shot little injections of egg dye into already prepped bare yarn. I had already purchased yarn for this from Knitpicks. They have a great selection of bare yarns for dyeing.  So anyhow...I prepped the yarn by soaking in water and as we already added vinegar to our easter egg color pots...I only added another 10 cc to each.  After we were done with our eggs, I let Rebekah choose whatever colors she wanted to inject onto her yarn. She had so much fun!  And I must admit so did I. We used up almost all of the left over egg dye just shooting it onto and into the yarn spread on the plate.





This is the two plates we ended up with...I finished wrapping it in plastic wrap and microwaving each plate for 2 minutes...then swapping plates and continuing that process every 2 minutes for 3 cycles...all of the dye was used and the water ran clear.  After leaving it to cool off on the counter for a while...we rinsed the yarn in cool water with a dab of herbal shampoo...I didn't see any dye come off in the water so I was thrilled that the dye struck.



This is the result of Rebekah's after processing...right now the yarn is hanging in the kitchen to dry...and the process of choosing an appropriate pattern to make up socks for Rebekah and I...



So this is how we spent out Fabulous Friday Fiber Adventure.  It turned out really nice. Rebekah's skein is on the left and mine is on the right. I am having trouble waiting for it to dry!!! I must tell you that this is DeDe's fault...she encouraged me to try something a little different with fiber. Maybe next time I will break out my drop spindle and play with some roving...