So... I guess isn't a lot going on lately. This is the first day of the boys summer vacation and they seem pretty grumpy today. I hope that doesn't mean we are going to have a grumpy summer!

I have had two center pull winders break on me in the last year. The cheap things from Michael's just don't last. I looked on line and found this and I love it. It is so smooth and quiet and if it breaks it can be fixed.  It cost ten dollars less than two of the ones which broke and takes less time too. It's got a lot bigger footprint but well worth the space it took up. This is the first part of the first ply of the roving I dyed last. I really like it as a single but I over-twisted for plying so I will keep going with that.

The green is not plied yet. I have been waiting for the weather to warm up so I can take the wheel out under the back porch and spend an afternoon doing it while I watch the wildlife (birds, squirrels, rabbits, butterflies, neighbors kids and our boys). The old ball winder made such a mess of the first ball and broke before I had finished the second, that it is not going to be too easy to ply. Oh well, it will keep me interested.

I finished quilting the center blocks of my Dear Jane and got a good start on the border this morning before I ran out of steam. I hope to finish it this week.

 I got this book at Joann's a couple of months ago, but have been to busy with the hat and scarf sets that I need to get done before fall. The patterns are beautiful and I just couldn't resist swatching one. Tricky though. I started doing one whole pattern but decided I had to break it down into units and working them until I thoroughly understand exactly what I am doing.

 This is not the best yarn for it but it will do for learning. It doesn't really have good stitch definition. It is an acrylic yarn made for machine knitting, but it will do to learn the technique and it won't waste my beautiful wool yarns while I learn. As you can see I have a long way to go, it is fun and I am enjoying it.

I did finish pinning the last of the Drunkard's path units, which is why I have some time to work on the non-scarf and hat knitting. I have only seven sets of those to finish before fall so I am in a good place with those although I am getting a little tired of them. I sent four sets of the finished sets to Matthew and his little family

I have to say I think that my two grandsons are adorable!

The rest of the day will be spent in cleaning, somehow things have gotten ahead of me again, well, I do know why, of course. Cleaning is so uninspiring, but I have to do it sometime although I would postpone it if the weather would warm up so I could sit and spin outside. But then, I would still have the mess, I would feel guilty for not cleaning and maybe I wouldn't enjoy my spinning as much. I had just better get it over with this afternoon, sigh.

Most days I can sew a little and spin a little, but not much else. I have been having some pretty bad back pain so 'I haven't accomplished a whole lot. I have been getting a lot of  'since you are 65' type of mail which is annoying, I won't be that age until August, although I will only admit to 29, and only if I am pressed. What is extremely annoying is when they put it on a postcard and announce it to the whole world. Just one of my pet peeves.

So anyway, David is working on my countertop in the laundry room so I will have a surface to dye on. He will probably pile it high with his crap, he never puts anything away. I am beginning to sound disgruntled, gotta work on that glass half full attitude. Back pain seems to cause bad moods.

 The pictures make it look darker than it actually is. The tiles are odds and ends we bought a long time ago and this is the last of them. It is going to be prettier than it seems right now and I will enjoy having it once I get David's stuff put away. We will have a coffee maker on it and and electric kettle. Maybe in time a small microwave. We will have to see about that.

This is another little job I am doing. Pinning all the rest of my Drunkard's Path pieces I have cut out. Once I am through with these it will be the last of the solid colored fabrics I have and everything else will be prints which I really prefer. Might as well get some odds and ends worked through while I am off my feet. A little boring but I can always turn the TV on while I am doing it.

The last few days the weather has been joyous, I start to feel better about most things when the sun is warm.

This is my beautiful hand-dyed roving being prepped to spin. I can't wait to start but I have to, I have a spin on Sweetheart that has to be finished first, although that is coming along fine too. When I can spin that is.

It looks far more orange than it actually is, the orange is all on the outside of the balls. I should get some lovely barber poling when it is plied. Can't wait!

And this is the first ply of the current spin balled up and ready to go when I finish the other ply that is on the bobbin right now, that bobbin is almost half done so it is coming along pretty fast. When it is done then I will bring Big Girl upstairs to ply. She has a huge bobbin and can take the whole skein without trouble. The color gradations done show really well in the ball, but the colors are lovely and will show better in the skein. I am trying for a fingering weight.

So that is what I have been up to the last couple of weeks. Right now I am going to go take a hot shower. The hot water on my back feels so good and gives me a little relief. I am just glad to be able to do the little I can.

I had a very busy morning and now I am just enjoying having my feet up. I got three quilt tops basted, yippie! I have done up to five in a day but it is just too exhausting. Now that I have a lot of my tops quilted I don't need to do as many at once. I still have a tub of tops that need quilting but that's a lot better than the three or four tubs of them that I have had in the past. The goal is to quilt more tops than I am making, maybe I will get there.

Anyway these are the three I did today.

 Dear Jane (surprise, surprise!)

 Al Beasley's Ties, I was going to hand quilt this one, but that's never going to happen. There is a lot of hand embroidery on this one, but I don't do that anymore either. This is a very old UFO and I have been trying to figure out how old and I would say 30 plus years, maybe more because I just can't remember when I started it.

This one has no name, it's a "bar" quilt. I made some bias pieced binding for another quilt and made way too much, I tend to get carried away and it was so much fun. The blue fabric was on a roll, about 50 yards but only about six inches wide. I still have some of it. This quilt does not lie flat, but I am going to just do the best that I can and call it good. I'll be able to do some creative quilting on this one!

So that sums up my morning and I am so glad to be able to relax with my knitting. Tomorrow I have to get the first of the hat and scarf sets wrapped up to be mailed as presents to one of my little families out in Washington. They won't be able to use them until next fall, but we also have Lego sets to send them. They will be mailed on Friday and I want them to be ready for David to take when he goes to do the payday business.

But for now, I intend to have a second cup of coffee. Rare for me but such a treat, and I feel I have earned it!

I have been working hard these last two weeks. Hard for me that is, with my mobility problems I can't be on feet too long. Anyway, here is my Dear Jane top finished at last!

Including the marking of the borders for the scallops. It is not perfect, but then neither am I so we match! It was a lot of fun, and will I ever make another one? Possibly sometime in the future. This one will get quilted sometime in May. I started it June 22 of last year so 11 months isn't bad. I have heard of one person who has been on it for 8 years! I didn't work on it steadily since I have so many other irons in the fire and sewing for clients.

So have I got my next project planned? No, I think I should go through my UFO tub and see what's there, I have forgotten and I really should see if I can eliminate the tub by finishing everything that's in it. There is nothing to beat going through the UFO tub to get fresh ideas, it puts off doing projects I am not so much in love with.

This is one-half pound of wool roving I bought so I could dye it before I spin it. I have a full pound but will have to dye it in two batches.

I am using food coloring since it is readily available and I don't have a lot of money for dyes that I have to order online. It's for me so if it isn't colorfast over a long period of time I won't have any complaints.

Would I prefer to use acid dyes? Definitely, but we do what we can. I enjoyed it tremendously and am pleased with the results. It's the joy of doing anyway. I am just happy I can do it in my own modest way.

It turned out so pretty, like rainbow sherbet and I can't wait to spin it.

The counter in the laundry room, my new dye kitchen, isn't done yet, but I used the top of the washer and dryer. I am supposed to get cupboards in there too and I am looking forward to being able to put my stuff away. It's sort of messy storing everything in the dye pots.

So that's what's going on these last two weeks, only momentous to me, but it's a good life!

Now that it's off the niddy-noddy and relaxed a bit I am more than ever in love with this yarn and it is so soft. Still haven't decided what to knit with it but I have time for that, I am only halfway through the hat and scarf sets that I need to get done.

Now that the remodel is done I was able to bring Sweetheart in from the garage and she is a pleasure to spin on. My other wheel, Big Girl, is a good wheel but she doesn't work well for a fine yarn and she is also a pretty stiff wheel. I like her for plying, but for just a straight spin of fine yarn Sweetheart is the best.

I divided the roving in half lengthwise, I am doing a sort of fractal spin. I don't think that the color of the roving has enough difference to make a real fractal spin show the color variations. I am spinning across the top of the roving to keep the color variations true, but it is mostly yellows and yellow greens. This is not a combination of colors that I work with much. I tend to go for reds and pinks with my yellows. Green is not a flattering color for me so this is pretty much outside my usual color schemes, but I fell in love with this roving, probably because it has so much yellow in it, and I also love yellow.

The bobbin on Sweetheart is small unlike Big Girl's. However, Sweetheart was originally made to spin flax, which is spun fine. I don't spin with flax, I have no source, not that I wouldn't mind trying it, but she works just as well with a fine fiber like merino wool, which is what I am working with.

I am hoping my sister will send me some more wool to work with, I am determined to always have something on one of the wheels.

I haven't resumed weaving yet, but I have mostly everything unpacked I am almost done putting everything away. My sewing corner upstairs is mostly sorted out and I putting stuff up there away to. I had let it get pretty bad while I was working on my Dear Jane.

Still cold and snowing but it's supposed to end soon. Meanwhile I can dream of warm weather and coffee on the porch when I get up, soon to happen, I hope!

So here they are at last! The last three Dear Jane blocks. Yippiee!

 M-11 Rickshaw

 M-12 Hopscotch

M-13 Lynette's Dogwood, I really like this one, it was fun and easy.

So all 225 blocks are done, I will probably put the top together next week. I worked on cleaning out my corner this morning and I have some other sewing that really needs to be done. I will finish my dress soon. After that and the Dear Jane top is done then I will get backs ready, then baste and quilt.

It is so easy to say that, and yet it takes a lot longer to do, the time commitment in just those simple statements is days, if not weeks.

I started my next spin. It is on the small wheel upstairs and I didn't have my camera up there so I will try to get a picture for tomorrow. The spirit is willing, but the memory is weak, to paraphrase.

So with that I am still quite a way from planning the next project.

It is freezing and we have a couple of inches of snow with a winter storm warning. Spring is not yet!

I am on the countdown.

 L-12 Sally's Pride

 M-1 Dogwood Days

 L-13 Harvest Moon

 M-3 Fireweed Flower This one was deceptively difficult. I don't usually have a problem with y seams, but for some reason this one was hard. You can tell the center is off, and it doesn't really lie as flat as I prefer. I am so close to finishing I decided to leave it.

 M-2 Duff's Bluff

M-5 Mother's Point, the small squares are going the wrong directions, they should be pointing towards the center. I only just noticed it and I will fix it tomorrow.

 M-3 Enchanted Square

 M-9 Fan Dance, this is one of my favorite fabrics, by the way.

 M-7 Junko's Rose Garden

 M-10 Simple Simon

M-6 Simplicity, this one doesn't lie as flat as I would prefer either, oh well.

M-4 Stepping Stones. I got the pictures a little out of order, sorry. The thing is, I only have three blocks to go before the blocks are all done. I am pleased and it looks as if I will get them done tomorrow morning! Then I will take a few days off before I start putting it together, I need to get some other sewing done and it will be nice to take a rest.

In other news, I finished the spin I had on the big wheel. I think this yarn turned out beautiful.

 There is what some people call 'barber poling' which shows the contrast of the plies. I love it myself although not everyone does. There are several different things I would like to use this yarn, for so I will have to decide. I've got time to decide because I am only about half done with the hat and scarf sets I am making for next fall, and since this yarn is wool no one but me wants it,

It looks like I will get several things wrapped up this week. That always makes me happy.

We are expecting a winter storm, a serious winter storm. I think it's name is Wesley, something starting with a W anyway. We are supposed to get blizzard, ice storms and T storms. It's supposed to last three days. I know it is very cloudy and David just came in and said it's getting cold outside. We had two lovely nice days in a row. I hope that is not all the spring we are going to get. David is taking a nap right now, maybe I will too. I do feel awfully sleepy.

I also have to plan the next sewing project. Maybe the planning is the best part?