Tour de Fleece | Little Miss Drama Pants

July 23, 2011
by lilMDP 1 Comment

In Which I Was Sidetracked by the Beach

I had every intention of spinning while I was at the beach. In fact, I did. Just… I only spun while it was raining and well… it only rained the day we drove down and the first full day we were there. You see where this is going right? Yeah, I didn’t spin very much. But would you want to sit inside and spin when you could be outside in this?

This Is What Summer Vacation Is All About

Yeah, I didn’t think so. And for those of you who have never been to an Alabama beach and wonder why I don’t spin outside? I’m not into felting roving onto my wheel. The humidity is just a tad too high for outdoor spinning. It IS, however, perfect for swimming in the ocean and also the pool. And for sitting under a tent while reading a book and having a beverage.

Oh, and also for catching sharks.

SRSLY. SHARK.

BAD Boy caught himself a shark while fishing from the beach shore. A SHARK. Also, that’s my BIL, not my husband. They’re identical twins. Well, identical to everyone else. I don’t think they look all that much alike most of the time. Also? SHARK!

We also saw dolphins, stingray or some kind of ‘ray and of course, crabs.

Can You See the Crab?

We also saw some bigger crabs in the water. The dolphins we saw while standing on the balcony of our rented condo. There were two different pods that swam by where we were staying. This is the second and smaller pod of three, though you can only see 2 of them in this video. You have to look really closely to see them. There were schools of fish, i.e. good eating, that the dolphins were after. It was so neat to watch them all. We were totally mesmerized by them.

I didn’t get any video or photos of the ‘rays. They were doing what they normally do, which is skimming along the ocean floor and they looked like fast, dark moving groups of blobs underwater, but they were clearly out enjoying some second breakfast. Being down there after a lot of wind and rain and kind of stormy weather brought out all kinds of marine life while we were there. It was pretty cool. Except for, you know, the SHARKS.

Anyway.

Tour de Fleece.

So I will consider this Tour de Fleece a 50/50 win/wash. When I did spin, I did a great job of it (except for that one time with the novelty yarn) and enjoyed myself immensely. But between going on vacation smack dab in the middle of it and also having some back issues, it was simply not meant to be this time around. I guess you could say I was one of those contestants who had the best of intentions of finishing, but events conspired against me otherwise. I have, however, rekindled my love of my wheel and spinning. And because of that, I think it was well worth the effort. Now what I really need to do is set the twist on all the yarn I’ve spun both during Tour de Fleece and before. Next up? Figuring out what I’m going to do with all of it.

July 17, 2011
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After a Short Hiatus, Day 15

On Day 13 I didn’t spin because my back was acting up again. I cannot stress to you enough the value of a good mattress. I spent Day 13 at work thinking that I really should have gone home to rest my back, but since I was going to be gone for a week (Hi! I am totally blogging FROM THE BEACH. Jealous? Yeah, I would be too. I mean, if I wasn’t me, but I’m not not me, so I am basking in your jealousy. Follow? Cool.) that I should get as much done as I possibly could before I left so I stayed at work. WHEW.

And then when I got home? I laid down in the floor on top of an ice pack and alternated between icing my back and then rubbing biofreeze all over it. It was the complete opposite of sexy. And also NOT conducive to knitting. I consoled myself with playing Puzzle Quest on my PSP while laying on the ice pack.

And then yesterday was my birthday! So I totally got a pass, right? After work, I spent my evening getting a mani/pedi and then going home and chilling. What? It was my birthday. And I needed my nails to be beach ready.

Today started with me waking up feeling like I was coming down or had come down with a cold. That is most definitely the SUCKIEST way to start your vacation. I consoled myself with taking my sweet time getting ready. And my morning cuppa joe.

Also? I cleaned the entire kitchen with the exception of the floor. What’s the point of having kids if you don’t put them to work, right? You know, because pushing a swiffer around is HARD LABOR. Especially when you make them do it twice – once dry and once wet. I know. I am a cruel taskmaster. Well, kid’s gotta learn sometime that life’s not fair.

ANYWAY. Super clean kitchen. Then shower. Then taking my sweet time to pack. And we left the house by 12:30 pm. So really? We made good time.

And then it rained off and on THE WHOLE WAY TO THE BEACH. It took us about 6.5 hours to drive what is normally a 4 hours TOPS drive. I think we saw at least 4 wrecks on the way down, too. And once we finally made it to the condo, we did what any sane person would do. We unloaded the car as fast as we could and headed straight down to the pool.

What?

It wasn’t thundering or lightening.

I would just like to take this moment to tell you how proud I am that my kid does not act like a baboon at public pools. There were a couple of kids there RUNNING AND CANNONBALLING into the pool WITH TOTAL DISREGARD FOR THEIR SURROUNDINGS (i.e. US). While I do not mind the occasional cannon ball, ENCOURAGING YOUR KIDS TO ACT LIKE ASSHOLES IN PUBLIC IS POOR PARENTING. These kids didn’t pay any attention to who or what was around them and would just take off and jump into the pool. Deep end. Shallow end. People nearby. It didn’t matter.

As a former lifeguard, I had to bite my tongue. HARD.

Anyway, we can always hope that they’ll leave soon. Like maybe tomorrow. Or maybe, they’ve already gone. A girl can dream.

After swimming and dinner, I unpacked my spinning wheel from my brand new Lendrum bag my sweet honey bought me for my birthday and got to spinning. (I’ll take pictures of the bag tomorrow in good lighting.)

Shiny

Miss Babs Merino/Tencel Top

I am having to pre-draft the hell out of this roving, but it is so worth it. It wants to spin up thin, so I am obliging. The pictures I took really don’t do this yarn justice. It is absolutely gorgeous. And I think it’s going to take me awhile to spin it all up.

July 13, 2011
by lilMDP 1 Comment

Week 2, Day 5

Love

I am absolutely thrilled with how this turned out. But I am also ridiculously tired, now. Plying is hard work!

Tomorrow I’ll find out how many yards I ended up with. One bobbin has some leftover singles on it. Did I even say that right? Anyway, one day, I’ll have two perfectly even bobbins that ply up with no yarn leftover. However.

Today is not that day.

July 12, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

Week 2, Day 4

I finished the second bobbin!

What’s that? You want to know what my bobbin is sitting on?

Bobbin for Scale

My new spinning chair from Crate and Barrel. Happy Birthday Week to me! Still!

Next up, plying!

July 11, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

Week 2, Day 3

Look ma! I'm still spinning!

In case you were wondering, it’s my birthday week and I’ve been treating myself to birthday presents.

That cup? It’s not really floating in mid-air. I haven’t suddenly developed the power of telekinesis (bummer) or magical powers (double bummer).

I got my wheel a cup holder! It’s pretty rockin’ awesome and is pretty damn close to magic. It’s going to hold my cider(s) while I knit at the beach. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Anyway, if you are so inclined to buy me presents for my birthday, roving wouldn’t be out of the question. I mean, at the rate I’m going, I’m going to need to replenish my stash, right? Right.

I am also partial to apple ciders (the very tasty adult beverage variety). You know, in case you were wondering what to get me. For my birthday. Week.

July 10, 2011
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Day 9

I totally didn’t spin yesterday. And with good reason. My back decided to be a pain. Literally. Which made sitting absolutely miserable and do you have any idea how hard it is to spin laying down? It’s mostly impossible. But today I was feeling better so I made up for yesterday. I went from this:

To this:

Where did the rest if go? Over here:

After posting about how I would think about how I would spin this second bobbin, and being deliberate in how I spin? I was so happy to spin that I didn’t even stop to think about barber pole versus non-barber poling yarn. I really did mean to be more thoughtful about how and what I spin. But…that didn’t happen. I just jumped right in.

So I will have yarn that primarily barber poles.

I can live with that.

July 8, 2011
by lilMDP Leave a comment

Day Seven, with Cats!

I finished my bobbin tonight! I most definitely spun for longer than an hour. I’m not complaining.

And this is what is next.

So the question is, do I knit it in the same order as the first bobbin to create nice lengths of simultaneous color changes (R-L)? Or do I spin it in the opposite order and create epic barber poling (L-R)? I haven’t decided yet. That’s what tomorrow is for. In the meantime, any suggestions?

And because it really isn’t all spinning all the time (just most of the time), I give you cats. Not the musical. Just a day in the life of Chloe and Chelsea.

Sizing up the Competition

Chelsea Makes Her Move

Chloe Hangs Her Head in Defeat

And Finally: Plotting Revenge

July 7, 2011
by lilMDP 4 Comments

Day Six…These Titles Are Going to Be REALLY Boring for Awhile

But the pictures are SPECTACULAR! (You should totally read that and hear the voice of the Count from Sesame Street. AH AH AH AH. Oooh, or Auntie Mame. If you’re reading this with your Auntie Mame voice, make sure that you are holding a martini while you do it. If you have never seen Auntie Mame, stop reading, go watch Auntie Mame and then come back. I’ll wait. Is this the most ridiculously long and irrelevant parenthetical side note ever or what?)

And I am almost done with this bobbin. I’m really enjoying just spinning. I didn’t realize how much I had missed spinning. And I can listen to my audiobooks at the same time. Because I can multi-task the FUN. ::sassy finger snaps::

This Much More to Go

I think that my most favorite part of spinning hand-dyed roving is the plying. You never know just how it’s going to turn out and that’s always exciting to me. I’m *really* looking forward to plying this yarn.

July 6, 2011
by lilMDP 2 Comments

Day Five…Just Barely

If we stretch the truth just a tiny bit, I spun for 30 minutes. Maybe closer to 20, but still. I spun yarn. And considering that I just went and bought a new phone tonight? That is something of a miracle in and of itself. But I’ll save that for another blog post. Right now? YARNZ.

Day 5

Flash Free

I did, however, take these pictures with my NEW PHONE!!

OK. I got the HTC Sensation 4G because I ran out of internal memory on my Nexus One and it would quit updating my emails. This is a problem when you use your mobile phone for work. Just saying. So I got a new phone and well, I am in LOVE. And it also has WAY more memory. WIN!!

July 5, 2011
by lilMDP 6 Comments

And on the Fourth Day…

I continued to spin.

I like spinning soy silk better than bamboo. But I’m also being more deliberate about how I spin this.

As evidenced by this picture, I separated out the different color changes and I’ve created a pattern to spin it all up into stripes. I just haven’t decided if they will be barber poled stripes or not.

I finally figured out what my plan is going to be for the tour, too. I’m sure you’re all VERY relieved about that. I mean, who just wings it at the Tour de Fleece?

MEEEEE!!!!

Sort of.

My plan is just to spin every day for no less than 30 minutes. If I do that, I will do a fantastic job of reducing my roving stash. Weeeell, half of my roving stash. OK, SOME of my roving stash.

MOVING ALONG!

The problem with reducing my roving stash is that I am exponentially (and possibly existentially) increasing my yarn stash.

The other day I found myself talking to a new knitter about where I bought yarn and how I spin my own yarn. She asked, “So what do you do with all the yarn you spin?

I promptly answered, “I hoard it.” Which got me to thinking. I know, dangerous, right? So the short story is that I came to the conclusion that I am, in fact, a dragon. The long, convoluted thought process was this:

I hoard yarn.
Dragons have hoards of usually one particular thing (if legend and some fantasy novels are to be believed.)
Ergo, I am a dragon.

OK, maybe that’s pretty straightforward. The point is, come near my hoard and I might breathe fire on you. Um, and also I am TOTALLY STICKING TO THE PLAN!! Of spinning. In the Tour de Fleece. And I didn’t even get itchy when I sat down at my wheel.

Oh! And I finished all my chores for today. I WIN! Now give me a cookie.

Little Miss Drama Pants

a hot asiany mess

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