Sprinter - like Spring/Winter

No blogs for a while but I guess I have just been too busy spinning wool, twirling drum sticks, reading the Lord John series by Diana Gabaldon (because I can't wait for her eighth Outlander novel to come out), and lamenting over the fact that the snow has not yet melted. I do a lot more than that too but I'm not going to bore you with household chores. I did find a small patch of grass preserved by being encased in ice which was quite exciting. At least all the snow and icicles have finally fell off the roof and I now know that the front yard in fact does possess grass.

I am all excited for when I can take the family searching for antler shed by deer and for moose poop that I can dip into polyurethane to make jewelry with. There is so much to love about Alberta!

Speaking of moose, I have been doing my hunter's training course. I plan to go bow hunting sometime in the future so I can live my childhood fantasy of skulking around a forest like Robin Hood. I should have stuck it out in archery club when I was in high school, I don't know why I ever stopped going. Maybe it was the fear of drawing the bowstring too far over my chest that would trigger a series of very painful events that I don't think needs very much explanation.

On another topic, so far I have done two balls of plyed yarn with my drop spindle. I'm getting quite impatient with it and I can't wait until my spinning wheel is repaired, which will cut my spinning time in half. I'm planning three different patterns for winter including an idea given to me from a man who recalled his mother making him mitts with unwashed wool. At first I thought, "gross, unwashed smelly wool on a finished product", but then when winter in Alberta rolled around I saw the logic in it. My hands dried, cracked, bled and stuck to my mitts like velcro. Wouldn't it have been nice to have mitts all greased up with lanolin against the skin to moisturize and covered in leather to make them waterproof? Yes! Yes it would have, so for next winter I'm going to make as many greasy mitts as possible and I don't care if it smells or not. Besides, when it gets down to minus 20 to 40 degrees Celsius, the nose doesn't smell anything anyway.

I am also going to make some awesome chunky lumberjack hats dyed in coffee and lined with rabbit fur. They are going to be for a couple of real lumberjacks so I thought the idea of using a coffee dye would be quite the novel idea seeing as the hat depicts their occupation and coffee is probably a good staple food that goes along with it.
I once saw this great knit hat with rabbit fur in a sports store, it had a Canadian label on it and I thought, "great, a hat actually made in Canada sold in a department store", but no. It was a Canadian company and the hat was made in China. It was such a disappointment.
I'm also going to make a sweater for Paul that is a blend of Llama and sheep wool.

Anyway, stay posted for more on my new developments in knitting, spinning, sewing and whatnot. Oh and speaking of sewing!!!!! Paul is planning on getting his Canadian citizenship! Okay so you may not think that has to do with sewing, but to me it does. When the time comes we'll order the Canadian tartan and fashion a gorgeous kilt out of it for the ceremony. I'm thinking about taking pictures of the whole process and making an instructables out of it. It should be good.