Fiber Arts Friday: Awesome Sweater Remake, part 1

My fiber-y mojo continues to be in a lull, so I began the disassemblage of my old Awesome Sweater.

A big improvement over the last time I disassembled a sweater is that I have a head-lamp now.  Which made it a whole lot easier to see which was the sewing thread and which was the yarn.  I was hoping this would allow me to get longer pieces of yarn than before...

but it turns out that it didn't matter.  Because the whole thing was steeked!  So all of my balls of yarn are going to be short.  *angry face*

At least the yarn is in good condition and the bag of tiny balls looks really pretty.  See how I am looking at the bright side?  Besides, weaving in ends is a pretty fun conversation starter for airplane rides. ;-)

Although I'm also kinda of thinking about the Russian Join that Its_Lily suggested a while back.  It seems like this might result in a better finished fabric.

I'm just not sure which would be more tedious.  I have some time to figure that one out though, since I've only ripped out about 2/3 of the first sleeve.

Meanwhile, my top choices for the New Awesome Sweater are:

81-14 Pullover by Drops Design - I like the shape of this one, but it may just be the model and a creative placement of color.

22-23-16 Striped Pullover by Pierrot - I really, really like this one, except it's written in Japanese and I don't read Japanese.  :-(

Honey by Amy Miller - I like that this is top-down with raglan sleeves but I do not like the pockets.

Pipit by Heidi Kirrmaier - this looks to be of simple construction with the design elements built into the structure.  This one is probably the leading contender right now.

I hope you all are having a great Fiber Arts Friday.  .  ;-)

Be sure to check in with everyone else over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder and have a Happy Easter!

New Tool

I acquired a new tool.

It helped me turn this

into this on Sunday afternoon.

I have a little more work to do before I'm really ready to plant, but in true Colorado fashion, it looked like this yesterday morning.

It never really got below freezing, so the snow melted quickly and our plum blossoms appear to be ok this morning.

Wheelchair Racing Video

The Lisbon Half-Marathon was last week.  Roger Puigbo of Spain was kind enough to take and post this video on YouTube.

This is the best wheelchair race video I've seen.  If you're up for it, see if you can count how many times these guys take a push before resting.  ;-)

Hubba is not in this race, but this is what he does for a living.

Slow Living: March 2012

Today I share my second installment for the Slow Living Project.  :-)


NOURISH: Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch overpackaged, overprocessed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead. Share favourite links/recipes/tips from the month here.

Aside from the regular meal preparation, we roasted our first turkey since Thanksgiving (November 24th).  I had plans for turning the turkey into some new and interesting dishes, but since it had been so long we simply enjoyed it in several sandwiches, quesadillas, omelets and lettuce wraps.

I also continued my new yoga practice.

PREPARE: Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season. Aim to reduce dependency on store bought items especially those known to contain BPA and other suspect additives. Stocking up on dry goods when prices are low counts too.

With shearing season approaching, I have started to make sure everything is ready to go.  The used combs and cutters have been cleaned and sent out for sharpening, tools have been checked and the go-bag inventoried.  I have my largest client booked and am scheduling a few volunteers for our own shearing day at the end of April.

I need a better storage method for my used combs and cutters

I also bought our very first locker lamb and picked it up from the butcher this earlier week.  I'm so excited.  Lamb is one of my favorite meats, and it's ridiculously expensive at the grocery store.  I'm thrilled to be able to buy it directly from the farmer.

Finally, I have been buying wood pellets.  Now that winter is over, people aren't using them to heat their houses so the price goes way down.  We use the Wood Pellets along with Diatomaceous Earth on the manure piles after mucking.  It helps to keep both the flies and aroma in check during the summer.

100% compressed sawdust.  No wax so it's safe for the garden.

REDUCE: Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing. A ladder into a strawberry planter? A sheet into a dress? Share ideas and project links here, allowing others to be inspired.

Different dog bowls means we're buying less dog food and I found a few things that are way better than new.  :-)

GREEN: up our lives. Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.

At some point over the last year we got out of the habit of bringing our reusable shopping bags to the store.  We now have a box stuffed with plastic grocery sacks.  I use them to collect dog poo, but that does not keep them out of the landfill.  So I put a few reusable bags in each of our cars and plan to ensure they stay there.

I need to think more about the Dog Loo/Composter that I wrote about last year.

GROW: plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden? Herbs in a pot, sprouts on a windowsill or and entire fruit/vegetable garden -opt for what fits space and time constraints. Don't have a backyard? Ask a friendly neighbour or relative for a small patch of theirs in return for some home grown produce, they may surprise you!

The grass has turned mostly green in the last few weeks and the trees have started to leaf out ... including our pears!  Yay Spring!

Our vet came out and performed ultra-sounds on our "pregnant" alpacas... he confirmed that three are pregnant.  Which means we will have cria in early October.  WooHoo!

Alpacamundo's Apple is not pregnant, but she's way too pretty not to share.

I have barely started to prepare our garden for spring planting.  It's time to start digging in manure, if I could just find the time.  ;-)

CREATE: to fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others. Create something as simple as a handmade gift tag or something as extravagant as a fine knit shawl. Share project details and any new skills learnt here.

While I have been knitting, spinning and writing a little,  I've only been posting about thinking, frogging and collecting.

DISCOVER: Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests. Trawl libraries, second hand shops or local book shops to find titles that fill the need. Share titles/authors of what is being read this month.


I discovered (again) that life lines really are an important tool for use in complex knitting projects. :-/


Hubba and I had a night on the town and found a local book store and new-to-us restaurant.

I also learned that my small town has both a Luthier and a Harp shop.  Too bad I don't play any stringed instruments.

ENHANCE: community: Possibilities include supporting local growers and producers, help out at a local school/kindergarten, barter or foodswap, joining a playgroup or forming a walking or craft group. Car pooling where possible and biking/walking instead of driving. Even start up a blog if you haven't already - online communities count too! Or maybe just help out someone trying to cross the street! The rewards for your time are often returned tenfold.

Fiber Arts Friday is one of my favorite online communities.  I've been participating for a couple years now and have made a few friends, I think.  :-)  I first joined up in July 2009, and have been posting weekly since January 2010.  It's definitely one of my favorite parts of each week.

We also signed a petition to put a neighborhood road improvement project on the ballot for November elections.

ENJOY: Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment. Share a moment to be remembered from the month here.

March means we are celebrating birthdays and one year with two Livestock Guardian Dogs.

Noodle and Wonton posing for photos

It's spring now!  So really, what's not to enjoy about days that look like this?

Fiber Arts Friday: Blowing their Coat

The Tibetan Mastiffs started shedding a little at the beginning of March,

but then began blowing their coat a couple of weeks later.

If you've never experienced dogs blowing their coat before, it's essentially shedding in over-drive.  The undercoat was coming off in fist-fuls.

The fur just flew off of them when they would shake or run around.  Our yard has looked like a crime scene for the last couple of weeks.

I have been plucking and saving what I can from the dogs.   Noodle rather likes the plucking and will remind me that it's her turn.  Wonton doesn't care much for it... it's almost like she knows she has the good stuff and doesn't want me to have it.

Thankfully, they're pretty much done shedding now.  I have to say, I kind of like this idea of being completely finished with shedding in a few weeks.  It's definitely a benefit of having Tibetan Mastiffs.

I have been able to collect about 1 1/2 lbs of fur from the two dogs.  For the most part this is black fur with a two-inch staple and a gentle crimp.

Noodle and the bag of collected fur

I spun some golden Tibetan Mastiff for our breeder last summer, so I am looking forward to spinning some of our own... perhaps for this year's Tour de Fleece.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Refining My Yoga Practice

Over the last month I have been focused on refining my new yoga practice.

I love the ritual of Bikram Yoga.  It's the same every time, but it's different within that structure.

The order is the same.  The postures are the same but how I am able to perform them is different for each class.  I think this sameness is a useful tool for gauging how I'm improving.

It's dependent upon how I slept, whether I'm properly hydrated or nourished and how well I am able to leave my "stuff at the door."  That being said, I have experienced a lot of improvement in my postures over the last month.

I have seen that some foods (bacon) are not good for yoga day.  Much like when I was a regular runner and learned that something with green chile (one of the world's most divine foods, right behind chocolate) is probably not the best choice for a pre-workout meal either.  ;-)

My pain, strength, flexibility and mental calmness continue to improve and my class days are pretty well set now.  Although, I missed both classes last week.  :-/  That's something to focus on for April, I suppose.  ;-)

Fiber Arts Friday: Uninspired

I have been feeling uninspired about fiber over the last several weeks.  So much that I feel I've done more frogging than anything...

You may remember my Challah Socks... they still look like this:

This nearly became a hat:

I played around with this for a couple of days, but didn't like how the colors were knitting up:

And now I have an overwhelming urge to rip out my Surprise Scarf:

My vision of this project was initially to be woven.  However, my loom is still disassembled.  I decided to make it as a knitting project, but it just doesn't feel right.  It's going on the shelf for a while.  Which means I have nothing on the needles right now.  :-/

I am spinning a little Via Verde Alpaca-Silk, which is yummy,

and skirting my own alpaca fleece, which is fun,

but both are going slowly.

It's a good thing I had a great thrifting day last weekend, otherwise I might feel completely uninspired.

Although, I am half-thinking about making a uterus...

Be sure to join me in reading the Fiber Arts Friday blogs linked in over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.  Certainly there is something inspiring to be found there.