Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Tour de Fleece - Day 18

It's the time of those annoying mosquitoes again, and I have the itchy bites to proof it! Have I ever told you how much fun it is, to swim with the dogs?

Happy swims over to me, and I take his rubber bone and throw it, he swims after it, and brings it back. Real nice, and easy.

Denny however does not seem to be relaxed when I'm in the pool. He follows me around the pool at first (outside), until he can't stand it any longer. Then he throws himself into it with a big splash and paddles towards me, keeping his mouth shut, breathing through the nose. Once he's reached me, he grabs my shoulder strap, and tucks at it. I'm not sure how I should take this. Is he trying to rescue me, or does he not approve of my swim wear? It makes me laugh, and I grab him, and hold him in my arms, until he starts to struggle, and wants to get out. He's easy to hold in the water, compared to on land, where he feels like a bag of cement. Anyway, they swim with me back and forth, and overall everybody is just happy, when I get out. I think they have much more fun, when I'm not involved in their water plays.

July

So yesterday was rest day. I really thought I would not spin a thing, and put away the fiber I was working on on Sunday. But during the course of the day, I joined a Mystery KAL in the SAG group on ravelry. I've been a test knitter for this, so I've already made one, but I want to make another one with SAG hand spun yarn.


Stephen's Mystery KAL

I've got two colorways finished, and needed a third one. It takes forever to get packages from the US and I didn't want to wait that long, since I have to spin the yarn first, and dye it to the shade I have in mind. I grabbed some superwash merino from my fiber stash and dyed it in deep purple.
Tour de Fleece - day 18-sw merino - dyed it myself

Since I'm a dabbler in dyeing, it did not turn out as I wanted it. At first I thought I was going to over dye the fiber, but now I'm going to finish the yarn, and dye the yarn instead. It's going to be a 2-ply yarn, and I've finished the first bobbin today.
So, there you have it. I'll spin some more on bobbin # 2 today, but I'm sure it will not get done tonight. I'll be lucky when I'm going to ply it later tomorrow.
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4 comments:

Sharon said...

I don't know what color purple you wanted, but I love what you did get! I saw the KAL on SAG, but I'm done with deadlines. I can't keep up.

Today I finished spinning up the alpaca and silk, but I'm not so pleased with it as I am happy that it's all used up. All I have to do now is ply it up.

Are your new yarns going into your shop?

2paw said...

I love the picture of the three dogs, all playing together!!! I feel you are very safe in the pool, knowing that Denny is always there to rescue you. Good luck with your spinning and dyeing!!

Linda said...

Love the color!

Virginia G said...

It sounds exactly like Denny is trying to rescue you. My dogs (keeshonds, bred for this) used to do exactly the same thing at the pool at my grandmother's house.

And then when we moved to the beach, all of the keeshonds would take great care to stay between us and the water. They would gently herd us away from the water if we happened to stray too close.

They also came in pretty handy when we were experiencing random freak waves on the beach. They'd bark at us and push us away from the water to high ground about five minutes before the big waves would hit us.