The Update Post Without Much Content

Weekend
In order to celebrate Jodi‘s return to Canada and completion of her MFA (Yay Jodi!), we took off down to Windsor for the long weekend, sharing the ride with Krista and hanging out with people we haven’t seen in far too long, especially all in one place. The party was a tonne of fun (though I pooped out ‘early’ at midnight), and the next day was spent lounging around Jodi’s place until we all got up the energy to lounge around Kelly‘s farm.

The farm, as usual, was also great: the lambs have grown huge, the sheep have manicured the property into fine lawns (sometimes to Raven’s chagrin, I think he said one ate a small peach tree), the chickens are still humorous. There was a small rabbit-related tragedy, but I guess that’s just the way country life goes, and a side effect of it all may mean Kelly has angoras in her future…

Pregnancy
Midwife’s appointment last week went really well. I loved hearing the baby’s heartbeat! (Probably could have listened to it for hours — anyone know a good fetal heart monitor rental in Toronto? or recommend a similar thing for purchase for the later weeks?)

I have continued to lose a little weight, so I’ve been given the happy directive to eat what I want whenever, and not to fuss about the calorie content (so long as I keep eating my fruit and veg.) even if it’s ice cream. I’m now in the second trimester, but don’t really notice any big changes to how I feel. That mythical “energy boost” can come along anytime now!

Despite the weight loss, there have definitely been some physical increases. I had to break down and get ‘maternity’ pants. Oh, the comfort! Also got an incredibly generous loan of clothing from Emily, so I should be fitly clothed for a while. I long to sew myself wrap dresses and stretchy skirts, but until the creative mojo returns it’s not going to happen.

Week So Far
I taught at the Purl last night. I think it went kind-of awfully (deep apologies to any of my students who actually read this blog), mostly due to my inability to think or communicate anymore. Jennifer and Miko seem to still like me, though, and I’m engaged for another class next week (thank the lares and penates it’s one I’ve taught before).

Otherwise, there has been so little knitting in my like I’m beginning to get despondent. Where are the oversized cardigans, the booties and BSJs? I haven’t even turned the heel on that Noro sock.

I do, however, continue to acquire yarn.

Good Mail; Busy Week

What a week!
Fortunately it was perked up by the arrival of not one…

…not two…

…but three packages of ‘good mail’! (and all within 2 days!)

The first little surprise had a lovely set of stitch markers (package & makers both photographed terribly, so no pic yet) sent to me by Vicki. I entered some suggestions in her “What can I make with…” contest, and if you’ve got odd balls or small skeins lying about and are looking for stash-busting ideas, you should definitely check out her amazingly long list of free patterns for small yardages.

Next up was a fantastically fibre-laden package from Allena (of Spindle and Wheel) — seriously, that photo above does not give a good indication of the scale of it!

Here’s a peek inside:

From left to right, there’s a large grocery bag of lovely red/bugrundy (hand-dyed, I’m sure) roving, another large bag full of small twists of brightly coloured roving, one full bag of soft, crimpy unwashed fleece (my guess is Shetland), three handmade cotton washcloths, and that little orange case contains two needle-felting needles! I am so thrilled by her generosity!

(I think that needle-felting is going to quickly get a place on the list of crafts I do obsessively — I’ve only made two little cat toys so far, but wow is it ever fun to stab at fibre with sharp things!)

And last, but certainly not least, there was a gorgeous skein of sock yarn from the Knitterman Ray (of Knitivity.com).

Ray’s a one-man hand-dyeing wonder, and this skein was given in trade for one of my spindles. Who says “barter and trade” economy doesn’t work anymore?

As you can see, this skein is a one-of-a-kind, but if you’re wanting some of your own it’s close to his “Cygnus” colourway.

It was really nice to have these goodies waiting for me, as I’ve really been keeping on my toes lately. Beyond the usual office business and household chores, I taught two classes at the Purl this past week!

On Wednesday I taught my first knitting class, an introduction to stranded knitting. I’d made up little swatch-charts (that could be easily seamed an tuned into little coin purses), let my students mix-and match their front design and background pattern (like you’d have in a mitten), and then showed them the one-yarn-in-each-hand trick (basically teaching Continental style to English knitters and vice versa). I think that it went over well — there were several moments of happy-dancing in their seats, and a couple of “I thought this was going to be awful, but it’s really easy!” comments. I hope they all go forth and knit with many colours for here on!

On Sunday I taught my beginner drop-spindle spinning class again. It seems like this is becoming a once-a-month regular class! I’m really please with that: it’s so much fun to watch people turn fluff into real live yarn for the first time, and the students are always so different! This time around one of them had been given several bags of fiber already, so we even had some “show-and-tell” time, and she even had collected some qiviut (musk-ox down), fresh from the rocks, in Greenland (what a lucky new spinner!). I’m really please to be able to hook in more people to hand-spinning, and think that I should probably start working on a “Beyond the Basics” spindle class for the future…

So, while I have accomplished practically no spinning or knitting of my own recently, there has certainly been a lot of two-way enabling going on!