Home finally! Actually, I got home Monday...tore down camp, packed everything back into the SUV, drove home, unpacked and put everything away, hopped in the shower and washed me, then did the laundry of all my camping clothes... after that, it was amazing... I could hardly move as I kept stiffening up. heheeh

Here is the result of my spinning and plying experiment! Purple, teal and fuschia roving that I spun in random lengths of each color blended with the white single. I rather surprised myself as I really like how it looks. Next will be to see what it looks like when knitted into something.

It looks to be about DK or sport weight so it might become a hat and scarf or just a hat. I need to check the yardage with my trusty fishing line counter so I'll know how much I have to work with.

I started spinning the Wildberry roving that I have, too. Yup, spinning while camping but, since it was a medieval camping event and spinning fits in with the timeperiod... Heck, that's where the word Anachronism comes in for the SCA :)

This is my new tent. Huge for one person but I was able to have a bedroom side and a "company" side where my spinning wheel was. Next time I use the tent, I'm definitely going to create a nice porch for it where I use a tarp to make a sun shade so I can actually spin outside the tent which, even with all the windows and doors open, gets very stuffy during the day. Besides, people will be able to see me spinning easier and come over and join in the fun!

We had an absolute blast at this camping event, called Outlandish. Lots of good friends, good weather, great camping site. What more could you ask for!?

How was your Memorial Day weekend?

All loaded and there's just a tiny spot that I can see where I really could shove one last item... hhuummm. Would you believe that this is all for ONE person camping!?

hehehe Yup, I don't camp light. Tent, cooler, rugs, fire extinguisher, stove, fuel for stove, boxes with clothes, bathroom/pharmacy supplies, and spinning/knitting, blankets and pillow and sleeping bag and air mattress (that's pretty much what is in the black bags. The spinning wheel isn't in the suv yet but it will go in the passenger seat. I still have to stop at the store and pick up the ice for the ice chest to keep the food cold.

To top that all off, I have to go into work today for my cpr class. 4.5 hours of it, unfortunately. This instructor does NOT believe in letting old returning RN's and Techs finish the class early. We have to do the whole thing even though we have taken the same class more times than we care to think about. Heck, I've been an RN for 29 years and took the class every year since I started in nursing school till they changed the requirement from once a year to every 2 years so that adds more years of cpr onto that list! Lordy, that is a scary thought. 29 years?? ::shudder::

Any way, this is going to be Grand Outlandish which is the big camping event for my Kingdom here in the SouthWest for my SCA group. We are a medieval re-enactment group not a Ren Fair group and are classed as a non-profit educational group. It's a blast even though most women will be dressed in long dresses and the men will be fighting in real armor and it's supposed to be in the high 80's. I'll try taking pictures if the batteries for my camera hold up. They've been charging but not holding their charge. ::sigh:: Guess 4 years of use is finally wearing them out.

What are you all planning for Memorial Day weekend? I've got my knitting and my spinning and loads of friends.

Color Experiment!

Another week has flown by. I can't believe that it's already the middle of MAY and our weather is supposed to be in the high 80's by Thursday.

I've been spinning this weekend. ::happy dance:: I finished the white and started on the experiment of the colors. different lengths of the purple, teal and fuschia put together and then this will be plyed with the white. I have no idea if it will look nice or too busy. It's just something I wanted to play around with since my LYS does not carry anything but natural colored roving or the solids like what I bought.

Barring any more horribly strange things at work (knock wood), I should be going to an SCA camping event over Memorial Day weekend. PLUS!!!!! There is a Fiber Arts Fiesta at the fair grounds the same weekend. I'll, most likely, be making one trip into town each day for a bank run since I'm the assistant to the Reeve and that will give me an excuse to drop in on that Fiesta and see what goodies I can't live without. More roving would be so nice since, if the weather is agreeable, I'll have my wheel out at the camp site. ::grin::

(whine) Work hasn't changed. I'm tired of hearing my boss say she hates our department. Unfortunately, she wasn't given a choice about accepting her assignment to be our interum manager when our regular one quit. Unfortunately, her attitude... well, it's like abuse... if you keep hearing you are hated every day, you start to believe it and I, as the charge nurse, am trying my damnedest to keep things together and let the rest of the staff know that *I* care about them and our unit.....(/whine) I'll take some Muenster cheese with that, please. hehehe

Okay... enough whining and now back to spinning!

Yup, I'm still spinning. I didn't get to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.... Okay.. I wasn't planning on it because it's way too far for me to go but it sure sounded like a wonderful place to melt your Credit Card!

I wish I had paid attention to what fiber it was but it's super soft so I'm thinking I actually might have picked up some 100% merino.

Right now, I honestly can say that I'm truly addicted to spinning! I love the feel. I love the creativity. I love the relaxation I get from it.

I'm not planning on dying this yarn. It will probably wind up as sport weight... or I hope it will. Then I'm going to spin the colored roving that I purchased at the same time and ply them together. Probably will look strange but it's just an idea that I have and wanted to play with.

Then I have the colored roving in the post before this one and the roving in the black bag in the posting before that and then... Memorial Day weekend, we are supposed to have a FiberArts Feast here and I plan on visiting there. ::grin::

I'm way into S.A.B.L.E and it's getting bigger and bigger and.... I'm having so much fun!!!

I couldn't resist getting more roving! I ordered this from CopperMoose before I was gifted with the big bag of white roving.

It's three pounds of their Confetti which is white wool with multi colored silk threads, 1 pound of their Wildberry Roving, and 8 ounces of their 70%/30% Merino/Silk Roving in Majestic Sky.

Now, I find out that there is a fiberarts fair here over Memorial Day weekend. I have an SCA camping event that weekend barring having my vacation time denied at work which is still a possibility. Even if I do get to go to the camping event, I might take a break on Friday or Saturday and go see what other rovings I can't live without!

I wonder if they will have any Free Time for sale at the fair. HHuummm, I sure could use a healthy dose of that, couldn't you?

Today, I decided to take the time and go to our local SCA Fighter Practice. I haven't been in over 2 months due to being on call for work so much and just plain old exhaustion. Today was a special day as we were having a demo for one of the local Charter Schools. The kids are studying history and this was part of their history class.

I get there and am setting up my spinning wheel when one of the other members came up and asked if I was the lady who was interested in wool. She then said.. no wait, I haven't seen you in ages but, you might be interested in this since you spin. She sent her son off and he came back with this:

A huge black garbage bag. Probably one of those big 50 gallon black garbage bags.

She unknoted the top and my jaw hit the ground! In side was this:

The bag is stuffed full of washed and combed roving! She had no idea what type of sheep it was from but it feels very much like the colored roving in a previous post here. When I got home, I weighted it and it's about 11.5 POUNDS ! ! !

Apparently, the place where her son works used to do spinning and weaving as well as the pottery that they still do. When they stopped the spinning/weaving part of their business, they just put the wool they had left into bags and put them up in the attic.

I was in shock but I think she said they were cleaning things out and said he could take all of it home if he wanted to... so he did. His Mom doesn't spin but figured there were others in the SCA who would want the fiber. Since the other lady wasn't there... the one who originally had been interested in the wool, I got this one bag but she has 2 more, even larger, bags! I mentioned, that, if the other lady didn't want the wool, I would give the rest of it a very good home! ::big huge grin::

It's all a very light creamy white. I might pull some of it out and try my hand at dying! LOL That will be a blast! Then I might have to see about renting the drum carder from my LYS for a bit and carding some different colors together... and... and ... and.... so many ideas!

I'll be watching for little things that shouldn't be in the wool but, here in NM, we seem to be pretty lucky with the lack of fiber munching moths so I'm hoping I'll be very very lucky. Plus it has been stored in double black bags in a attic where it would get really hot.

Any way.... My weekend turned out fantastic. How was yours?