From zombies to college

Any week that starts with zombies might be a bad one - unless they are made from delicious cake!

It's been a busy week at Chez Daisy - and it all started with a lovely wedding and some tasty CAKE! I didn't get a piece of this one so I'm hoping they are using it for their anniversary cake.

Then, we moved onto hockey camp.

As I am not the one at camp - I thought I would get some time off. Actually, I've reffed more home patio hockey games this week than I could have imagined. And what with moving all the patio furniture and actually making goals out of drying racks and towels - I think I've done mothers everywhere proud!

Any of my own free time has been sucked into participating in the Tour de Fleece - and you know, my rear end really appreciates a well padded bike short right now. Those spinning stools just aren't as  comfortable as they could be.

But the results are coming along and I am dreaming of what I'll be knitting this fall out of the Mystery Shetland Fiber.

Youngest Daughter will going off to college in August - so there also has been a lot of college themed clothes shopping going on. It almost makes me long for the days of high school uniforms . . .

Busy, busy, busy . . . ah, summer!

A busy, busy weekend!

Well, Saturday was 96 degrees F. and humid -  but luckily that all blew in after Youngest Child's Big Day at the Lake Nokomis Miracle Kids Triathlon.

Hanging out on the beach before his wave is pretty much his speed. He loves the music, making friends with the other kids and doesn't have any problem with the training. That's really all you can ask of an 8 year old!

There he goes!

The sun finally came out afterward and we were glad to go home. This week? Hockey camp will be the perfect place to be to beat the heat.

As for me, I'm making waves, no stripes.

I'm not going to have enough Cascade Fixation in green to make a second hat so GFMelissa gave me some of her leftovers and I'm making a striped chemo hat for the MKG service committee.

And I'm spinning up a storm of "Mystery Fiber - probably Merino" for the Tour de Fleece. 

The only problem is that my spinning stool is killing me! I seriously need a cushion or something - there is a reason wooden stools went out of fashion!

Mystery solved!

As part of the Tour de Fleece, I picked up a bag of "mystery rolags" to work on from out of my stash.

(You must admit that not knowing what kind of fleece or when, exactly, you turned it into rolags is a sign that I should be spinning more!)

After working on it for a while, I decided to run the rolags through my carder (the rolags were pretty flat by now) and, lo and behold, when I pulled out the carder, I found a large bag of shetland fleece.

Three flat batts of Shetland

Possibly the first fleece that Mr. Daisy ever bought me at Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival!

The "un-rolaged" bag is 10 ounces and the (now carded and spun up a bit) bag of rolags is 4 ounces.

Here's the former rolags carded up into batts.

So, I've pretty much got the rest of the Tour de Fleece laid out before me. Shetland fleece, good to go!

I was going to call this post "Why you shouldn't knit at the movies."

The knife is strictly for effect!

I started this on the ride home from Mount Rushmore but then, I finished it at the movies. 

Unfortunately, when I got home, I discovered that I had made a mistake. A big one so, time to frog it back. 

A Fistful of

BFL!

First off, I hope you had a Happy Fourth of July. Lovely hot weather here topped off with a great fireworks display on the river.

Things were busy around here with a sci-fi convention for my daughters (and me, I confess. I went for the Torchwood and Dr. Who panels), one heck of a lot of spinning for Tour de Fleece (8 oz BFL spun and plied) and hat knitting.

It's not terribly fine spinning but I've been using the bulky head for my Lendrum and I'm not that familiar with its weight and ratio.

The skein on the far right is the biggest - I decided to spin two full smaller bobbins into one. I haven't counted the yards yet.

I finished my service project hat for the MKG. This was my trip knitting project along with 

this teeny tiny Splish Splash washcloth from Evelyn A. Clark.

I finally took three shopping bags of Saturday Seven clothes from Oldest Daughter over to the local rummage sale. I didn't photograph or count but it was way over seven items! How does she get that much extra stuff in her room?

Tour de Fleece 201

Remember this beauty? Time to spin it up!

I've been spinning for a few years but I've never participated in the Tour de Fleece. That's an online "contest" (maybe I should call it a "challenge?") that involves spinning every day the Tour de France riders ride, if possible.

That's Saturday July 2nd through Sunday July 24th. I've heard there are rest days (Monday July 11th and Monday July 18th) but I'm not sure how that works.

It's kind of fun in that on a day when something especially challenging is going on, you are supposed to spin something especially hard. That's Wednesday, July 20th, when the Tour has an intense mountain stage through five mountain passes.  I love going up hills on my bike (although, oddly, not going down) so I'm looking forward to that one!

This Lincoln Long Wool has always seemed challenging to spin.

Some people DVR the Tour to watch during their spinning but I think I'll be traveling with The Doctor. Dr. Who, that is!

All participants are supposed to wear yellow on Sunday, July 24,  to announce victory as yellow is the color of the race leader in the Tour. I'm not sure how that will go - I actually don't own anything yellow - but we'll see . . .  I'm much more of "polka-dot jersey" wearer as that signifies you are a climber.

Perhaps I'll start with these curly locks?

So, I invite you to join me in the fun! Maybe we'll take the break on July 18th to go see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?"