Trenchwork

Truthfully, I don’t even know where to start. The past month has been one of catching up and trying to maintain, and things are finally starting to stabilize.

The SNHU class is finished, although the term didn’t go as strongly as I’d have liked as a result of the earlier chaos, and there are some things I do need to revise before that course runs again. Still, I was proud of the troops for hanging in there, for trying, and for doing what is ultimately a drafting and brainstorming process—which is counter intuitive to what they’re accustomed to (creating a finished, polished text). In an eight-week course, and when the purpose is to give them an orientation and hands-on acquaintanceship with a specific form of writing, the best you can do is create drafts and think of the last version as a more polished draft.  That’s not easy for them, and I do understand that.  But I hope they’ll be encouraged to continue to work with the texts they’ve begun, to see the potential in them and the possibilities to adapt them to different publication markets, or simply try their hand at a new essay and experiment with the skills they’ve picked up.  Generally speaking, they did very well, and I was indeed pleased with their work.  Creative writing classes really are a joy to work with, even if the term is a chaotic whirlwind.

Likewise, the Norwegian students are finished, and I’m down to marking exams.  This coming week has two deadlines I need to meet (including finishing the exams), but here too I’m pleased with the students’ dedication and willingness to try things which are unfamiliar in order to learn a new technique or method, new concepts and ideas about writing and literature.  And, here too I see changes I need to make to the courses.  There are certain tasks and approaches with which the Norwegians are less familiar than their American counterparts, and as a result, I need to adjust a couple of assignments to keep them from panicking and stressing as much as they are.  For the stateside troops, it’s all part of the routine.  For the Norwegian troops, however, it’s uncharted territory and I’d rather they went into those tasks with more confidence and a stronger foundation so that they weren’t so intimidated by assignments which should absolutely NOT be intimidating.

So, I have work to do.  Fortunately, I have the better part of a year to do that tweaking.

And after this week, I’ll have time to figure out where the heck I am on other projects.   I’ve decided to just call this semester a wash; it’s been far from normal on any front, and the past month has been filled with minor surgery for DH and the creeping crud for us both, so I’m thinking of July as a sort of fresh start.  There are simply times when you need to do that and, in a manner of speaking, write off the immediate past as out of the ordinary, know that you’ve done the best you could with it, and pick up where you left off before that period of time.

Fresh starts.  Whether they’re daily events or a bit more infrequent, they are important.  They give us a chance to reconcile, to catch our breath, to reassess, to renew.  Without them, life could easily become overwhelming at times.

Fresh starts and cheesecake.  What more could you want?

We’re getting there.

I started to say that there has been very little fiber activity over the past month, but there’s been more than I realized; those odd little moments as you wait for one deadline or catch your breath between assignments really add up!

I’ve agreed to do a spindle workshop in October, and suddenly Marianne (one of my spinners) and I found ourselves demo’ing spindle and wheel for a random collection of folks at the local 4H farm on the 6th.   It was an odd day, and Marianne and I ended up just having our own cozy little spinning meeting, but we did have the chance to put a few folks on a spindle and show them that there is more to spinning than the old black-and-white pictures they remember about their great-great grandmother carding unwashed wool outside in the yard of the family farm.  Most of them have no idea that they can get prepared spinning fibers, and I have to say that I really think that the best way to tempt people who are otherwise NOT interested in fiber in spinning is not to hand them a greasy fleece—but to hand them a bit of clean, well-prepared and brightly colored roving.  For those who are already interested in spinning, it’s a different question and starting with fleece can be perfect.  But the average person off the street who has no prior interest?  Most of them think of it as stinky smelly stuff and feel a pressing need to wash their hands immediately afterward—and you can’t really blame them, particularly if the fleece they’re handed is not a handspinner’s fleece.

With that in mind and with the idea that I’d use the materials for the October workshop, I went ahead and brought in a teacher’s pack of Babe spindles and dyed some Brown Sheep rovings.  So, we had these:

And these:

So, there sat Marianne and I, spinning and giggling at the absurdity of being placed in a corner which was largely outside the traffic pattern, surrounded by her handspun and some colorful rovings.  Odd, but still fun.

At least I’m all set for October!

And there have been a few yarns finished in the interim . . .

It’s just Corriedale, but Crown Mountain Farm does wonderful colors. This is an old colorway I don’t even know if they still carry: “Azure Dreams.” Spun semi-woolen, thick-thin, and 2-ply, for 7.5 ounces and 516 yards. I seem to be the queen of thick-thin these days, and I’m figuring it is just a side-effect of the past few months’ instability. Profound as it is not to say, spinning seems to reflect life these days, and I think we can safely say that life has been fairly uneven. The WPI ranges from 11-18, but I’m very into soft yarns, so it’s a lovely squishy stuff which will knit up into a wonderfully smushy fabric for someone.

It’s Norwegian White in the “Kentucky Derby” colorway from Spunky Eclectic. A bit less than 12 ounces, spun thick-thin and bulky with a TPI around 4 in order to keep it fairly soft. WPI ranges from around 28-4. Lightly fulled, 478 yards.

Norwegian White is one of those wools which is too coarse for me, but which spins up into a surprisingly lofty and relatively soft yarn when it’s spun in low twist singles.

In contrast, there was this:

Organic Merino roving from Spunky Eclectic, in “Storms of Jupiter” colorway. Spun semi-woolen. A worsted weight at roughly 10wpi, 365 yards, 215 grams, in a true 3-ply. Very soft, and very squishy.

And this:

It’s not grey. Really. But I can’t get it to take a good photo! It’s a deep blue-green in various hues, spun thick-thin as a low-twist single. The fiber was a gifted handcarded batt from Ullsmeden, and consists of 50% Norwegian lamb, 35% Merino, 15% Tussah, and a bit of Angelia. The fiber lent itself to a thick-thin textured single, and there are 219 yards in the 3 ounces, ranging from 6-22wpi. I’ve no idea what it’ll become, but it needs to be something special.

And finally, there was this:

It’s what I call a corset yarn. The core and one single are spun in one direction and plied together, and the final single is spun in the other and plied with the 2-ply. The fiber was “Sweet Grass” Polwarth batts and roving from Enchanted Knoll Farm and the color is more moss-green than appears here. But I’m not satisfied. I underestimated the strength of the colors in the batt, and overestimated the colors in the roving, so I didn’t have the distinction between the core and the laces I wanted. Nor have I got the tension quite right, so the laces aren’t spaced the way I want them. Nevertheless, it’s a soft but moderately firm and very squishy yarn.

There are 49 yards in the little 2-ply remnant (10-16wpi thick-thin), and 221 yards in the corset yarn (9-12wpi).

I’ll get it right the next time.

Looking ahead to the future, I gave in to temptation. This just arrived:

It’s a fleece from a coated CVM ram named “Rifle” and it’s already clean; Morro Fleece Works did a wonderful job on the wash. For the moment, I’m going to tuck it away. It’s a very spongy wool . . .

and I haven’t decided how I want to spin it. It has incredible elasticity and is very soft, I combed a few test locks, but I’m not entirely satisfied. I need to sample a bit, and I’d like to see what happens when it’s blended with a bit of Merino and silk.

And there, friends and neighbors, you have the scoop. This is the last week of deadlines until August, and July 3rd starts the Tour de France—which means it also starts the Tour de Fleece. For those not in the know, the Tour de Fleece is a daily spinning event; it’s a way of cheering on the riders for the Tour and doing a bit of stash busting. Do I have any idea what I’m going to spin? Heck no. Ask me next week.