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Paradise

I spent the weekend at Nigunak. The weather was amazing, cool and sunny with a bit of a breeze.


This is the landing, where we get in the boat to get to the camp. Nigunak is across Great Pubnico Lake, and you can't get there by car. It is about 15 minutes if the lake is high, and the boat is not too loaded down with people and stuff.

This is the view of the lake from inside the guest camp. We stayed in the guest camp this time. It has three bedrooms, with two single beds in each one.

This is a tiny basket, small enough to fit in your hand, it is made from porquipine quills.

This is the guest camp from the outside. Mom took the picture from the boat as we left to go home.

This is an old hooked rug that has been at the camp forever.

Yesterday was spinning group, and I spun the cream superwash merino that I got from Doris. I want to make some argyle socks with it. I have dyed some into other colours for it as well. I really like the superwash, it is definitely very different to spin, it is slippery in a different way. I had to use a narrow strip to spin from, and it very fly away.

I also used her drumcarder to card up some of the alpaca that I got. It is looking pretty good. I started spinning it, but i haven't plyed any yet.

More sock yarn

I got some more Briggs and Little from Doris yesterday, and I actually went home and dyed it up right away. She asked for blue, so I did two different colourways with blue. My favourite is the blue with brown.I have also been working on my striped sock. It will not match the other one, but I am pretty relaxed about that kind of stuff.

I start a new job soon. Hopefully, I will still have enough time for my hobbies. It seems like a good atmosphere, so I am looking forward to it. I have about two weeks until I start, so I need to get busy and do all the fun summer things I want to do before I don't have the time.

Yesterday, Shanny got invited to swim at a friends pool for the afternoon, so since we had to drive out to Argyle anyway, we dropped her off, and went to my sister's to swim as well. It was so nice and peaceful. My friends Jane and Cathy came over, and we all had a great time.

This morning I washed the rest of the bulky merino, and hung it to dry. It feels so nice. I don't have enough for a sweater for me so now I need to search for a kids pattern that calls for bulky yarn.

Hard work

This lily finally bloomed. It is taller than me, and I kept thinking that something badwould happen to it before it bloomed.

Here is Shanny hard at work carrying wood with her father. Notice the little brown spot on her forehead, it is a mosquito. We cannot enjoy much time outside without the bugs attacking.

Pink,Finally!

I dyed some more yarn for Doris yesterday, and I finally got a decent pale pink. It is not my favourite for me, but it seems lots of other people like it.

I have also been spinning some merino roving that I got at Hands on Crafts.

It is pretty chunky, but I love it. It is very round, and tightly plied, which I like. I have been afraid to ply tightly, but so far the tighter I ply, the more I like it. It was a little kinky before I washed it, but after, it was nice and straight without weighting it down.

Alpaca

This is alpaca that I got from a woman in Shelbourne. She and her husband have a bed and breakfast, and also, some alpacas and llamas. This fibre is straight off the animal, so I need to find out what is the best way to use it.I just got a small bag of each of three natural colours, so that I could sample to see if raw fleece is something I want to deal with. So far I think I am going to like it. I juat need the proper tools. I don't have any yet, and I was able to spin some ok yarn straight from the unwashed fleece.

I'm not sure how to distinguish good alpaca from bad. I got some grey so that I could maybe overdye it, but I can tell that it is not as soft as the brown and black. It is still nice though. The black is beautiful, it has so much shine and is really heavy and drapey.

Once I experiment a little, I will decide if I want more.