New Plan

I'm still trying to get my spinning mojo back.  I've been working on this skein for the past couple of months, but the problem is not the spinning.  It's that I haven't any idea for an end use.  I don't wear sweaters so that's out.  This will be warp for a scarf - not very exciting.

Then this morning one of the weavers in the 4-Shaft Facebook page posted this of a cloak she make from her own Jacob sheep.  This breed has multicolored fleeces and many horns.  She separated the fleece into three colors before spinning and used commercial warp.  She got her ideas from the book Woven to Wear by Marilyn Murphy.  I promptly ordered it from Amazon and it will be here on Monday.  Now I'm excited because now I have a plan.

This lap robe is the only project I am currently working on.  It's from one of our Shetland sheep and while the sett might be a little too loose, I'd rather err on that side than too tight which I've already done with disappointing results.

The other morning I was racing around, trying to get out of the house when Maddie started calling to me.  She misses our time together in the studio.  Me too.  The school is an hour from here so with the two-hour round trip, they were nine hour days and left me no energy once I got home.

We have had scattered showers and thunderstorms for the past week, all most welcome.  We had a good rain two nights ago and this morning awoke to this.  The Sierras aren't getting much in the way of snow and the drought continues to weigh heavily on everyone.

Wednesday I posted the following story on Facebook:

My last two classes today were both second grade and pretty squirrely. We were about 15 minutes into the last class, with 15 minutes to go until the end of the day when a loud, close clap of thunder stopped everyone in their tracks. There was a moments hesitation, then to a student they rushed to the windows to look out. I told them to get back to business - it was only a sound. In the next minute the sky opened up and rain poured from the sky. The kids went crazy. I wanted them to hear it on the library skylights so gave the universal quiet sign. They stared in disbelief at the thundering skylights and then once again rushed to the windows. If we had been a boat, we would have capsized. I started to bring them to order. then thought - how many times in their seven years have they seen a gully washer like this? I mean, I get excited when it rains. Why shouldn't they? We got our business done, albeit a little loud with lots of dancing, and that is why I like to sub.

Then my friend Carolyn sent me a story of her own:

Loved the rain story today. The exact same thing happened to me years ago in California when our 7 year drought ended. My first graders had never seen it rain like that. We had to stop the lesson to go outside in the corridor and watch the rain come down. They were so excited.

The next morning I bumped into the 2nd grade teacher whose class had come into the library before the storm. I asked her how it went for her in their classroom that last period. She said they had the very same experience. She tried to restore classroom order and then realized that for some of her kids, this was the first rainstorm of their lives. I'm sure people on the East Coast have no idea how this feels.