Good Morning and Happy Sunday! Up a bit earlier than usual today. I probably could have gone back to sleep but then would have woken in a rush to talk here. Instead, I took my time getting up enjoying the cooler breeze through the mostly closed window. Fall is finally here, not only in the temperature but the leaves slowly changing their colors in the tree outside my window.
What did we do this week? Serra started off a little rocky with a stomach bug last weekend that lingered into Monday. It is good that high school is so easy for her that she can take a day and not get behind but bad because she is so ready to sink her teeth into something that takes work. She also had a music filled week with two extra rehearsals and her jazz audition to record. A few months ago, she reconnected with a friend and had a great time at his birthday party this weekend.
Amanda is in the mid-semester doldrums. It doesn't become a slog however for every two things she crosses off the to-do list three more get added. Every semester has its slump and she's working through it. Luckily, she has a three-day weekend and should be able to breathe a bit. She also reminded me that this is her fourth semester in a row without a significant break which adds to the grind. As she suspected her only final is very early in the cycle which would be great if RAs were not required to stay and do room checks at the end of the session. We figure she can spoil her residents a bit and possibly do interviews for the spring if she doesn't have something locked up by then.
Work this past week saw the latest issue of PieceWork released. I love that I get to work on all four publications Long Thread produces. The plan over the next few months is to learn more editing and start understanding more of that process. It's time to sink my teeth in and learn all I can as I have long term goals with it.
Okay, I have to admit I'm going to go craft dork on you now. Fair Warning!
With all things learnable, you can stay surface level, gain a basic understanding of the skill, enjoy the little bit that you know and move on. Or you can realize that it is just the tip of the iceberg and decide to "fall down the rabbit hole" as we in the craft world love to say. I caught my toe and have taken a tumble down one in spinning. It always starts slow. A spindle, or two. A wheel, the lovely soft luxury fiber that you can't take your hands off of. Then it goes deeper. This summer I washed raw merino fleece that I purchased from Australia. Well then what? It's not all uniform and smooth like everything else I've spun. You know what that means. Tools. I did my research and found that for what I wanted a set of wool combs is the way to go. They arrived late Friday.
So here we are! From left to right: raw, washed Merino, my lovely new combs from Blue Mountain Tools, a diz and threader from Gregory V Pencheff Woodturning and a combed nest of Merino. You load the fiber onto one comb with your hand. Once you have filled about an inch of the comb holding it steady with the tines pointing up, take the second comb with tines perpendicular and facing away from you. You start at the very end of the fiber just as you would on a tangled head of hair. The fiber moves from one comb to the other. After you have combed all that will come free onto the moving comb there is a little left on the stationary comb. This is removed and set aside. The fiber is then slowly transferred back to the upright comb using a downward stroke and you get this.
Next you thread the wool into a hole in the diz and pull to create a long strip of fiber that gets rolled into a nest for spinning.
I totally geeked out all day Saturday doing this and now have a box of nests of fiber to spin. Best thing I learned from it? You have to go slow. This is not about speed, rather the movement, the feel, the rhythm. It is its own type of meditation.
As for me this week was good, more highs than lows and understanding that you can't appreciate one without the other. The big lesson this week is that we always think change has to be big or grand. Hurricanes Fiona and Ian are prime examples of this over the last few months. One thing to take from that is how destructive that style of change can be. Sometimes it is needed, and I know that I have had some of my own moments in life that have been like the hurricanes. What doesn't always get recognized is the subtle shifts that take place over time. I grew up in the shadow of the Colorado National Monument. It took EONS of rock shifting and snow melt to create this amazing area with its monoliths and red rock stripes. I didn't realize that my own life is similar. That it is the small delicate shifts that influence over time that have the greatest impact. Growing, learning, exploring, living these are the little things every day. I don't expect my life to be eons long however I find I am beginning to understand and enjoy the slower path.
Next week! PSAT testing, a band concert and the end of the quarter for Serra. Paperwork, studying and the start of the hockey season for Amanda. Me? Soaking life in and keeping a very full cup from spilling a single drop. Breathe, feel, relish, glow, Love, take care of YOU and I'll be back next week :)
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