First Geocache

DSC_1344.jpg, a photo by Marina Garrison on Flickr.

J has the spirit of a pirate, he loves the chase and when I mentioned the idea of a real live treasure hunt (geocaching.com) he nagged me until I took him hiking to the closest geocache to our house 0.5 km away.

For those of you not familiar with the concept, you can go to the geocaching.com website or download the app to find the closest geocaches to you. There are 2 million of them worldwide, 423 in Kelowna and 3 within 0.5km of our house.

The idea is you use a map/compass (or the cell phone app) to locate the geocache, usually a canister with a notepad and pen (to record you name/date) and sometimes have mini prizes for kids to trade.

After we got back K wanted to go to, so I had to take her too. I am one worn out mom today!

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Kamloops Stash Bash Spin In [Studio M]

I'm excited to be attending my first ever spinning event today. I've got my wheel packed up, a bag of Blue Faced Leicester X Cotswold/Romney locks that must weight at least 1/2 lb (because I wouldn't want to run out of fibre!), and $100 to spend with me because I just know there is going to be some pretty fibre there that I'm going to want to bring home with me ;)

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Word Art Panel [Studio M]

I really enjoy looking through Pinterest posts recommended by my friends.

Today I saw the cutest Word Art Panel pinned by my friend Lisa, that I just had to have. Here is the original, created by Lauren:

And here is my version, made in Photoshop, in a 16x20 Ikea Ribba frame:

What a great idea! (ok, maybe sharing my age might not be a great idea....)

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Spinning up a storm [Studio M]

I've been busy with my spinning wheel in the past couple of weeks. I'm churning out yarn so fast I don't know how I'll keep up with knitting it!

First off, this one I call Zebra:

Then a blend I made on my blender/drum carder from some yellow and red fibre I had kicking around, I call this one Firestar:

Next we have Peacock, this was the January colour way from Spunky Eclectic. This was my first attempt at fractal spinning. 

Then an unknown fibre given to me by a member of the spinning guild:

These all need washing/setting before I measure the yardage and weight.

Then I washed a good portion of my BFLxRomney/Cotswold cross. This was very exciting and scary at the same time! It's incredible how quickly the dirt comes off and how white the fleece turns. It takes quite a while for the fleece to dry, I've figured that it is quicker if I take it out of the mesh bag that I use to wash it in, spreading it out to dry. The locks are so cute and curly - I feel like the sheep are distant kin to my curly-self - and I think it'll be a shame to drum card these curls so I might "spin from the lock" with this fleece.

I have a spin in on Saturday in Kamloops so I need to decide what I'm doing and prepare for my first spinning event which should be a lot of fun!

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An Animal Education [Studio M]

Last weekend, the kids and I went out to see my friends lambs. These lambs are Barbados blackbelly sheep. They were only a week or so old and very cute. Surprisingly sturdy on their feet. The mother's were a bit wary of us but we got to pet one. They are hair sheep and do not grow wool.

We also got to meet some Alpaca.  They were very curious and even lined up to meet us! They were actually taller than I expected, I was looking them right in the eye. I thought the kids would be scared but they weren't and wanted to pet them. The Alpaca were having none of that, they were too shy to be touched.

'I' was very brave and even tried to feed one with some grass. I was a bit worried he might take her fingers off though!

The kids had a great time and learned a lot about animal husbandry and animals at the same time. All this and we didn't even have to go more than 3 minutes away from home!

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