Baby Its Cold Outside!

Living in the Midwest can sometimes seem like a test of endurance.  These last few days have been an endurance due to extreme cold.  Everything is so much harder when it is -20!  Toss in wind chills of -50 and you really wonder just how crazy your ancestors must have been.  Because really, who in their right minds would stop on a windswept prairie where temps can range from 100+ in the summer (ok, so not so often but still it does happen almost yearly) to lows of -30?  I can't imagine living in log cabins or sod homes trying to keep warm and/or cool during these times.

I was one of the few people who pushed on today and went to work.  I don't do anything "urgent" or "critical" in nature.  I work for a medical device company in the legal department.  But if I'm not there, I have to take PTO and I really try so hard to save as much of that as I can, between my mom's appointments and the girls appointments it can take a lot of time away from work.  Toss in the desire to actually have a vacation every once in a while, every PTO hour becomes precious and so valuable.  I did leave early though.  Even though my car is only a few years old, even those can have a tough time starting in temps as cold as this!

I happily got home by mid afternoon and spun away.  I working away on filling the basket for DFW Fiber Fest.  So far this last week I finished four more skeins.  These are true and sturdy skeins.  Not in your face skeins, but the sturdy work horses I use to really make those in your face skeins shine.

Meet Stella, I bought Stella's beautiful gray fleece at Shepherd's Harvest 2 years ago.  It was already cleaned and processed into a lovely bag of pin drafted fiber.  Stella is a bit of a conundrum, initially you feel her and you think Oooo, just a bit scratchy, but then, wait a minute, there is underlying softness to her as well.  I think she is a sturdy yarn, with gentle luster but quite a bit of strength to her as well.

Then there is this, I named them Hidden Gems.  Because while muted in tone, there are so many beguiling colors hidden in the background grayish purple.  Remember a couple posts ago I showed the roving I dyed myself with great help from Angela of All For Love of Yarn?  This was the roving that I felt was so me and initially I wasn't sure when I was spinning it, but in the end, I'm really quite pleased with the results. 

 

Both Stella and Hidden Gems have joined the other finished skeins in my basket.  I've upped my daily spinning to about 3+ hours on most week nights, the weekends?  I'm trying for 6+ hours.  I'm determined to have a great selection of yarns in 11 weeks.  Holy cow!  11 weeks until  DFW Fiber Fest.  Must sign off, must go spin.