Randomday - the spinning edition

I've not been doing much more than the Tour de Fleece.  The Tour de Fleece was made for stressed-out teachers like me on their summer break!  At the end of the day today, I figure I've spun almost 1.5 pounds of the 2.5 pounds of superwash wool that was my goal.  Here was July 5's spinning, the bowl balanced on my toes so you can see how it matches the dahlias.  I think my Dutch heritage has given me an abiding love of the color orange.

Now, I have been learning about the Tour de France while I'm participating in the Tour de Fleece.  The Tour de France is fascinating.  We all know about the maillot jaune, the yellow jersey that the overall leader wears.  But there is also the green jersey for the contestant with the most points, usually for sprinting over level ground.  And the polka-dot jersey for the best mountain climber, and the white jersey for the best rookie.  And it is a much more violent sport than I had realized.  The main pack of riders is called the Peloton, and they are racing literally wheel to wheel at 70 mph going around hairpin turns; there have been some gruesome crashes.  Sometimes the riders get right back on their bikes and race off again, and then the medic car will catch up with them and the medics will lean out of the car window and evaluate him as he pedals.  The 2nd place yesterday finished with a dislocated shoulder or something; there are riders still riding with fractured bones.  Yikes!  NBC carries some weekend coverage, but I've mainly been watching online, either live if I can tune in early enough on one of the Eurosport channels, or the 5-minute daily highlights version here.  I love the awards ceremony at the end of each stage.  Winner flanked by 2 beautiful girls in yellow, who garb him in the yellow jersey, present him with yellow roses and a stuffed lion, then kiss-kiss-kiss, kiss-kiss-kiss, shake hands with the VIPs (must seem like a let-down after the beautiful girls and the kiss-kiss-kiss).  Tomorrow is the Jura mountain range, and I'll be very interested to see it after reading Caesar's Gallic Wars.

And here is the spinning I accomplished yesterday.  Yesterday was not so great for wheel spinning because we had Daniel's graduation party, along with 4 other young people from our church, at Hazel Dell park.  It was open house style, and after making the sandwiches and picking up the cake I didn't have to do anything in particular, so I brought the Kuchulu along and spun on that Dicentra Designs "salt marsh" BFL/silk blend.  It's almost a 2-year spinning project now.  People kept asking me what I would make with such a fine yarn.  It's actually more like thread.  I have a pattern for another shawl-I-won't-wear in mind, but let's just wait to see what actually happens between now and whenever I finish spinning the roving.

After the picnic yesterday, Daniel brought his buddies home with him for an all-night geek-fest.  It involved lots of Minecraft and a few other games, the consumption of all the leftover cake and sandwiches, and two runs to McDonald's.  Steve, Tertia and I went to a piano recital, then brought one more buddy home for Daniel, then pretty much collapsed and were oblivious to the gaming and McDonald's runs.

Still upright but punchy at about 8:30 a.m. ...

but not upright for long.
Tertia and Quarta finished one round of swim lessons Friday and will start a second on Monday: Quarta will be moving up to level 4; Tertia is staying in level 2 and very happy just to be there.  She is the tallest, or almost tallest, kid in her class for once in her life.  She jumped off the diving board without needing someone to catch her!

Might as well do the weekly stash report: no change in quilting fabric but I've been adding quite a bit of yarn:

Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 50 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 28 yards
Net used for 2012: 22 yards

Yarn used this week: 0 yards, making progress on Lady MacBeth
Yarn used year to date: 3406 yards
Yarn added this week: 1030 - Tour de fleece, 10 skeins, plus one ball of T-shirt yarn made
Yarn added year to date: 2338 yards (all handspun, not purchased)
Net used for 2012: 1068 yards