highlandheffalump

YOP15 Week 2/52 – Tour de Fleece Update

Acquisitions/Collection Curation

A couple of small cones of green weaving cotton arrived this week.  I ordered them over a month ago and had almost forgotten about them.  They will be used for sampling some 3 heddle weaving practice on my 10″ loom.

Fibre Preparation

The first few days of Tour de Fleece I was making rolags.  The fibre was some pink fleece gifted to me and she doesn’t recall the breed. Its a little toothy so maybe Shetland. 

Spinning

I have almost filled a bobbin of this.  Its a little lumpy bumpy but I am thinking of making a pink chicken for the spare bedroom!

I spun with some friends and managed to fill 2 bobbins of my Nano wheel with some unknown top from a friend, a slightly different shade of pink.  It will also go in the chicken.

I haven’t spun every day but I haven’t the last few TdFs either.

Other News

WordPress notified me they have reduced the storage on my travel blog from 3GB to 1GB. If you have a wordpress blog this may be of interest, if not skip ahead to below the line.

I needed do something or start paying. I spent hours after work going through the media library on WordPress reducing the size of the images, only to find that actually grew the amount of storage I was using because it was keeping a hidden copy of the original too.

After a lot of research I discovered you have to download all the media, which is ok it does that at the press of one button.  Then you have to delete all the images from your media library.

Then you have to reduce the photos whilst they are on your iPad or PC etc and then reload the photos back onto each post individually in the right place! 

I have done the first bits but then need to do the reloading.  So for the foreseeable my travel blog is hidden from view whilst I slowly reload the images.

On Saturday we went to a motorbike shop as I wanted to have a look at a 125cc scooter 🛵 but they’d sold the one on their website.  I am booked on the Compulsory Basic Training course in August which will be enough for me to drive one with learner plates.  I will then have 2 years to do the theory and next level practical test.  After that I can remove my learner plates and would be allowed a passenger.  Amazing to think pre 1990 there wasn’t a test!

Reducing down to one car seemed like a good idea, but when my husband has the car one day a weekend to visit his mum it does leave me feeling a bit trapped.  It will also help me get back up the hill from work quicker on the hot or rainy days. 

Talking of hot its been scorchio!  28⁰C/82⁰F yesterday, that is very rare for here in the Scottish Highlands. (No air conditioning in our homes and they are all built to hold heat in.)

Last night we were at a friend’s for a BBQ and were driving home after midnight and you could still see some light in the sky from the set sun. 

Parrot update, the family said they didn’t have room for her in their home…probably code for too loud.  But we have heard another couple may be interested and they’ve been given our contact details. 🤞

This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 15th year, but this is my 8th year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, as you’d be very welcome to join us.

Year 15 list.

20 comments

  3. What a cute chicken those pinks will make! I am sure someone will love your parrot, here in the states we have parrot rescues, none there or did you say they were full?

    We get into the upper 80’s and 90’s in the summers here, with humidity it can feel like into the 100’s, way too hot for me, lol, but I chose to live here, sigh. Out west they don’t have much humidity so it doesn’t feel as hot even in the 90’s, tho I have to admit even out west with very little humidity 100’s are hot! Love my air conditioner!!!

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    • I have broken out in heat rash. My body isn’t designed for hot places at all. The Scottish rescue is full and their waiting list is closed too. Nearest rescue in England is 450 miles away. We will keep trying locally.

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      • If you have some lavender (I prefer the pure therapeutic oil, I use doTERRA) you can use that to help with the itch or pain. If the therapeutic oil is just the pure oil and not already mixed with a carrier oil (like fractionated coconut oil or almond oil or olive oil), do cut it with carrier oil to dilute it a little. Lavender will help with your rash and relieve the itching or pain, it’s very kind to our skin. When I make my 15 ml roller ball bottle (it is brown tinted bottle to block light), I put 12 to 13 drops of lavender oil in the bottle and fill the rest up with fractionated coconut oil. Then I can just roll it over the area that needs soothing. It works to relieve the itch for mosquito bites and other itchy things (like hives) and minor scrapes and scratches and I just reapply as needed. I hope this will help.

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      • I grow my own aloe vera plant, they are very easy to grow. You can just break a leaf off and apply it from the end of the broken leaf, it squeezes out easily. I use that for sunburns to stop the burning action and then a little while (an hr or so) after that I apply the lavender to help it heal. So glad Heavenly Father gave us plants to help us.

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  5. Yes! A pink nubby chicken would be awesome. We are also a 1 car family. It does have its challenges. I hope the new parrot people fall in love with the bird.

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  6. Oh cannot wait to see how gorgeous a chicken will be in those wonderful pinks! and best of luck with getting your scooter and doing your test, sounds like a good solution to reducing to 1 car problem, would love to see a picture when you get your scooter

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  7. That pink is lovely. Cant wait to see the chicken! Thanks for reminding me I have to pull my pattern out and choose colors. Thanks for the heads up about the photos. Something I’ll need to look into for sure.

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  8. As always, your yarn is gorgeous! Can’t wait to see your new chicken 🙂 What a great idea getting a scooter! That is a nice less expensive way to have a second form of transport available. Hope it cools down for you and good luck with rehoming the parrot 🙂

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  11. I can’t wait to see your pink chicken. Will it have a yellow polkadot bikini and cateye sunglasses? Seems like it should. I’m in Alaska and know what it’s like when it gets hot. We just have ceiling fans and it got really hot this year. It is just starting to get darker at night here. It snuck up on me and I suddenly realized I need to turn on lights at night. I could still see outside but the long,, dark days of winter are coming. I’m actually part scottish so I love reading about Scotland and looking at pictures. I’m trying to figure out which part my ancestors came from.

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    • Our houses aren’t even built with ceiling fans. Very warm days are fairly rare. We sit at the same latitude as somewhere between Sitka and Juneau, Alaska. So depending where you are in Alaska from there we may have about the same daylight. My travel blog has various posts from around Scotland and many of the isles off the coast you may enjoy reading.

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