Studio 49 Retreat 2017 Challenge part 2

See this post for the beginning of this story.

I have finished spinning my yarn for the Studio 49 Retreat 2017 challenge. Yay! I scaled down my vasty many oz. project idea from last year. I decided that finishing it without undue stress and last minute spinning/knitting was going to be better for my health and for my family.

So the new project idea is to spin just the original 2oz. of creamy white Polwarth and 2oz. of lovely natural grey BFL (BlueFaced Leicester) I have in my stash. I will finish two separate yarns and knit a 2-color Mosaic Sampler Hat. A new technique and a small doable project! Sort of unusual for me. But smart this time around.

My singles.

I wanted a 2 ply yarn so I needed to divide the singles into two sections to ply. I didn't want to ply from a single ball for some mysterious reason. Here is my set up. I weighed an empty bobbin then weighed the full bobbin and did some calculations to figure out what my end half bobbin should weigh so I had two close to even singles ready to ply.

The red box is my homemade shoe-box lazy kate with tension device. I made her when I first started spinning in 2003 and she is still my go-to kate. Almost there with the divided singles.

Two pairs of singles!

Plying set up.

I used my 1970's Ashford Traditional spinning wheel with the jumbo bobbin set up to ply both yarns into big skeins. I added a couple extra treadle pushes to get the tighter twist I wanted.

My two finished skeins and a close up of the lovely yarn. The grey BFL is a wee bit thicker than the Polwarth.

The yarns wet finished nicely. Both are soft and squishy. The Polwarth in particular is stretchy and the creamy white just glows. It's going to be fun to knit the hat. But first...must knit a swatch!

School Play

I did theatre as a kid and as an adult. Both amature stuff and professional. I did lighting, set, and costume design. I acted for a long time too. I settled on costume design as a profession. I worked for a good 15 years in entertainment.

Then I got a straight job at a bank. Then I had a baby. Life changed.

But now my son is in elementary school. And it has a theatre club in its second year. Last year they put on a production of The Lion King. Lots of kids, lots of costumes. I worked on some of them.

This year the club is doing Beauty and the Beast. More kids than last year, more costumes too.

In neither production was my son involved in.

But I was. Of course. Why? Because I have sewing skills.

I haven't been backstage in more than a decade. This year I've been present for the last few rehearsals and bits of sewing. I even went backstage for the first time. I saw parents gathered to paint the set pieces as I was sewing in the multi-purpose room. There is a tremendous amount of energy and wonderful collaboration that happens when folks put on a theatrical show.

There were two separate casts for this production. These are my two Belle dresses.

Apron was finished the next day.

This is the Carpet with my son modeling for me.

This is the Teapot and Teacup I put piping on.

Cast member wearing the teapot.

This is me tea dyeing Belle's white aprons in the teachers bathroom at school. I brought a thermos of hot black tea, a bowl and a towel.

Rinsing above aprons in the bathroom sink.

Sewing in the dark during final dress rehearsal. This is so typical of almost every production I ever worked on.

While it is time consuming and sometime frantic, I was reminded of all the happy times I've had in the theatre. And I received the sweetest thank you card ever...