My apologies for the lack of posts this week. After my effort last Friday I reported in the last post, I foolishly tried to do it all again on Sunday and crashed on Monday. Tues I woke with a sore throat and cough and stayed in bed to make sure I didn't miss weaving. I slept a lot and tried to regain some ground. I worked both Thursday and Friday to make up some time and came home both days and hit the bed for a nap. My legs of course hurt quite a bit even when lying in bed which is so frustrating.

Last week's weaving class included attendance at a slide show on West Timorese textiles which was very interesting as many of the styles of fabric that I had seen to date I assumed were embroidered, but are really woven using some very complicated techniques. Pictured is a woman weaving on a backstrap loom as all their hand weaving is done and the colours she is using look like they are all natural dyes. I bought a shoulder sash similar to this but smaller and it was only $50. All natural and lots of the classic red/brown colour that is typical of Timorese textiles. This week we got into twills on our own weaving session and it was quite a breakthrough. We also had an introduction in how to read weaving charts which had always been a mystery to me. Then I promptly screwed up the first difficult chart I hit and couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. Read vertically instead of horizontally. Duh. And part of the chart that I had always tried to figure out turned out to be treadling charts and tie ups. Since I have no treadles with this loom, they are irrelevant. I might try making a rug out of roving as a small project when my loom is set up. Still waiting for the Bear to put my warping frame together but he has still not fully recovered his energy from his bout of cellulitis. He takes a lot of naps and goes to bed early.

Round One: Repeat last match, with the Weagles winning by one point. Frankly I'm surprised the Swans got that close as they were very disorganized, missed many opportunities especially kicking straight. I thought the margin would be much bigger but they did manage to claw the score back. The Swannies always seem to take several weeks till they are all on the same page. Too many short handballs in the back line ending with a long kick that frequently the Weagles picked off easily. Spida proved useful but I don't think is totally integrated into their mindset yet. Mick tried hard and seemed very frustrated. The commentators said the team was fully fit at the start of the season which is not usual but their problems were mental not physical.

Other things of note: we have signed papers for transfer of title for our land and all that remains is sending money to various folks and the land will be ours. The Bear photocopied a cadastral map from a book about the old days in the Bendigo region which shows our block with 2 shafts on it. Wonder if anybody found any thing for their digging. I have had my annual sauce/jam/chutney sale at work and cleared $190 for charity and have only a couple of jars left over. My charities (in links) will be getting some money. I am still not knitting but have been working on the filthy fleece. I wound off a bobbin of plied BFL which if it turns out good enough, I might use in my weaving project. I also had a go round with the folks in the US who are processing fleece for me. Wooly Knob finally got in touch and I told Matt what Australian Quarantine wants and he's trying to figure out how he gets the required "official government veterinary certificate" on wool scouring which nobody has heard of. Meanwhile I have claimed 2 Rambouillet / CVM cross fleeces from Nistock Farms, and Matt has gone out of his way to coordinate the processing and shipping. I may add a couple of Shetland fleeces to the list while I'm at it. Or California Red. So much wool, so little time...