2008? Already?? That's pretty crazy. Not only 2008 - but over halfway through 2008 - that's even scarier.

I can't believe it's been almost 10 months since I posted last.

The 2nd annual spinning party is coming up next month!

I'm working on socks out of this yarn:

It's Pagewood Farm 100% merino super-wash sock yarn in "Really Red" . It's a really nice yarn. My mom has used it for a pair for herself and for grandkids, and it's held up very nicely and is sooo soft.

I started this on a guild loom:

And finished it!

Then I made these for our "Color & Weave Guild Challenge":

They're just cotton kitchen towels on a log cabin color and weave threading. Pictures of the finished towels in more colors are to come later.

Right now I have light green 8/2 weight 100% rayon warped on the loom in an Atwater-Bronson lace 'dogwood flowers' pattern for table runners, one's done with a few more to go.

Well this year has certainly been busy.

In February we said Goodbye to my Grandfather. He is much loved and sorely missed by all.

In May we said Hello to my new niece! She's certainly a cute one... And I'd say that even if I weren't a little biased...

In late May a friend of mine (who also happens to be my sister's sister-in-law) came up to see her niece and learn to spin and weave.

She's been here almost a month now. She has a set of dishtowels almost threaded onto the little table loom I borrowed from the guild. Though it took a run town to a friend-and-fellow-weaver's house to borrow some more heddles (a part of the loom - each one holds one individual string of the warp.) so she could finish the threading!

In August I leave for Scotland and Italy! The friend I'm meeting is already over there 'waiting for me'. I'll have about 2 weeks in Italy and 2 weeks in the UK. I'm really excited and I have finished most of my shopping - including the plane tickets and passport! (the most important parts! ;-) )

I'm sure I'll see lots of sheep and tapestries and tartans and all that good fiber-ey stuff. After telling one woman from my guild that I was going to Scotland she immediately remarked "Ooh!! You'll get to see sheep!!".

I'm not sure just how Scottish sheep differ from the American sheep that I see driving in to town every week (maybe they baa with an accent??) but they must be much better because after all they're in Scotland, and I've gone all that way to see them.

Back in May or June my mom brought up the idea of a spinning-wheel party that she wanted to throw for the spinners in the Spinning/Weaving guild I've been attending since last October.

First things first - It took us some time but by late July we nailed down a date that the largest number of us could make it for, this happened to be the 4th week in August - our usual spinning week for each moth.

Once we had a date, mom called up Paradise Fibers for some fiber suggestions. She generously ordered us 11 different fibers to try! Paradise fibers sent 3 more fibers for a whopping 14 types of fiber!

I broke each of these fibers into 12 4"-6" samples (whatever came to about .10oz) and numbered them like this;

1. Paradise Fibers Microblends Opal Spinning Fiber
2. Ashland Bay Tencel - Black
3. Louet Hemp Top Spinning Fiber 7.121
4. Paradise Fibers "White Vanilla" Alpaca Top
5. Black Diamond Bamboo Top Spinning Fiber
6. Baby Camel Down Natural Brown
7. Paradise Fibers Natural Flax Top/Roving Vegetable Fiber
8. Special Merino Tencel SuperWash Spinning Fiber (White) 50/50
9. Gotland Lambswool Top-Spinning Fiber
10. Sweet Grass Targhee Wool Top (Natural White)
11. Ashland Bay Blue Face Leicester Top
12. Paradise Fibers Natural (Honey Gold Color) Soy Silk Spinning Fiber
13. Black Welsh Mountain Top
14. Ashland Bay Corriedale Cross (this is actually Natural Fawn not ecru like the link)

I made up a price list that corresponded to the numbers and attached a paradise fibers card to each one since they were all purchased there. Then I did up a paper with just a list of the names and a place for the numbers left blank so that I could make a game of it and have the ladies guess which fiber was which. One of each of all the fibers went into a bag, I did up 12 even though I only expected 8, I didn't want to be wrong and come up short!

I was glad I'd done all 12, by time everyone had arrived for the party we had 8 spinning wheels and 9 spinners present -- look at all those spinning wheels!

One woman who was expected was unable to come at the last minute, so I set a side one of the bags of fiber for her and then saved one to bring out to the guild building to keep there for future orders. So it turned out that I used all but 1 of the bags - I was really glad I'd done up all 12!

Once everyone got there I we passed out the fibers and the sheets with the list of names out of order and the numbers left off for the ladies to try and fill in themselves. I knew some would like it, but I was afraid that a few of the ladies might be bored or annoyed with the guessing game, but they actually really enjoyed it! I had a prize for who knew the most (one woman had 12 of the 14! Just had the hemp and flax switched) and a random door prize, but one woman only got 2 right and was a good enough sport to admit it, so we all decided to forgo the random drawing and give her the prize!

When we finished that we headed in for lunch - I did up Raspberry Italian Sodas, with organic raspberry syrup and organic cream (it's organic therefore it's healthy.) and mom had prepared a pasta salad. Most ladies had also brought a lunch.

When lunch was over we went back out and started trying some of the fibers. It was a lot of fun to see how different people spun it up different ways or hear the different opinions and favorites of everyone. I didn't spin much, I ended up wandering around and watching what everyone else was doing! One woman who was spinning but was going to do the plying at home had all the fibers piled up in stripes - it looked so cool. Another who had come with 2 empty bobbins would go ahead and Navajo ply everything and then show it around while everyone expressed their opinions on that fiber whether they liked it more or less once it was spun up, or what you might use it for.

When things started to wind down and there were just a few ladies left one of them asked if they could hear my harp, so I brought out my lever harp to them and played a coupls songs, we ended on that note (no pun intended) and everyone left... or so I'd though, one woman came back to ask if we had something long to help them get into their locked car... lol.
She, and another lady with her daughter had carpooled with here and were locked out of the car 25 miles from home (and at least that far from any locksmith). They had left the window open a crack, so we pulled got a walking stick and tried and tried to hit the automatic lock button, one stick was too short to reach, another stick was too long to maneuver... Finally I realized that my arm would fit about halfway in the window, not far enough to hit the button, but far enough to move my wrist and hold the walking stick, which was too short just stuck in the window. But it was a short car and I'm a tallish person - my arm was still a tight fit and the stick was heavy, so I couldn't see what I was doing, and my control wasn't the best, with directions of "Up a little... not that much - down a little... right just a tiny bit... too far... back... good! up... up... push the button!" we finally got the car unlocked. I was sure to inform them that if they ever dropped their keys on the wrong side of a chain link fence, I could get those for them too (I know this from personal experience).

All the ladies want to do it again next year, they really appreciate all my mom did to put it on (and I do too - thanks mom!) - and next time they want to put in a contribution for the fiber. They also want me to set up the guessing game again. Despite the 30 minute drive that many of them had to make to come out here - they really liked the setting my parents had for it - early on we moved a few yards over into the area of the yard that has our volleyball net up, it's mostly surrounded by big trees and less clover in the grass, so we weren't sitting right in the sun and there were less bees. We all got to spin and chat while sitting with God's glorious creation all around us... in one direction you look into a green forest in another direction a little dirt lane going into the woods, then finally you look up and see an evergreen covered foothill looming over it all that us locals know is only the beginnings of the mountains that we're so blessed to live right by...

Remember the dishtowels I made for my mom? I've got pictures of them now!

One of the first rules of weaving is never to judge a product until it's been washed. See the difference?

(the lighting's a little different in these pictures. While the texture did change,
the colors didn't actually change much when washed)

When I wove mom's towels I didn't want to get bored, so I decided to mix up the color scheme as much as was possible with two static colors in the warp. This actually works really well with this pattern... I've also heard it looks really nice with a lighter and darker shade of the same color.

My First towel Was Off-White & Navy



Then I Tried Off-White & Sage



The Third I did Sage & Navy



And finally, I did only Navy.
Simply to see how just one color in the weft would look in this pattern

Once they were all washed and hemmed, they were at last ready to be wrapped and presented for mothers day!

It's taken several washings to get both the natural and factory applied oils and waxes off the cotton, but I think they're finally absorbent enough to work well as hand towels.

When I go to the houses of the other weavers they have their kitchen towel drawers full of all sorts of different handwoven dishtowels that are in just gorgeous patterns and textures and all in an eclectic assortment of beautiful bright colors and lovely soft color combinations. Maybe someday my kitchen towel drawer will look like that

...though I'm sure ya'll think I tried to.

I'm still here. I'm still alive (well kinda ) and I'm still knitting... though not so much this summer as I do in the winter. But a LOT of fiberyness has gone on here in the past few months that I haven't been posting about. I'm sure I'll talk about most of it eventually.

As far as the garden is doing, I didn't keep my word. The deer have (so far) stayed out, thanks to an impromptu fence that Dad helped me rig (I was planning a better fence, but this was a "There was a deer in the garden this afternoon but it's 1am and I won't be up to chase them out again at 5 in the morning" fence). So the deer stayed out - and I never showed you pictures!

The lettuce, peas, chard, and beans have all done (or are doing) great. The zucchini on the other hand, well, I only have 2. The two I have are very cute little zucchinis, but who's ever heard of a person with 6 Zucchini plants and only two zucchini squashes?!. There's something about that fact that just goes against nature. Only 2...?

At least I won't have to be sneaking onto any doorsteps in the middle of the night to get rid of them...

The pole beans are probably what's done the best in the whole garden.

See them there in the left of this picture?

The a few days after I took this I had to go and tie up the tops of the poles, they were all falling over with the weight of the beans and I couldn't get between or under them to harvest.

See all those cute little beans?

We have a pound of green beans sitting in our fridge waiting to be used along with 8 oz or so of the last of the snap peas.

My lettuce has been providing us with salads since July. I only pick off what leaves I want when I want them, so it's hard to tell how much I've taken in, but it's produced pretty well!

It's been so much fun to finally get a garden! I've wanted to grow one since I was 9... It took me a while, but I finally got one!

But my garden isn't the real reason I came out of lurkerdom... My real reason is far cooler and much fiberier.

This is my reason for posting:

These are wool carders.

These are very old wool carders.

These are my great-great-grandmother's wool carders.

These are my great-great-grandmother's wool carders that my grandma tracked down.

These are my great-great-grandmother's wool carders that my grandma tracked down and my great-uncle sent to me!

(I'll stop talking like this now to save myself from sounding like a Dr. Seuss book)

A few weeks ago my Grandma called and said she'd been thinking about my spinning and whatnot and had been making some calls to track down my great-grandmothers wool carders. She had found them and my great-uncle was willing to ship them to me! Upon talking to my uncle it turns out that these are actually my great-great-grandmother's wool carders but were also handed down to, and used by, my great-grandmother. After her no one in the family had any use for them. They fell into my great-uncles hands and were packed away into a box for a really long time. They're actually in incredible condition for their age and will be really useful for merino, cashmere, angora and other lighter weight fibers! The teeth are really fine, the women in the guild wondered if they were originally cotton carders, though it's obvious that they have been used successfully for wool or the teeth wouldn't be as polished and shiny as they are now.

Another thing we noticed about them is that one side the teeth are just slightly coarser and stiffer than the other side... anybody happen to know why? And if this was common in older carders?

I'm really excited to use them! I need to get to a fiber festival or a spinning store and pick out a nice merino fleece that is just begging to be carded...

...and so is my blog, believe it or not.

I know I haven't posted in a long time (ok, maybe it was a really long time), I've been really busy. All these things that I've been wanting to do and never been able to for one reason or another, all the sudden this year a bunch of those things are suddenly where I can do them... things like a vegetable garden, and weaving!!

You'll only get pictures of the garden if I can keep the deer out of it (you can laugh at my naivety now...)

The first hand-woven goods are in the washing machine as I speak type. They're simple cotton dishcloths and I made them for my mom for mothers day, you don't have to keep them a secret though, she knows. It's kinda hard to hide a 2.5' wide x 2.5' deep x 3' high table loom on the kitchen table in a small house and come up with a believable excuse for all the crashing and banging that results from the use of it, so I decided before I ever started that I would just tell her up front.

Here's the finished product before washing (which comes before hemming or even cutting apart), since I wove it all on the same warp it was about 3.5 or 4 yards of fabric, and I needed some help photographing it all;

I worked with sage green and off-white warp (the vertical strings tied on the loom, for those of you who don't weave) and different combinations of off-white, navy blue and the sage...

I've been extremely blessed to live so near to such knowledgeable women who are so eager to share that knowledge with me. And that's not where the blessings end either - One of the woman who has been teaching me is willing to let me borrow a floor loom until I find the one I want.

This same woman who heads up the Spinning & Weaving guild orders in large lots of mill end cotton from the east coast for the ladies of the guild to purchase from her for amazing prices (e.g. a cone of 8/2 weight 100% cotton for $4 a pound!).

And finally, one of my weaving teachers is left-handed (like me!). How cool is that?

The levers on my Grandma's table loom are positioned on the lower right-hand side (this is unusual for a loom, none of the women in the guild have seen one like that), this concerned both my mom and the woman teaching me (which is partly why she's offered to let me borrow a floor loom) and they were at least partially right in their concerns, I had to recruit my right-handed sister to help me finish the last towel since I was getting a sharp pain in my upper right arm. The pain was the least of their worries about me using a right handed loom, but I didn't really want to keep going and prove them completely right...

Well I need to go check on the towels now! I think they might be ready to iron and hem!!

I mentioned in my last post that I've also been knitting a lot lately - well I've also been spinning quite a bit too...

I finished 3 different spinning projects in the last few weeks, the most interesting of them was probably that silk bell that I got in the fiber swap...

I've never spun anything like it before so I had to look up just how to go about it. Turns out you're supposed to separate these into layers. This was no simple task, but easier than it sounds, I didn't realise that this silk bell was actually make up of 9 or 10 super thin layers of silk that will actually peel apart. The hardest part was making sure I was only peeling off one layer at a time. The layers wer so light and thin I could suspend the whole thing in the air just by blowing on it...

I believe this is actually two layers, it was the first 'layer' I peeled off and it seemed thicker than the others --

After you peel apart the layers you have to make a hole near the center and stretch it out from that until it's a long narrow rope, how long an narrow depended on how thin I wanted to spin it... then I had to pile it in a glass bowl... ok so maybe I use a large glass loaf pan... same-difference.

I think this was probably 2 of the 9 layers, the whole bell weighed just over half an ounce...

This stuff is so thin and fluffy and cloud like. (think. puffy. clouds. *sigh*). But when you're drafting it doesn't feel as soft since it catches on every ruff spot on your hands or any finger nail that isn't absolutely smooth and perfectly filed. A little lotion helped but didn't completely cure the problem... it was also really strong so it took some work to draft it out which made my hands really tired by time I'd finished spinning just those 6/10 of an oz

I got it all spun up in one evening, spinning it as fine as I could to maximize the yardage. It was a lot of fun watching the color changes pile up on the bobbin. I've spun blended top and roving before, but never hand painted, so watching the color change every few yards was really fun and new to me. Watching the colors blend together to make a new color was really interesting too sometimes when the turquoise and purple would end up in the same area it would spin up sort of cobalt blue...

In the end I got about 100 yards of lace-weight (I should have used a penny or something to show scale a little better...) out of that 0.6 oz, which will be nice for a very small lace project (like a lined clutch bag) or a nice edging on a larger project. I haven't set the twist yet, but I have a feeling it wouldn't make a big difference to this particular yarn.
I lost some of the purple in the plying since a lot of it twisted with the turquoise, but it's still there and I think it will give a nice variegated/flecked look without pooling. Overall I had a lot of fun spinning this and trying the silk, even if my hands did ache afterwards...

I was told that it wouldn't kill me to blog... Now I'm one of those people that always have to question everything I'm told, and in this case the only way to do that is to test the statement by, well, blogging. This is the same reasoning that caused me stick my tongue to the inside of the freezer door shortly after being warned 'if you stick your tongue to something really cold, it won't come off' (they were right...) .

Well, I'm not dead yet! so I guess I'll continue.

There's been lots of knitting going on here - maybe that explains the blogging shortage, I've got 3 unreported finished projects (one of which is blocking as I type). Though today I'm only posting about one of them (sorry).

Remember that little bit of pink cabling I showed in my last post? It's a hooded scarf, and here it is in all it's pink glory!

Animal was chosen as the model - he looks so good in hot pink...

This is knit from the pink merino I was given for Christmas and spun up some weeks ago. The hood seems to fit a 2T nicely. I didn't use a pattern, once I figured out how to carry the cable over the top of the head instead of around the base of the hood it was really very simple construction

After I added the tassel my dad dubbed it a "best detachable party hood"

" 'Now we are all here!' said Gandalf looking at the row of thirteen hoods - the best detachable party hoods"
-- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

(No it doesn't have a full cloak attached, but it's the idea )

The other name it's been given is "PINK! HAT!" - That would be what my almost-two-year-old-niece calls it anyway...

I know, 2 posts in a period of 7 days... I hope you can recover from the shock!

I thought it was about time for a spinning update...

I've been busy spinning the merino that I got for Christmas. It's in all stages of spun-ness right now I have some still to be spun, a finished bobbin of single, some newly plied, and some knitted up! (if you want to count everything and not just the merino, I've also got some wool hanging out to dry and some soaking to set the twist...)

I thought I should show pictures of all this in some of it's different stages...

Doesn't this look like a nice cushy bed of moss?? I love this color...

This green is what's currently on the wheel right now though I'll be done with it soon - about 1.5 more oz to go! I've already finished the first bobbin full.

Here's a picture of the red, all plied and ready to use! I even set the twist. I've been setting the twist of every hank immediately after plying, aren't you proud of me??

Here's a sneak peak of some of the hand spun all knitted up... I haven't blocked the finished item, so you'll just have to wait for that!

I got this silk bell at the spinning and weaving guild's annual yarn swap!! I didn't have a chance to steal the cashmere (any particular item can only be stolen twice *sniff*), and the angora was stolen from me (the nerve!!!), but even though this was stolen from me, the lady that stole the bag of stuff that this was included in traded back the silk bell because she wasn't a spinner. Aren't those lovely colors??? To be perfectly honest, I originally stole this from someone else, it was then stolen from me, I opened the angora and the original opener of the silk stole the angora from me! Her revenge didn't last long though, because it was then stolen from her by someone else... I felt sorry for her though, she originally opened the cashmere fleece and that was stolen from her too...

And finally some nice fluffy black wooly stuff flecked with silver...

Oh wait!... that's some of my daddy's new hair cut... (he really needed that hair cut!!)

BTW - Happy Valentines Day everybody! Or Happy S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day) if you don't have a special somebody ;-)

I finally got pictures of my sisters Christmas present! This was my 'big project' all last year, and the reason why I didn't have many UFO's through Oct. and Nov.

It was actually started in July. It's beginnings were rather harmless really. I wanted to try out the lace samplers in the 4th Barbara Walker treasury, I tried crochet cotton and size 2 needles, but then I decided that if I used size 8 needles and some pakucho organic cotton, I could make 6 squares or so and give it to my sister as a little afghan... somehow along they way 6 became 9... 9 became 12... and then it was decided that I needed a border, maybe something celtic-ish to go with the lace samplers. Ya know, like maybe 15 ft of cabled border...

The final measurements came to around 3.5 x 4.5 feet.

I finished it Christmas eve... I was weaving in ends in my grandma's guest bedroom while the kids watched a DVD and bounced on me. I lost count of all the ends after 50something, adding up all the balls of yarn I used and the stuff for the seaming, I think it was somewhere in the ball park of 80-100 ends.

...scarf that is...

I realized that I've already posted the obligatory blob-o-lace picture. Albeit the needles were still in, but it'll have to do since I don't think I have any other pictures. But that lets me get right to the FO pics!

My teddy bear volunteered (was press-ganged…? one or the other) to model the scarf, I think he looks quite dashing, don't you?

Details:

• Pattern: A Touch Of Whimsy scarf By Becka
• Yarn: "Alpaca & Silk" by Blue Sky Alpacas - Color: Plum
• Needle Size: US size 5 for the I-cord cast on, US size 7 for the rest

Actually - to be exact that should be merino sheepy goodness... see??

Everything you see there is off a merino sheep... well, except for the wood bobbin, and the cotton quilt, and the plastic bags, or their sticky labels, or the rubber soles on the boots... but that's not what I'm talking about, and you know it, so don't be so literal!

This is part of my Christmas spoils from my mom and dad... some merino sheep skin boots (even softer than they look, if that's possible!) and 1.5lbs of merino rovings.

I'd started spinning the pink (as you can see). It's really soft and drafts so well. But you want to know the best part about combed top? No little bits of veggie fiber (or *cough* other organic matter ;-) ) to stop and pick out! You just spin. Now there's still something to be said for carded fibers, but this is a really nice change...

I've since finished spinning it and it's a nice plump little hank waiting to be wound into a ball and knitted!

I knitted several Christmas gifts this year, one of which was the Touch of Whimsy Scarf made of Blue Sky Alpaca's 'Alpaca & Silk' which I need to post the pre-blocked-yarn-blob and FO pictures of... Hopefully that post will be following shortly, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things now that we're over the holidays and getting settled into the new year...

Remember playing tag in the church yard every sunday afternoon? I do... and we played just about every kind of tag...

'regular' tag (NO 'puppy guarding' the base!!) and then of course, cartoon tag (or TV tag), freeze tag, hide-and-tag (this one was good for indoors if it was raining since most of us usually slowly snuck our way to the base), electric tag, group tag, or roundup tag... among many others...

Once we had all come to an agreement we had to choose our 'it' with the eeny-meeny-miney-moes... actually we usually used come other chant to select our 'it', we'd all memorized just exactly where we'd land if catch-a-tiger-by-the-toe was used, so the selector would usually get accused of playing favorites if they used that one (and in most cases that was usually true...) . Our favorite was "Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish..." which would end up with another kid calling out a number, and then the selector continues by counting that number on the fists. Then at least you'd have to accuse two people of being conspirators (we were rather suspicious little church kids).

Well I've been tagged, and this time we're playing meme tag... this is the "6 weird things" meme, and Becka was the 'it' who tagged me.

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

6 Weird Things About Me...

the hardest part was limiting it to 6, but I did - sorta - so here goes...

1.I've never cut my hair except for bangs (I grew them out when I was 9 and 10) and occasionally trimming off split ends. I won't use curling irons, hot curlers, hair dryers or harsh chemicals on it unless it's a really important occasion like if I'm in a wedding party.

2. I have a crazy sleeping schedule - I'm a night owl by nature, but sometimes I try to fight it and make myself actually sleep at NIGHT and be awake in the DAY (novel concept there...). Usually when I try this I end up being up or asleep at crazy hours until the 'normal' schedule is attained and finally established... then I can maintain it for about 2 weeks... if I'm lucky...

3. I've always hated turning a year older - still do - when I was little I would literally cry the night before my birthday because I wasn't going to be [whatever age] anymore...

4. I have weird feet. When I was little they were extremely narrow, I made the Nordstrom’s shoe lady cry - she was retiring in 2 days and there had never ever been a little kid she couldn't fit, that is, until me... she probably still remembers me 13 years later as "...except that one little girl with weird feet...". She even tried the glittery ruby-slipper type shoes and sneakers and everything in between. My feet are still abnormally narrow - but now they're mostly just weird. I have a tall heel/instep area that's hard to pull any hand knit sock over, but a narrow ankle and foot that makes it hard to keep wide socks on... (this calls for patterns with lots of ribbing). For the most part I got my dad's feet, but I also have weird little toe nails from my mom's side... It's only the one nail on each of the littlest toes - I can clip them down to virtually nothing, and they're about twice as thick as would be 'normal'.

5. I like my pajamas to match or at least color coordinate... that's not saying they always DO... but i like it when they do...

6. I have memories reaching as far back as 1 year old.. and some vivid memories even including what I was thinking at the time going back to 1 1/2 years. Most of these memories are things we wouldn't have photos of and I usually don't know what they are until I go ask my mom "why were we in a room that..." or "who was that guy when..."
I remember people and events very well, thought I often forget what I went into the next room for... and I'm horrible with names.

So now is the time that I tag other people... the problem here is that by time this has come around to me, everyone I know how already been tagged! Do you have any idea how frustrating this is??? Forgive me if you've already been tagged...

#1. Michelle

#2. Marisa

#3. Moxie

#4. Jessica (ETA: Heh... Jessica actually did fill out this meme... and I missed it... well... Jessica, consider yourself popular ;-) )

#5. ETA: Nerdy Knitter

#6. I ran out of people that I thought might put up with being tagged... ;-)

I also tried to leave a couple 'taggables' for my mom (she was also tagged by Becka). If you read my blog... and you feel like doing this meme... consider yourself tag #6...

Incase you're wondering. I'm alive! I lived through the snow storm, though my knitting isn't doing to well from all of it - I've lost almost a week of knitting time to the storm. If you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about and thinking how should I expect YOU to know about some arbitrary snow-storm that put us without phones for 2 days, without power for 3 days and without water for 4 days (bytime the power came back the pipes were frozen), you can go check out my mom's blog for more information...

I'm afraid this will probably be the last post before Christmas... I've got an insane amount of wrapping and knitting to do on top of a party and the other usual festivities.

But onto the actual subject of this post - the handspun!

This pink romni wool was spun up within a few days of getting my wheel. I divided it into 3 parts and did one single a day an then plied the 3 the same day I finished the last single.

Here are all the singles sitting on the lazy-kate. This new lazy-kate is quite the luxury for me. Up until I got my wheel I'd been Navajo plying my single from a center pull ball I'd wound off the only bobbin...

After I plied it I set the twist at the same time I set the twist in all my other yarns I've spun & plied thus far... they were all mostly balanced so I didn't really need any weight on the skeins. This is all my plied yarns so far... (don't look to close at that front skein, it's my nightmarish first...)

Waiting on the swift to be balled...

It made quite the hefty ball!! It was about 7oz or so, the other ounce was made into a 2 ply, one single was a little shorter than the other two. I only had a couple yards of waste off the last bobbin!

I made real yarn! How cool is that?!

Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of it knitted up soon...

I spun about half a bobbin of some nice Icelandic, but I was finding TONS of stuff in it that I was picking out... most of the junk I suspect is little flakes of sheepskin... pretty icky. It makes me think of when you comb a dog that's been over or under bathed... Is this normal for Icelandic?? Otherwise it's really lovely wool, a gorgeous silvery pepper gray and really soft. But I don't have any pictures of that like I thought I did...

What's on my bobbin right now is some purple wool... not really sure what kind of wool except that it's purple. lol. I've only spun a little more than what's already pictured, it's 3/4 of a bobbin now instead of 1/3... It's not as even as I'd like, it's soft with rather fine short hairs, very spongy and clingy stuff - which made it hard for a novice like me to control the draft.

Ok, It's well over a week since my spinning wheel came, and I've been so busy filling every gap between my Christmas knitting with using my knew spinning wheel that I've totally neglected to keep ya'll updated and show you the new wheel and new fiber coming off it!! I still haven’t gotten to spin as much as I would like, but I’ve got a little done!

My pictures are out of date, and my pink romni 3 ply and silvery black & white Icelandic partial singles will need to be shown later, but for now I have some older pictures! See?!

Proof there's a new wheel in the house... fragilé!

And proof it's a Lendrum! See the leaf?

And... set up!!!

It really took very little assembly, it pretty much just ships in it's folded state and you unfold it like you would if you'd brought it somewhere. The brake string was the hardest part to figure out, but some spinners on the knitty board helped me figure that one out... it's actually set up a little wrong in this picture, but it was fixed soon after.

I'm having so much fun with my new Lendrum!! I've gotten to take it to the spinning guild meeting twice now! The denim carrying case is incredible. Now that I know what I'm doing it only takes seconds to brake it down and put it away and the bag is very well padded throughout and the straps are very well placed for easy carrying (it can go on as a shoulder-strap and lay against your side and back or a full back pack, or re-clip the strap to be a 'plain' shoulder-strap that hangs the bag at your side). Getting The Woolery bag was totally worth the wait for the wheel. I'm finding the flyer drive spinning with the separate bobbin-brake tension so much easier to get good tension on than the bobbin drive and flyer brake strap that the Louet had. I can spin my yarn so much finer and more even when I'm not busy fighting the intake to give me proper tension! It's also easier to change bobbins or take off the drive band and keep the same tension.

I'm feeling really good about this whole spinning thing. The woman who taught me asked if I'd found what I was born to do, I feel totally at home behind a spinning wheel and can spin and spin for hours at a time without even noticing how long it's been.

As the McDonalds' marketing department would say - "I'm Lovin' It..."

Someone put out a request for a pictorial description of how to do a left handed continental purl... Being a left handed continental knitter, I felt slightly qualified... the only area of qualification that's lacking is the fact that I've never tried to do anything like this... teach it, yes - not always well, but it's something that I can get the idea across well enough for the friend to accomplish the stitch... but take pictures of my own hands and hope they show what I'm trying to show... well, no.

I think over time I've developed my own motion for a continental purl... the index finger of the right hand, which carries the yarn, does a lever motion to wrap the stitch before pulling it through... this will be explained more fully later. But no promises - this is the part I have the hardest time teaching, and the part that doesn't really come across well in 2D. But no one else had responded all day - and I can't stand to see someone trying to knit left handed and not be able due to lack of teaching... (I also know what a nasty headache one can get trying to mentally 'flip' all tutorials and directions for this sort of thing.)

Not only do I hope that this little mini tutorial is not painfully confusing... I also hope it's even just a little helpfull...

So here goes - enough rambling! I used bold text on the most basic and important bits. The corresponding picture is below each description:

Holding the working needle in your left hand, and your needle with un-worked stitches in your right, and the tail of yarn (attached to the ball/skein) running from the newly worked stitches at left over your right index finger; hold yarn in front and insert left needle behind yarn and into the front of the first stitch on the right hand needle. gently bring the tip of the left hand needle up just a little...

Now bring your right index finger (with the yarn over it) in a smooth lever motion down and toward yourself, wrapping the yarn front to back around the tip of the left hand needle. It really is easier than it looks..

Continue gently bringing your index finger down until the yarn rests snug against the base of the left tip and the stitch-in-progress...

Now keeping the tip pointed slightly upwards back the left hand needle out of the stitch the way it came until the tip clears the right hand needle and then away from you and up pulling the yarn through with it...

Slip off the newly worked stitch from the right hand needle, and you're done!!

...a couple of those said too cute kiddos would be my sister's kiddos.

The other night my 1 y/o niece insisted the my skeins of Fun-Fur (for gnome beards) are actually little doggies... apparently I just hadn't realized this yet... I had one skein very excitedly brought over to me, she was waving it and saying "Doggy! Doggy!" when I tried to tell her it was just yarn the only reply was a very insistent "Doggy!".

Later the same night I had out a bag of 'poly-pellets' (bean bag stuff) to fill some of those gnomes with. My 3 y/o nephew decided that they were eggs, and not just any eggs, they're bug eggs. This lent a particularly cool destinction to them in little-boy-world, and he asked very sweetly if he could touch them. Since I keep these 'bug eggs' in a big gallon zip-lock I can re-seal, and - by this point - some had already been spilt (much to his and his little sister's enjoyment), I didn't see any harm in letting him check them out. I even enjoy sticking my hand in the bag and letting the pellets fall through my fingers. I opened the bag and held them out for him to touch... he very cautiously lowers his hand into the bag, all the time I'm thinking how nice it is that he's being so careful not to spill this messy and somewhat expensive stuff. And as his fingers are about 1/2 way into the pellets he lets out the most hilarious SHRIEK something between genuine terror and giddy excitement as he yanked his hand out of the bag. My sister and I had never heard such a noise, and once the surprise passed we were double over laughing. That's when we realized that he truly thought they were bug eggs and in little boy world he had just done a very brave and exciting thing.

My spinning wheel is out for delivery!! Ack!

Well yesterday I recieved a receipt telling me that I've spent a large sum of money on a spinning wheel... but... no wheel.

I haven't done any spinning for several days, I figure if my wheel is so close I might as well wait for it. I only have one bobbin on this wheel so I'm limited to plying off a ball, which is really difficult to keep tension and anything more than a two ply is virtually impossible. So everything I've done gets Navajo plied, and I'd really like to do some 3 ply with the next stuff.

This is the latest stuff I've spun. The colors in the roving were really pretty, and it was especially interesting to watch how it spun up. In the roving each color stands alone, but once spun it makes a much more uniform color, you can still pick out some of the individual colors, but overall the skein is sort of a dark periwinkle with some flecks of pink...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I can't believe how fast this year has gone, Thanksgiving is upon us and Christmas is following fast on it's heels.

Today is a day set aside for us to really stop and think about how blessed we are (It's also some sort of lame excuse for delivery people to stop the progress of my spinning wheel!!!) . This year it seems I have an especially large number of things to be thankful for. I can't even pretend to list them all, but here's a few of those things that particularily come to mind:

• An extremely close family.
  My relationship with both of my parents has grown so much just this year alone and it really means a lot to me...
• A best friend... that also just happens to be a sister...
  Not to mention her ridiculously cute little people.
• Some time to actually stop and think a little this year.
  This is something that hasn't happened in some time...I've still been busy, but relatively, it's been a wonderfully slow year.
• Best friends that can maintain long distance friendships.
  No matter how long we're apart things always somehow pick right backup where they left off.
• A really amazing on-line community of knitters
  I never would have thought any part of the world of blogging could be called a 'community', but somehow knitters managed to make it so.

And last but not least...

• Living in a country where there's plenty of food, and not only normal but assumed that we have an insulated home with glass windows, a lockable door and heaters. Most can make a thanksgiving dinner, and put it away with left-overs to eat for the next week... And we can usually choose if we want to raise our own turkey or prefer to bring it home in shrink-wrap... ;-)

There are so many other things, immaterial things and material things that I could be here all day telling you about them... but I'd better run before I burn something...