So many hobbies!

Spinning the second sock

I am loving my new Bosworth spindle (the one on the left).  It doesn't spin as long as the Spanish Peacock spindle on the right but it has a nice deep notch that makes a huge difference while you're spinning.  The yarn doesn't slip out of the notch as easily as it can in other notched spindles.  Love!

The Bosworth spindle I've been spinning on at home and the Peacock spindle is my travel spindle.  It went with me to my spinning guild meeting Saturday.  I'm making good headway on the yarn for the second spindle-spun sock I'll be knitting.  You may spin faster on a wheel but you can get a lot of spinning done using a drop spindle.  With my wheel, it's a procedure to pull the wheel out of the closet, take it out of the case, set it up and start spinning.  Spinning with a spindle all you do is pick it up and give it spin.  Spinning on a spindle you can pick it up 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there throughout the day.  I've probably spun close to an ounce since Saturday.  Not too shabby.

Plying

This is going faster than I thought it would.  The two spindles I'm plying off of are pretty equally matched as far as the mileage of the singles.  I'll probably finish them both close to the same time.  I think.  The bottom-whorl spindle I'm plying with is getting pretty heavy.  I've got about 2 ounces on there so far and it's amazing just how heavy 2 ounces can be.

These are my favorite summer flowers.  These are in the front yard and there a white Bleeding Heart growing outside my livingroom window.  I like the pink ones the best.

Forget-Me-Nots are in my top 5 favorite flowers.  They're just so darn cheerful!

I'm almost done

I've been furiously spindle spinning, trying to get the yarn done in time for Maryland.  The spindle on the far right is the one I'm working on at the moment.  Happily, I'm almost done spinning the 3 ounces.  Has anyone actually spun an entire 3 ounces onto one spindle?  I HAD to break it up because the spindles were just too heavy.  The Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook doesn't mention anything about the spinning part.  I'm not too sure how I'm going to get three cops into a 2-ply yarn but I'm sure I'll figure it out.  Well, I hope I'll figure it out.  I've worked too hard on this to mess it up and I plan on finishing with an award-winning yarn.

I was introduced to a website called Emergency Essentials at BePrepared.com.  It has everything you need to prepare for an emergency.  You know how the government tells us that we should have enough food, water and supplies for 3 days?  How many of us actually follow this advice?  This is the website that helps you do that.  I'm going to get yelled at for this but I bought a long-term, 5-gal. jug for storing water, 3 freeze-dried meals and a #10 can of 6-grain cereal.  So that's breakfast and dinner for three days and I figure I can get at least 3 lunches from what's around the house.  Between that and all my camping equipment, I should be set if something disastrous happens.  It feels good to know I'm prepared, or I will be as soon as my stuff arrives.  Have you made any plans in case of emergency?  I would love to hear about them.

Still spinning

Galen keeps trying to steal my spindle.  Maybe he just likes it.  Last Friday, he found the pile of roving on my bed and I found him happily purring and kneading the fiber.  He was a happy boy.

My task this week is to gather the yarn I plan on entering into the Maryland skein contest, wash it and reskein it to get it ready.  Also, to fill out the contest entry form and the description that has to accompany each skein.  I'm hoping the yarn above will be finished in time for Maryland.  I still have some spinning left to do though so that's on the list, too.  There's a category in the contest for 100% wool yarn, cleaned, prepared and spun by the spinner.  I don't have any finished yarn yet for this category so I need to get working on that, too.  I'd say it's going to be a busy week.

Ode, to a spindle...

Remember this spindle, purchased last year at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival?  This is the reason you really shouldn't use your drop spindle on wood floors.  I dropped it and it shattered:

I really liked that drop spindle.  And I had built up quite a cop over the weekend:

I've since switched to my Spanish Peacock spindle.  I'm trying really hard not to drop it.  (I really need to get a rug for my livingroom.)

I've been spinning the fiber I dyed on Thursday and so far, I'm happy with how it turned out:

There's a little more pink than I wanted but I gave away the worst offenders to a friend.  These are pretty representative of what I kept.  The plan is to spin 3 ounces on the drop spindle in time for Maryland so I can enter it in the skein contest.  The other 3 ounces I can drop spindle spin at a more leisurely pace.  Eventually, the yarn will be a pair of socks.  Imagine, 6 centuries ago, everything was spun on a drop spindle.  The yarn for the clothes you wore, the socks you wore, the rope you used.  The Viking's sails were all spun using drop spindles.  The modern spinning wheel wasn't invented until the 15th century.  Kind of puts into perspective the amount of time it'll take me to spin 6 ounces of fiber for a pair of socks.

This variety of narcissus is at least a hundred years old.  It's not a particularly spectacular flower but it's kind of special to my family.  When I was young, we had a place in the country and occasionally, we'd find the odd flower growing in the fields.  My dad collected a few in the fall one year and replanted them near our house.  Over the years, they grew and were divided by my dad until eventually, he had clumps of them growing all over the place.  We now call them Frank's Narcissus since we have no idea of the name of the variety.  It's so old, it may not even have one.  My parents sold that house quite a few years ago but my sister took some of the bulbs to her place and when they got big enough, gave some to me.  I suspect some member of my family will be growing and dividing and growing this variety for quite a while.

Tiny skein

Two ounces of 80/20 Merino/angora, spindle-spun yarn. 

Trial

My Guild had their twice annual Fleece Fair this past Saturday.  I bought 4 ounces of a Polwarth/alpaca/silk blend, spun it up and I'll ply it three ways to see how I like the resulting fabric.  I've plied it on itself and with white so far.  A dark brown Polwarth has been carded but still needs to be spun.  Once all three are plied, they'll get a bath so the yarn can bloom and I'll knit the three into separate swatches.  This stuff wasn't cheap so if I can ply it with something else and get something I love, I may be inclined to buy enough for a sweater.  (Probably not but it's still a good excercise nonetheless.)

Friday I ordered black bean seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange for the summer planting and Weld seeds.  Weld is one of the big three dyeing plants:  Weld, Woad and Madder.  Weld will give me a beautiful, clear yellow.  It should give a brighter yellow than the onion skins I dyed with last month.  I decided against planting Madder because it takes 3 years before the roots are mature enough/big enough to harvest.  As for Woad, extracting the dye is a long, drawn out process that I'm not quite ready to deal with on my own.  I'm hoping to take a class this summer at the Michigan Fiber Festival in dyeing with indigo.  The dye is the same in both Indigo and Woad so the process of extraction is the same (I think).  I'd feel more comfortable tackling the extraction from Woad myself if I've seen it done somewhere else first.

I spent a couple hours today at the bottom of a cat pile, Galen curled up on my side and Tyr wrapped up in my arms.  It was pretty wonderful.

More yarn

The roving purchased at the Michigan Fiber Festival last August is finally spun and plied.  It's 80/20 Merino/silk.  Not sure what it's going to grow up to be but it'll be gorgeous when is finally does.  Happy week, people!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

A wee bit of spinning this evening.  This was one of the bats I made a couple of months ago.  Most of it is some lovely black alpaca with added sari silk.  I don't know what the white bits are.  The bag was unlabeled and I'd had it so long I'd forgotten what it was.

Tomorrow I head for my sister's in Pennsylvania.  I am surprisingly ready and will get to bed at a decent time.  It's an 8 hour drive (with stops) and I am well equiped for the journey with snacks and books on tape.  Now I just need to not miss 80-E's turn to the right.  I missed it last time and took the scenic route to my sister's.  I was very proud of myself that I didn't freak the heck out when I realized I wasn't even close to where I was supposed to be.  I seriously doubt I'll ever make that mistake again.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!  I hope you have a family-filled (if that's your thing), happy time.  I'll be back next Tuesday and I'll try and post then.  Take care.

Yarrrrrn!

(Sorry, my inner pirate couldn't be denied.)  I ended up with a little over 700 yards of soft, squishy, gorgeous worsted-weight yarn.  It's uber soft.  I can't wait to knit with it.  Speaking of knitting, I've changed my mind on the contrast color of my future shawl.  Pink will be a bit too garish, at least it is in my head.  I've started collecting onion skins from my local grocery store to use as dye.  Once soaked and cooked, the onion skins will give a lovely shade of gold.  I think the gold will contrast much better with the brown than pink will. 

My ankle is a bit better but I'm pretty sure I tore something, not just stretched it, when I stepped wrong.  This little injury is going to take a lot longer to heal than I'm going to have the patience for.  I'm already tired of dealing with it and it hasn't even been a week.  It's strange that I have the patience to wash wool, card it, spin it, ply it, then knit it up but I don't have to patience to deal with waiting for an injury to heal.  I suppose I should be grateful it's my foot that's injured and not one of my hands.  That would be REALLY irritating.