So many hobbies!

Three more days

The camping gear has been moved upstairs and waits by the front door.  The car has been cleaned out and the back seat folded down, ready for Wednesday's loading.  I've gone to the grocery store and I've got 2 1/2 quarts of strawberries and 4 apples sliced in drying in my new food dehydrator:

I've wanted one of these for a while.  Besides these store-bought berries, I can't wait to dry the strawberries we'll pick in June and then the blueberries in July, maybe cherries and definitely the apples picked this fall.  These strawberries will be added to three servings of oatmeal for breakfasts next weekend.  This is the second batch in the dehydrator.  The first one had strawberries, apples and pineapple.  I'd love to show you the dried pineapple but it was so good I kind of ate them all.  Next time the pineapple is on sale at the grocery store, I'll be picking up a couple to dry.  Yummy.

The spindle spun yarn is drying and I'll have a picture for you later this week.  I managed to spin the singles on each spindle so closely in length, that when I finished the cop on one spindle, there were only 8 inches of singles left on the second spindle.  I couldn't have gotten it that close if I tried on purpose.  Because they were so close in length and the plying spindle was so heavy, I decided to wind the cop off the third spindle into a center-pull ball and ply it back on itself into a second skein.  The first skein was 2 ounces which is the minimum I need to enter into the skein contest at Maryland.  The Finn I decided not to spin because it's just too dry here and the wool is way too full of static.  It's too hard to spin an even yarn with the wool flying all over the place.  I'll have to wait until it's a lot more humid outside before I try again.

Only three days until we leave.  I've got a short work week but those three work days are going to feel like forever.  Wish me luck.

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, the kids sleeping on the couch:

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.

I get so much done on the weekend

And I had lots of help:

I was skeining the yarn onto a niddy noddy, pulling it from the center of the yarn cake.  Well, if you've ever tried that, eventually, you have a shell of yarn with a big hole in the middle.  I looked away for a moment and when I turned back around, Tyr had her head stuck in the middle of the yarn.  Before I could snap her picture, she pulled it out, stuck her front legs through and layed down.  I had to work to get her out of there because she had no intention of moving.  She was quite comfortable where she was.

Saturday was the day of skeining yarn and running errands (haircut, bank, post office, my sister's to pick up my coat, lunch, Lowe's and the grocery store).  Sunday was a little lazier but I did a lot of spindle spinning and I bundled up some raw Finn locks for scouring:

This is 8 bundles of Finn wool, arranged to preserve the lock structure which will make it easier to spin later on.  These guys got 3 soaks in Unicorn wool scour and 2 rinses.  They are now drying on a sweater dryer in my bedroom (that's where the ceiling fan is).  An interesting fact about Finn sheep is they don't just have babies, they have litters.  The largest number of lambs recorded to one ewe is seven.  That poor sheep had 7 babies!  That's unusual but having 4 or 5 is not unusual.  The fleece above is a lamb fleece and it is very soft with amazing luster.  Finn wool is usually a strong wool and too coarse for my personal preferences but with this one a lamb fleece, it's just lovely.

I need at least 2 ounces of yarn from the Finn for another skein of yarn.  This one will go in the category for medium 2-ply yarn from wool prepared by the spinner.  Unless I do a crappy job with the spinning in which case I'll just bag that category.  Hopefully, these 8 bundles have enough wool.  I won't know until the locks dry.

What did you do this weekend?

These are the entries so far

I'm still working on the spindle spun yarn but I've got a ways to go.  These four yarns are 4 entries into three categories:  2-ply dyed by some one else, 2-ply dyed by me and natural dyed yarn.  You can have a max of two entries into a single category.  I'd still like to enter a fourth category which calls for 100% wool from fiber you prepared yourself.  I'm leaning toward the Finn lamb fleece I've had for a couple of years and REALLY need to do something with it.  This is going to be a fiber-filled weekend for me.  Washing and reskeining yarn, scouring Finn locks, and spinning at least 2 ounces of scoured fleece.  I'm going to be busy this weekend!

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.

Dyeing again

Probably one of the biggest sources of dyeing and spinning inspiration for me is The Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook.  The yarns shown in the book are beautiful and, as a result, so are the socks.  I pulled the book off the shelf a couple days ago and that got me thinking about dyeing again.  I've never had much luck with the hot pour method in the past; the dye stayed on the surface of the roving and never dyed what was underneath.  I thought maybe I'd had too much roving stuffed into too small a pot.  Taking Lynne Vogel's advice, I pulled off one ounce lengths of roving instead of trying to dye a full four ounces at a time.  I think this time it worked.  I have to wait until the pots cool before I can see how the roving turned out but already I can see a difference.  The idea is to dye six ounces of roving using the hot pour method, small lengths of roving at a time, and then spin myself some gorgeous yarn.  Two ounces of roving per pot seems to be working.  I'm not real happy with that much magenta, though.  Fortunately, it'll lighten up when it dries.

Saturday my spinning guild meets and Sunday, I'm sad to say, I'll be doing my taxes instead of spinning.  (I'm the world's biggest procrastinator when it comes to doing my taxes.  I hate doing it and keep putting it off until I HAVE to do them.)  What are you going to be doing this weekend?

Tiny skein

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

Needle book

Finally finished.  I've already made changes to my design for the next one.  The button is an antique shell button from my mom's collection.  (Thanks, Mom!)

I was carrying around with me the pillowcase I was embroidering and it was kind of frustrating to have all the separate tools I needed loose in my tote bag.  A needle/sewing book was just what I needed.  The two dark green strips on the right and left sides pull back to reveal pockets to hold my embroidery floss.  My favorite part is the scissors pocket and ties.  This was a fun project and something I'll be using for a while.

Turns out the pillowcases I just ordered aren't good enough for me personal tastes.  The first pillowcase I embroidered was 100% cotton and nice and soft.  The new pillowcases are 80/20 cotton/polyester and they feel very coarse.  Not something I want to rest my face on.  So now I need to search for good, 100% cotton, and at least 200 thread count white pillowcases.  If I'm going to put that much work into something, the base had better be good quality or what's the point.  If anyone has any suggestions for purchasing good quality pillowcases, I'd love to hear them.

Less that 4 weeks until the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival!  The countdown is on!