Heal My Life

I WON! and Why I Got a Spinning Wheel in the First Place

So does anyone know WHY I wanted a spinning wheel in the first place?  No?  Well that's okay, don't fret about not knowing that my deepest darkest spinning desire is to learn to spin coiled yarn, something that is practically impossible to do with a spindle (at least for me).

To that end, you'd think I'd own Pluckyfluff, the book, but NOoooooo, I've been denying myself trying to get my singles even enough to ply together, a sad, and I'm afraid, rather hopeless goal. So - no Pluckyfluff and certailny no Intertwined (the new book). 

But anyway, I didn't start writing this to moan and groan about my poor spinning, I started this post to tell you that I WON SOMETHING (I NEVER win anything)!!!  And not just any something, wait, that sounds weird, but a really AMAZING something from a really cool blog!!!

I won a copy of Intertwined, Lexie Boeger's new book from Stef at Craftside!!!

   

Be still my heart.  I have lusted for this new book and for her original book Pluckyfluff since I first got my spindle, but I was determined to learn how to spin evenly before I got into the cool stuff I REALLY want to do.  NOW, sinceI didn't go out and buy the book to twmpt myself - I don't have to wait!  Thank you Stef, you MADE my day week  month!

So Craftside is very cool blog about all sorts of crafts.  Also, a very dangerous blog as since I've been over there, I've spent a freakin fortune some money on new craft goodies.  Todays post is about a book and technique.  The book: Mixed Emulsions, Altered Art Techniques for Photographic Imagery by Angela Cartwright.  Stef tried the technique on a photo of a shamrock and she tells you how to do it step by step.  Very cool indeed.  Don't wait, go over there and learn how to spend more money of craft supplies create cool craft things! Craftside.  Go. Now!  You'll love it!

Long Weekend Activities

A long weekend, wow - I remember those!  When you work for yourself, you rarely get to take them "off".  Just one of the benefits of being self-employed.  But this weekend we took all for ourselves!  Which meant that Anthony got to make some furniture (photos to come), and clear some brush and work on the chicken coop and make steamed buns, which were out of this world yummy.  And I got to, well, it's easier if I show you:

This is Thorpe.  I knit it in the large size, don't ask me why, the earflaps hung to my shoulders.  I was bummed until Anthony suggested I felt it.  And Voila! It fits like a charm.

Then I worked on Carmen, a new bag in hot summer pinks and yellows.  I had done the layering of bits back in NY and transported her rolled up in a tube.  I cut and laid on the sheer top layers, pinned them in place and free motion quilted the sandwich together.  Tonight, I'll burn through the sheer top layers on the back between the quilting lines and reveal the bits underneath. 

I can't wait - I just love setting fire to things. It's the best part!

 

 

Then, I brushed Sulei, and I brushed him and brushed him and well, you get the idea.  I have to do something about that straw.

 

And I ate Anthony's yummy steamed buns, and we ate our first EGGS with toast made of Anthony's English Muffin Bread and mulberry jam from last years canning.  And it was all so delicious. We feed the chickens amazing organic feed and give them fresh ground veggies every day and the yolks were a gorgeous deep orange. 

And so our Sunday breakfast was made up of all things we made or raised or wild-gathered ourselves. And I have to admit that it was so satisfying to know that we provided the entire meal in one way or another.  Self-sufficiency is just so darn cool.   

Valentine's Fiber Love

I know it's a bit early, but I have to show you what I made in Honor of Valentine's Day!  This Falklands wool roving is called Woodrose II, and it's from the Yarnwench, who by the way does not have cats near her fiber).

I spun 129 yards of approx 8-10 WPI and it's SO SOFT!  And PINK!  And LAVENDER!  I LOVE it!

So... what can I knit with 129 yards of nearly bulky yarn???  

help...

 

The Cat in the ... YARN. A Survey

Note to self: DO NOT try and spin any of the fiber you have stashed away in anticipation of the day you get your spinning wheel, unless you can verify for certain that the person who made it *HAS NO FREAKIN CATS!

Well Dear Readers, I did it again.  I pulled out some gorgeous fiber in shades of deep greens with hints of mustard, a pale green sparkle and touches of red, and started spinning it on Sunday.  By Sunday night I was rocking and crying with a swollen face, completely unable to breathe through my painfully swollen nose and sinuses.  And I an NOT a good mouth breather.  By three AM, after much medication, I was finally able to breather through my nose.  The pain had subsided and I was able to go to sleep.  Anthony, on the other hand, went into my fiber room and removed, in it's entirety, MY SPINNING FIBER STASH!  When I woke up on Monday morning, it was sitting, triple plastic bagged in the corner of the office. 

As I was the walking wounded all day on Monday, which was difficult since Monday is our busiest day here at HMH, I didn't have an opportunity to mourn my lost stash.  Yesterday I was feeling the loss a bit more keenly, and by today - I'm just devastated.  So now that this has happened to me twice, and I have had to bypass yarn and fiber from cat owning spinners and dyers more than once,I have to ask:

What's the deal with fiber people and CATS?  There seems to be a disproportional number of fiber people who are cat owners as opposed to dog owners.  Perhaps it's just that cat owning fiber people take more cute photos of their fur babies than dog people.  Anthony thinks that fiber people are nesters, and cats are nesters, so nesting people are attracted to nesting animals.  I don't really buy this, as if that were the case, fiber people would also be attracted to rodents, and know some who are, but too few of them to qualify for this study.  Seriously, I can't shake the feeling that fiber people are cat people. End. Done. Period. 

So Indulge me.  Take this little survey, and then send all your fibery friends to take this survey, so I can satisfy my curiosity once and for all and dispel my notion that fiber people are indeed cat people!

Free Online Surveys

 

* Disclaimer:  Please know that I have nothing against cats particularly, and hold them in rather high regard.  They are less needy than dogs and can be left alone with a bowl of cat food, a bowl of water and a fresh litter pan for the weekend.  I even had a cat, Brucie, briefly as a child, clearly before we discovered my allergy.  I cried when we had to give him away.  It is only because of my allergy that I have begun to notice this peculiar link between fiber and cats and not because I dislike them.       

A Tale of Two Skeins

Well, I've finished my first two skeins.  Not counting the pink ones which were equal parts of wool, mohair and, apparently, cat hair that threw me into allergic fits so bad I nearly had to make a trip to the emergency room.  Note to self: In the future, check and see if the fiber vendors have CATS before ordering.  Anyway, I finished my first 4 oz./two skeins of absolutely gorgeous BFL roving from the Yarnwench.  What I did to it in the process of turning it into skeins is the stuff truly great horror movies are made of.   

Let's just say that this plying thing is harder than it looks.  I had to run the yarn through the wheel THREE FREAKIN TIMES to balance the ply.  And still, because of the unevenness of my singles, this was as good as it got.  If you want to see the whole sad story in pictures, go here.

Lynn, I am truly sorry for ruining your gorgeous roving.  I have just ordered another beauty from you.  Let's hope I can do better by this one. 

   

It's A Girl!

And her name is Glinda.  Yes, my new Kromski Sonata has FINALLY arrived!

As some of you know, the wait for this wheel has only been trumped by my two pregnancies.  And I was much less hysterical over those.  I have been waiting for this wheel since Rhinebeck (October 20-21) with weekly assurances from the seller of it's imminent arrival.  Note to self: NEVER trust anyone to ship me anything I can carry away in my own hot little hands again regardless of whether it will be a hassle to carry onto the plane. 

Oh, and this is why you should never put FRAGILE stickers on your shipments. FRAGILE means DROP-KICK in the language of shipping.  The tear in the box was so big I could even read the Polish printing on the newspaper stuffing!  My heart fell, I had to make Anthony open the box - I just couldn't do it.  But amazingly that little beauty had all her fingers and toes in perfect condition.

We put her together on Friday night.  A. did all the "parts" stuff, and I tied on the leader, fiddled with the Scotch tension and then sat looking at her without a clue as to how to proceed (no instructions in the package and I hadn't thought to purchase a book).  I had gotten five minutes on instruction from the seller way back in October when I bought her, but I can barely remember my birthday.  So, I had to wait for the next morning when I was able to take my baby off to an open Spinning day at the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center.  On the way, my check engine light appeared, and the car started behaving a tad badly.  I kept driving.  I had already missed two sessions waiting for the wheel, and a little car trouble was NOT going to keep me from my first spinning lesson!   

There were two other women there when I arrived, but neither of them was the spinning teacher.  She apparently had called in sick that day.  Hmmmm.  I sat down anyway.  One of the women was spinning on a spindle and the other was drum carding some beautiful ballet pink fiber.  I opened my carrying bag.  We chatted.  The woman on the drum carder offered to show me how to get set up, an offer I gratefully accepted.

And as we chatted, I discovered that this same very sweet woman on the drum carder was no other than Chelsea!  She was the gal who responded to my request for knitting/spinning groups in Santa Fe with the EVFAC link! And she has FOUR kids, and still finds time to have a blog, be wonderfully helpful to beginners (me) and fabulously creative as evidenced by her ETSY shop, Twisted Sheep.  Chelsea, I am SO glad to have met you, I honestly would never have figured it out by myself!

So yesterday, after cleanup and crafts (A & I made our own wreath, pics to come), I sat down to try my hand at it all by my lonesome.  And LOOK WHAT I MADE!  YARN!!!  I actually managed to spin some YARN!

Now, all I have to do is figure out how to ply it.

Oh, and I did get home okay and under my own steam, but the car has to go BACK to the Land Rover dealer tomorrow, since it's snowing today.  Sigh.    

Fiber Eye Candy

Okay, so I had to share this with you.  I met Holly of when she posted to my blog recently and boy, am I ever glad she did.  Holly spins Art yarns and boy, can this woman spin!  AND, she was willing to swap a beautiful skein and two batts for some HMH.  Look what came in the mail from her today.

It really was difficult to catch the subtle color changes and sparkle in the two batts, and I fiddled with them a bit in Photoshop to see if I could heighten the shadows and color variations a bit, but the pictures still fail to do them justice. 

Thank you Holly - you're a Goddess!

Now - if I can only manage to spin these lovelies without ruining them.  Everyone cross your fingers for me and then go look at Holly's yarn and fiber!

Swap Goodies!

We had a SWAP on the Spindlers list!  The theme of this swap was Spring and it went like this.  You submitted your likes and dislikes (though frankly I think that takes a bit of the surprise out of it all), and the swap mom pairs you up with a buddy and sends out the list.  Then you send your swap buddy something yummy and and wait for something yummy in return.    And this is what Holly, my swap buddy sent me!  She spun this herself! and included some of the roving!!!  I'm so tickled I'm wiggling!  How did she know that I LOVE the wild stuff?  Isn't it awesome!

Newly Spun

I'll admit it, I've been a spinning fool of late, which doesn't amount to all that much actual spinning because:

1. I only have one spindle
2. I don't "really" know how to use the darn thing
3. I only have about two hours a day to devote to fiber as the holiday order rush has taken over my life.

But I have been thinking about it a lot and dreaming of the fiber I'll order when I can justify buying more.  And because I've been busy dreaming in roving land, I've been sadly neglecting:

1. A pretty orange scarf that only needs a button sewn on
2. A flower that needs the scarf knitted for it.  In my defense on this one; the yarn for the scarf only arrived today.
3.A freeform bag that needs sewing together and handles and a snap (always the hard part for me.
4. A very pretty scrumble in turqoise blues that needs to beciame a small bag and after that a wall hanging.  I've been collecting the yarns for this project since the summer and only just started it last week.  Sigh.

But, I have been busy with needles and spindle even though it doesn't seem like it because I haven't finished much of anything.  But I have made some progress.  Honestly.  First, the yarn I spun last night and I'm showing off my gorgeous Hatchtown Farms spindle, lovingly made by Jim.  The fiber is Fluff Stuff from Wabi Sabi and it's plyed with a fabulous varigated ginger/brown/orange metallic from the sStitchery in Pearl River, NY.  I believe the yarn is quite old though as it's by Unger, a yarn company I haven't heard about it years.

Next is some more of Wabi Sabi Fluff Stuff plied with a loopy mohair in deep pinks.  Now this seemed like a great idea when I concieved it, and It looks fabulous on the thinner portions of the fiber ply, but when It gets to the puffy bits, it just looks messy.  Somehow I think I shouled have let the fiber go as a single because when I looked at the finished product, all I could think of was that line from Steel Magnolias where Sally field says that the church, which was decorated in pinks, looked like a bottle of Pepto Bismol exploded in there.  I'm calling it Pepto Dismal. 

And Maitri dearest, please don't think that this is any reflection of you or your beautiful Stuff, somehow I've managed to turn gold to straw with this one.  Sheesh.

And last for this post but not least, as I think it'll be beautiful if I can ever get myself to put the darn thing together, is the inside lining for Cassiopeia.  I did two things new.  First, I couched a shiny yarn down with some really gorgeous Japanese seed beads.  I don't know what came over me, I'm not a tiny bead person, much to fussy and when they spill in the bed (which is where I was doing this) you have a real problem.  For days. 

Then I bought some rayon thread intent upon doing a fancy "stitch the scrumble to the lining" thing in small circles.  Sigh.  Rayon thread, which is what machine embroidery enthusiasts use for thier luminous creations, breaks when you try and knot it.  Nuts to rayon thread!  So I went back out and found some shiny Sulky polyester thread, which is no mean feat - at the mall - three days before Christmas (insert straight jacket for me here).  So the poly thread is beautiful and tough as nails but not as thick and so doesn't show up as well and practically not al all in the photo's, though you can see it in person, with the naked, well eyeglass enhanced eye anyway. 

And after all this fuss, you won't see all the pretty blue circles at ALL once the bag is sewn together.  But I know it's there, right?  Right?  Well anyway, That's pretty much what I've gotten done in the past three weeks.  Hopefully I'll have a bit more time after New Year's to knit up the yarn that arrived from Israel today in between batches of Eggnog and Glogg (for which I'll post a recipe for you all for New Years eve).  On second thought, perhaps I should wait till AFTER the libations have worn off...       

      

Peppermint Patty Yarn

Isn't this adorable!  I spun it last night while I was supposed to be putting my bag together for tomorrows art show. Sigh, but somehow I'm thinking that my bag in this show is not to be, so I should just forget the rushing and spin some more!  I used Maitri's Fluff Stuff in Catching Angels Unawares, a combination of pinks, and creams.  I plyed it with some cream angora Anthony's aunt gave me while we were there on Thanksgiving and I'm completely tickled with the way it came out.  Since I wanted to see how it would work out - I only spun a couple of yards, but I like it so much I'm going to spin more and add some Angelina in this time for sparkle!  It'll make such pretty flowers for granddaughter hats!  And if all goes well, the deep pink yarn I ordered from Happy Wool will match (fingers really crossed here).   

And here is the Fluff Stuff.  I was so excited when it came that I ran outside, put it on the white snow and snapped a picture but the photo really does not do it justice.  Maitri's Batts are incredibly beautiful, but much too big for my spinning style which usually runs to 20 yards or so for use in my freeform, so her Fluff Stuff is perfect for me.  And I love spinning that way.  I have a terribly short attention span and spinning the short lengths lets me experiment!  The only problem is finding small amounts of roving to purchase.  Everyone sells in 4 - 8 oz increments which is way too much for me.  I did find a couple of sites that will sell by the ounce, but I still don't have a good source for silk sliver that way.  So I guess I'll just have to keep sifting through websites filled with gorgeous fiber - poor me.