Newsletter, Echocardiogram, Silk/Bamboo

There have been many ups and downs with the newsletter during the last year. We handed it over to someone else to do and for one reason or another, it did not get done.... so we are once again doing it. It will be in the mail this afternoon. This is a good thing...really wanted everyone to have theirs before Christmas. Our mailing list is now around 550, but with none sent out in a year, we are expecting quite a few to be returned as undeliverable as people move and don't send in new addresses.

Went for echocardiogram yesterday. It took quite a while, but not nearly as long as I was expecting it to take...lol (Didn't have to see the doctor!) My cardiologist has one of those doctor's offices where you make sure you have enough knitting/crocheting/nalbinding supplies with you to last for several hours.... you will need them. My DH has finally learned to take his own book with him...after he had read all of the magazines in the place at least twice in one visit. Go again next week for chemical stress test.

Made a trip to Durant, OK for some supplies and while there stopped at Ozark Mills. I got some silk roving and some bamboo roving. It's amazing the difference between spinning the silk/bamboo and spinning wool. The white in the pic to the left is the silk. The beautiful fuchsia/purple colorway below is the bamboo.

Spindles and More Spindles

I painted a few of my spindles the other day. When I began to spin the hand painted roving on my spinning wheel I realized that it would not spin as small as I wanted to spin it. It was then that I decided to do it on my spindles.
The only problem was that I needed more than the one spindle I had to do it on. (My Bosworth is in use with some white Corriedale roving...) So I set about making several more, with 3 approximately the same size... 2" whorl, 8 1/2" shaft and weighing 0.75 ounces. They absolutely work like a charm.

The spindle lying on the table with the white mixed wool is my first efforts at "Ply on the Fly" spinning...I love it. When all done with the spinning, I will also be done with the plying and will have totally finished wool yarn to take off the spindle (except for the water bath finishing, of course).

The long spindle with the brown horse on the whorl is actually a metal door pull that we found at a local farmer's market..(no farmers showed up .. !!). I bought it for a $1.50, brought it home, put a shaft on it and boy did it go! lol Have to say I was not surprised that it worked...but very surprised that it worked so well.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

THE GOOD

We're having wonderful company this afternoon from McKinney. I've done some picking up, wiping down this morning and am really looking forward to dinner out with good company.

THE BAD

I've been looking sooo forward to spinning the Icelandic fiber that I got in McKinney a while back. That Merino fiber just seemed to last forever while I was spinning it..grin (Sure feels soft and silky tho!)

So I pulled the Icelandic out of the plastic bags, began to look through it and found that it is FULL of vegetable matter. UGHHHHH! So now will have to go back to McKinney and buy some carders...sigh

But I did pull a little out and try it with my spindle. It will be like nothing I have spun before and it is a little easier to make into very thin singles.

THE UGLY

Got my hair cut....and cut....and cut....and cut... It looks like a modified, gapped, ragged Marine's high and tight with the hair on top left about 3 inches long.... sigh.... I should have known ... NEVER allow anyone under 40 to cut your hair... About 2 hours after the haircut the Merle Norman Studio made some big bucks selling me a wig...sigh

I Found a Roving Source!

DH and I went with a wonderful friend to McKinney on Wednesday. The downtown area is chock full of lovely antique stores that we (of course!) could not resist wandering through. We had lunch in a wonderful English pub called The Londoner that sits right on the square of downtown... what a scrumptious lunch! And of course I forgot to take my camera... ughh

After lunch we decided to ask in one of the antique stores if they knew where a yarn shop was located.. The store owner was a lovely lady and pointed us to a store across the street where we found not only lots of wonderful roving and lovely yarn, but the Aladdin 12 cup teapot with the infuser...in pristine condition! And what a wonderful place!

The roving in the bowl is the Corriedale that I found in McKinney. How great it is to spin! Then yesterday the 5# of roving arrived that I had ordered from Halcyon Yarns.. looks like I will have plenty to do for a while..grin

Yarn Preparation for Spinning

It seems as I continue to work with my spinning wheel that the yarn preparation for me right now takes about 2 times as much time as the actual spinning. I strip the roving, draft it into the bowl and then spin it.

The yarn skein has about 52 yards and the niddy noddy has 48 yards of Navajo triple plied yarn. With the spinning and the plying, each set took about an hour apiece. The prep work on the other hand about twice that long apiece. hmmm.... Do you suppose watching Midsomer Murders during the prep work had anything to do with that?

As I am still very new to this, I find it a bit amazing that the spot dyed roving in the upper pic can turn into this yarn that I am calling Old Fashioned Candy. It really looks like the Old Fashioned Candy sticks that can still be found in the big jars at Cracker Barrel restaurants..grin

I'm Finally Back...

Hello again after the longest blogging pause I've had yet. There is much that has been going on, but will take a while to get it all up here.

These are the lovely fabric postcards received from the Art We Mail group of very talented ladies. These are from different points around the country and a couple from New Zealand. Mine have been sent and alas, I did not think to get a picture of them before they were mailed.

This is my dowel rod and wooden toy car wheel spindle. With a little help from my wonderful DH (drill press for starter hole in the cuphook end), it was done in about 15 minutes or so. A little sanding along the sides and voila! we're off! Well, the first roving (needle felting roving from Hobby Lobby) was pretty bad, but it was good enough for me practice the basics. Took a little while to figure it out, but is much easier than I thought it would be. This is the 3rd usable yarn that I have spun, the other two being a bulkier yarn that is being knit into scarves. The current roving I am spinning and the previous roving (now being knit into scarves..grin) are Blue Faced Leicester wool that I ordered from Funky Carolina Etsy shop. (What great service and wonderful roving!)

More tomorrow....