finished

I've crossed the TdF finish line!!! A purple jersey (don't like yellow and I look horrible in it) for me :)


This is a little skein of some mystery stuff that Gail gave me. I've only got 228 yds so I'm not sure what I'll make with it.

After many weeks of wheel searching, I think I've found one for my little niece. Hopefully, it will still be avail on my way back from Sock Summit. Only 4 more sleeps!!!!


Ricky sez, "zzzzzzzzz".

two months

It's been pretty close to 2 months since I last wrote up a decent post. There is sooo much that I need to get caught up on that this'll be a quick & dirty update.

FOs


Cinnamon Grace - totally ran out of yarn despite using an overweight skein. Ended up making a 2 hour round trip to buy a 27g leftover from a fellow Raveller. Still ran out of yarn. The lace edging should be wider and have a picot bind off.


Another pair of Monkey socks - my 60th pair of socks

Currently knitting on this:


Swirl skirt from the latest IK. Totally in love with this pattern.

Spinning

The Tour de Fleece is moving along. While the nieces were in town, they insisted on "helping" me so I ended up spinning a lot of junky fiber (included in the purchase of my wheels). But I've had the opportunity to spin some nice stuff, too. This is sample of what I've accomplished so far:






We're leaving for Sock Summit in less than two weeks. I have so much to do to get ready. I'm excited!!!!

you rock!

Big thanks goes to the bidders and the winners of the scarf auction! Hubby is blown away by everyone's generosity.

We're in the final countdown for the ride. I have to make hubby a portable changing room (aka a towel with ties to go around his waist) since I won't be there to hold his towel. Hubby's washed all his cycling gear and started a packing list. I am very jealous of Gladys who will be part of the crew. I was planning on joining her but I managed to double book myself. I can be so studip sometimes.

Gladys will be live blogging on Sat and we'll post a link to the satellite tracker (updated every 10 mins) so that you can see where the riders are. If anyone is in town and free Sat night, we would love to have you join us at the welcome home party. We will be lining up along Scott Road in Delta between 72nd and 80th. Riders are expected to arrive around 10pm. Bring noise makers (I'll be the one with the obnoxious cow bell) and lots of energy.

Two weeks ago, I teased you with a picture of some singles that I was spinning on my new-to-me wheel, Marilyn.


Lookit what followed me home one day. A solid oak spinning wheel stamped "1978 W.J. Robidoux, Cornwall, Ont, Can". Isn't she pretty?


She has some amazing details. To keep the footman from falling off the crank, there is a small piece of leather held in place with a metal pin. Aside from some doggie teeth marks at the bottom of the footman and a speck of paint on the drive wheel that I can't scrape off, she's in pristine condition. She spins beautifully and I'll make nice yarn once I figure out the tension. Marilyn is my first double drive wheel so there's a bit of a learning curve for me. We're not very good friends at the moment but I'm sure things will work out once we understand each other.

Did I mention that I have an addiction? BTW, the wheel came with a box of stuff that included of all things, a pair of real sheep shears!


Might have to try it out the next time a kitty needs a trim. Come here, Ricky!!!! He's in my bad books today. I was ummm occupied in the bathroom and he came in and put his paws on the plant stand (ignoring my yelling) and knocked the whole thing over. He ran out of there so fast that he smacked into the bathroom door which bounced off the door stop and smacked him in the butt once he rounded the corner. While I was cursing and cleaning up the mess (the plant survived), I heard the door move and Ricky stuck his face in, eyes as big as saucers, to see the aftermath. I have replaced the plant stand with a different one that has a bigger base so that he can't knock it over.


I've been doing lots of spinning. We had a glorious Sunday and after we put up the sun shelter, I sat outside all afternoon (with my lemonade and jelly beans) and spun up half a pound of merino. Don't I look comfy?

reminder

Just a quick reminder that the WM auction ends tomorrow at 8pm PDT. The current high bid is $125. And the raffle also ends tomorrow at midnight PDT. The current fundraising total is $750. Hubby is going on his last big training ride tomorrow - 160km/100mi and it's supposed to get pretty hot. I hope he doesn't melt. Only 2 weeks left before the big day!!!

Today, I hung out with my spinning friend, Vicki and we spun a little. This is what I did:


The spinners who read this blog will notice that this flyer is not an Ashford one. More details in an upcoming post...

almost frog's hair

The week has been a blur - mostly lying in bed and then culminating with a trip to the hospital yesterday night. My cold wasn't a cold - it was a virus complete with aches, headache, fever, and chills but no other symptoms. I'm ok now but I learned the hard way what the symptoms are for dehydration. I think hubby got a little freaked out when he saw me fetchingly attired in a hospital gown with various tubes & wires hanging out of me.

Speaking of hospital gowns... The shade of blue that I was wearing can be found in my latest handspun (great segue, eh?):


This is 113g of Rambouillet from Two Sisters Stringworks (formerly known as Yummy Yarn), a local dyer. The LYS where I work sells her fiber. I spun the singles on my Traveller (hereby christened Clementine) and plied on Matilda (love my jumbo flyer!).


Unless I miscounted, that skein is about 728 yds so it's in the laceweight category. That's the thinnest yarn I've spun so far. Now that I've cracked the lace barrier, maybe I should try spinning frog's hair :)

a funny thing happened at the store

Yesterday, I was out shopping for parts for TNW (The New Wheel). First stop was Home Depot. I found suitable replacement springs for the bobbin brake but they didn't have the right size screw eye or cup/square hooks. The next stop was Lee Valley where I got the screw eye (only used one so I have 99 spares) and after much running around by the clerk, I finally decided on the cup hooks (only used 11 so I have 89 spares). My last stop was Canadian Tire for some fishing line and a metal garbage can (needed something flame-proof to hang the used tung oil rags to dry/cure). This is where my day gets interesting. I know next to nothing about fishing line but there's a harmless looking gentleman looking at fishing rods so I pull out my bobbin brake and approach him.

me: Excuse me. I was wondering if you can help me.
Him: Yes?
me: I'm wondering what weight/thickness this fishing line is
me: ::shows him the bobbin brake::
Him: It depends on what you want to catch. This looks thick enough to catch salmon.
me: No, I don't need the fishing line to catch fish. I need to make a repair with fishing line.
me: ::shows him a spool of 40lb fishing line:: Is this thick enough?
(You are probably thinking that I should hold the old fishing line next to the spool and compare thicknesses. That would work if the spool wasn't shrink wrapped and I could see the individual strands of clear monofilament)
Him: ::gives me a weird look after seeing the fishing line is attached to a screw eye and a spring:: Well, the heavier the line, the bigger the fish that you can catch.
me: ::internal ARGH!:: Thank you very much. You've been very helpful.
me: ::scurries off to pay for the 40lb fishing line::

BTW, 40lb is the right thickness and I can catch salmon with the remaining 199.6 yds.

stop me

I have a serious problem.


I picked up this little beauty Fri night. Sigh... I couldn't resist. It's so cute. And all the accessories for my other wheel fit this wheel. It's portable so I can take it places.

It definitely needs a little TLC. It's a bit rusty. I'm replacing all of the hooks on the flyer and all the bits for the bobbin tension. It also needs a new treadle/footman connector as the current piece of leather flexes and causes the treadle to clunk. I've wiped the wheel down twice with Murphy's oil soap because it was pretty dirty. It's about 3-4 shades lighter now. I'm going to rub it down with some tung oil tomorrow. I de-gunked the orifice. I started scraping it out with a bamboo skewer but had to resort to some alcohol to get it completely clean. All those years of spinning sure does create build-up. It spins fine despite the fact that there is a slight wobble in the wheel which is not surprising for something that is almost 30 years old. I'm looking forward to spinning on it.

This is it. I'm not buying any more wheels. Cross my heart. Pinky swear. You believe me, don't you?

waxing & ants

Easter is over. We have a ton of leftovers in the fridge (I think we're eating spaghetti squash & ham until the next millenium), I'm catching up on chores (is there such a thing as a laundry fairy?), and I so badly want the weather to clear up so that I can finally get into the garden (it's been frosty every morning for at least a week so my garden is behind, too).

Since I'm stuck inside, I thought I'd do a little waxing - no, not my legs but my new spinning wheel bits.


Unfortunately, I waxed on the dining table so it smells like diesel in there. ICK! I hope it clears up before supper otherwise, we'll be eating elsewhere.

Yesterday, I was out looking for something that I can use to oil the hub on my spinning wheel because I can't reach with my current bottle of oil. One of my stops was Summit Tools and while I was looking around, I spied this really cool LED light.


It straps to my thumb so I can spin in the dark!!!! How cool is that? Sadly, the velcro keeps snagging on my roving so I'll have to replace it with some elastic.

You're probably wondering about the ants... I was sitting in front of my computer when I spied an ant on the edge of the desk. Then I saw a whole pile on the floor and a bunch crawling out of the corner by the door. Eep! I vacuumed them up and grabbed a spoon and the Costco-sized container of ground black pepper. I liberally filled all the cracks with it and waited. I found a few more errant ants within an hour of application but there haven't been any new ones since. Phew! I discovered the ground pepper trick many years ago when there was an ant invasion in the laundry room. I needed something non-toxic and cat resistant and it was either black pepper or cayenne and since I had the black pepper on hand, I used it. Works like a charm!!! And when the ant season is over, you vacuum up the pepper.

I leave you with a picture of tulips cut from my garden - hidden from the kitties so that they don't get nom'd:

all spinning, all the time

Well, that's not entirely true. The house is looking very sparkly and the lawn is getting a lot of attention. Spring cleaning is almost complete. The majority of the dust bunnies have been taken care of. There's still a few areas that I'd like to clean but I'm burnt out. The house is looking much better and just in time for Easter. The in-laws are in town and there's lots of stuff planned.

We hooked the de-thatching blade to the lawn mower last weekend and ripped up about a quarter of our lawn. We don't actually have a lot of thatch but we do have a ton of moss which the blade rakes out. So there's a huge pile of moss in the carport. With the old collection system, we would've filled all 12 garbage cans and put them at the curb for pick up. But the new system only picks up waste in city supplied containers. We are allowed one container for free and you have to pay $100 for every extra container. We bought an extra one so that we have two and they're huge but it's gonna take many weeks to get rid of the stuff and we still have to run the mower over the rest of the lawn. Then there's over-seeding, fertilizing, and lime-ing. Each step is a two pass process so I'm doing a lot of walking. I am very pooped.

The Lendrum has moved onto her permanent home. And she has a name - Lizzy. Her new owner has been spinning like crazy on it. I went over to her house and I showed her how to use her wheel to Andean ply the singles from her drop spindle. Then I got her set up to ply the singles that she'd spun on the wheel. I cut some felt pieces to slip into her lazy kate to add a little tension so that the bobbins don't spin too quickly. I'm going to make the same adjustment to my kate, too.

Before I handed Lizzy over, I spun a little fiber on her.


This is some really scratchy mystery wool from Shades of Narnia. I started spinning some of this on my drop spindle but the colours were a little blah so I put the fiber away. But I decided to finish spinning it on the wheel just to get it used up and out of my fiber trunk.


It didn't turn out too badly. It's 2 ply and approx 84g, 218 yds, and 16 wpi. As you can see, it's a little overplied. I still need to wash & whack it which will make it look better.

I went on a bit of a buying binge after finishing up my 3 ply sock yarn (first sock is almost finished - just need to graft the toe). The owner of a local LYS, Knitopia also dyes fiber. So I headed over there to buy some fluffy stuff and I came home with some superwash BFL.


The colours remind me of Hawaii - the ocean & the mountains. And it spins up into this:


I have 146g and I'm splitting it onto 2 bobbins and hoping that I end up with fingering weight after I ply it. The first bobbin is done and I'll be starting the second bobbin after Easter, taxes, and the lawn.

I've bought a new accessory for Matilda. I splurged and picked up a sliding hook jumbo flyer for my wheel on Wed. I also bought an extra jumbo bobbin. These things are supposed to hold 200g of yarn so 146g should fit nicely. I need to dig out the furniture wax and finish the flyer before I permanently install it.

And I'm sure some of you are wondering if I've been wheel shopping. The answer is yes. I'm trying to tempt Gladys into spinning so I've been keeping an eye out for another folding wheel. I haven't found one yet but I did find a NZ Sleeping Beauty Saxony in great condition (with jumbo flyer & jumbo bobbin) for only $160 last week.

temporary resident

I went to a yard sale on Sat. There was a spinning wheel. A folding one. Can you see where this is going? I assembled it and gave it a spin. It came home with me. My living room is looking crowded.


That's a older model single treadle Lendrum - a Canadian made wheel. It came with a lovely carry bag, bobbins, and a lazy kate. I purchased this wheel on behalf of a friend who is looking for one. I couldn't get in touch with her to relay the details so I bit the bullet and bought it anyways. I hope she likes it. Fingers crossed.

I finally knuckled down and cast off my second Summer Flies shawl. I added an extra repeat of one of the charts which really made the the stitch count go way up. It took me 2.5 hours to bind off!


Pattern: Summer Flies by Donna Griffin
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Paints; 100g; 427 yds
Needles: 5mm Addi Turbos
Notes: Did an extra repeat of the ridged eyelet before starting the ruffle. Modified the increases to accommodate the different stitch count. Only have 11g of yarn left. Used fingering weight yarn instead of DK (like the first one I made) for a lightweight version.


I let myself cast on another project because I couldn't wait any longer.


I think all my future socks will be handspun and handknit.

spinning out of control

My last post certainly garnered some interesting comments.

"Ha Ha another one who has joined the slippery slope of spinning. Watch out spinning wheels and fibre can breed. Jan 2010 no wheel. Feb 2010 one wheel and under 500 gms of fibre. Fast forward to April 2011 - 4 raw fleeces to process, large tub of fibre tops and silvers + another box. 2 wheels, 5 spindles and I am heading to wonderwool in wales next weekend... Once you get fibre in the blood watch out....." - Kataatok

Is he/she trying to tell me that in 13 months I'll either be divorced or hubby will be sleeping in the garage?

"You'll be buying fleeces next!! Remember, she who has the most fibre when she dies, wins! Hehehehehehe" - Sharon in Surrey

I already win in the yarn/fabric/shoe stash category. I don't need another win.

This one scares me the most:

"I am awaiting the arrival of wheel #4, which should hopefully be here today. Just letting you know what you're in for :)" - Loren T

So the gist is that I'm doomed? Well then, let's get started!



This is 3 ply, 283 yds (116g) of sportweight spun from some lovely organic Romney/silk that I picked up from Penelope's booth last month (before I bought the wheel ::cough::).


All washed & whacked and ready for the sock needles.

While I was out yesterday, I fell into a yarn store and came home with more roving to spin. Today, I'm falling into another yarn store because 4 bobbins just isn't enough.

When we were in Hawaii, I found a Williams Sonoma store. Never been in one before and it certainly was an eye opener (and a wallet drainer). I want one of everything! But luggage space was tight so I limited myself to a very special set of cookie cutters.


It's an invasion of Storm Troopers! Break out the light sabers!!!!

To be even geekier, I made hubby pose with the Vader cookies wearing a very special t-shirt.

what have I done?

I'm in big, BIG trouble. As a knitter, it was bad enough that I was hoarding yarn but now I'm able to make it in a big way.


This is Matilda. A slightly used Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. I bought it yesterday with the help of my friend, Vicki. We took it back to her place where I spun a little Romney/silk.


Silk is tricksy to spin. I took the wheel over to Gladys' and both of us spun on it while a little drunk. I switched us to something less tricky - plain old wool. I finished spinning and plying it this morning (while sober).


It's only 50 yds (74g; the rest of it was spun on my drop spindle). It's horribly underspun, overspun, overplied, underplied, and in general, pretty gross. But perfect for my first wheelspun yarn!

hot flash

Started spring cleaning the whole house about a week ago. I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't seen the top of my dresser in several years. But it's all good now. The entire upstairs has been vacuumed, dusted, and purged. We'll probably shampoo the carpets this year but that'll have to wait until the weather is warmer.

And you know with a big clean, it often looks bad before it gets better. I try to get things cleared up before hubby gets home from work but the yarn keeps piling up in the living room because I've pulled it out of every nook and cranny from upstairs. I think I have a yarn explosion on my hands.

I'll get downstairs done next week and then I don't have to think about it for another 10 years or so ;)

I managed to get a little spinning done. It's so bright that it hurts my eyes but I love it anyways.


It's 100g of NZ corriedale and approx. 143 yds. It's spun on an Ashford Turkish drop spindle. I think there's enough for a pair of fingerless mitts. While plying the singles, one single kept breaking on me. Everything was getting all twisty and when I tried to untwist the single, it broke. Wah! I have to develop a better system for plying large batches of singles that keeps everything under control.

I won the yarn lottery!

I'm spinning!!!


I bought a very basic drop spindle kit ages ago. On the very left is the very first yarn that I spun & plied. It's super chunky and not very even. I spun a bunch of singles and then put the spindle down for a couple of years. I found plying to be a bit tricky.


Until Karen told me about Andean plying. So I spun up the rest of the fleece that I had just so that I could try the plying. It works so well. I love it. The middle skein shows my first attempt at Andean plying. The right most skein was my second attempt. Now I have to figure out what to knit with my handspun. Does anyone have suggestions?

And the main reason why I'm spinning instead of knitting:


I think I'm going to run out of yarn. There's 18g left and the first sock weighs 48g. If the ball of yarn was slightly less than the stated 100g, I'm screwed.

So hubby came home the other night and I practically screamed at him that I won a yarn lottery (in one of the swap groups on Ravelry). The conversation went as follows:

me: I won the lottery on Ravelry. Guess what I won!
hubby: Wollmeise.
me: Yep. You're good. Guess what colour.
hubby: Purple.
me: ::blink, blink::

He is so well trained.

I am also well trained. We have a guest coming to stay with us and he's allergic to cats (don't as me why he agreed to stay here even after we told him that we have cats). Ricky's been sleeping on the guest bed. To break that habit, we're forcing him to find a new favourite sleeping spot. Shutting the door to the guest bedroom didn't really work the first night because hubby was sleeping there (temporarily until he stops snoring). Hubby couldn't stand the crying so he let Ricky in. The next night, hubby came back to our room but Ricky was banging at the guest bedroom door, crying, and scratching at the carpet. I yelled at him a few times and he went away but woke me up at 12:30am trying to break down the door so I got up and locked him downstairs. Ricky was ok for a few days but then he started sleeping on the chair in the office. The office is off limits to the cats at night - too many cables for them to chew on. So Ricky got booted out and the crying, etc. commenced. I couldn't stand it (hubby was already asleep) so I hauled the chair out of the office (Ricky almost made it onto the chair before I could pick it up) and put it in our bedroom. It's kinda awkward but I'm happy if the cat's happy. There's a new development though... Phoebe has discovered the chair and I caught her sleeping on it. Uh oh...


Ricky sez, "Phhhhbbbbtttt!!! I always get my way"