A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

I have no patience! NONE

Yes, I’ve learned this the hard way over the past few years and waiting for my new wheel to show up has only reaffirmed it for me. I read on a yahoo group tread that someone else ordered a different Jensen wheel recently and actually got an email with tracking information for hers, I wonder if I’ll get that? I really hope so, I might be calmer if I actually knew for sure it was on its way and where it was and when it might get here! Yes, I was one of those bratty kids that used to shake the holiday gifts to try to figure out what was inside

Check this out, Knitter’s Universe is giving away copies of a Font just for Knitters! Here is the link to get your copy! I can’t wait to try this out on my next pattern!

Speaking of which, my copy of Gathering of Lace arrived yesterday and I can’t wait to try the lace gloves! I have some yarn that I spun that will be just perfect for a pair of them. I almost cast on last night but just managed to resist the temptation, I would really like to finish one of the pairs of socks I have on needles first. Hopefully I can hold out until the weekend, but somehow I doubt it!

Well, not much else to report, just pacing the floors waiting for my wheel, though I know it will be days from now!

Have a great Tuesday!

Happy Monday :~

Well, it was a long but interesting weekend. I finished plying the spun sample of Mom’s actual shawl fiber on Friday, I wanted to have it ready to show her at her surprise party on Saturday. The sample turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself! Its even smaller than the practice skein I had done from the same fiber, which is great as it is closer to the weight called for in the majority of shawl patterns I’ve seen lately. During the course of spinning this sample, and with a second opinion from M it was decided that my poor little Joy just isn’t up for the task of spinning true lace weight yarns. Using this wheel on the highest whorl is incredibly difficult at best. I actually managed to do some (hopefully temporary) damage to my knee by doing about 1/4 oz of yarn! Based on that it was decided that it would be impossible for me to spin nearly 2 lbs of it on this wheel! Just wasn’t going to happen. Not only that, but the Joy is not the sturdiest or biggest wheel around and given the size of my spinning stash, probably not up to the task at hand.

Therefore, on Friday, my DH ordered my new wheel for me!!!! Yup, that’s right folks, I’m getting a new wheel!!!!! In about a week I’ll be receiving several boxes containing a Jensen Ultimate Production Wheel! We ordered it from The Woolery and they were wonderful, very helpful and patient, even at 6:00 on a Friday night.

I went for the big one, the 30″ wheel, with the finales and the high-speed kit. It should arrive a few days before we leave for our big trip to Italy and I’m hoping to get it finished and assembled before we leave (and maybe even spin and oz or two!) though the real work with it won’t begin until after we get back . . . . I wasn’t going to get the finales, figuring they really are just decorative and wouldn’t it be nice to have a lazy-kate instead? Well, someone online pointed out that the finales add weight, which makes the wheel spin more smoothly . . . And I can always get the kate late, right?

I’m so excited about this wheel, I just can’t even begin to tell you! Don’t get me wrong, I love my Joy, it is perfect for the things I bought it for. Its small, folds up compactly into a case and is very portable. It is a great beginner wheel, doing a nice job on basic weight yarns and I have learned a lot using it. However, I have outgrown it from a learning perspective. I still plan to use it to go to my group on Thursdays and to any other spinning events or gatherings, and for the occasional heavy yarn when I want something done quickly . . . . But my interests now are leaning toward spinning yarn for lace weight shawls, sock yarns and I want to try 3 & 4-ply yarns for doing Aran knits. All of these things require more speed and control than I have with the Joy. The new wheel has nearly twice the drive wheel, ratios from 7.5 – 40 to 1 by using additional whorls (instead of 6, 8, 12.? & 15 on the Joy) and the bobbins are twice the size of those for the Joy!!!! And I hear that even at the higher ratios it remains easy to treadle! I really am looking forward to seeing what I can do with this wheel!

Mom’s party on Saturday went well, she was completely surprised. We had let her think we were doing something for her the following weekend and she had totally bought it! I gave her the sample skein and the dyed fiber with the explanation that once the new wheel is up and running I’ll be able to spin the yarn for her shawl. The knitting of the shawl is her Christmas gift this year, though it will likely not be finished by then. Mom has been a quilter for pretty much my whole life, so even though she doesn’t knit, she does something similar enough that she understands how long these things take and just how much work actually goes into something like this. Its nice to knit for someone who can truly appreciate the time and effort that goes into the finished product.

Speaking of which, my MIL has informed me that she won’t be knitting anymore, after the current round of already promised baby items for friends grandchildren etc. She feels that her knitting just isn’t appreciated by the recipients so she is no longer going to do it. To be totally frank with you, I believe it is not actually her knitting that is off-putting, but her choice of yarns. She is a “Red-Heart Girl” in the truest sense. If it costs double digits to knit an item or it can’t go in both the washer and dryer, she doesn’t want to know about it. My attempts to upgrade her fiber habits were unsuccessful, but at least I can say I tried. I do hope she will continue to work with A on her knitting, as I know it is important to her and since they started together it would be nice if she continues.

In other news:

The broken kitty is doing much better. Its been 2 weeks since her accident, what ever it was, and she is walking much better and can move a bit faster. She still can’t really jump, but can manage to pull herself up onto the couch or bed. It will be a couple more weeks before I will be comfortable letting her back outdoors, I’d like her to be able to really jump and climb in case she needs to be able to get away from something. Luckily, this is the cat that doesn’t mind being in so much, if it were the other she’d have clawed a hole in the back door by now!

The barn is coming along. Saturday the guys were over and did the floor joists. Later this week they will be setting in the insulation and then the floor. The walls may be another week after that . . . . but with a bit of luck the outside will be up an finished before we leave for Italy! This is very excited since it means I’m that much closer to having a Fiber Room of my very own, and I’m going to need it for the new wheel!

The plans for the trip are coming along. Our tickets are booked and so are about 1/2 the hotels. The biggest snag for me has been that the temp who agreed to fill in for me isn’t going to be available afterall. So we are now scrambling to find someone to fill in for the time I’m away; there is no way they can get by without someone for that long, it just wouldn’t work. I have been told that I won’t be doing very much shopping on the trip, since I’m getting a new wheel!, but I guess in the long run I can live with that! I may pick up a pair or 2 of shoes and little bit of yarn if I see something wonderful . . . but I don’t need to go crazy, afterall, I know we will go back again!

Well, back to work, lots to do on this potentially rainy Monday! Have a great day!

I love my bunnies!

I spent some quality time with the buns last night. They each had a good brushing and then hung out with me on the couch for a while. They are actually starting to show some personality! I gave them each a couple of grapes and a baby carrot for tolerating the abuse of being groomed. They are just so sweet and loveable. Everyone should have an angora bunny

I finished plying my sample skein of the undyed fiber for Mom’s shawl. I think this may be my best skein to date. It weights approx. 48 grams, is approx. 153 yds and is 26 WPI. It is also probably the most even skein I have spun yet. Of course, there isn’t a lot of room for variation in something that small to begin with . . . but over all I’m very pleased with the results.

I also noticed while I was reskeining the roving last night, that somehow I missed a skein when I was preparing to dye. I actually only dyed 30 oz rather than the whole 2lbs. Oh well, it should be enough for 1 shawl anyway. I’ll just spin the undyed ball to match the sample skein and use the whole thing for a scarf.

I can’t wait to show my mother how her roving came out, I just know that she is going to love it! I can’t wait to start spinning it up! I do seem to be having a little trouble spinning on the high whorl on my wheel these days, I’m not sure but there might be something wrong with my drive band either that or I just need to be in a different chair or something . . . If it still doesn’t seem right tonight I may have to hold off on using it until I can have it looked at . . . doesn’t that figure!

I’m starting to think it is time to obtain a second wheel, one with a bit more “horse power” for the amount and type of spinning I’m looking at doing. I don’t think it will happen in time to do the yarn for this shawl, but perhaps by the end of the year . . .

Bess, we would have loved to have you dyeing with us!

And thus ends my dyeing frenzy for the forseeable future!

I still love dyeing, but it is a lot of work. Not that I don’t totally envy Jennifer at The Spirit Trail; she now has her own at home business dyeing yarns and fibers! I would love to be able to do this all the time. However, we have a lot going on the next few weekends, and after 1 evening of trying to dye after work . . . . its just too much for a “school night”.

I did however, sucessfully dye the roving for my mother’s shawl last night. She picked out a Romney fleece at the NH S & W when we went on Mother’s day, we sent it to Zeilinger’s for processing and I recently got back just over 2lbs of roving. Yesterday I skeined it off into 2 oz. sections (since that is how much I like to spin at once) and spent the evening dyeing them.

I started off by practicing on some more of the Finn/Ram. roving that I have a big bucket of, dyeing it in green, blue/green, blue/purple and purple. I hope to spin worsted weight singles and then knit my own version of the Booga J bag in my own dyed/spun yarn!

After the practice skeins and tweeking the colors to be what Mom and I discussed . . . I covered the whole 8 ft. table in plactic wrap, laid out the skeins in pairs the length of the table and started painting. It took me a while to get the dyes worked in just the way I wanted (and my arms are killing me today) but after steaming and rinsing I love the colors! DH even liked them! I can’t wait to see what they look like once they are spun and plied. The colors will overlap in the plied yarns so it will look very different from the roving, but the overall effect should be stunning. I’ve named the color way Tropical Seas as Mom was looking for an oceany effect both in the color and in the pattern.

I’m undecided whether to knit my own design, I do have one in mind, or to use a pattern from somewhere like Fiber Trends. I plan to look over the patterns tonight so I can get an idea of what the yarn should be to make this work either way . . . . I’d spun a sample, but now I think perhaps it was too fine, a sport weight rather than a lace weight might be a better idea . . . esp. if I want to finish the shawl by Christmas!

I spent the last bit of time that I was up last night winding the roving that came back from Zeilinger’s this past week. I traded a bit of it with M for some of her black Merino . . . and I have about 3 1/2 lbs of a pretty med. grey Corriedale and 4 lbs of the most beautiful white merino roving I’ve ever seen! Its like a cloud! I can’t wait to start spinning it, though I’m going to as I’m saving this until I have a specific project for it. I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful this roving is, it was a very soothing experience to sit and wind my 4 oz. balls of it last night before bed. I was tempted to take one with me and keep it on my pillow, it is that soft! I do have a few baby gifts to make a bit later this year, perhaps some lucky baby is going to wind up with a very special sweater or something!

Tonight I plan to take pictures, brush rabbits, finish some plying and look at shawl patterns (and of course, laundry) but that is it, my arms need a bit of a break from the rest of it!

I Love DYEING!

We had a very sucessful dye workshop yesterday at my house. It was myself, M, J and A for about 9 hours! M was the only one who had done anything other than Kool-Aid dyeing so she got to play instructor for the day and did a fabulous job too! We each dyed between 4 and 6 batches of fiber. There was quite a variety to the fibers and colors we used, but utlitmately it all turned out wonderful!

I have to say, I’m very proud of A, for someone so young she handled herself very maturely and responsibly! There are not many children that I would attempt to do this type of dyeing with, esp. given the degree of care needed in handling this level of chemicals. I plan to call her parents today and let them know what a fabulous job she did. She even stayed long enough to help clean up and didn’t whine or complain once.

I didn’t wind up dyeing the fiber for my mother’s shawl last night (which was actually the main thing I wanted to do), but rather stuck to my practice fibers to see what would happen with them. I did what everyone likely does when they first start off, and put a bit too much dye into a couple of batches . . . but by the end of the evening was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of it. Tonight I’m going to dye the fiber for my mother’s shawl and possibly a little bit of other stuff that I have floating around the house, depending on how long the shawl fibers take. Or perhaps I’ll warm up on the odd ball of roving, just in case . . . .

With all that I have to do at home (there is some cleaning/laundry in addition to the dying) it is unlikely that I’ll get out the camera tonight, but if I can get to it while there is still any daylight, I will try. Otherwise, I’ll take some Tuesday night and post them on Wednesday.

Now I really want to start doing some spinning with these colorful new rovings! Though I have to finish up a few bobbins worth of various other things first . . .

More updates tomorrow . . .