more. melted.

My brain is fried. Or over-fibered.
Full o' fuzzy bits.
Or something.

Today TheMostImportantGuy was exploring out and about, and he saw this:

My view today was this:

Very different views, but both really neato :-)

I purchased that wooden bowl today at the retreat. I kept seeing it out of the corner of my eye the whole day the day before.  This morning when I snapped it up, I justified the purchase to my spinning neighbor sitting next to me, and I told her that I had just remodeled my kitchen and that it would look great on the bamboo kitchen counter holding a sock in progress or something (I did just say I was justifying my purchase, right?? LOL), and she said that she has been reading my blog. Quietly. For a few years.

I kinda couldn't believe she sat there for an evening meet and greet (where we chatted) and a whole day side by side, and an evening schpeel before saying something, but I guess if you can lurk for years, you'd be able to pull it off in person too, yah?!  hahahahahaha

Well, watch this:
HI ERIN!!! (*waves*)
hahahahaha
 
It turns out that Erin is the brains behind the podcast The Anatomy of Knitting.  I'm so glad she outed herself, because I was feeling a bit nervous sitting next to her as she is a much better spinner than I am and I felt like I was all thumbs. I turned bright red once she told me she read the blog, but for some odd reason it helped me not feel so nervous about they quality of my spinning.  And I should probably take a moment to ponder why that is, because it is interesting. But I'm too exhausted to play armchair psychologist on myself tonight LOL.

After the class ended a few of us went and checked out Hansencraft's new production facility they are building, then went to Taylored Fibers for a few to buy some of the really awesome roving that we got to test drive during the class.  TheMIG and I had an awesome meal at a place called The Ajax Cafe that Beth recommended where the menus are taped inside of album covers...

...and the walls are covered with wacky hats and many of the patrons wore them as they dined (although we didn't seem to capture that happening in this photo). 

I am totally exhausted once again, and my brain is full from so much information...but what a great time this was up here for the retreat.  The class was great, the other workshop members were a treat to meet, it was organized well and the accommodations for staying and for the workshop itself were great.  What a fun time.

Now two days of driving to get back home!

brain. melted.

OhMyGosh. Sooo tired.  Every day since we have left we have woken up and been on the road since the buttcrack of dawn, and today: class from 9am to 5pm with a break for lunch, a break for dinner, and then a lecture at 7pm.  I am so trashed!   But it is so amazing!

More photos as it's all my brain has left to put out for today.


A gift of fiber today from Kevin, Beth, and Judith (just one gift of many...there was an entire goody bag waiting in the hotel room when we arrived!)

Judith's wheel with a mishmash of experiments on it, as she was demonstrating her "yes, you can spin any diameter yarn!" exercise.

A color wheel full of fabulous fiber for us to practice with.

The always fascinating and wonderful teacher, Judith MacKenzie :-)

 Crashing in bed now.  Too tired to even enjoy a soak in the jacuzzi tub in the room!  Class is out tomorrow night at 5pm and the retreat is then officially over.  I'm not sure what folks are doing with the evening, but if there isn't anything happening, that tub is where you will find me!

so so pretty here

Less words, more photos...because it is just so beautiful here, and I am having a fabulous time :-)

Driving west towards the ferry.....

Preparing to dock in Port Townsend....

A flight of 1 oz samplers at the Port Townsend Brewing Company....

A deer on the lawn of Bed & Breakfast in a quiet neighborhood....

Okay.  A few words.
The deer was so still, we thought he or she might have been a victim of taxidermy!  For almost a full minute we sat there watching, and there was not a twitch!  Then verrrry slowly, one ear slowwwwly rotated.  I even wondered for a moment if someone inside the B&B was sitting in there with a remote control operating it! hahahaha 
(but he/she was real)

A shot of a tall ship taken from Uptown....

And one of the many many MANY little churches around here.....

So, I am not sure if I have mentioned this or not!
The real reason for this road trip is that I am here in Port Townsend for a spinning retreat with Judith MacKenzie, specifically for people who have Hansencraft miniSpinners (and I am a happy keeper of one).  

Tonight was the meet-n-greet at the hotel, followed by Kevin (Mr Hansencraft himself) demonstrating care and maintenance.

After the evening gathering, TheMIG and I took a walk together along the waterfront and caught the sunset.

Tomorrow TheMIG goes exploring, and I begin 2 full days of spinning and learning! :-)

tweak!

Drinking lots of oolong tea today, and playing with the camera...


..which means I am so hyped up on caffeine, all I can see in that photo is the little red thread that needs to be snipped. Tweaker.



Small updates to previous posts:

Brooke commented on my "Spindown" post saying that her inspiration/invitation was actually inspired by Janel, on her blog. Check it out if you are interested in joining the fun and spinning along---she is even offering prizes :-)

Yesterday was the first day of "tight practice" (zen meditation). Most of it went well, but I'm not too sure about the "mantra" portion of my commitment. It took a whoooole lot longer than expected to repeat a simple phrase 1000 times (one thousand! eeep!), and when I tried to speed it up, I felt dizzy and my lungs hurt LOL. Who knew chanting could be aerobic.

I might need to divide it up into chunks throughout the day or something....? Maybe get in a few (slow/non-dizzy) rounds while driving or something...?
I'll let you know what I come up with.

year long projects anyone? (not resolutions!)

I'm not a fan of making New Year's Resolutions....buuuuut there are a few things I would like to accomplish this year that need to start in early January in order to feel like they "count", and now they seem to carry the "ResolutionVibe". I am fast relabeling them "Year Long Projects".

The resolution coaster. About all a resolution is good for, in my world LOL

My first Year Long Project is blogging. It's decided. I'm blogging again for another 365 Days. (So cheer. Or run.) With two years already under my belt, it's ingrained behavior for me to post every day, so that's no biggey---but the real goal for me is to play with the way I write. I would like to organize the way I put content together so that the blog is more fun for me to keep up, and hopefully for you, too (should you decide to come along for the ride). I am making it a priority to set aside more time for writing each day, because it is actually something I enjoy doing. But the real "Project" part of this is for me to write more about the people I meet while volunteering in convalescent hospitals. I have always felt that I lack the skills to do character writing any justice, but this is my year to be brave and just take a crack at it. I plan to do some research and homework and learn some writing techniques that might help me capture personalities and moments with people better.

Here's my second "Year Long Project". A few weeks ago, my buddy MissyB asked me if I wanted to join her in a little goal setting to do more spinning this year, and I agreed. Her idea is that we do something similar to the YarnHarlot's "Self-Imposed Sock Club".....so at the beginning of the year, we begin by bagging up 12 spinning projects, one for each month, and each month pull out a bag and DO IT. I'm aiming to spin an average of about 4oz a month. This might be chump change for some of you, but for me, it feels like something I can reasonably pull off and still have time to knit and play with the new loom. It's certainly more that I am currently spinning.

Last night I set my 12 months of fiber aside in a box. I haven't determined any particular order (I think each month I will just grab the color that is most inspiring...although when you see the photo below, you will see that I have a lot of the same colors, so I might run out of options pretty quickly LOL). I am completely reserving the right to take something out of the box and throw in a substitution, and I am also reserving the right to adjust my goal of how many ounces I can spin in a month (up or down) once we have a few months under our belts. In other words, I don't want to get all cuckoo regimented about this, I'm just using this as inspiration to spin more regularly.

Edited to add: Brooke commented that her inspiration/invitation was actually inspired by Janel, over on her blog. Check it out! You can go there, join in the fun, and there are prizes!

Below is a list of what's in the box, and it is for me so that I have something to refer back to. The details, for most of you, will be boring. Sorry about that. I just felt like it might be handy for me to blog about this so I can refer back to it over 2011 ;-)

It's a craptastic photo, and it does not at all show the more subtle color variations, but we don't seem to get sun here anymore in "Sunny California", so I'm not sure what to do about that. Even if the subtle variations did show up, you'd still be seeing lots of pinks, plums, purples, turquoises, and then several deep-dark-muddy-ish braids that have colors blended together with blacks and browns (ohh, how I love them so). Clearly I my have preferences. They are all colors I love to wear, though...and apparently I shop in a way that has me being quite the selfish spinner. No real surprise there though, because I'm quite the selfish knitter, too.


Alrighty, here we go! Accountability! My 12 little bundles of joy:

left column, back to front:

1) 4oz Organic Merino in "GaGa!", Funky Carolina, Oct 2010 Fiber Club
2) Un-labelled fiber, but I think it is 4oz Falkland in "Chamber", Funky Carolina, regular purchase in Sep 2010.
3) 4oz BFL in "Painful", Funky Carolina via the TheSweetSheep
4) second braid, same as above
5) 4oz SW BFL in "Ooh-La-La-Tropical", Spunky Eclectic, Feb 2010 Club

down the center:

6) 6oz BFL/Tussah 75/25 in "Princess Plumy", Blue Moon Fiber Arts, purchased 7/2010 at Knot Hysteria Retreat

right column, back to front:

7) 4oz SW Merino/Cashmere/Silk 75/15/10 in "Waits" (ie Tom Waits), Funky Carolina, Sep 2010 Fiber Club
8) second braid, same as above (I loved it so much I asked for second braid).
9) 4oz SW Merino/Cashmere/Silk 70/20/10 in "Dragonskin", Funky Carolina, regular purchase in Nov 2010
10) 4oz 21.5 micron Merino Wool Roving (although I bet it's top--I need to open the braid) in "Vampire Holiday", Black Trillium Fibre Studio, purchased 11/2009
11) 4 oz Baby Camel/Tussah 50/50 in "Corvid", Blue Moon Fiber Arts, purchased 7/2010 at Knot Hysteria Retreat
12) 3oz BFL/Silk 80/20 in "Electric Jam", Spunky Eclectic, August 2010 Club

I'm starting with this one:










Last but not least, this year I'd like to improve my photo taking skills. I do not believe you will see me jumping on any Photo-A-Day bandwagons this year (although it's very tempting), but I would like to at least try keeping the camera handy every day. I would also like to try to learn how to use more of the features on my camera, and I would like to try to learn how to use photoshop (did you know that every single photo you ever see on my blog that is taken by me is shown exactly as it was taken??? ha!).

So here's my first feeble little attempt today. I cropped my very first photo! Woot!!


That's a closeup of Charlie the blind chihuahua. Charlie came for a visit today and brought along his friend, "TeenyTiny".


TeenyTiny is not her permanent name because she was just rescued about a month or so ago by TheMostImportantGuy's bandmates. They are trying to help get TeenyTiny into her new "forever home" and keep her out of the dog pound.

Guess who they came to first.
I must have sucker written all over my face.
Gah.
She went home.

I'm sleeping on it.

other things did take place....

...and no, this is not a baseball post, just a quick line of text to say that San Francisco officials looked at aerial shots of the Giant's festivities yesterday and estimate that close to 1,000,000 people were in attendance. I am sooo glad I did not try to make my way through crowds that large, but I do have a little tear in my eye when I think about missing the experience.

The end. No more baseball. How about something fuzzy.

ravelry link

I spun my way through the last game of the series.

Funky Carolina's 75% Bluefaced Leicester / 25% silk combed top, colorway "Cabbage Leaf"; spun on miniSpinner, short-forward, traditional 3-ply, about 150 yds, 12 wpi/sport

It's not a color I normally wear, but I am thinking that some day I might be making something like this...

ravelry link

...or some other project that makes good use of lots of random handspuns, and I'm thinking it be a nice contrast to the colors that are in my normal palette.

handspun hat

I finished a slouchy hat last week. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially because I spun the yarn myself. I'm still pretty new to knitting with what I have spun, and it is really helping me learn a lot about what works and what doesn't in the finished product.
Photos and posts about the spinning of the yarn were previously made here, and here, and here (and that's what posting every day for a year will do to ya'--too many posts about everything! LOL).

Ravelry Project Page ~ Ravelry pattern link

The pattern is called Buttonhead, and it can be found here. It's particularly suited for handspun, but it can be worked up using commercial yarn, too. More than an actual pattern, it's more of a "recipe" so that you can make this hat using any thickness of yarn. You start the hat from the top/center using needles that seem appropriate for your yarn, and after a couple of inches you measure how many stitches you are getting to the inch. You decide how slouchy of a hat you want (cloche/beanie, beret, or super slouchy), you plug the numbers into her formula, and tadaaaa! A hat.



The brim is a band with a tab that has button holes, and that makes the hatband adjustable (which in turn makes the hat pretty much fool-proof, in my opinion).



I have a whole tin full of really cool vintage buttons, but in the end I went with some really cheap plastic thing. Cracks me up, but hey...it was my favorite match.

finished

I finished that yarn that I'd been working working on.


I actually finished it Wednesday, but I've been having so much fun thinking about what to turn it into that I forgot to post about it.

Now, as much as I dig the final outcome, it wasn't exactly what I was aiming for, either....but what I did get (aside from yarn I am pleased with), is that I learned quite a few things that I hope will help me next time.

Thing I learned #1: Don't look at the fiber all twisted up in its nice little bundle and make a plan of what to do with it. Open it up and play with it first.

A Verb For Keeping Warm, 100% BFL, 4oz

WoolyWonders! Fiber Club, colorway: Burnt Ember

I had already made my mind up that I was going to spin this fluff up into a 3ply semi-solid/mottled sort of thing, because it looked like it was dyed that way. Then I opened up the fiber and saw that what was really going on was two 2-oz strips of different colors---one more orange, one more red.

I had a conversation with myself about making a 2-ply instead of a 3-ply, or about carding the fibers together, or about holding both strips side by side and drafting across them both, blah blah blah....but in the end, I decided that more yarn was better than less yarn....and so I decided to spin each 2-oz strip on its own, and then do a 3rd single in a separate fiber that I already had in my stash.

A Verb For Keeping Warm, 100% Targhee, colorway: Transnational Fury

I twisted the three strips together to get a bit of an idea how it might look as a yarn, and it really did look like I'd still get a semi-solid yarn at the end. If you can see from the top photo, that's not the yarn turned out. It's got more of that barber-pole thing. Again, I still like it a lot, but I'm trying to learn how to make what I envision, and that's not what I envisioned, is all I'm sayin'.

Thing I learned #2: I lost my consistency on my singles, especially on the 3rd bobbin (the Targhee). That gave me a bit more thick-and-thin than I wanted, it gave me less yardage than I wanted, and it gave me a thicker yarn that I wanted (a sport/dk when I was going for a fingering).

3-ply ~ 5.2 oz ~ 236 yds ~ 11-12 wpi (dk/sport)
~ spun worsted/short Forward ~

Still, not bad lookin' at all.

Thing I learned #3: I need slow down considerably when I ply. I get so excited about being near the end of a project that I rush and get sloppy. I need to focus more on the process than the product.

Thing I learned #4: I need to find a way to hold the plies that works well for my wonky metal-laden right hand (that was also part of rushing--it hurt and I wanted to be finished). Next time I might try a using a diz (that's a little gadget with several holes in it, and I could run each single through a separate hole; it would keep the strands separated, and I wouldn't need to use my hands in a way that hurts).

Thing I learned #5: Even if I had worked 1 through 4 out, number thing #5? One of my bobbins is wonky! Because this was my first time ever doing a 3-ply, I had all of my bobbins in play, including one I had not used yet. It turns out that it barely rotates on the plying rod, and this just happens to be the bobbin I used to spin that ply of Targhee. I had no idea it was sticky until I went to ply and could barely get it on or off the rod, and the thing would barely spin. It explains why I was having such a hard time spinning that bobbin and why it was so thick-n-thin. This also explains why that single kept snapping while I plied, too. It explains why I have so much of the Targhee single left, and it also explains why the plying is so uneven (because it wasn't under the same tension as the other two). Gah.


I've been chatting with the eSpinner guy and he's been awesome. He gets the bobbins from the WooLee Winder folk, and sure enough, they had received a batch that had failed to be reamed properly. Mine must have fell through the cracks. I am to send it back, and it shall be fixed.


So.
First, I was thinking I'd use it for fingerless gloves. Then, I was thinking some sort of cowl. But now I'm actually thinking I might make some sort of boot-topper, leg-warmer sort of thing to wear with my skirts and boots this winter. I wouldn't have enough yarn to do that normally, but being that I only reallllllly have to make one.....

I have enough.
;-)

run

"Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins."
~ George Eliot
(aka Mary Ann Evans)

Not sure how tightly I've got those reins. I can't seem to stop spinning today.


That's probably a good thing.
Let's not discuss the amount of fiber I have in my stash.

no wine, but no whine

Maybe she does read my blog (she showed up 30 minutes early). Maybe she doesn't read my blog (if she does, I couldn't detect it). The only big surprise was that she hadn't told me that they were also traveling with their dog.


I could milk a whole bunch of bloggy-haha out of how strange it is not to warn someone who has pets (or not) that you are showing up with your dog, but truth be told, she didn't even ask to bring the dog in the house. I offered. And her dog behaved like a complete LoveBucket of an angel. It was my dog (who once had to protect me from an attacking pit bull at a dog park) that was full of bad manners.

Knowing that she has lots of other friends that live in the Bay Area, I had offered to her the option of dropping off the kids so she could have a night out with her friends...and that is exactly what she had cooked up. She's spending the night elsewhere, with the dog, and I will bring the kids to her in the morning. Before she left we had a nice chat for awhile, she left behind a cheesecake for us to have for dessert, and she even brought me a little hostess gift (so maybe we are back to the notion that she did read the blog...and she is a much better person that I...LOL). The kids are now off doing their own thing with minimal interference on my part, and I now have no solid reason for cracking open those two bottles of wine (although that sure didn't stop me from cracking open an ice cold beer). And this has been easy-peasy. I made up a yummy but simple dinner, the kids ate everything I put in front of them, and they even washed up their dishes. Too easy-peasy, actually.

This whole shift had given me free time I didn't plan for, so I figured I'd play more with the spinner. I did some sampling to see if I could get a 3-ply sport weight (which I have never been able to do), and wow:


Get a load of that.

Can't type anymore.
Hands too busy patting myself on the back.

I'm a little punchy tonight, so why don't we just start with something warm and fuzzy, eh?


I spun and plied the darker brown fluff that came from the same place as the grayish-brown fluff. It's got a bit more of the thick-n-thin thing going on in spots, but all in all, I'm really pleased. The things that please me most are:

a) that I proved I can indeed do a long-draw on the electric spinner, with a WooLee Winder, and with no problems
b) that I have finally learned to get enough twist into my singles
c) that my plying is improving
d) I made a soft fluffy yarn and not rope

I am positive that "B" came about from taking the spinning class at the retreat with Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, and that "C" came from watching her plying video.



So.
The punchy part of my day??
Well, we are about to have house guests, you see...

(I am never quite sure of how much I can kvetch about people here...y'all sure proved to me during the blog contest that I have no friggin' idea who lurks here)

Remember when MyFavoriteKid and I were in Seattle, and we ran into his longtime buddies on top of the Space Needle?? Well, the kids were there because they were on a trip with their dad (mom and dad are divorced). Now, the kids are about to take a vacation with their mom.

(oh lordy, please do not let her be a reader of my blog)

They are about to travel from the most northern part of California to the most Southern, to see her family I believe. It's a long enough drive that stopping midway is not a bad thing, especially when midway is the San Francisco Bay Area, because they used to live here and know lots of people. Her two boys often beg her to stay here. I love having them, all of them, even though it's really about the kids. The mom and I aren't really close friends or anything. We are definitely friendly. I like her. It's just that except for the kids, we pretty much have zilch-o in common. When they come to stay, it's almost always that we are an overnight pit-stop for them, and so the kids want to be left alone to do their own thing because their time is so limited. She and I then sit on the couch, catch up for about 10 minutes with news since the last time, and then sort of look at each other. It's kinda like a bad date. (I should maybe teach her to knit or something, no?) I like her enough and can be entertaining (or entertained) enough to enjoy time with her. No problem. We usually crack open a bottle of wine, and it's a good time. I also do not mind one bit that she's basically inviting herself here (seriously, it's not a problem...I do the same thing when MyFK and I head north and he begs to visit them...so we're even)

The problem is that she can't tell me WHEN she wants to come.

So here is how this whole visit this week started. she texts me Friday that they are heading south either Tuesday or Wednesday and that the kids would really love to see MyFK, and she wants to know if we free. I text back that we are free, except that my dad's birthday is Wednesday and we really wanted to take him out to dinner....but that my dad is willing to do dinner a day earlier (on Tuesday) if they want to come Wednesday. In other words: PICK ONE. Pick one, and we will do dinner with my dad on the other. Easy Peasy, no??

No. No Peasy.

It's 5pm today (today being MONDAY)...and she still has not told me if she coming TUESDAY or WEDNESDAY.

(oops, am I YELLING?)

Now, I know I am (a bit?!) of a control freak, but honest to goodness, I have calmed down considerably in the past couple of years. To be honest, if it were not for the fact that it was my father's birthday, I wouldn't feel so pushed to have her make more firm plans. But seriously....if the tables were turned...I do not think I would EVER:
a) ask somebody to stay at their house with less than a week's notice
b) then not know which day I wanted to stay
c) not be extra diligent with figuring out my shit if my hostess said their was a conflict, especially a family event
d) make the hostess push for an answer because the impending visit is less that 24 hours away.

Man, I'm all about the bullets tonight, aint I.

*sigh*



So maybe when she comes, we open more than one bottle of wine. I dunno.
LOL

plied

So this morning I woke up and I plied those singles that I had spun yesterday, without even getting out of bed. That's right, I say! I stuck the miniSpinner on a little tv-tray, put the lazy kate on the floor, and viola! I SPUN FROM BED!! Man, talk about being a slacker, though. First, I don't need to treadle...and now....well, sheesh!

Dudes, if I ever end up in a convalescent hospital myself? I am soooo bringing the spinner with me. Whoot!

So this yarn is 4oz small farm Coopworth (that I bought ages ago here), and it has now become about 90yds of a worsted/aran weight 2-ply. I did a long-draw for the drafting, so it's pretty fuzzy-fluffy-squishy. I have a second bag of the same stuff in a lovely dark brown. I took it out today in hopes of getting to fiddle with it, but I never got a chance to.

That's because my cat, MrDarcy, made it his new friend.


No matter where in the house I moved it, he would sit near it.
He would not play with it, roll in it, or even attempt to eat it.
Just just wanted to sit near it.


Or sleep with it.


I moved it four or five times. Every time he'd chase me down.
Weirdo.

eta: I do know the seriousness of what can happen with pets and fiber. The cat was never left unattended. No animals were harmed in the making of this post ;-)

Anyhow, I don't mean to knock the seller of the fiber, because the fiber itself and prep of the roving was great....but the stuff has a funky stink to it! It smells like a box of old crayons (it smelled like that when it arrived in the mail, and it didn't fade with time. Ugh!)

Luckily, I did manage to get the odor out when I did the soaking of the yarn to set the twist. I first did a hot soak in "Eucalan". The yarn smelled just fine after that ....but I did a second soak in cold water using "Soak/Unleash" just to be safe (not to mention that I adore the way it smells).

I'm hoping to do up the dark brown fluff this weekend, and then I'd really like to dig in and knit with these right away, mainly so I can test that I am producing something functional for crying out loud.

I'm thinking a hat maybe?

dyin' to be plyin'

Spent some time today with the miniSpinner. I'm still just putting it through it's paces (well, it's more like the spinner is putting me through my paces...let's be real here). In addition to getting used to the "electric-ness" of the spinner, I am also getting used to using Scotch tension (my other wheels are set up as double drives), and the miniSpinner is also outfitted with a WooLee Winder, which I have never used before. A couple of people suggested that I might have trouble using a WooLee Winder and doing a long-draw, so that's what I decided to play with today.



I didn't seem to have any trouble doing a long-draw with the winder...with the mechanics of it at least....but let's see how this yarn looks when it's finished before we issue a verdict, eh? I might have made something like a fluffed out-fairy-floss that is going to fall apart if I blow on it. Then again, I may have made rope! Who knows. This fiber was a bit strange to spin. I did test the twist while I was working a few times, but I just have a hunch that things are going to shift quite a bit in the plying and finishing stages.

I did two bobbins of singles before I went to dance class, and I'll ply them in the morning and finish the yarn with a good soak and then we'll see. Hopefully it's usable. I guess worst case I can knit it up and felt it into something. And hopefully after a good soak it's a little less sheepy smelling, too! Gah! I can't say I'm diggin' this fiber's particular take on farm-y-ness. And I have another 4 ounces of the same stuff in dark brown!

Either way, usable or not, it's fun playing and practicing. I hope I have a bit more time this weekend to tinker.

who i've been keeping company with

I was a bit bummed to have been on my trip north for the first part of The Tour de France, but once I got home, that's pretty much what kept me company through all of the unpacking and putting away and laundry doings. When the Tour was over, I was all of the sudden....lonely.

Next came watching a bunch of favorite costume drama dvd's. Pride & Prejudice (1995), The Young Victoria (that one was new for me...had not seen it yet), Persuasion (2007, but the 1995 is also in my library). Pride & Prejudice...again (sheesh).

Then I got into watching these:

Drafting: the Long an Short of It (Abby Franquemont), and
Popular Wheel Mechanics & The Gentle Art of Plying (Judity MacKenzie-McCuin)

..and it's been loads of fun. I especially have loved watching and listening to Judith's dvd's.

When I was on the retreat there was one lunch break where Judith and I ended up at the same table and I just found her utterly fascinating...and we didn't talk at all about spinning. She just has so many facets to herself, and so many interesting stories!

She was the teacher I was most nervous about meeting. I had read her books already, and I had developed this huge fear that I wasn't I good enough spinner to take a class from her. It's like I had decided that she was so "precise" and I was so..."wingin' it" or something. I shared this with a few people before going on the trip, and they all told me not to worry and that she was totally down to earth.

On the first evening of the retreat, at the introductory social gathering, I walked right up to her, introduced myself, and blurted out that I was was completely intimidated. She asked me why, and I told her, and she had a little chuckle over that. Then the next morning? When I was in her class...? Well, she proved to me that everyone that I had spoken to was correct. She is totally relaxed and just a pleasure to learn from.

And watching the dvd's is sorta like having her in my livingroom. It's great.

Although I do miss having Fabian Cancellara in my livingroom sometimes...and well, Colin Firth....and of course, Rupert Perry Jones...

I mean, making yarn is pretty interesting, but stilllllllllllll........
;-)

first yarn on the electric spinner

I didn't sign on for the "Tour de Fleece" this year (where fiber-junkies spin at the same time the cyclists do their thing) because I was in Seattle for the start. But I am watching a whole lot of Tour de France since I have been home, and I have been tinkering with my new electric spinner.

I'm working on spinning a finer lace/fingering weight yarn, but it was killing me. I was really in need of some instant gratification, so I whipped out a bulky thick-n-thin single.




It was 4oz of organic Merino combed top (from Spunky Eclectic; the April '10 Club Colorway "Storms of Jupiter"). I turned it into about 162yds of a thick-n-thin single with some slubs, and then I slightly fulled it when I set the twist.

I'm so glad I did this. I really love knitting with this sort of yarn, and I've been working so hard at keeping consistent and doing fine work that I was beginning to wonder if I could even make something like this if I wanted to.

As for the spinner, I am loving it. The WooleeWinder doing its own thing just makes me giddy, and not having my leg cramp up when I spin is just the greatest thing ever.

And it's so compact, I might even have to try spinning in bed sometime soon ;-)