One Crazy Fiber Lady

I know its been a while since I last posted. Stuff has been going on. Work hasn’t gotten any better and as a matter of fact it is gotten worse. Can’t go into details but it is what it is. The kids and I went on a cruise with stops in Nassau, where we did this at Atlantis

and Florida where we went to Disney.

I both bought another wheel and have sold one.  Both are in this picture 🙂

I finished a pair of socks:

Started a new pair:

And I’ve been spinning!

That should catch us up.  I’ll try and post more regularly now that I’ve caught up 😉

Craft on!

 

Saturday was the annual pilgrimage to Rhinebeck, NY.  I had my trusty festival buddy, Miss Kat, along for the ride this year.  The weather was beautiful, the wool fumes intoxicating, and it always feels like being home amongst my kind.  Nowhere else can you wander up to someone, touch their knitwear and compliment/question it.  It is a tactile persons heaven, though it can be a tad overwhelming at times.  Its become extremely crowded, making it difficult to see and touch all the things, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

I went this year to deliver my Hansen MiniSpinner to Jessalu as it and I just never made good friends.  I liked spinning on it, but sadly, the motor would overheat and shut down with my style of plying.  Not a problem I have on the Womack so it was time to move it along.  Jess was in the market, I was ready to sell, so the stars alined.  Which they truly did because as she was texting me that she’d arrived at the fairgrounds and was at the gate, I was yelling her name as I too approached the gate.  Serendipity indeed!

Other than the delivery, my shopping list was small, and honestly not much of a list.  I was finally going to get the spinning chair from Norm Hall that I bought from him at the fair last year. I wanted some fiber from Cris, wanted to see what Loop had (conveniently right across from Cris), and wanted a sweaters worth of some crisp fiber to spin something else from A Fine Fleece now that Fylingdales is well under way.  Okay so I got those things, and some Fiber Optic, a new spindle from the Bosworths, and a new wheel.

There.  I said it.  Yet another wheel.  I had been wandering through a barn, happened on the Robin Wheel booth and asked if I could try it.  I’ve never been a big fan of bobbin-lead but then my exposure has been relatively limited.  I tried I think 3 of them in all these years of wheeling and dealing spinning, the last one being a Babe Pinkie.  Not exactly some of the smoothest spinners out there.  So anyway, I decided to give these beautiful wheels a shot figuring it might just be a better experience, after all, others I know and respect love them.  I sat and spun.  And spun.  And spun.  Then I decided I wanted one to discover there were two available for sale:  one in cherry and another in black walnut.  I had trouble deciding which I wanted, cherry would match all the other cherry, but since the Van Eaton left, there is no black walnut (other than maybe the accent on the Schacht).  Angela, who was booth helping for Gil, suggested the only logical thing, try them both.  So I did.  And I spun.  And spun.  And spun.  Swapped wheels.  Repeat.  Repeat again.  I decided on the Walnut because it is different from the others in the herd in more than one way.

 

I spent Saturday evening trying her out with a Loop batt while watching the Red Sox beat the Tigers and move onto the WORLD SERIES!

She spins very nicely and I can spin my standard thickness (or lack thereof) without fighting the bobbin lead!  Nice.  Opens up a whole new avenue for the collection 😉

I’m going to have to keep up the quest for the travel wheel because I just lost the last one I acquired for that purpose:

 

That’s little miss tucked between the end of her bunk bed and dresser (smallest spot in the room) with my Joy spinning away on some of the Falkland batt I bought her from Cris.  Saturday evening after we got home and unloaded the car, she pulled out her spindle and the fiber and started to go.  But had little success, getting terribly upset, and maybe a little mad.  She hasn’t spun since June and the bash at the Goldings, so no surprise that she was having trouble.  Add in that she was trying a merino/silk blend iirc and a new spindle.  I knew that she’s got the spinning action down so I suggested that she try a wheel again.  So she did.  And spun.  And spun 🙂  I found her like this Sunday evening before bed.  No spinning last night but she went to sleep at 6 complaining of a headache.  Poor smidgen.

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that my kids are spinning.  For one, it will give us something to share, some common ground that hopefully will pull us together as they grow up.  Kat and I spent a while Saturday night, sitting side by side, spinning on our wheels.  It also means that my herd will be recognized for what they are, what they are worth and appreciated.  Kat’s goal at this point is to practice enough to be able to spin on <gasp> on of the Goldings 🙂

Craft on!

 

I didn’t realize so much time has passed since my last posting.  Rather than a whole bunch of recaps, I’ll do a quick photo essay of what’s been going on at chez CFL.

I was keeping busy for a change.  Writing an update to iKnitCounter on one, reinstalling OSX on another, listening to a baseball game on a third and honestly can’t remember why the fourth was there except it was the original computer I’d done the counter on :)  Updated version of iKnitCounter in the app store if you haven’t already gotten it. 

There’s more but I have to get to a meeting shortly..

Craft on!

Quick posting here. The other day I was sitting in my knitting chair, knitting away while I read a back issue of spin-off on my iPad. I hit on this article and recognized the pictures of the two gentlemen crafting their exquisite wheels.

Since the photo credits are on the next page, on top is Tom Golding, the bottom is Jonathan Bosworth.  I looked up and notice the wheels sitting next to each other…

My Golding nestled in her spot next to the Journey Wheel.  How appropriate!

As a quick recap of our experiences with that bitch, Hurricane Sandy, we fared rather well, all things considered.  The power went out at 7:31pm on Monday night.  There was no damage to the house or cars, just a lack of power.  We spent most of our awake time at the recreation center in town, which had power, heat, showers, coin-free game room, wifi and charging stations.  We dined out a bit at overcrowded restaurants, some of which stayed open later than normal to feed and warm us and my heartfelt thanks go out to them!  My office is still without power but I was able to work remotely from the rec center, which is a good thing since I’m a consultant.  No work = no income.  The power returned last night at 8:4x pm.  I was asleep with the kids in my 57F bedroom, having taken a benadryl after battling sniffling and sneezing all day.  I awoke to a minor miracle.  Normal life is slowly returning.

On a down note, the boat didn’t fare so well.  It had been hauled for winter storage prior to the storm.  During the surge, she floated off her jack stands, as did a number of larger trawlers parked nearby, and they all played bumper boats.  Not sure as to the extent of the damage, but there is some.

The bow pulpit of a neighboring boat jammed against the R&R, breaking one of the side windows.  No idea how wet it got inside.

The other side of the boat.  Getting too friendly with the trawler!

Could have been worse.  The boat in the slip next to where we normally stay is outright missing at this point.  From what we hear, the next marina north on the Hudson is gone entirely.  Some of their boats washed up in our marina.

Still… we are so fortunate compared to others out there.

 

Yes, today was the first day of school.  I now have a pair of third graders!

I know.  I’m amazed.  Much better picture than last year.  Kat didn’t like that I used last year’s as my Facebook picture for a year and decided to cooperate.

On another note, I added yet another support spindle.

Isn’t it beautiful?  This one is a Grizzly Mountain Arts Mini Russian in tiger maple.  It is 7.5″ long and 13g.  It came with the pretty little bowl that nestles in the bag.  The bead rings are removable to change the overall weight of the thing.  Mouse included for scale, as the normal scale device (the iPhone) was busy taking the picture 🙂

Two more days of the eh job.  Been reading up on Ruby on Rails.  Love learning new languages!

Craft on!

 

I made a pair of almost 9 year old monkeys very happy today.

Oh and I did some spinning again. Since the monkeys are going into third grade I can allow them to leave after school without being turned over to an adult. Dad has been serving that role, and will probably continue to do so, but on the outside chance that he doesn’t make it, they now have phones. Basic phones but full fledged phones. They’ve been busy calling and texting all day. Don’t worry, I changed my plan to the share everything with unlimited minutes and texting.

She was busy texting her brother after they finished dinner tonight. Getting so big!

Last week at the icky job. Sigh. Going to spend the week tying up loose ends and studying Ruby on Rails as that is what I’m going to be using at B’s. Looking forward to making the big break from Microsoft as I’ll even have a Mac there to work on! My new boss asked me what I’d prefer and offered up a new Mac.

Going to go relax with a little knitting before bedtime.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wow another week has flown by.  This one brought the return of BASEBALL!   We’ll ignore for the moment that my team isn’t doing so very well so far.  Season is still young, there’s plenty of time to panic. I just had a spinning playdate with Tami so its time for the weekly update.

On the Needles

1.  Hermione’s Deathly Hallow Socks – The first sock is done, but this isn’t news as it was at this time last week.  I’ve dawdled with the knitting this week, but am catching up now.  I finished the foot on the second sock onFriday while getting a pedicure 🙂

2.  Mawata Lilies Shawlette – Finished! I totally enjoyed working straight from the mawata’s and will definitely do more with silk.

3.  Featherweight Cardigan –  The finishing of one object marks the point where I can start something new.  Next up is a second featherweight cardigan in Malabrigo Lace.

I started this on Friday night and put the sleeve stitches on the waste yarn yesterday afternoon before the Seder. The colorway is Vermillion.  I love it.  I made this sweater once before, but it came out too big, so I gave it to mom.  Since then, the designer has added additional sizes to the pattern, including smaller ones.  Yay!

On the Fiber Front

First up, I owe a picture of the finished yarn from last week.

I dug out the never-ending bag of CVM roving that I’ve been spinning on and off for years now on the Vermont Wheel.  I actually weighed the bag and there’s 1.5 lbs left to spin.  I’m going to try and do a little every day.  I have a good beginning on the next bobbin’s worth:

At today’s playdate, I started new fiber on the Schacht.  This is Targhee from Zarzuela in Redwood.  I’ve split the fiber lengthwise into strips about the width of my index finger.

Other spinning – I filled another spindle on the Charkha with the Shetland, and managed to add a little more of the silk to the Bosworth spindle.  Not interesting enough to take another picture of either.

Other Stuff

Dad took the twins to Toys R Us yesterday afternoon before the family showed up for the Seder.  He came home with this:

Just what we needed, a 14′ trampoline for the backyard.  That’s Kat jumping with a friend of hers a little while ago.  It was a family affair in assembly.

Craft on!

 

 

Wow looks like I’m going to make two weeks in a row.  Wonder how many recurrences is necessary before it becomes habit.  Anyway, here’s this week’s update:

On the needles

1.  Stripe Study Shawl is moving along.  For the last week it has been my only knitting project.  I worked on it at SnB, train, work (while reading a tech book) and at home in front of the TV.  There wasn’t much TV knitting this week as the kids were home on vacation.  They wanted to spend time together after I got home from work.  I did get TV time last night while watching a couple of movies that I hadn’t seen yet (King’s Speech and Hotel Rwanda)  I’d wanted to watch both of them and happily knit a couple of stripes doing so.

I’m really enjoying this pattern.  Pretty nifty and I like how the Woolmisery is working up.  I might just have to add another skein of the stuff to stash.

2.  Socks – Since Stripe Study is getting a bit big to qualify as purse knitting, and this yarn is yelling at me to work with it, i’m going to cast on for sock.

The yarn is the most recent installment in the Into the Whirled sock yarn club.  it is 3 ply super wash merino in the February 2012 Club – Mercy Hartigan.  I’ve been staring at it all week, ready to pet it, hold it and name it George.  I can no longer resist and will break out the ball winder and sock needles post haste.

Spinning

I spent a bit more time with my new Bee and am really enjoying this wheel.

Look how solid the base of that flyer is, how many layers of lamination there are!  I also really like the open orifice, no hook necessary.  Get a load of the pegs on the arms of the flyer, no hooks, but what looks like screws covered in a very smooth plastic.  They are perfectly offset between the two arms and allow for a very nice wind on.

She’s a real smooth spinner.  I’ve been using the middle range and finished up my first yarn yesterday. I plied it, using the continuous plying method, on the Womack Butterfly.

Fiber:  Forbidden Woolery 100% Falkland – Chinese Fireball colorway.  I got an amazing 610 yards out of 3.95 grams in a smooth 2ply.  The yarn needs to marinate, much like the fiber did.  I’m pretty sure I purchased the fiber at WOOL in 2010 😉

While I haven’t been working on any more of my own projects, there’s been this:

Since I sent the Ashford Scholar off to other pasture, I bought Alex a new wheel:  Dorre’s Ladybug.  Kat has the used Traveller I got her a couple of years ago.  They’ve both decided that they’d really like to learn how to spin.  Here I had them practicing controlling their feet and hands at the same time by winding sock yarn onto the bobbins and trying to keep them from being royal messes.  Then I moved them to alternating between adding twist and then winding on.   Another practice drill had been trying to start from a dead stop and go in the correct direction.  They are both using a double treadle wheel, which makes this easier, but not necessarily a walk in the park.  Next step was to sit double with them, I treadled, held the wool and with them in my lap, demonstrated what it takes to actually spin.  I then guided their hands before letting them solo.

Kat is now soloing.  I still need to sit with Alex.  I’m so proud of her.

In other wheel news, a second wheel is now leaving:  the Sidekick.  With the addition of the Bee and the presence of two other Schachts in the house, not to mention that I don’t find the Sidekick to be the holy grail of portable wheels that I’d hoped, I responded to an ISO post looking for one on Ravelry.  She’s now boxed up and will be dropped at UPS tomorrow to go to her eager new owner.  So now that’s two wheels in, two out with a third due to go as well.  The CPW should be out on Friday.  Not to worry, the herd is still sizable 😉

Reading

I’ve been doing a little floundering in the reading department since I finished that book last week.  I find that when I finish a really good book, I do tend to struggle to find what to happily read next.  I’m taking advantage of working for a publisher and sifting through the digital library that I’m allowed to borrow from at work.  Another bonus is that I can get my hands on books that haven’t been released yet 🙂  I’m now reading Ashes to Dust and enjoying it so far.

Other Stuff

Not much else going on.  I’m still pondering modifications to the two counter apps.  For the android, I’ve had more than a few requests for a widget to do quick counts.  For both, I’d like to take advantage of the Ravelry API and tie in with a user’s projects there, either to quick create projects and to sync up notes.  I also got into a discussion with a group on Rav where they are looking for either a web based or desktop based counter program.  Oh and there’s also the iPad version that I’d really like to incorporate a PDF reader with highlighting capability into the landscape view.

Oh and then there are the looms that are all sitting idle!

And the kumihimo stand..

And the sewing machines, fabric and quilt projects..

I need more time.  I also need to sift through the stash monster and pick out the stuff that doesn’t stand a snowballs chance of ever growing up into something and move it along.  Well that and the unused electronics and Coach purses 😉

I’m tired now..

Craft on!

Okay so it was a bit longer than the 10 days of the actual cruise.  I dealt with some very nasty withdrawal symptoms from the anti-motion sickness patch this year.  24 hours after removing the last patch I got very nauseated, dizzy, broke out in a cold sweat and an awful headache.  Only solution that I could find through copious googling was to take does of meclazine/meclizin (aka Dramamine).  So while I was no longer seasick, I was now stupid sleepy. 
Was an interesting week at work!  That was in addition to the blurred vision from the dilated pupils that I had from day 2 of wearing the patch on through day 5 post wearing the last one.  I’m going to skip the patch fun next year (yes we booked next year’s cruise already!) and wear motion bands or something.  It isn’t worth it.

Okay, the cruise itself was excellent even if we missed Labadee and one more night.  We were at sea for the first 2 full days, arriving at San Juan on Tuesday, getting the cruise back on schedule (Haiti was supposed to be Monday’s stop).  While in San Juan, we wandered around the old city, did a little souvenir shopping and returned to the ship in time for dinner. 

Wednesday brought us to a new island for us, St. Maarten.  Mom and I did a little shopping at her favorite jeweler on the island and I picked up a little something for myself.  We left them to do the resizing/modifications to our new pieces and took the kids to the beach for an afternoon of surf and sand.  It was pretty crowded as there were no less than SEVEN cruise ships in port that day, including our ship’s monster younger sister:  Oasis of the Seas.

That feller in the foreground is actually dad.  Not all seven ships are visible in this picture.  There was only dockage room for six of them, the poor 7th is anchored in the harbor.  It was a beautiful day, the water was warm and calm and I got nifty sparklies at the end of it

Our stop on Thursday was an old friend, St. Thomas.  This year, instead of hiring a cab and heading to one of the beaches on the island like the past two trips (Magen’s Bay and Sapphire Beach), we took an excursion from the ship.  It was the St. John half day champagne cat sail.  We took this catamaran from St. Thomas over to St. John where the kids and I snorkeled from the boat to Honeymoon Beach looking at all the coral and fish.  It was awesome.

That was it for the islands.  Next stop was New Jersey after 3 full days at sea.  This voyage I had an outside cabin with a balcony, and oh boy did I make big time usage of that, especially on the first two days coming home.  There was one day where the kids were just pooped out, probably the first day at sea, that they just wanted to lay around and watch the limited tv options.  I let ‘em and spent my time sitting out on the balcony reading.  It was heaven!

Our dining room experience this year was wonderful!  When we got to the table the first night, there was another family of five, a married couple, the wife’s father, and two kids: 5 yo girl and 7 yo boy.  It was excellent.  The two families got along splendidly.  Since both families agree in child rearing, all 4 children were so well behaved that all the people at the tables around us approached one mom or another over the next couple of days praising how awesome the kids were.  A number of them had been concerned the first night when they saw us, but we were named the best family of the cruise.  Everyone thought we were just one big extended family.  Little did they know that we hadn’t known each other until we sat down the first night.  Can’t tell you how much it means to me to hear that!   Some of the other cruise lines have more informal dining where you don’t have a fixed table and set wait staff.  I can see the freedom in more of a restaurant approach, but honestly, I love the way they spoil you in the old school way of doing it.  I asked my assistant waiter for a splenda packet one night after we’d run out of them in the sweetener bowl.  He came back a few minutes later with a couple of them.  Every night thereafter when he placed my coffee cup on the table after dinner for me, he pulled packets of splenda out of his vest pocket and sat them on the saucer.  Now that’s service!  He also quickly learned my kids’ drinking preferences and had their beverages almost immediately after they’d sat down. 

That’s all for now, I have other posting in me on finished socks, new spindle, incoming and outgoing wheels, and new knitting project, but that will have to wait for another day.

Craft on!

 

I was busy minding my own business at work this morning.   I had FB open, because, really, who doesn’t?  I might not like the thing, but its amazing how much information is contained right there and then.   I “Liked” Royal Caribbean a while back.  And it’s a good thing I did because I spotted an important update with a link that lead to this page:

And yes, I’m booked on the affected sailing.  My 10 night cruise just became a 9 night cruise.  No idea yet if they are changing the itinerary to that of the 9 night cruise that we’ve now taken twice, or just cutting out a port-of-call.  We’ll find out Saturday when we get there.

Still, could be worse.  The boat is still afloat and I *will* be going on her, just a little later and for not quite as long as I’d planned.  Also messes with some preparatory scheduling.  So much for the Friday morning pedicure.  Good thing I hadn’t called the salon on that one yet.  On the up side, I just got back one of my vacation days leaving me more time to use later in the year.

Yup, glass half full.  That’s me.

Craft on!