One Crazy Fiber Lady

…and a wheel followed me home.

This one is a double treadle Roadbug by Merlin Tree. Yes I was still looking for a perfect wheel for the boat. The Journey Wheel is good and small but a tad heavy. I wanted something small with two treadles (thanks to the now injured left foot a single treadle isn’t the happiest thing for me on a small wheel). My first stop after hitting the fairgrounds at Cummington was Dave’s booth where I tried out the DT version and was happily spinning along for a while. No surprise that I bought it. I did leave a wheel wit Dave though. I gave him that mismatched CPW that I got in February. That thing had a drive wheel too big for the table, a frankenwheel if you will. I gave it to him for parts. I’m glad to be rid of it.

Anyway, now I have a small light wheel for the boat and got to use it there this weekend. Worked out nicely even if I had to carry it from way across the marina parking lot. Wouldn’t have survived carrying the journey wheel that far. The yarn you see draped on the bag is the first skein off the bug. It is 4oz of BFL fro Spunky that I also got at the festival. It is approximately 310 yds. Not my finest of spinning but will do as sock yarn or maybe a hat for the kids. I should probably get a head start on that this year and not wait until October

Time to head to the train..

Craft on!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I know it has been a while and I won’t begin to apologize. Work has been seriously kicking my butt for the last month. We had a service pack release that I was the lead developer (and for a while the only developer) on, as well as the build specialist compiling the package for deployment. I’ve put in a bulk of extra hours with little desire to spend additional tine with a computer. The beloved iPad has seen most usage as a book reader with bejeweled thrown in when the brain was totally fried

While I haven’t been doing much else at night before collapsing into bed, there has been spinning while watching the Red Sox on Extra Innings. The pictured skein is from the monthly spin-a-long with Into The Whirled fiber. If I remember correctly, this fiber was the April-May offering of “Just Fig” color way in Falklands wool. If I’m wrong would someone comment with the corrected info please? I spun it three ply (like the last selection – return to warmth) on the new CPW that I bought at MDSW. Love that wheel, as well as Cris’ fibers. She does a beautiful job. Again, the day it was plied it was skeined up and washed. Two days after that – when I had finished the Pink Cadillac socks – the yarn met the needles.

I have a small problem though. I started the sock using my new Signature dpn needles. Love the needles but they are a tad too short so I’m going to return them for the 8″ set. Instead of waiting to finish the remaining 1/4 of the first sock like a sane person, I swapped in the knitpicks circular and went back to magic looping. When I tried on the finished sock I found that my gauge had changed with the needles. The circs was a tad looser and I have to admit that I like it better. Soooo this pair of socks will actually be three. I started the second sock (pictured) and am creeping up on the heel now. When I’m done, I’ll rip out the first one and re-knit it. Sigh.

That’s about it for now. Train is almost in Hoboken.

Craft on!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. I hope your day was as nice as mine. My day started off much later than it normally does. I didn’t wake up until the phone rang at 10AM, which is about 3 hours or so later than normal. Oh there is the rare weekend when I get to sleep until almost 9, but this was a luxury! It was almost too much sleep! As a result, I did a bit of lazing around.

Yesterday I finished up the Campfire singles on the Bordua and plied it with the Womack. Surprise surprise, I even pulled out the skein winder and wound it off the bobbin without making it sit around for ages. I did that with the other two bobbins of plied yarn that had been living on my dresser. Waiting. Here’s the trio of new yarns awaiting a bath:

From front to back:

3 ply Crown Mountain Farm in Shala, which has been aging in stash since 2006  It measures 314yds and is a fingering weight.  I spun it on the Tina using the standard flyer and the faster whorl.

Next is Freckleface Fibers in Denimy, I believe.  It is two-ply measuring 374 yds also spun on the Tina.  I’m pretty sure I started this the Catskill spin-in in February but my memory is a tad rusty.   Whatever it is, I’m liking it

Finally, the two ply from SeeKay, superwash merino in the Campfire colorway.  If memory serves, I purchased it at the Catskill spin-in in February.  This ended up being 358 yds.

I’ve got some Into the Whirled falkland wool on the CPW now.

I didn’t spin today, however.  I know.  If you’ve been around here for previous mother’s days, I usually spend the day outside with the kids and a wheel.  Not today.  To darn cold.  Brrrrr.  And windy.  Not great outside spinning weather.  Didn’t mean that I didn’t do anything crafty.  Oh no.

I decided it was time to quit being a wimp, break out the warping reel that I bought on eBay and get busy on those towels I’ve wanted to weave since I got the Baby Wolf. The 24 ends an inch wasn’t the daunting part, but the fact that I needed to measure out 442 ends.  {Shudder} That’s alot of ends!  I don’t believe I’ve ever done anything that intense.  Probably cause I’m a wuss.

So while the twins played with the Wii:

I got busy winding:

442 ends at 6 yards each.  That’s a lot of yarn.  After having measured out 350 ends, counting them into 50 end bundles, I finally figured an easier way of counting.  I pulled out one of them clickers I used to use for knitting and held that while I wound on.  As I turned the peg at the end, I’d click.  The last 92 ends went far faster that way.  Hopefully I’ll remember this approach the next time.  No.  I did not dress the loom yet  That’s a monster for another day. I’m weaving a pattern that I got from Webs.  It has been sitting around in the box long enough that I can’t remember what the weft color is!  I think it might be a cranberry red, but I wouldn’t put money on that.

So now I’m going to kick back, fold some laundry and watch the Sox hopefully take ONE from the Evil Empire.  Hope you all had a good day.

Craft on!

The new girl and I have been doing sone bonding over the last two nights. What with the baseball season in full swing and MLB Extra Innings on Fios, I’ve been spinning while watching the Sox battle the A’s.

Notice I did a little rearranging of the wheels in the corner of my bedroom. The CPW is In the corner that the Reeves and Van Eaton used to occupy. I found that if I sit sideways on the pang chair that i can easily treadle the wheel with my left foot and see the tv . Here she is in her corner.

The fiber I am spinning is some superwash merino that I bought from Carolyn (Seekay). The color way is Campfire.

I finished the first bobbin (2oz) last night. Look closely at the wear marks on this flyer. This wheel has seen some significant use over the years!

After finishing this bobbin, I pulled out the best friend of a wheel with only one bobbin: the electric bobbin winder. I used one of my Schacht bobbins temporarily while I wait for the cardboard storage bobbins that ordered to arrive.

I’m ready to do the second two ounces tonight

Craft on!

It’s that time again.   This weekend was MDSW.  This year I went down on Friday afternoon, with the kids.  We stayed with a family also comprised of twins and a SMC (single mother by-choice) who live in the suburbs of Baltimore.  Saturday the other mom kept all the kids keeping them busy, fed and safe.  This enabled me to hit the festival unencumbered.  Good thing!  It is becoming more and more of a zoo each year.  The 88F temperatures didn’t help.  This is the first year I’ve gotten a sunburn at the festival.

Did this stop the shopping?  Not a chance.  More on that in a bit.

Today, all six of us hit the festival for a few hours before the Phillips clan headed back north at 1pm.  We had a great time.  It was nice to spend the weekend them and a yearly tradition might just have been born.

Okay, so this is what my kids looked like just before I hit the Delaware Memorial Bridge on the way home.

Would you believe how much you can jam into the trunk of a Camry?

We don’t need no stinkin’ minivans to get wheels home! In that trunk are 2 bicycles that my friend’s kids outgrew and passed to my pair, the scooters we went down with and a nice wooden wheel, amongst other hand-me’s.  Boots.  Knee pads.  Elbow pads.  Fiber

My purchases were small in number but not insignificant:

The purchases:

• 4oz Mulberry silk from Little Barn
• 4oz dyed fine wool also from Little Barn
• Alpaca fiber (about 3oz)
• 34g Bosworth Moosie (need to find the tag in the trunk to get the shaft wood but it is dark)
• Frederick Bordua marked 30″ Canadian Production Wheel from The Merlin Tree

Yes i know, this makes 4 years in a row that a wheel came home.  But but but… it’s a tradition ya know!

This does mean that I do have a wheel for sale  This time it is the 27″ CPW that I bought a few weeks ago.  Pictures are here.  Its not that there’s anything wrong with it, I just wanted a 30″.  I know.  Crazy.

I’m off to bond with the new kid.

Craft on!

Thanks for the sympathy for the frustration I felt last week having felt like I wasted a day (which I don’t have the time for). Fortunately the designers saw my point of view and modified their design to be in line with what I had already coded. Win. Downside is that they’ve added some tricksy web stuff that I’m fighting to get working. Oh well. I do like a challenge.

I’ve finally gone back to the spinning project I’d been working on when I hurt my foot. The photo is the 2 pounds of bl that I bought at Rhinebeck. It took 5 of the Van Eaton bobbins. Now I just have to get busy with the plying. Add that to the list

And finally, the new love of my life: the iPad. If it were human I would marry it. I can’t wait for the camera/card reader attachment that is due out very soon. That would make it perfect and replace the iPhone as the blogging platform. While it doesn’t have the 3g, it does have wifi and with the addition of the Verizon Wireless MiFi device, I always have Internet ready wifi. I’d thought about getting a USB based wireless connection for my laptop(s), but that wouldn’t work with the iPad as there is no USB port on it. The mifi is perfect as I can use it with any wifi device including my PSP should I choose to carry it and decide to surf. Cool huh? I also found that the apple wireless keyboard that I picked up last fall will also pair with the iPad. It has become my go to (along with the beloved iPhone) device. Anyone want to buy a lovingly used Kindle

Craft on!

Someday I’m going to frakin’ learn to not code something before the designers are finished designing.  I just frakin’ wasted a day and have to rewrite 3/4 of what I wrote.

Shit.

Raise your hands if you’re even remotely surprised by this latest addition to my collection.

If you’re going to do sashiko, or embroidery or any kind, it is a really good idea to bring scissors with you. Embroidery floss does not break with a little pull like wool yarn does.

Guess who knit on the train last night afterall!

At least the first sleeve for October Frost got a decent start.

Craft on!

I blame Dorre for this. As if I needed another hobby that involved yarn/string/thread, she showed up last week at our Panera Stitch ‘n Bitch with some thread based craft I’d never seen before. Sashiko. A linear embroidery from Japan.

I watched her doing it with great curiosity though I did decline the invitation to try it then and there. But the itch was forming. I’m powerless in the face of thread

Friday morning, I ordered a couple of starter kits. Boy shipping can take forever when you’re itching . I actually regretted the fact that Friday was my work from home day and that I couldn’t just hop the subway up to Purl and pick up a kit NOW!!!!

So my first kit arrived with yesterday’s mail: Circles. I finally got to play. I’ve finished almost all the first lines. This is just what the doctor ordered for my work tired brain that read the cable chart upside down Monday evening and had to rip back four rows. Ugh.

So there you have it. A new obsession is born.

Craft on!