Showing posts with label Spinning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spinning. Show all posts

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Stress Cleaning

 Today I was so stressed out that I simply ignored my to do list that I made with the 2:30 AM, during a migraine.  We spent the weekend dealing with family issues.  They have not fully resolved. Before you ask my taller half and wonderful daughter and son-in-law are doing well.  My brother and his wonderful wife invited us over for dinner, long story short.  I called my brother and asked him to join us for dinner at a restaurant. He was smoking a leg of lamb so we drove to their house.  My brother is an awesome cook.  I really have to get a smoker.  I really adore my sister-in-law. They make an awesome couple and have great kids too. They are the perfect people to hang out with when I need to recenter..

You might recall that when I hit a certain stress level the only thing that calms me down is cleaning.  I spent most of the day cleaning. I put a lot of things away.  My efforts were clearly visible.  3 bags of recycling and 2 bags of trash later, I was still stressed out, but much more calm.  So I plyed 2 skeins of art yarn.  Then I started spinning some more merino wool to do more plying.  I still have 5 skeins of Little Flower Novelty yarn in red to ply.  I am thinking that they would make a nicely woven scarf for kids.  I was too stressed to knit or weave. 

I will try to sleep tonight. Wish me luck.  If not I have more cleaning to do.  

Friday, August 18, 2023

Spinning My Wheels

 It was a migraine type of day. So needless to say it was a green tea type of day too.  To relax I decide to do some spinning. I had a 4 ounce package of red Merino and fire star which I spun on my Lendrum DT. Next I plied it with some white Merino for a Barber Pole effect on my Louet Victoria.  I will skein the yarn tomorrow and then do the hot bath.  

It’s time to call it an early night. So TTFN.  



Saturday, July 22, 2023

Things about the Summer Heatwave

 It has been so hot in Tucson that even my newest Yeti cups are being challenged by the summer heat.  I find that instead of adding ice once or twice a day, I always have to add ice to the tumbler after a trip outside plus a couple more times.  I can’t imagine how much ice I would go through without my Yeti 30 ounce Tumblers.  Also since I am drinking to keep up with the heat my tumbler is being filled more often. I even take it to the bedroom at night so I don’t have to go as far to get water.  That’s not all that the heat is effecting.  My Fitbit watch bands need to be washed more frequently too. Even the trees look hot and tired.  The little over an inch of rain was just not enough for them.  We have a new batch of younger lizards using our front porch as a cooling station, which is fine because in return they eat plenty of bugs.  They are even paving the roads at night because it’s too hot to pave during the day. 

I did venture out to go to spinning today at Grandmas Spinning Wheel and had a great time. I took a drop spindle because I did not feel like carrying my Louet Victoria out in the heat.  I left early when my hands got tired.  I know that they were tired because I dropped my drop spindle 3 times in 5 minutes.  That’s when I know it’s time to stop. I can home and took an unintended nap.  

It need not be said because it is happening so frequently lately, laundry was done by 9 am.  I gave my appliances the afternoon off.  

TTFN

Friday, July 14, 2023

I gave my appliances most of the day off

 Yes, it was another hot day in the Old Pueblo.  The monsoons are late.  The over night temperatures are not falling much below 90 degrees F.  Which means I have to start the laundry earlier to have the washer and dryer off before it hits 100.  Today I finished the laundry before 8:00 am and it was already in the high 90’s F.  

So this afternoon was spent listening to a book and knitting.  My hand is still very crunchy, but I have more use of it.  I worked on 2 different knitting projects and 2 different spinning projects today.  Nothing got finished.  

Tomorrow it will be more of the same.  Stay cool and hydrated.  

Thursday, July 13, 2023

A Fun Filled Fiber Day

 It was a busy day on the fiber front.  This morning I washed and thwacked one skein of yarn by 7 am.  The sad thing about this is it was so hot that the water was drying up as I went to hang the yarn.  I then plyed a second skein and put it in its hot wash.  Since it was even warmer when this one came out of its hot bath the water dried up even faster.  Yet the full skeins of yarn are still damp in the garage this evening.

I finally figured out a glitch in a new pattern design. It has taken months.  I did have an epiphany last night. So this afternoon I cast on and it’s exactly like I want it. Now just to do the math so I can finish writing the pattern and knitting the sample. This made me very happy. Yes I am currently working on 3 new pattern designs at the moment.  I think the heat has gotten to me.  All I really want to do is go to a coffee shop and have a cuppa tea and knit like in pre COVID19 times. Now it’s outdoor dining for me, so it’s kinda not an option, because it’s too hot to sit outside even with misters.  So I go from room to room to work on different projects.  That’s just like going to a coffee shop, right?

With the exception of 1 skein of yarn drying in the garage, I have all the yarn priced for the knitting guilds Christmas in July event.  I even priced it at a 30% discount in hopes that it does not come back home with me.  I am also debating whether to make more stitch markers or move back to dog pillows, then on to a new blanket for my daughter.  Then I did get the parts to fix my small ridged heddle, so there are scarfs to weave also.  

I did say it was a fiber filled day.  

TTFN

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

New Glasses and more

 Dispute my body and I not getting along today, I did manage to get out of the house early.  We headed to Costco to pick new glasses and get the lenses replaced in my sun glasses.  My new indoor glasses happened to be the first pair I picked out.  For the first time in I can’t remember when, I did not need to get high index lens.  This is all due to the cataract surgery.  They should be here in about 2 weeks.  As usual we bought more than was on our list of nuts and new glasses.  It was not all me getting extras this time.  

After dinner I was finally ready to spin, so I plyed 1 skein of yarn out of the 2 that needed to be plyed.  The skein will hit the hot water as soon as I wake up tomorrow. Then thwacking and off to a hot garage to dry. The only question remains, will the thwacking water evaporate before I finish hanging up the yarn. I will ply the other skein tomorrow.  Then decide on my next spin.

Did I mention that they extended the heat emergency until Monday?  So there is not much to do except cleaning, spinning, knitting, weaving and deep cleaning.  

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

A Roller Coaster of a Day

 Life seems to be about taking 2 steps forward and 4 steps backward today.  The hand strengthening exercises, well, I wasn’t quite ready for those. So here we are are at almost the beginning again.  I am back to just mild stretching exercises once a day. 

So for now it will be just spinning and weaving.  At least with weaving, I am using up yarn faster than I am spinning it.  I have 2 scarfs completed ready for pictures.  The scarf that I started in January will have to wait a bit longer for those final rows.  Sighs! 

Since I could not sleep this morning, I spent 3 hours cleaning house before breakfast.  The results are 1 bag of trash and 2 bags of recycling out. Two loads of laundry completed. Five dog pillows finished and ready for delivery this weekend.  With lots of stuff going to their proper places.  Also 1 mile walked.  Did I mention that I also managed to fill one box for Goodwill too?

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Old School

 I spent the afternoon catching up with plying yarn.  This is some art yarn plyed on my Louet Victoria.  100% wool plyed with Little Flowers by Crystal Palace Yarns.  It will go into a hand woven scarf.  No tears or deleted words involved.  Just relaxing joy.  


Wednesday, March 8, 2023

A Few Trying Things Today

 Some days are harder than others at the grocery store. Today at Trader Joe’s they had my favorite jam filled cookies that are dairy free.  I really wanted to buy a box or 2 but left them behind at the store. I consider this a win for me.  Since I have passed the 20% total weight loss things are slowing down.  Although I am losing inches like crazy.  Maybe once my body is finished losing this round of inches the weight loss will pick up again.  I can only hope. 

I also found out that it is next to impossible to spin silk on a drop spindle outside when it is windy.  I put the spindle back into its bag and knit 4 rows of my doodling shawl. Then stayed outside until it became too cold.  

My right hand is still an issue.  I hope it makes a full recovery soon. It is driving me crazy.  

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Progress

 This is progress at a snail’s pace.  I started spinning this beautiful Masham dyed by Indigodragonfly before COVID19 when I was still teaching drop spinning.  I found it during the organizing of spinning baskets.  I decided it must be finished.  I spun it on 5 different drop spindles of the same weight by 3 different spindle makers.  Today I finally finished the first spin.  

Now to get it off the spindles to ply the 5 skeins.   

The spindles from left to right: 2 Foresters, 1 made by a midwestern maker, 2 Kurdants


Thursday, January 12, 2023

Life in Left

 I still have stitches in my right hand, in a very awkward place.  So if I forget and use my right hand I have quite the opposite of instant gratification.  Things like opening doors are really designed for right handed use. Things like brushing my teeth, I find that I tend to miss different spots unless I am very careful.  

Since I use both hands interchangeably this is usually not a problem.  I do notice that I am breaking more fingernails than usual on my left hand.  I still can’t try knitting until the stitches are out.  That is until round two this time.  So spinning it is for now.  

It is not a good thing that I have a small 3D printed Turkish spindle in a “me time” bag hanging from my purse.  I have one project on my knitting room table.  I have a full basket of half done projects for television watching time.  I think I am just as bad with spindles as I am with knitting needles. This means too many projects going on at once. I have managed to complete 3 spindles up until the point of needing to ply them. This is a plus.  I also have one less spinning basket. I put yarn for a knit along that starts this Saturday, what was I thinking? I will try to use my very limited daily spinning time to get as many done as possible. This means that more spindles will be leaving the herd soon.  I will not be able to ply, wash or thwack them until the stitches come out.  

*TTFN.  

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Spinning Again

 I think the hand surgery went well on Friday. The compression bandage came off today.  I also started spinning old school today because I cannot knit until the stitches come out.  I will just keep filling spindles until the stitches come out.  I cannot ply or do much housework yet, but I can play and read.  

I have set up a basket to hold all the filled spindles until I can ply.  


Thursday, January 5, 2023

Just Spinning

 Today was definitely a spinning day for me.  By the numbers. One bobbin skeined, washed and thwacked.   One very heavy bottom whorl spindles project was finished. I could not spin more than 6 inches before it stopped spinning or the weight was too much for the yarn.  I need to research this type of spindle more.  By the way the yarn was skeined, washed and thwacked.  One skein of cashmere was plyed, skeined, washed and thwacked.  

This evening I went on a spinning basket hunt.  I found 5.  Yes 5 spinning baskets.  One small basket was left with a project and multiple spindles. The other four baskets were brought to the den to empty and sort out.  I landed up with 2 empty baskets.  Then I went on a hunt for sampler roving and batts. I found 4 bags which were all put into a bigger empty basket.  My plan for this fiber is to pull out different colors that will go together and make one of a kind skeins of yarn.  My first one is yellow, pink and green. I should be amazing.  The fiber that is not spin able will go to do pillows.  Life is to short to spin crappy fiber.  I also landed up with 4 more empty bags.  

I also did more spinning to night. I have just a little more fiber to add to this before I ply it, skein it, wash it and thwack it   

The empty project bags better be careful or I might just fill them up with yarn and send them to new homes.  I am not kidding about this.  

The picture below is the heaviest of my drop spindles. I mentioned it in the first paragraph.  If you know anything about the maker or spinning on a spindle like this let me know.  


Thursday, December 29, 2022

More Zenning

 If it is all possible, I am doing more Zenning around the house. It’s a good way to end the year. I figured that the first day back from vacation was the best day to start.  At breakfast I made my to do list, which was not comprehensive.  I started with the den fireplace and removed all my spinning and weaving projects and supplies. Everything has a new home.  Even the skein of yarn that went to the Goodwill box  

This lead to needing more shelf space in the knitting room. So I went on a Sugar and Cream hunt. I almost filled a 32 quart box. I decided not to finish the 2 blankets in the bag so they went into dog pillow stuffing.   They were not even a complete block of a 9 block pattern.  Sometimes to move forward I need to let go of things that are not in the least bit useful.  I have learned that it is not necessary to keep or complete every project, or reuse the yarn.  I even put the knitting needles and accessories in their proper homes. 

I came up with an absolutely brilliant idea for a color combination for my next pounder scarf.  So I went on a hunt for black worsted weight yarn. The black combined with a very bright and bold variegated yarn will make a nice one of a kind scarf.  I will be winding additional skeins of black worsted weight yarn tomorrow. The scarfs after that will either be black and white or a scrappy scarf of many colors. I have the first 2 1/2 rows knit and I am in love with the combination of yarns.  I also finished one hat and another pounder scarf tonight. I call them pounders because each weighs in at at least 17 ounces. They are also 6 feet long, which is good for a cold climate.  Pictures are going to happen tomorrow. 

The most interesting part of the day was watching John.  When I finished cleaning up the fire place, he had to do more dusting and tie up the cables to make things look even better. He then went on to his own cleaning agenda.  I can’t wait to see where this leads us.  

Well my typing hand is getting really cranky so I will call an end to this post.

Friday, October 28, 2022

A Busy Day

 I had a very busy day. With brunch out. Shopping for smaller pants, I got 1 pair. Coming home and cleaning.  Giving 4 mudd rugs their hot bath and agitation. Plying and setting 1 very small skein of lace weight yarn that was completely spun by hand.  The yarn is now drying in the garage.  The mudd rugs have been moved inside to hopefully finish drying.  I put a baking cooling rack over my hand washing sink.  They are still quite damp so I do not expect them to be dry by morning.  I also tried to catch up on paper work, my never ending battle.  Some progress was made. 

Now it’s time to put my feet up and knit.  



Monday, October 3, 2022

Buttercup Yarn

 I have finally finished spinning the buttercup roving and plyed it with Ito raw silk yarn. Here is a picture of the last 2 skeins in the middle.  I have not counted the yardage but I am sure that I will have enough to knit a shawl.  The single skein I finished yesterday is on top. The one I finished today are in the middle. The top one was photographed on a light grey table with an Ott light.  The middle 2 skeins were photographed on a brown couch with an Ott light. This is a perfect example of how background color can modify the look of any yarn. The gray brings out the yellow tones while the brown brings out the white tones and mutes the yellow. 

I skeined the yarn tonight during the Lord of the Rings Trilogy fight scenes. I know fight scenes are part of the book. They are also part of the TV show. That does not mean I have to watch them. Skinning each bobbin took up one fight scene. 

The bottom photo is the start of 4 ounces of super wash BFL. It is obviously still on the spinning wheel.  It is not going to be an art yarn. Since it is a super wash wool, I will be using it in charity hats.  My rationale behind this is that a few hundred years ago this was the normal thing.  It will also give me another one of a kind hat.  Just because the kids may get them from the clothing bank does not mean all the hats have to look the same.  The teachers usually get to pick the hats out for the students, so I try to give each on a unique personality. 





Friday, September 2, 2022

Knot’s Be Gone

 Well I finished my holiday weekend project today. Sometimes I can be an over achiever. So I guess I will just have to knit, spin or warp a loom this weekend. Maybe all 3.  After all I do have a new pair of gloves to make.  If I finish them I will stash dive and see if I have another skein of worsted weight yarn.  Now get off the floor and stop laughing, I might take time to find one.

I spent the evening working out the knots from the yarn throw up and it is safely in the project bag, all 3 balls of sock yarn. Did I mention that is was supposed to be a single 435 yard skein?  It did take a size 1 crochet hook at times.  Yes, I think everyone needs a size one crochet hook. 

Other than that I am getting moody about Tuesday.  

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Using My Wheels’s Again

 I found that using my spinning wheels, yes I have 2 spinning wheels. Has helped ease the arthritis pain in my foot. Some exercise is good. So today I finished filling up one bobbin. It was so full John could see it from the couch.. I don’t think I really could have gotten any more yarn on the bobbin if I tried.  I found more roving in the same color way in my stash and started another bobbin.  Yes, I did some stash diving. I also found some nice silk to ply it with from Ito.  I hope I have enough, because Ito Japan, sold out to a company in Europe which does not like to work with American yarn shops.  

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I thought I would save you some time.  Today in pictures.  The top picture is the really full bobbin. As you can see it is just about to go over the edge which is not a great thing. The second picture is about 8 ounces more roving. That bag should fill 2 more bobbins.  

Depending on how the yarn turns out it will either be woven into a shawl or knit into a sweater. Yardage will help make the decision. 




Monday, June 20, 2022

A Break from Cleaning

 I took a day off from the kitchen reorganization to do a bit of spinning.  This is a really nice and relaxing spin. The wool is merino which will be plyed with Ito silk from Japan.  I bought both from Grandma’s Spinning Wheel here in Tucson.  

This will be part of a shawl for me.  Now it’s time for a quick nap before dinner.  



Saturday, February 26, 2022

Spinning Anyone?

 I spent my afternoon spinning at Grandmas Spinning Wheel here in Tucson.  Need I really say more about my day.  Ok, I guess so.. Some people spun inside and some people spun outside with me.  One lady even stopped to take our picture because she had never seen people spin yarn before.  I was trying out some of my new spindles.  One needed to be fixed when I came home because the hook was bent and I did not bring my tools with me.   It was a 2 minute fix when I got home.  Half of which was walking to get the tools.

Next time I spin out side I will have to remember to bring eye drops.  When my eyes get dry things get a little blurry.  Of course even outside we wore our masks.  This left me a little dry too. When I got my iced tea after we finished, I gulped half of it before I started the car.  

I was also given a charity blanket to sew up.  It is made from the dreaded polyester.  So if anyone wants to sew it up and give it to the charity of their choice please let me know.  There are a bunch of granny squares that were Crocheted.