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When a LARGE animal dies at one's home the question of what to do with the beast arises. In our case, with really hot weather approaching (100 degrees F +) we simply could not wait. We called the renderer, now the company calls itself &*^% Commodities. I don't want to use their real name. They do a much needed service to the community and the guy who drives the truck couldn't be nicer. But, COMMODITIES????? I guess it's better than the old Monty Python "Bring out yer dead, bring out yer dead!". So we said our final goodbyes to our dear Sassie. What a waste. She was a beautiful animal with a personality to match her name. Our last ride together we seemed to start to have that horse/rider connection. It was wonderful. I will miss her.
In other news, spinning course level 4 is coming up next week. I get to travel to Beautiful Alberta. From looking at Google Maps the place I am going to appears to be all mountains and valleys. It looks lovely and I love this time of year. Days are long enough to see what's what after classes so there should be some sight seeing going on. I have never been to Calgary so I'm excited to go. Also, friends from last year will be there. I will meet up with Angela at the airport and Mary will be there as well. Spinning flax this year as well as using commercial dyes. Dyeing up your yarn is always fun. Watching white turn all sorts of lovely shades. We also have to give a 15 minute mini lesson suitable for beginning spinners. I haven't quite decided yet what I'm going to talk about. I think I will talk about carding from washed locks to rolags or rovings. I guess I need to pack some Romney. I am taking my wheel, a distaff (made from an old music stand) my lazy kate, a ball winder, carders, combs and an assortment of other oddments one needs to spin.
By the way, did anyone read the editorial in the last Spin Off? It was by Abby Franquemont and she has described exactly how I feel about spinning. It's hard to imagine that spinning, knitting, weaving etc were once something done in almost every household. Imagine a life without twisted fibers. Just think about how societies were 'enmeshed' in the trading of everything from wool, silk, cotton etc. Wars fought, monies made. Do read it if you can.
There seems to be some sort of charity walk-a-thon going on over at the middle school behind our house. Our southwest corner is at the northeast corner of the football field and it is covered in tents and chairs and someone has set up a sound system. I wouldn't mind so much if they would play something decent. But alas, it is a jumble of country, easy listening, 80's rock guh. I suppose it's easy to walk to, and it has a nice beat. I give it a 67. I don't know how many of you used to watch Dick Clark's Bandstand on Saturdays. We did. Like what happened in the musical "Hairspray". All those polished faces and smiling and everyone dressed up. Then the British invaded. Thank goodness. No more Neil Sedaka. Yikes. Well, time to pack a few more things. Maybe make up some cheat sheets for my 'lesson' Hope everyone has a good week end.
Our trip to California started with a beautiful drive down Interstate 84 through the Columbia River Gorge. We boarded our plane to San Jose without delay and got the rental car and drove to Fremont. We spent a couple of days with my mother and the girls arrived the day before my m-i-l memorial. Thanks to Anne Halligan and the many neighbors who made this possible. Many old friends were able to attend and share stories of Vi. The girls, Amy and Matt, Tom and I took my mom to our favorite chinese restaurant in town and had our favorite dish. Mashed garlic pork. Lovely, however I don't think my mother thought that the conversation was always entirely appropriate. Oh well, when the girls and I get together we have the most interesting and funny conversations. This one dealt with black holes, the end of time, something about a greek phalanx that I can't repeat here and all kinds of other wonderful things. I got to see a picture of the youngest's new beau. OMG!!!!! Let that suffice for now. Don't want to scare the poor guy off. He is very good looking.
Next was the train ride to Santa Barbara from San Jose. Couldn't have had a nicer day and can you believe that the train was 45 minutes early??? A good time in SB. Rebecca and Dave were able to be there with G squared, the kids, and Amy joined us at the last minute. Thanks to Ruth and Lee for the incredible hospitality as always. Lovely weather. We took the train back to Portland a few days later. The Coast Starlight line now has an old Parlor Car. It is a refurbished 1955 car with wood paneling, club chairs, a bar, and real cloth tablecloths and napkins. It was exquisite to be treated so well. The food was great, the views were great and even though we arrived in Portland a bit behind schedule (4 hours) it was worth it. We decided to stay the night in Portland because we were too tired. It was easy to walk the half mile to the Tri Met station and take the train to the Airport to retrieve our car. Pretty nice time.
Home again and all seems well. It is taking me a while to get back into some kind of routine. After being pampered on the train and in Santa Barbara, one doesn't quite want to do for ones self!!
We did go see the latest "INDY" flick this am and it was good. Much better than #2 (what wouldn't be) and I think it wrapped things up pretty well. Not sure I believe Shia LaBeouf as an offspring of Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, but hey.
Taking photos of something in motion can be a bit of a challenge. Especially if it's something that moves as quickly as a flyer on a spinning wheel. When I was at Spinning at the Winery, I experimented with the "fast motion" on my camera to see what I could get.
Ashford Joy
Lendrum #1
Louet Victoria (yes it was moving, really!)
Uhhh #1
Schacht Matchless
Roberta Electronic
Uhhh #2 (I think it's a Kromski)
Lendrum #2 (with fast flyer)
I think I like the Lendrum #1 the best with the focus on the bobbin and a little blur of the flyer around it. Uhhh #2 comes in second.
As I think I mentioned, a couple of months ago I acquired a large amount of raw fleece -- five bags full, in fact. I gave away all but one bag, which I retained in order to have the critical experience in every spinner's life -- the sheep to sweater phenomenon. I thought it might be fun to share the process with you visually.
Here's what comes off the sheep -- pretty smelly, dirty stuff. These guys don't have the daintiest toilet habits, and the fleece is matted with vegetable matter (hay and grass) and other unmentionable "matter." It takes a fair amount of washing and sudsing to get the gunk out. It is also quite greasy, full of lanolin. The guys who shear sheep, evidently, have the softest hands in the world
machine that does this mechanically, but most people just sit down and fluff it up by hand. Tedious, best accomplished while talking to friends or listening to great music. But it is amazing and magic, how large the pile of picked locks is compared with the washed fleece.
Then you feed the cleaned, picked locks into the carding machine which gets the fibers all going in the same direction. This is a pretty cool step, and this is my new (old) carding machine. It's possible (but not fun) to do this all by hand with two brush like things called hand carders. You can see a small one of these in the foreground. We are watching a BBC series on the Medieval Mind, and it makes you realize that there was a time when these tools and processes were essential if you wanted to wear any clothes at all, especially warm clothes.
The output of the carding machine are these nice tidy "batts" or "rolags." all ready to be put through the spinning wheel. As you may remember, this also involves two steps -- first you spin singles, then you "ply" the individual strands into yarn. Some of us think this is the fun part.
And one final picture I took with Ihor's new camera of this great poppy that is currently blooming in our garden.
You to my new spindle, The Avi!
Spindle made by Avi Wasserman via Matahari Spinnery
Whorl is Olivewood with ebony and silver inlay
Shaft is English Ash (I think)
Weight 2.5 ozs., Length nearly 14 inches, Diameter 3.75 inches
Though very large in size and weight, it spins like a dream. I am working on some merino on it right now and getting a light DK weight off it believe it or not. In the end, The Avi will be used more for plying but I sure having fun with it now.
A while ago, Kathleen and I had a conversation about spindles and our fear of all the spindle makers retiring in the near future. There are not many spindle makers our age, if any, and that concerns us. As a result, I am determined to get a spindle from every spindle maker that I can find! I started with Avi because he tends to be a bit more hard to find since he is in Isreal. I am not sure who will be next on the list yet. I am going to The Black Sheep Gathering so I am hoping to find a spindle or two there. Any suggestions on who I should get next?
I am having a bit of a scarf obsession right now. Maybe it's the weather, or the fact that my office is an icebox and I end up wearing a scarf of some sort to stay warm.
My latest and greatest project is Knitspot's That Little Scarf. I am really liking this one. The pattern's simple, but gives the fabric an interesting texture. I have not decided if I am going to block this one yet because it might lose some of the dimension.
The original pattern calls for 20 repeats, but the yarn I am using has more yardage so I am going to add a repeat or three to it. I love am loving the yarn lots. The color way is Chartreuse's Sister (fingerling 70% baby alpaca/30% silk blend). The colors change in different lighting from greens to grays, yellows to tans.
The indoor at night photos just don't do the color any justice. I promise I will get the finished piece out in the sunlight.
I also broke out the spinning wheel this week and started on a new to me breed of wool, Falkland. I purchased this form the Yarn Wench a month or so ago.
It's spinning up quite nicely and I think I might even manage to make a DK weight yarn with this one. Lately I've been spinning up lighter weight yarns, the usual "curse" as you get more experienced with spinning. I have gone back to the normal flyer on the lower ratio and am taking my time. So far the results are turing out the way I wanted. I am only half way through the roving so only time will tell if I can keep it up.
On the niddy noddy is some BFL in a lace to fingerling weight. It spun up like a dream, but I got bored plying it. A little too much of the solid color. Dyed rovings have spoiled me!
I really need to work on getting caught up on the whole blogging thing! I've been getting lazy about uploading my pictures and that leads to no blogging...must work on that.
Anyhoo, last weekend was Maker Faire. I was there both days, helping Kristine out with her booth in the Bizar Bazzar area. Kathleen and I had good fun both days helping people and writing up receipts. "It's like playing store!" we kept saying. At one point, I was wishing I had toy cash register to work with.
Kathleen during a break in traffic.
I was intrigued by people's responses to the fiber that was out. Sunday's phrase was "Baby LLama! Baby Camel!" We even had one lady ask us what we do to the baby camel in order to get its fur. We were kind of dumbstruck with that one since we personally don't do anything. Thankfully, Kristine was quick to answer with how the fur is removed and pointed out that it's beneficial for the baby to have itself shaved.
One of the many highlights of Saturday was the Yarn Harlot. She came to speak, sign books, and do a knit-a-long. I opted to miss out on the activities so that others who haven't seen her yet could go. Stephanie did make an appearance at the BB and she stopped by the booth.
Yep, that would be the shirt she bought from A Verb for Keeping Warm..alright, she actually picked the blue one, but I did write up her receipt and take her cash. :) Stephanie wore her new shirt in Salt Lake City the next day so that was pretty cool to see. Gotta love the spinning wheel shirt...must gets another one....
BB was a bit secluded from the rest of Maker Faire; in its own building with the door closed. We did have some chances to venture out and see all that was there. It's rather difficult to describe the faire to people that haven't been there so here's some pictures instead:
Diet Coke and Mentos set up.
This was a crazy set up and lots of people were wet and sticky when the display was done.
The coolest bike ever, Steampunk style. Me thinks Ted and I might look more into this steampunk business.
mmmmm...chocolate....mmmmmm
Look! He's knitting and drumming at the same time. Crazy!
Adrienne really really excited about the fire, and boy there was lots of it.
A firebird, I think?
Oh and here's my Yarn Harlot Kinnear shot. As Ted and I were waiting in line to get in Saturday morning, along came a car with her in it.
Thank you 12x zoom. :)
New experiences this week include but not limited to:
Watching our vet "float" teeth on Bud and Sassie. No wonder he gets paid the big bucks. DH started the week with a cold and by Tuesday night had a burst ear drum. That's gotta hurt. Youngest daughter's computer bit it big time. Grrrr. Fairly new laptop and a fried mother board. Well, at least her hard drive is intact. That's about it for now. Time to spin.
A week ago Saturday was Color: A Fiber Festival. A festival that I hosted along with friends and vendors A Verb for Keeping Warm, Girl on the Rocks, Pigeonroof Studios, and Tactile. It was a warm sunny day, just perfect for some fiber, knitting, spinning, and weaving fun.
The morning started bright and early with setting up our main room.
The show got underway at 10 am and we had people waiting to get it!
This is what Krista's roving looked like after 30 minutes! Trust me, there was a whole lot more there when she started. I think Kathleen was the lucky one to get the last of the roving.
Thankfully, Krista did have some sock yarn to sell for the rest of the day. :)
We held 8 different classes through out the day; 3 drop spindle, 3 fiber tastings, and 2 how-to weavettes.
Brooke and Kristine introduced 30 people to spinning. Yea!
A live action spindle shot.
Our new spinners!
The fiber tastings focused on rare wool breeds, exotic fibers, and cellulose fibers and blends.
Fibers...
+ spinning = way too much fun!
So many fibers, so little time!
Karrie brought along her weavette looms and shared a new addiction skill.
Many folks came just for the opportunity to knit and spin with others.
Ah, ladybugs! I wants one.
Socks!
Handspun scarf in progress
Say "Hi" to Mike.
Another wheel at work.
Kathleen's multi-colored spindle and some yummy roving.
All I can say is that I can not wait for out next Color!
Lazy Kate that is. I just finished a prototype of what I am calling a "traveling" lazy kate. I need one that will hold at least four bobbins and lay flat in my suitcase. Here it is