Living the Home Life

Wool, Wool, Wool

Got Some New Goodies

     I finally am pretty much better, so I decided to venture out to the yarn store yesterday, since they were having a 20% off sale.  I have wool yarns coming out my ears, because I spin it myself, and quite a bit of silk, but I was after cotton.  I came home with 2 balls of craft cotton for washcloths, 2 skeins of sock yarn, and 4 skeins of cotton to try knitting a bunny I found in a knitting magazine.  I already broke out the craft cotton and am knitting a washcloth.

http://whimsicalknittingdesigns.blogspot.com/2006/10/yarn-girl-washcloth-pattern.html

     I borrowed my aunt's digital camera, and will be taken pictures of some of my yarn and projects, and will post them when I can get over to her house and off the camera.

Socks and Sicky

After a few weeks of feeling crummy and catching every bug coming down the pike, I woke up yesterday hardly able to swallow, and digging at a rash, so I finally broke down and went to the doctors.  I have mono, for the second time, so I guess I'll get plenty of downtime for knitting now.  Hopefully dh and ds will be up to keeping the house running while I recouperate.

The more exciting news is, I have gotten to the point of turning the heel on my sock.  L was very helpful, bringing out socks that she knitted, and one in progress, along with helping me visualize my pattern.  When I first looked at it, I couldn't figure out how it would work, but apparently, it really is right, and I'm just a little slow.  I also started another pair of socks while I was waiting for help with this one.  The new pair is oatmeal colored alpaca with dark brown cuff, heel, and toe.  As I feel up to it, I'll keep you posted on my sock progress.  Maybe the mono is a blessing in disguise (yeah, right.)

Until next time, keep on knitting, and spinning, and cooking and cleaning, and chasing kids...

Yay, I'm Knitting

Well, in my quest to become a real knitter, intead of just some poser, I've been going around to different knitting and spinning websites and blogs, and found some definite must-sees for any fiber buffs out there.  I've been laboring over a single sock for months in an attempt to avoid doing the heel, and I've finally finished the leg on sock#1.  Now, I've always wanted to learn to knit socks, just like I wanted to spin, so I started looking at sock resources online the other day to see if I could finish this without running to my girlfriend for help (check out Lana's Wool-n-Wheels blog, the link is off to the right).  I've come to the conclusion that I can't finish this without help, but I did find a sock addict's dream with Sockamaniac. http://www.sockamaniac.com/

If you want to knit socks, or know ANYTHING about knitting socks, go here asap, and join her lists, too.  Looks like lots of fun.

Today I am also going to start knitting a silk scarf that I saw in the Spring 2006 issue of Spin-Off.  I finally feel confident enough to try a scarf in something other than knit, knit, knit, turn, knit, knit, knit...  You get the picture.  I wish I had a digital camera, beause these singles are really nice.  I've been spinning them on one of my drop spindles for a while, and am excited about doing something with it.  Half my family wants silk scarfs!

Organ Grinder aka Drum Carder

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile.  I was sick all last week, and then was fortunate enough to borrow a drum carder and all I've been doing is grinding away since.  I hope you didn't miss me too much, LOL.

Last week, and part of the week before, I was sick with one of my flare ups of joint pain, and I get really tired and crummy feeling on top of it, so I didn't do any more than I had to, and then I complicated matters by missing out on getting my bloodwork done before the worst of the flare ended.  BTW, if anyone has any idea what can cause a flare up of joint inflammation every few months that lasts anywhere from a week to a month, accompanied by occasional fever, headache, muscle aches, and severe fatigue, let me know because the docs are stumped.  It's not Lyme, rheumatoid, or lupus, so we lost the top three contenders right there.

OK, back to the wool story (I know, it's always a wool or chicken story with me).  I borrowed a carder from my girlfriend for a few days and I have worked every spare moment for days.  I did I don't know how much merino, all types of  misc. bags and bits, and some black baby alpaca, which I carded in with some fine mohair, some type of soft wool I picked up cheap at Rhinebeck, and some silk I had sitting in a bag, and it looks beautiful, but I think it's going to be the devil to spin because it's so fine and wispy.  The colors I mixed in are all autumn colors, and I think it will be quite gorgeous when it ever gets turned into somtheing.  The other thing I discovered during this process is, fiber gets really big and fluffy going through that toothy little contraption, and takes up at least 2-3 times more space, and also, that I have a lot of fiber, so I need to spin more now that everything I have is ready to go.  It's so nice and fresh and sunny out now that if it wasn't so windy, I'd take my wheel outside and try that alpaca blend out, but it's so fine, it would blow away on me!  I'm actually surprised it came out so well, because I'd been planning this for awhile, just waiting for the carder, and I'm not exactly know for my abilities in the color arena.  I have a tough time judging how something will look, so I'm very relieved that it lived up to my imagination.

I need to clean the house at some point today.  Between being sick for well over a week and devoting all spare moments to carding, it's bad.  Let's put it this way, my 2 1/2 yo neice comes up to me while I'm standing there cranking away and says," Auntie Kimmy, your floor is messy.  You gonna clean it up?"  That's bad, considering she's not the tidiest herself.  I guess the house is on the agenda for the next two days so it's tidy for Easter.

God bless you all and have a holy Easter.  Talk to you soon.

Adventures in the Wool

OK, obviously I didn't forget you, because I'm back, with the same problem, but boy, has my life been interesting. On Saturday, I spent the entire day washing and drying a merino fleece in my kitchen.  I literally had a foot of wool on my counter.  It was a site to behold.  I never realized wool expands to fill all available space.  I somehow missed that law in physics...

Anyway, Sunday night, my father-in-law calls me up and says,"How would you like some free wool?'  Never one to pass up a deal, I say, "What breed?' "Oh, I don't know," he replies."Call her and find out."  So next day, I call this lady, who sounds elderly, and very sweet, and ask her about the wool.  She tells me she has a little of this, a little of that, to include Icelandic, Dorset, Jacobs.  All different breeds.  She has many fleeces, which she keeps under cover, and I can come take what I like, for FREE!

I jump in the car with a box of garbage bags, and rush right over there.  The proprieter of this sheep farm turns out to be a little old lady who had sheep in the living room, chickens in the basement, and dogs running everywhere chasing everything.  We hobble to the barn whre the fleeces are, and I kid you not, the whole room was FILLED chest high with wool, filthy dirty, with hay tossed on top.  I almost fell down.  The good news was, in spite of how dirty the fleeces were, under the mess was some nice stuff.  I picked around in the pile, brought home 2 garbage bags full, and with offers of sheep, horses, and as much dirty wool as I wanted, rushed home with my treasure.

I did wash some up, and after I got out manure, hay, oats, burrs, bugs, bug casings, etc.  It turned out to be nice soft, springy, chocolate brown wool.  The only problem is, it will take forever and a day to process all of this.  By the time I got it clean, it was very matted and felted up, so I probably spent at least an hour or two pulling it apart and fluffing it up, but now that the weather's nice.  I think it will be worth the work, because the really bad parts, like the initial washes, can be done in the yard. 

On a more productive note, I'm getting much better with the drop spindle.  I'm spinning up some of the merino that I dyed red, yellow, and orange into a fine single that I will turn into something - eventually.

Thanks for tuning in to the Wooly Adventure channel yet again.  See you soon.

My First Spinning Group Meeting

Hi, I'm back and I'm excited.  Tuesday, I went with my friend Lana, who you can see on my Wool-n-Wheels link, to my first spinning gathering.  I know I mentioned at some point that I was self taught, and it's starting to show.  I've been trying for some time to spin some really fine singles to try on the rigid heddle loom or con someone into knitting something lacy for me, and it just wasn't working out.  It wasn't spinning tight enough, and it definitely wasn't fine.  I tried going up with the tension, and fought my poor Matchless friend something awful.  She was snatching the fiber away from me or tearing it off (not snapping it), and I was working hard to treddle and practically bumping the orifice trying to keep up, and it was NOT fun.  So these kind ladies watched me, gave me tips, etc, and I just couldn't get it.  My back hurt, my frustration was mounting, and I was about ready to quit when I had Melissa, another friend and much more experienced spinner (she's not as cheap as I am and took lessons, smart lady), sit at my wheel and give her a run.  She initially had the same problem I did, and then she backed way off the tension and went to work.  She also gave me a bit of her fiber to try, which was less slippery than what I was working with, and the rest of the evening was great.  I was able to get about two feet back from the orifice and treddle with my toe.  Wow! I could even sit back in the chair.

I also got some drop spindle lessons.  For me, drop had always been the operative word here, so that was a treat.  I actually managed to get something spun on it for once.  I almost enjoyed it, and probably will when I get more practice.  Apparently pre-drafting is key here.

So, I am very delighted to be more connected in the spinning community, there are some great activities coming up, and I get to go to another meeting next month WHOOOO-HOOOOO!!!

My Matchless Friend and Big Blog Change Issues

OK, in spite of my internet woes, I'm going to give posting my wheel pic another try.  My husband actually has a little side business working on computers (in real life he's an accountant), but doesn't have any html experience to help me change anything here.  I'm going to see if I can find HTML for Dummies or something, because while I do want to make some cool changes, I haven't been successful at doing more than adding a Verse of the Day box, and that was a simple cut and paste deal.  www.homeschoolblogger.com has some good advice on their forum, so I need to go study that along with all my other little projects.  I'm also going to try some internet searches on html if I can stay on long enough.

Here I am again, and as per request, I left the pic bigger this time.  This is me spinning on my Schacht Matchless, and that yummy blue fiber is merino/silk blend.  I've been playing with it off and on for quite awhile, occasionally swapping out the bobbin and playing with some other stuff.  Now, I don't normal have a huge Mary shrine in my living room, but we moved her in for the winter because she is usually outside in my little bed of roses, and I was afraid ice or something would fall on her, and like my dear son says, you just don't shove the Mother of God in a corner of the basement.  The scene you see out the window is our front yard.  You can just see the fallen pine that came down this winter in a big wind storm.  You see no curtain at the window because I'm in the process of preparing to paint this house for the first time in about 15 or so years, and it really needs it.

Normally I pull my wheel over to my recliner, which puts me at a comfortable height and ange for spinning, but it wasn't very tidy there, so the window scene works better.  I'm actually sitting in my recliner now with my laptop, and I can look out that very same window. My fondest dream would be having a great big sunny room all my own to set up my wheel, loom, sewing machine, the whole deal, where I could look out the window and see nature while I work.  Our house is small and dark and sometimes makes me feel like a mole.  I want to repaint in spring colors to brighten and cheer the place.  Unfortunately, I need to go through and patch up the walls and ceiling first, though.

That's enough talk for today,  but I'll be back!