Twists of Fate

…to ease my mind. Which is what I get from the Alpaca wheel. It’s all love.

I finally got around to spinning a bit yesterday, and it was wonderful. Granted, I’m used to double drive so learning how to deal with the scotch tension has been interesting, but overall it’s good. I used a just barely sticky California Red/Coopworth cross roving I just got in the mail as my guinea pig fiber, and it’s working well so far. It’s very forgiving, and I’m glad I bought it from a local supplier over in Port Orchard. Found on Craigslist, it’s quite nice, if a wee bit dusty. I’m saving the actual California Red roving amount for when I’m a little more comfortable with the wheel.

I am a bit concerned that the handle might be rubbing up against the drive wheel - does anyone who has a Suzie/Alpaca have any suggestions? The sound of the plastic bobbins rubbing against the shaft is a bit strange too…hissssssssst! There’s also a bit of a strange clunking sound that I”ll have to investigate when I’m not so tired, but for now? I LOVE the delta interface vs. the round orifice. I wasn’t sure I’d do well with it, but it’s all good. The sliding guides on the flyer arms may also take some getting used to, as I am much more familiar with a hook system, but again, it’s something I can easily adapt to. I hate the rasping sound it makes when you slide the bit of metal over those arms though - total nails-on-a-chalkboard effect.

My energy levels only lasted for about 15 min of spinning, but it was enough to get back into the swing of things. I really hope to be able to carve out half an hour or so of spinning time daily…maybe right before bedtime, a nice transition from work & computery things to something more grounding and relaxing. I think it’s a plan, don’t you?

Working from home today as there was about four inches of white stuff on the ground outside this morning. It’s supposed to snow again tonight as well, so I will probably work from home again tomorrow too. It’s a nice change, given that I’ve spend most of the month on campus and barely able to complete anything due to lack of work space and back to back to back meetings.

Anyway, yay the Alpaca wheel! Love!

Sorry for being radio silent for so long. It’s certainly not as long an absence as previous months, but I was really trying hard to do better this year.

I do have a good reason though! Last Sunday, my darling new niece was born! Asa Jane weighed in at 6lbs, 14oz and 20.5″ long. I ended up being an impromptu birth coach for my sister, who did it strictly au naturale, at a birth center with a fully trained midwife in attendance along with two trainees. I was planning on begin there strictly for moral support, but turned out to have a much bigger role. Which was groovy, and, I have to say, the very best birth control ever. From the time her water broke to the time she actually came out and greeted the world with some very hefty cries, it was nearly 45 hours point to point.

Nevertheless, mom, dad and the new little bit are doing fabulously. They’re working through the awkwardness of learning to breast feed like champs, and she’s totally got her parents wrapped around her teeny tiny adorable little fingers. She’s also wearing the baby camel hat I knit for her, since she’s so wee it’s about the only thing that fits her right now. She wore it home from the birth center, and mom finds it very soothing to pet as she cradles her newborn baby’s head. It’s all very sweet, and it was really quite something to be there for her birth.

Shortly after that, I came down with a hideous cold/flu/exhaustion type-thing, and have barely been able to scrape myself together to go in to work. I’m also hideously behind in reading my blog roll, but I did catch just today that Cathy of Catena Expressions gave me an award! That’s so sweet and thank you! I feel like I’ve cheated her a bit, given that I’ve barely done any new spinning and due to the baby and exhaustion, I have yet to spin on the new Majacraft Alpaca. However, today may be the day to fix that! I went a little overboard on ordering more roving and fiber recently, so I should probably start working on that today.

Why the Alpaca? I have to say, and this is utterly self indulgent and the lamest reason ever for choosing a wheel but…I liked the woodburned alpaca motif. There, I wrote it out loud for everyone. I like the specs of the Susie, and though I probably would’ve done better to get a Little Gem with the head that rotates to wherever you want it to be, but I like what I have. I’ve been sitting on the couch now and again and treadling, just to get used to the feel, and I have to say it’s pretty darn effortless. LOVE that!

Thank you Cathy, for the award. I’ll have to put some thought into who I’ll add to my 10 blogs that make my day roll, but it’s a fair bet yours is one of them. :D

Happy day everyone!

I’ve gotten most of my spinning wheels off of craigslist. And they’ve all worked wonderfully, and I’ve resold most of them. “Try before you buy”? What’s that?

Anyway, in the Seattle listings, there are a few that could probably use some TLC, and would need extra bobbins crafted if you want more than one, but if I wasn’t unemployed, I might pounce on a couple of these.

Nice handcrafted with distaff, for example. Or a whole set of wheels. I would love to have a Canadian one. *sigh* Someday. Like this one, which I want to pack up to send to Dave at the Merlin Tree for some TLC STAT.

Craigslist is teh bomb.

Thanks to the combined efforts of myself and my friend Ariana, I can see most of the floor in my living room again. It’s no longer overrun with fiber, which is awesome. Someday I’ll take a picture of it and share it here, but that’s after I get a dustbuster or a vacuum. And a new coffee table, and the entertainment center and sets of shelves I really really want (pre-coffee I’m Scary Spice).

I continue plugging away doggedly at a couple of different knitting projects, but have also gotten distracted into doing a little something of my own. I’ll share once I stop swearing at graph paper.

Hope anyone who still reads this is doing fabulously as August winds down! :D

That’s the temp in my living room at the moment. It’s nearly 8pm.

I think I may be dying. Or melting.

You have to understand. The average temp in Seattle in July is somewhere in the mid-70s. The chocolate bar I bought for myself yesterday at Ikea melted on the countertop. I’m on the third of three floors of the building, and my apartment is oriented east-west. Great light. Lots of light. From the big ball of burning fire in the sky.

I’m looking at the Schacht Matchless single treadle I found on craigslist. It’s just sitting there. Looking neglected, sad, and underutilized. I’m a bit iffy on how to change the tension to double drive, and haven’t really played with it that much. This is a shame.

But note the temperature. I love wool, I do. But it’s over 90 degrees. I’m sucking down icewater like someone is going to try to take it away from me. I had half a dozen crackers and two slices of roast beef today and that’s all I could choke down without it threatening to come back up because I am so. Fucking. Hot.

So I’ve turned to an older past time for now. I resurrected Maiden of the Seasons I. I would rather work on The Dreamer but I can’t find her. I’d work on something smaller, but all the cross stitch stuff is in storage and I can’t be arsed to drive down there. Because that would mean getting dressed in clothing that would add to the temperature, getting in a car where the average temp is probably around 120 degrees, and mucking around with big cardboard boxes. Yeah. Don’t think so. I’ve gotten quite a bit done, surprisingly. If I actually finish this before, oh, 2008 I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find a cooler place to sweat.

PS - thank you Norma, Elaine and Cathy for the birthday wishes. :D They helped. A LOT. I will respond to your comments as soon as I stop threatening to swamp my keyboard with sweat. Ew.

First, a bit of shameless commerce. I just bought an Ashford Basic Jumbo Flyer (double drive) kit yesterday on impulse and once I got home realized that it’s just not something I’m going to use. Fastest case of buyer’s remorse I’ve ever had. Gah!

Box opened once, and I’ve barely even touched anything inside, so it’s practically brand spankin’ new. Includes jumbo flyer, whorl, four bobbins, front maiden, and I believe it also has a drive band, though I will need to double check. Can provide picture of contents if requested. Items are unfinished, so you can stain to match your wheel!

$110 includes shipping in the US, or make an offer. Paypal only please.

Non-commercial content - Did I mention this before? If you’re going to the Dulaan knit-in on the 27th here in the Seattle area and want free fibers to spin, let me know and I’ll bring some. Only caveat is that you use the resulting yarn in charity projects. I got not one but TWO boxes from the lovely person in Idaho who was stash culling, and I’m never gonna get through it all.

Not much else happening here. I was a total couch potato all weekend long and managed to get through the entire second season of SG1 in three days. I didn’t think it was possible to have a sore ass from sitting around on it most of the weekend, but it really can happen.

It’s not going to stop me from starting S3 tonight though. *G*

Sock knitting continues apace. The hotness that is RDA, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping is making it difficult to make progress. Too much drool is not good for metal DPNs, not to mention what it does to the sock. I’ll try to muster up the wherewithall to stop with the terribly gauche drooling and make more progress pronto.

Happy Monday y’all!

I finished spinning the little bump of the mystery roving last night while watching the special features on the last disc of DS9 (WAH! It’s really over!), and went diving in the stash because I was fairly sure I had more.

Success! I found the box that it came in, which is good, because I think I would like to order more of this Tunis roving! I got it in October of last year from Sarah Cole at Tansy Fiber Farm at Black Ridge, according to the label on the box. I have eight ounces of the Tunis, and I ended up with a pound of Cheviot. I have a pound of that as poor Sarah had some difficulty getting the shipment out to me, and I must admit to being kind of a cranky bitch about it at the time. I feel bad now, lo these many months later, because for fiber this fabulous, a little forgiveness wouldn’t have gone astray. I should write to her and let her know that I managed to unearth the box and get started on spinning up the Tunis. And ask if she has any more, because it’s wonderful stuff!

My sister absconded with my digital camera to take pics of her cats, so I have no way to show you the wonderfulness of the roving. But I hope she’ll give it back before I spin it all up, so I can share the lurv.

And now, back to exploring fiber links on the web work. Happy Monday!

ETA: Oops! I forgot to mention that the Norwegian is on its way to a new home. The folks who came over to look at it on Saturday bought it, which is great! Now I can pay my taxes! Oh, the joy!! [/sarcasm] I am glad that the wheel, who I think I named Inge, found a good home with someone who will love her and squeeze her and call her hopefully a Norwegian name of some kind. It was a wrench selling it, but I’m glad I did. Even if all the money is going to the tax man.

I have a hand crafted wheel for sale, and someone is coming to look at it tomorrow. I’m down to two wheels now, and will be keeping the Ashford Traveller until I can save up the moolah for something different. Selling this other one, which is lovely and beautiful and I wish I could keep it, but I never did get the hang of treadling on it, so it must go to a new home.

It was the first wheel I ever bought, found on craigslist, and the kind older gentleman who sold it to me had it set up as a single drive. It’s actually a double drive Norwegian, and you know, if these folks don’t end up buying it tomorrow, I won’t be *too* sad. I’d like to take the time to finish it with Wood Beams and really get it up and running, and spend more time working out a way we can get along. Earlier this week I realized that if these folks are going to bring someone who knows more about spinning than I do along (not difficult, since I’m still pretty much a rank novice), it needs to be functional and ready-to-spin. Oops!

Enter the mad dash to the candle supply place for some 24-ply flat cotton wicking. I had bought some flat cotton twine of some kind months and months ago to do the double drive with, but I’ve moved since then and of *course* I can’t find it. I do have some Pony bead lacing that I could use in a pinch, but I’m not really fond of its performance on the Traveller, and would prefer to try this out instead.

That’s my project for this evening, I think. To get the drive band on the Norwegian, get it oiled and ready to test drive tomorrow, and hope that it may find its way to a new owner as of noon tomorrow. Wish me luck!