A New Spindle, House Shopping, and WWKIP Day

Last night I made a new spindle. It is GORGEOUS. I used a white granite donut bead with gray veining. I put it on a long, sleek, black chopstick with little white dots forming a swirling line design at the top, and added a silver zinc hook.

It spins very well! Spins quickly, keeps the spin for quite a while, and doesn't backspin soon or quickly. I spun up a little 1 gram sample of green merino wool, in a finer-than-fingering (possibly lace?) weight yarn. The spindle weighs .8 oz (24 grams).

I am going to gift this spindle to a special friend. She doesn't know who she is, but will know when she gets it. I hope she enjoys many hours creating beautiful handspun yarn with it!

I got a recycled yarn done today, called Faded Liberties, and listed in my Etsy shop.

Richie was off today, so we took off for Clinton, TN, where my daughter Desiree lives with her dh and kids. It is a cute little town, with an antiques district downtown, nice library, and community center complete with 2 gyms and a 10-lane bowling alley.

We went looking at houses. In particular, we went to one about 5 miles from their house. It is a big, very old house on 7 acres. It needs work, which would have to be done a little at a time, but isn't horrible. The good news is, they can keep looking, and if they decide to come back to this one, it will probably be there... it's been on the market a year now.

We looked at 3 other houses. One was less horrible but smaller, on a 2-acre lot and a 6-stall barn, and COMPLETELY overgrown. I mean the lot had grass, no kidding, 3 feet tall. Someone had built on an extra room and already redone the kitchen, so less work than house #1. The third house had even less land... .5 acre, which could be a problem if it is on a septic system. But it was nice and liveable (currently occupied), with a huge garage. The last house was new construction in town, very nice. Only drawback was the lot was sandwiched between 2 streets and the price takes their payments about $50 to $70 higher than they think they can afford. Time will tell.

I made up my own little flyer for World Wide Knit in Public Day (WWKIP), which turns out is actually 4 days: June 13-14 and June 20-21. I called the city of Clinton and got permission to gather on Market Street, which is where we had the table set up for First Friday, where we were spinning. So we went around the town as we looked at houses, and got several small businesses, the library, and community center to put the flyer up. Hopefully it won't just be Des and me and my othe two daughters who knit.

Spin-Out, First Friday, and More B's Eye View

We ended up packing it in Friday from the Smoky Valley Rally. Saturday and Sunday ended up nice, but the rain didn't stop or the sky didn't clear up on Friday. When we were on our way home from Clinton at 11 PM the highway near us was wet. We would have lost all our soaps to the damp. Oh well! Next year!

There is a little street fair each First Friday night of the months in summer, from 6-9PM in Clinton. They have a little antiques district that they rope off so people can wander the street. The shops set out tables, and it is free for anyone to set up a table to sell stuff. There are snow cones and horse-cart rides. This month was slow... there was a local HS graduation and 2 other large, local softball games. But it was a relaxed atmosphere, quite fun.

So we set up a table and dress dummy with our felted stuff and yarns and handbags, and hung out for 3 hours. Friday alsohappened to be Spin Out day, so I threw together an emergency spindle out of a shaft that was down in the supply box, some masking tape as a grommet, and a purple stone whorl I bought online that "accidentally" came to Des' house. We opened one of the batts that Diantha had wrapped up to sell and took turns spinning. Incidentally, I also "dropped" the spindle about 5 times, making not actual chips but chip marks in the side of the lovely stone whorl. Dangit.

I kept asking people who walked by, "See what I am doing? I am turning this sheep wool into yarn!" Then they would stop and feel it, look at it, look at our handspuns, and ask questions. Some of the older people said, "I remember my grandma doing this on a spinning wheel? Is that almost the same thing?" Yes, it is *almost* the same. Drop spindling is not as fast, but useful nonetheless.

The bags you see hanging around behind Des and I in these pics are available in her Etsy Shop.

We got new carded batts and new handspuns listed in Diantha's shop today. Working on my shop tomorrow!

Des, my oldest darling daughter and camera sniper extraordinaire, got this pic of the back of my free Coal Creek Armory shirt. I told her I loved how it fit, because one could hardly see the gun in the small of my back... and momentarily she checked out my reflection in the nearest window, just to see if I were kidding or not. My dh keeps checking my back too... wonder what he thought the term LEGALLY ARMED meant? (At the moment, NOT, but ya never know, LOL)

Beverly (my 2yod) has been at it again with the camera. Well first, here is a pic of her in my newest pair of my trademark purple round glasses. I called this one, "Am I Cool Yet?" You might notice in most of these pictures, that B doesn't wear much clothes. Sometimes it is hot in our house, because we run our air as little as possible. But mostly, she is two, and that is an age where kids take their clothes off.

She took this picture of her daddy, the aging Hippy, who sat down at the edge of her bed to help her, once again, put her clothes back on. Wonder where she gets the not-wearing a shirt thing. hmmm.

Also she had the great idea for this picture. I have to put Richard's contacts in every morning,
and take them out every night, because he has a (hereditary) tremor. Somehow the lid to the eyedrops ended up here. Strange things happen at my house.

I got this pic of her, reading a really good Patricia Cornwell novel. She is either a prodigy, or just doing what she sees Mommy do (a LOT). Can't decide which.


In more wonderful good news, the '82 GS450T Suzuki I own, which has been laid up for 18 months since my *oldest* son flipped it, rides again. Yes, folks, my dearest darling Son in Law (who is too old to be one of my kids), has fixed it. Rewired and all. Somehow my front headlight is missing, so that is a must-do. And I need to renew the plate and change out the oil and filter. Minor inconveniences, at that. I was so thrilled to hear it run and see him take off for a test drive, I nearly cried.

Mama rides again. And is this a fine ride, or what? Yee-haw!

Are you SURE it's our Anniversary?

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary. I got up with the kids who wanted to be awake before I did, and Richard slept. Then I went walking, while he didn't. When I got home, we made 2 batches of soap for his Rossoaps shop... Cedarmint Scrub and Scent Slayer (anise). Our house at least SMELLS wonderful.

He went to work, and I got to work here. Made about a dozen shafts for CD drop spindles, which I let the kids paint (and I painted a couple). I let the girls make "Kin-dles," which is my name for Kids' Spindles, out of wood shapes and 1/4" dowels. They painted them so cute! Des painted the one that looks like an eyeball. The ones with the suns, were pre-made and painted shapes. They all spin pretty well too! (Yes I know that in this pic the hooks are still closed. Didn't find my needle-nose pliers until after I took the picture!)

We also made 52, 1" buttons from some type of sculpting clay. I needed buttons with large holes that could be threaded onto some handspun yarn, and couldn't find any anywhere. So I made and baked them. Hope I did it right, since the clay was made in Italy, wasn't written in English on the label, and didn't come with instructions. LoL! I let the kids paint those too. Des says because I am fun. I think I do it, just because I am nuts. LoL.

Anyway, what I need the buttons for. Tomorrow is Heritage Day at the local public school. It kind of combines a school carnival/free day with "revival" arts to give the kids exposure to them. Last year we did a table with Richard's soaps and did a couple soapmaking demos during the day. In between demos, I took my swift and a sweater to recycle and the kids were fascinated with that.

So this year the girls are going with me, and we are going to do drop-spindling demos and have some raw wool, some cleaned wool, the drum carder, and some carded, brightly dyed wool. I thought I would let kids try their hand at the spindle, then thread their yarn through a button and tie it, let it twist back on itself and the loop formed at the end can be put over the button to make a bracelet or choker. Maybe a hare-brained idea, or not. We shall see how it works.

B has been trying her hand at photography again. Yesterday she had the digicam and kept following me around pressing the thing into my upper, outer thigh. I finally figured out that she liked my sleeping pants and wanted a picture of them. So I helped her hold the camera far enough away, and here it is. Boy a person can't have any secrets.

Two of my kids spent the night at Des' house last night, so she brought them home this evening. We all had Italian-sausage hoagies with green peppers and onions on them. Beverly was BAD this evening. Wow. Des took her in the bedroom, dressed her up in a dress, and put "makeups" on her. Lipgloss, mascara, and blusher, oh my! Then we took her picture. I think she was tired! Her eyes are so red! And the MINUTE they left, she fell asleep.

And, seeing as we have to be AT the school at 8 in the morning, and have to get soap oils together and load the car and all that first... going to bed is just what I am going to do too!

A New Spinner

Thursday Des was down at our house and decided to spin something. She was spinning up a batt I got from ArtemisArtemis at Etsy. Beverly was sitting in her chair, hollering at Desiree and Diantha. They tried offering her something to eat, offering her something to drink, asking her if she wanted to watch a video... nothing helped. So they handed her a spindle and a piece of green Merino wool, and that did the trick. She just wanted to spin something!

The batt in question was a mix of just about everything: Merino, mohair locks, assorted wools, bamboo, and sari silk... and was only 1.95 oz. But Des got about 98 yards of this beautiful yarn, which she said was Heffalumps And Woozles on Parade. We put it up in Diantha's shop.

Yesterday we dyed some Corriedale a nice turquoise color, and some Montadale a fuchsia purple. I had wanted to duplicate a batt that Diantha has in her shop, but the purple came out more like Prince purple. Diantha and I spun the turquoise with a little white bamboo thrown in for shimmer, into a sock weight single. Now we are spinning the purple (also with a little bamboo thrown in) into a heavy worsted. The idea is to ply them together. We shall see.

We have a short day today. Have to package some orders for mailing, before noon. Then we have to make cookies and Krispy treats and take them to our church by 3:30. Drama performance services are at 3, 5, and 7. We are helping feed the cast and crew... then attending the 5 PM service/performance and working the nurseries for the 7 PM one.

I got the mini quilt in the mail from the 4 Seasons Monochromatic Mini Quilt Swap. Here in the left is a pic... it is RED. I did say my favorite colors were purple and red, and favorite season Fall. So this is my quilt partner's interpretation of that. It is beautifully done in little miniature pieced blocks, and bound in solid red. It does give an impression of falling leaves. I like it.

I got a main Treasury this morning, called Larry, Moe, and Curly... but it's not what you think! Here is a screen shot!

Sheep Grease, Vegetable Seeds, and Glue

Tomorrow is National Agriculture Day. That is the point in the year when our hard-working farmers in this country have produced enough food to feed the entire country for the year. Our 4-H group is having a big to-do at a new, large grocery parking lot. The Cattleman's Assoc. is bringing major farm equipment and cattle. They are apparently going to do a barbecue. Our 4-H in this county has been deemed the most active in the state, so we are going to have demos on large-scale farming, sheep shearing, etc.

The other day my younger kids and I started an exhibit board. On one of the 3 sides, we have large letters (which I outlined and
they colored in with crayon) saying, WHAT can I grow? Below which we have more than a dozen seed-packet tops glued on, with some of the seeds for that fruit or vegetable glued next to them. There are more packets than what show here. Glued on. Lots of glue.

The center says, "How Do They Grow?" and has pictures and drawings of a seed from sowing through all the stages to harvest. We used a tomato plant as the example because it is easy to grow and recognizable.

The last section says, "What Can I Plant Things In" and has multiple pictures of container gardens. Everything from Cubist-style planter box, to a garden (complete with corn!) in a horse watering tub, to strawberries growing in 24-0z. soda bottles, to tomatoes in urns, to squash in a baby pool. The idea being that we can demonstrate that you don't have to be a large-scale farmer or have an extra acre lying around to grow food... and you don't have to be dependent on a large-box grocery store for everything you eat.

Our family grows herbs, onion sets, and tomatoes in a large claw-foot, cast-iron tub. Tuesday the Old Farmer's Almanac sent me an email saying to Plant Peas on St. Patrick's Day... so since we don't have anything else growing right now, and nights are still cold (which peas don't mind), we planted some. And Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce, and green onion sets. We put the ends of an old wooden crib between the tub and the side of the house, for a trellis for the peas.

Back to today. Since the group is going to have a sheep-shearing, they also wanted a display that shows what wool is useful for after it is sheared. I have a drum carder, and 3 of my daughters and I all spin and knit. So I am taking that to set up, along with some washed fleece and some dyed fiber and some handspun yarns we have made, and our current knitting project (particularly the bossy one), so that people can see that you don't always have to make something the color of oatmeal or shaped like a sweater. So today I dug around in the shed and filled 2 large mesh bags with about half a sheep with all the lanolin and dirt in it, and processed it several times in soak cycles in my washing machine.

Speaking of which, I have to go get the sheep out of the machine and dry it on Air Fluff or we will have the wettest wool going tomorrow.

I hope the weather is dry!

Darn Tootin' Shootin'

Today is my 2nd son Artemas' 17th birthday. 17 years ago today my water broke and I went into labor while my dh was enroute to work, where I couldn't get hold of him. So I left a message at his work, put my almost-6 and 3 year old kids in the car, and drove myself 25 miles through heavy traffic on US 19 in FL, to the hospital. Why the rush? Because with my 2nd child, I only had 40 minutes of labor. So you can see I was in a hurry. Artemas was in a hurry too. He was 3 weeks, 4 days early. He weighed in at 8# 3 oz, came into the world hungry, and hasn't stopped eating since. He has grown into a fine young man, and wants to be a chef when he finishes school. I hope he pursues it, and I think he will make a fine chef, Christian, and a good husband for some very lucky woman.

We got up this morning and took him to the firing range. I get to shoot free on Tuesday, and anyone sharing my lane is 1/2 price, so it was a cheap birthday present. LoL. We showed him how to load, ready, safety, and fire each of our 2 handguns. Then we stepped back out of the way, he picked up the .22 Ruger Longbarrel revolver, and proceeded to put 6 out of 6 shells right into zone 9 or closer.
The next barrel, he got 4 out of 6 in the zone. Not bad for a kid who has never had anything more than a bb gun in his hand.

I put 22 out of 24 (6 from the Lorcin .380) in the kill zone, also not bad shooting for a middle-aged Biker chick with a bunch of kids underfoot. Annie Oakley, move aside!

When we got home my BIL was over with my 5 year old niece. We had some snow yesterday and last night, and our grass was still relatively covered. Theirs was melted. So they came here for her to sled down our yard a few times. The guys watched a Guy film, so I guess the trip wasn't wasted for him either.

Today I started spinning a roving I got, called Raspberry Caramel Cheesecake. It is superwash merino top, that I got from Knitspaz on Etsy. I am using a cup-shape, top-whorl drop spindle that I got as a gift, and I am doing a terrible job. LoL. Well here is a pic of what I have so far, anyway. The colors are luscious though. I might make this available in my etsy shop for Valentine's day.

Today's block was Flying Geese. Finally! I made 24 of them. I need 22 for my project, and it's a good thing, because I had a couple rejects. Two little Flying Geese had bent wings and got rated 4-F. Here are the rest. I had in mind to lay them out with a row up, down, up, down... but somewhere I got confused. Doesn't matter entirely, because they aren't sewn together, and when they do get sewn together, they will be in 2 rows of 11 each. Lucky me.

We made homemade DELICIOUS pizzas for supper, and since Artemas didn't want a birthday cake, I made a double batch of brownies with dark chocolate chips from scratch.

Life is good.

Not Quite a Block a Day, but...

In 2008 my oldest daughter found and followed a blog where the lady had a 365 Quilt Blocks A Year calendar. She made and posted a block according to her calendar, every day of the year. So we said, wouldn't that be fun? I found some kind of quilt a day calendar at Sam's and bought each of us one. Turns out there aren't 365 blocks. There is a picture of a quilt on a day, then the several days following are the blocks to make that quilt. Then it starts over with another quilt. Also Saturday and Sunday are combined on the calendar, so if there is a block, it is ONE block for that TWO days. ...sigh... leave it to me to get the WRONG quilt calendar. But hey, I tried. Anyway yesterday was just a quilt picture. Today was a block, Ohio Star. I happen to like Ohio Star blocks. I even was from Ohio once, a lifetime ago, so here is my block for the day!

Also my 13 yod Diantha (here she is, isn't she gorgeous?) decided on Wednesday to up and learn to spin. She picked up a Batt Crazy I had just bought and proceeded to spin it up. It was a 1-oz (30 gram) batt of all different fibers, threads, etc. She got 46 (or 56? I forgot) yards of wonderful lumpy, bumpy, fun yarn. I have a picture of the skein and a closeup. We haven't yet decided whether to have her knit it up as an accent in something, or to get some more Batt Crazies and let her spin them until she can knit up something altogether in relatively the same yarn.









We had a good New Year, and stayed home. Des and Tony came down and stayed til Midnight. We spun some yarn and just generally fooled around. The guys crawled around under the house working on plumbing some more and started the pergo-type flooring in the back porch. Good times.

I have another couple pics to share. Diantha took Beverly (whom we affectionately call Betsy) in to have a bath tonight. Of course she couldn't resist doing something weird with her hair.


Afterward, this is what we get. Betsy's hair is a barometer. If the weather is dry, it is straight as a poker, fine baby hair. If it is raining outside, her hair is a riot of curls. When we get up in the morning, we can just about tell the weather by looking at her hair. I think it is cute, so here it is for everyone else to enjoy.

So Here I Am Again

Alright, today I got nothin' done. My baby Betsy has ONE more lower canine to cut. I don't know if it was that or what, but starting midnight last night she has had intermittent fever. I put her down to sleep 5 times in 3 hours and finally gave up and let her sleep with us.

Today she has been clingy and a mess. My 16yos watched her a while so I could get out to the PO and take my walk. Oh I did finish a baby bootee for Micah while I walked. And, Walmart had all the clearance clothes half off the lowest price so everybody in the family got something new, and the most expensive piece was $5.

Only thing I really got done today was plan my next yarn series, which I was going to start this evening but no go. And, I used my drop spindle to spin up 19 yards of really ugly yarn in Christmas red and green, which I hope to ply with some other fun stuff and turn into something not quite so hideous. It is hanging in my shower, dripping, right now.

I got to put in a LOT Of computer time, since B wants to nurse when she is puny and if I have to sit down for that I might as well geek out too.

Not that late, but I am tired. Gonna sit on the bed, nurse her to sleep, knit a little, and read to Richie. Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

So here I am

Once again NOT doing yarn today. Well that is, not doing recycled yarn. My BIL called wanting to borrow Artemas' muscles. I had to go out to the PO, so of course I should drop Muscleman off at their house and haul all the rest of us to my oldest daughter's for a day of sewing, eating, and all kinds of other fun.

We usually go there on Wed. nights while a couple of my kids are at youth group. It is closer to her house from our church than back to mine (12 miles instead of almost 20) so we go hang out a while, let the kids all play together, exclaim over babies, make dinner, knit a little while together.

But now it is dark earlier, so it was fun to go earlier tonight and let the kids play on the playground out in the circle of apartment buildings. And it gave us more time to play with quilt blocks, yarn, and a spindle.

DD #1 has decided she wants to ply some fabric with some handspun yarn and bits of stuff to make "art yarn" for an upcoming project. So she figured she should play with a spindle to see if she could actually spin something.

I had brought along a spindle and a batt of Blue Jeans merino that I got from The Ranch at Etsy, along with some Cotswold locks I had hand-dyed. Granted merino isn't the best yarn to learn to spin on, it is slippery. I had in mind that I was going to spin it. But hey, I love it when my kids want to learn something new! I spun a little to show her the movements and turned her loose. She sure did spin up the entire 4 oz. of that batt, into what looks to me like darn good yarn for a beginner.

So Congrats Desirée, and here is a pic of your diligent evening's work.

And, dd#2 made chocolate chip cookies. Yummmmm!