Woolgathering

Yay - lightsabre spindles!

Etsy :: needlelite :: NeedleLite Lighted Drop Spindle, 6 inch length

It’s a jolly good job that Butterfly Girl Designs apparently doesn’t ship to the UK. Because I don’t otherwise see how these spindles could possibly be resisted.

WANT!

EDIT: OOOH, she does ship International. Oh…. dear….

EDIT 20 Feb: Oh, they’ve gone

Yesterday I had one of our newest Sanday Spinners (J2) round for some further practice. We spent a couple of hours playing with both wheels and eating choccie cake. Then it was off to Craft group, with a surprisingly large turn out, to make cocoon stripping paper. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and some lovely papers emerged. Next time we shall continue and also develop the papers into finished objects. I shall take my sewing machine and card stock along with the crateful of fibre stuff that I took this week. Hmm, must make a mental note to set  off in plenty of time.

Today I have been preparing fluff. The Shetland X fleece that I rainbow dyed some time ago is now on the spindles. The nice fleece, which took the dye really well and came out very dark, is on Hebbie as a thin single. The coarser fleece, which dyed to pastel shades, is on Connie as a fatter slubby single. The good fibre needs only teasing, the coarse fibre mainly needs carding but I am only carding those pieces that desperately need the attention. This morning I carded a whole heap of the pale stuff, and teased a goodly portion of the dark fine stuff. I left the room for a brief while and returned shortly to find Nell munching on my fibre. Not the coarse stuff… oh, no … chewing up the good stuff, of course!

I growled at her, and she went to hide behind the chair. Wise puppy.

Anyway, the dyed fibre looks stunning - heaped up in a range of pastel aquas, blues, and lilacs, with contrasting mounds of deep peacock greens and blues, it all looks very inspiring.

The carding I find to be something of a slog. But teasing the dark fibre filled my heart with a deep joy. The fleece is so lovely and amenable and has dear little curls at the tips that take up the colour differently to the remainder of the locks. I love the way that the fibres separate without argument and just lie there in colourful easy ripples. It’s all so satisfactory.

The amount of fibre that I prepared quite astonished me - as does the way in which I can quickly spin a bobbin full now. I sat and thought about this for a while. Putting a couple of things together, I conclude that I am now much better in health than I was and that when I thought I was better, I wasn’t. I’m far more productive now and very much closer to normality. It feels good.

Which is more than I can say for my head.

I came home to a bath and a bottle of wine last night. Red wine. Now, I know that I have concluded that red wine is a trigger. I also know that one glass is usually fairly safe, but this depends on other factors. I also know that the red wine/hot bath combo is a big no-no. I know this. I know it to the extent that I pointed out that the bah should not be really hot and that I should only have a small glass. My instincts were telling me not to do it. But I did it anyway. And Mr L ran the bath very hot… and guess who had a blinder of a migraine this morning?

I was expecting J2 to come round again this morning. She didn’t show, so maybe I got it wrong and she is coming this afternoon. Just as well, I doubt I would have been very good company this a.m. I still don’t feel too good, but definitely more able to make an effort than I was this morning.

Spinning day tomorrow, at M’s house. I am prepared now to spin on either wheel, so if any of the new spinners need to use Connie, I can do my thin single on Hebbie. I might take Mr Plumbum’s Green ‘n Grrowlly Socks with me too, in case we are short on physical space for all those wheels. I don’t have a problem with knitting at spinning group.

It may now be time to start a second weekly spinning meeting…

I am thinking of volunteering my sitting room for a regular weekly session in the p.m. Afternoons, maybe, but I thought evening spinning, with a bottle of wine, might be rather convivial. We’d better make it white wine, perhaps

I have been watching a set of three Ashford bobbins on eBay. They were around £8 when I began watching them. I have two new bobbins this week - £6.00 each plus £1.22 as my share of the postage = £13.22 I thought maybe I could get three more if they went for about £12.00, as there is £1.50 p&p on them. I could count that a bargain.

With three hours to go, they stand at a hefty £26.15!!!

No sale.

We went to the beach today after doing the weekend shopping.

Nell had a great time

So did we, and Griff and Suzie did too.

When we got home I found that my set of DPNs had arrived. Already? So quick!

And now I cannot decide whether to pursue the beaded shawl this afternoon, or start my Gretel hat, or spin some fleece. Maybe I’ll do none of those. Maybe I’ll work up some silk paper samples from Monday. Whatever else I do, I need caffeine first. I have a migraine hovering and I swear that caffeine helps, no matter what they say.

If you had told me, back in the days when I was thinking of giving up work to run away to Scotland, that I would ever again be in the position of waiting for the weekend to come around? well, I just would not have believed you. Yet here I am, going “Phew, thank the $deity it’s Friday.” It has been a frantic week here on the Windswept Acre and I am looking forward to a little down time.

Today I weighed out little bags of cocoon strippings, ready for craft club members to buy some to take home on Monday night if they wish to. I also tried dying some carrier rods and thrower’s waste in strong tea (experiment not yet concluded.) Colour dying is on hold as I don’t have any fixative.

Lunch was like an episode of MasterChef. “Here’s the ingredients, go and invent something” - except my choice of ingredients was very limited indeed. No spuds in the house, and we’ve had pasta already this week, and frozen chips, and white rice… I made a rich tomato stew-type dish with one chicken breast, some left over salami, and some frozen mushrooms - served with brown rice. It was actually pretty tasty in the end, though presented a challenge when I found I had only beef stock cubes in the house. I flavoured it with paprika and oregano and salt. Mr L said it was “interesting”. Oops. Definitely time for a trip to Kirkwall and a good re-stocking of the larder, methinks.

This afternoon was part 2 of the introductory spinning course. All three pupils are very adept and fast learners, they made it very easy for the teachers. It was fun, actually. I still have revisions to make to the fact sheets but I was pretty well pleased with the way that they turned out. I guess we are ready to go public and advertise activity holidays now.

The Sanday Spinners group looks set to enlarge - all  three of this week’s beginners seem keen to progress their new skills. We shall be needing larger houses to meet in - or more than one session a week, or something.

I got to use G’s “Wee Peggy” wheel today and absolutely fell head over heels for it. It’s so perfectly well designed. I think it would be an ideal wheel to take on the road with me when we go off on our big adventure. Mr L on the other hand thinks I should get an Ashford Joy wheel as he thinks that is designed for a life of travel. There’s plenty of time in which to decide, but my heart definitely belongs to Wee Peggy.

The other plus from today was an little envie of unexpected earnings from the craft shop. My Xmas cards and gift boxes seem to have sold quite well and I have been asked if I have more cards to sell. I’d better get myself into my workroom and see what I can magic up.

I cast on my beaded shawl last night. I can’t say that I got on very well with the beads. I think stringing them is not going to work well for me.

I left my wheels at the venue that we are using to run a spinning course - just overnight, to save carrying it back again tomorrow.

Do you know what? I feel oddly bereft, and am wondering what to do with myself until tomorrow afternoon. A good job Mr L downloaded Torchwood…

This afternoon, I started carding the ShetlandX that I dyed a couple of months ago. I’ll start spinning it when I have sufficient carded to keep me going for a while. I shall make bondage yarn, if I can.

The colours look gorgeous when carded - really pastel aqua shades and very pretty indeed. They’ll deepen when I spin them but should still look good in a bouncy single, bound with a finer, darker single. The darker shades are much more peacock-ish and vibrant.

That’s the plan for now, anyway.

Tonight I hope to get Mr L to hold some skeins while I wind some yarn and thread beads. I really want to get my Cascading Leaves shawl started soon.

I should get a swift, really.

I am doing the Happy Dance again today.

I couldn’t go spinning due to perfecting my housewifely role (Mr L had double meetings today and someone had to provide a timely lunch - we had bangers and clapshot, using some of the pork and garlic sausages that we had made at the weekend) but I spun anyway. Wasn’t I good?

In fact, I spun almost solidly from 8am until 4:30pm. I spun up a whole wodge of variegated pencil roving and plyed it to its toning plain. I got two skeins of lumpy bumpy thick-and-thin two ply, with the variegated done lumpy and the pink done fine. Then I Navajo-plyed the remaining pink single. I now have four empty bobbins. Count ‘em… FOUR!!! That’s all of them. That means that I am all spun up to date and ready for a new project

Hence the happy dance.

I think that my new yarn is rather lovely. I say “think” because the light is going now and I need to admire the yarn in full daylight before confirming that fact and choosing a name for it. The colours are not at all what I had expected from the roving and I like it far more than I had ever expected to. What I do know for certain is that this lumpy bumpy project is far superior to the last one (Exuberance) and that my lumpy bumpy skills are developing apace.

So are my general spinning skills, come to think on it. When I recall how long it took me to spin the pink merino - even when actively working on it, rather than elapsed time… I am amazed that I could spin a whole 100 grammes in one day and ply and skein it too.

Tomorrow and Friday, believe it or not, I am helping to teach spinning. The blind leading the blind… but before then I need to pack my spinning kit and finish producing a set of handouts. Eek!

In Other News:

1) The cocoon strippings for Monday’s Craft Club session arrived today. That’s a weight off. Except… now I am worried that I didn’t send for enough. It doesn’t look like a lot.

2) I bought a full set of bamboo DPNs last night - 15 sets of 5  8″ needles. Yes, I know “needs only shopping month” but, hey, I do need them. I keep being stymied on potential knitting projects for lack of suitable needles. And as they cost a whopping £7.99, I don’t feel too bad about the expenditure. Want some? Try seller ID bamboo-crafts-and-fripperies The quality won’t be astounding, but they will get me through some tight spots until I can stock up with quality gear again. How I miss my old knitting basket… *sigh*

The proceeds of my Ravelry fibre stash swap landed on the doormat today. The skein of Araucania Nature Wool is perfect for Project Spectrum, Fire. If only I could find a pattern…

I have been searching Ravelry for what seems like hours. Nowhere can I find a one skein pattern that both inspires me and fits the Fire theme but also uses needle sizes that I have in the house. We are on “needs only” shopping for some time to come. Large sized circular needles or new DPN sets do not come in to it!

The yarn is Aran weight wool, suitable for felting, variegated dull red and the one skein offers 240 yards. Ideas?

Also in my parcel, one skein of Noro Implessions in a perfect colourway including purple, magenta, navy, and jade. Perfection! Will use for some very special freeform knitting or project embellishment, I suppose. Maybe I’ll just keep it for stroking… it’s kid mohair, wool, and silk.  I want to eat it.

If I can’t find a pattern idea for the Araucania, I’ll whip up a simple rectangular seamed bag and lightly felt it. It will come in for something. I’ll have to find inspiration for the Fire element though. Maybe create a flame stitch pattern for the flap?

The pink merino was finally all spun up on Wednesday evening. I began the variegated pencil roving that goes with it. I fully intend to spin that up much faster! In fact, I need it all spun and plyed by next Thursday, to free up my bobbins for something special.

Looks like I shall be occupied all weekend, then.