Plain and Practical

Don't Look In The Window Unless You're A Spinner

Because it looks like my studio is either for making punk rocker wigs, not a bad thing, or I've climbed into the rejects dumpster behind Sesame Street and shaved all the little puppets and drum carded them:

There are EIGHT of these to start spinning in the morning.  Sunday will be the last day for spinning singles on this order.  And, singles ready to start plying:

and there's a whole basket of these, plied and dry, and they will be the first ones to get measured and tagged when it's time to put this order together:

Sorted through three large containers from the store stock today, reduced to one and repacked it and took it upstairs to the bedroom, where I've stacked one wall full of totes and boxes.  Only twelve boxes left in the living room, that are mine, so tomorrow will take down this temporary folding table the computer is on and switch it out with the tressle table, and that will open up more floor space.  There's papers all over being sorted and set into order by date for store receipts, I found six more addresses and got those into my address book--one piece of paper at a time, getting it all taken care of.  And a bit of spinning, too.  Snowy and icy outside, but it's fuzzy and warm in here.  Peace.

Dark Brown Abounds

So the house smells, not like cooking . . . not stinky . . . maybe a little like the woods, when you're taking a walk after the rain, not wormy, just kinda loamy and rich and somewhat comforting, and it's because there's a half pound of dried Black Walnut hulls, sent by my friend Bev, boiling in the dye pot:

these will soak all day, be strained in the morning, water back into the pot and then will dye some white wool, then put in some badly stained dishtowels (hopefully then they will be brown all over, not just in spots).

And here's the dog hair, 450 yards, as singles.  Each will be plied with itself, rendering two skeins a little different in color from each other, most of the golden retriever will be in the skein on the right.  The color and texture is lovely, there's enough for a set of mittens and a nice scarf, or a shawl, but that's for someone else to decide, I'm just the spinner on this project! 

and the silk scarf I shredded up, here's one of the art singles from it, it will get plied as soon as they are all dried and I can play matchmaker with the various skeins and see what I want to ply with what:

So a little bite to eat--I'm thinking rye flakes with brown sugar, butter on top, and I need to bake a cake (spice cake mix, raisins, ground flax seeds, extra vanilla, spoonful of molasses) and there's some icky calls to make to track down utility deposits, but all is warm here, snowflakes gently falling, and the cat is staring at me so gotta go.  Peace. 

Mohair Here, Mo'hair there . . .

so soon as hubbin out the door in his freshly ironed shirt, the dye bath went on:

and these mohairs got moved to other places, since they aren't dripping any more, and hopefully all will dry enough I can start carding them tomorrow:

silky wonderful little bits of fuzz, they will really add some nice textures to my wools.  There's turbans of singles to ply, more roving to dye, and the cardstock labels are here for putting together dreads kits for a new Etsy shop to sell geeky things.  All good.  I read this morning that snow is expected, everything is here for making hubbin a well-deserved good dinner tonight, I am amply blessed on all sides.  Peace.

Two if Dog Hair, Three if Wool

That pretty brown, that's the top bundle of two, enough for a lacy shawl or a nice medium vest, 12 batts from the drum carder of wool top from Bev and big fluffy handfuls of dog hair from Dawn.  She's never seen handspun from dog hair (much less her own doggy down) so she'll be surprised to see this 50-50 blend (by weight!).  The other three are wool and wool-mohair blends.  A nice afternoon of spinning, after I get a couple more chores done, and maybe a spot of lunch before I start at the wheel again.

Hope you are all finding ways to make this winter day warmer, brighter, and more pleasant throughout.  Peace.

White Light Day

you get to see Boo and his little friend,

in Squirrel-o-Vision:  the Sequel (this is the side window)

and I hung up as many skeins as could drip, without different colors touching each other, when they stop dripping into my catch-pan I'll move them over and hang another batch:

I just grab whatever thingies with handles are available on the shelf and hook them on with plastic hangers, looks like a crazy person lives here, but it works.  I like the thin ones to have weights.

Going to sort through a hefty bag of linens and decide what I can live without, and put the keepers away.  Also on the agenda is going to go get #10 envelopes and load the PNP newspapers so they can go out tomorrow (I did finally find my stamps--people will wonder why Christmas stamps but then, they know me, right? so maybe they won't).  All the floors need dusting and vacuuming, a good thing for a grey rainy afternoon.  Hubbin working from home today so I should do any errands that require the truck while I have it here.  The dollarmobile is running but just barely, soon we'll be down to one vehicle any way, might as well get used to planning things this way.  Stay dry, stay warm, Peace.

The Next Four Skeins

was carding and hubbin said, hmmm, I'm in the mood for pizza . . . so had some pizza and look, there's still an hour of winter white light left, so just finished carding these four sets of batts, all wool and mohair, so sitting down for a pleasant evening of spinning:

and tonight, some warm cuddle time on couch with Boo while hubbin plays his computer game.  It's nice that we have these interests, me downstairs, him upstairs, inside warm on a very cold winter day.  And that reminds me, I got him some sugar-free hot chocolate yesterday, so tonight we can have a couple of those and some popcorn--doesn't that sound like a plain and practical evening?   Off to spin.  Peace.

Two Dyebaths, and Squirrel-o-Vision by the Spinning Wheel

So first there was cleaning up the kitchen and loading the dishwasher and making GREEN:

and then I was spinning and Boo's little friend came to raid the bird feeder, much to his complete attentive delight

and then came more spinning and this batch of cranberry color was blended from green/yellow of the first dye bath, reheated, more vinegar added and red:

and that's light grey colored mohair from Edie's farm, right into the dyebath, I don't usually even wash it first long as it's in the last dyebath of the day.  Her stuff is clean, honey, no burrs, no straw, nothing goes to waste because she skirts it just right.  This method leaves the mohair with some natural oils and it spins dreamy nice.

I also find that there's so much in my head, I forget things when I haven't done something in awhile.  Like, I forgot that it's much much easier to spin from the drum carded batt, than from the dyed roving or even new blank roving, and now I'm coasting along doing long-draw on the batts made last night, almost done with those, and will be making more in a little while after the Husband (who just walked downstairs) is spoiled with a four-part breakfast:  bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, applesauce, and coffee, all on a tray with a pretty dishcloth underneath, but in return he has to give Boo a few tiny morsels of bacon.  It's just our usual routine, which The Cat has decreed.   Peace.

Out Comes The Carder

Now that there's mohair, llama, and wool, and silk laying about dyed, it's time for the drum carder to come out and get set up and start crankin'.  I did enough batts for three skeins of handspun, one done and two waiting for first thing in the morning.  It's so much easier to spin from batts, than from roving--and especially dyed roving, which takes a bit of a beating and gets a little grabby . . .

and I also cut up this silk scarf into strips and did a skein of art yarn with it, will show you that after it's plied--

and now, a snack tray (good thing the grocery shopping got done today), some couch time with husband, and then probably work on the Iliad again, trying to do ten pages a day.  I'm a little lost but figure it's better for me than Cracked Magazine, hahhaa.      Going to have Meeting here alone tomorrow morning, set the clock for seven and have a little Bible time and then some Silence.  It's going down to 12 degrees tonight, wind chill below zero, but the house is cozy and I have good slippers to sit in, and maybe Heater Cat Dah Boo will sit in my lap and that will certainly keep me warm while I Listen.  Peace.

Fuzzy Fuzzy Fuzzy Around Here

Trying to get a large box of handspun yarns shipped off in ten days.  First we wash the mohair:

then we dye it

and then we lay it out to dry while we spin other stuff:

and here's yesterday's spinning ready to be washed and hung with tension, everything from burlap-like basket yarn to finer knitting soft stuff:

and today's list is--grocery shop, put away more boxes, do more spinning.  A wonderful life.  Peace.

Colors inside, Outside Winter-White

Wind chill was -4 when I got up this morning, it's as though the wind wanted ten inches of snow instead of one inch of snow, and is blowing it back and forth to create the effect of much more.  Staying inside today, there's cabbage and northern bean soup on the stove, flavored with herbs and a tablespoon of bacon bits (fake bacon), but you don't get a picture of that because, well, sometimes foods aren't photogenic.

But here's a great pic of some superman colored roving my friend Bev up in Michigan sent me, she does such a nice job when she dyes rovings

and here's a beautiful sweater, hand knitted from wool yarn, I rescued it when Pat and I were thrifting about three weeks ago.  It got three washings and draining out smokey waters grey with who knows what, then I refilled the pot with a green and yellow dyebath and it's soaking now:

so maybe I was able to salvage it, won't know until I rinse and dry it out.  There was extra dye left over so also shoved in a curtain that's being recycled for apron fabric, some more roving, and a printed pillowcase for sewing fabric that just was a little "meh" brown and cream and not exciting.  We'll see.

and that goldenrod-dyed wool?  here's some of it going round and round,

So staying inside with all my colors, Boo asleep on a blue cushion in front of white curtains on a snowy day, he's beautiful, but I don't want to disturb him by taking a picture so you'alls will just have to use your imaginations.  Peace.