What is it?

Can you guess what this is? 

Here's a hint: It's in my fiber studio. I'll let you think about it for a minute. Yesterday was a busy one. While the husband took our youngest to see the latest installment of 'Sherlock Holmes', I stayed home to catch up on some chores. It's amazing how quickly the dishes pile up, even though there are only 2 people to cook for. And then there's the laundry. There is a lot less of it, now that the kids have moved out on their own. We had a little bit of sun so I hung my shirts out in the yard. That apple tree gets a lot of use as a drying rack.

Of course the shirts didn't get completely dry but it was still nice to be out in the fresh air. I also had a large amount of beer bottles to clean. (I truly am the chief cook and bottle washer). The guest bath tub comes in handy for this task. I am very particular about the cleanliness of my bottles. I first soak them in bleach water, then wash them with PBW. Right before bottling they are disinfected in an Idophor bath.

There's no fabric to show off, today, but I did get a package containing the following items. These will be used in weaving.

I have been wanting a McMorran Yarn Balance for years but never found one in my local shops. I also bought a warping paddle and an OOP warping book from this same Craigslist seller. OK, are you ready to guess what that first picture was of? Did you guess "spinning wheel cozy"?

Singha says you are WRONG. It's a cat tent. And yes, it is very cozy.

Social Butterfly?

That's what I felt like this weekend. Saturday we had lunch with friends and Sunday evening we were invited to a dinner party. Our social life revolves around our pipe club and what a rich cast of characters we're exposed to. One of the guests at the dinner party was Neill Archer Roan. Even the pipe world has its rock stars and Neill is one of them. (Neill will also be the guest speaker at the annual Seattle Pipe Club Dinner on January 28, 2012). Also in attendance was our own Gary Schrier who's book 'Confessions of a Pipe Man' was featured on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. You have to watch the clip. It's hilarious. Especially if you're a pipe smoker. Click this link to go to Pipesmagazine.com web site then scroll down to watch the clip.

After that busy weekend I've been dragging a bit. I am still in a transitional state having not quite settled into retired life. I am focused on weeding out clutter from my house, getting my sewing room and fiber studio in order and making time each day for weaving and/or spinning. I have wound the warp for my second project (mini pinwheel place mats) but haven't warped the loom. I've been spinning, instead. I moved my Norwegian style wheel, Gudrun (named after my step-grandma), down to the living room. This way I can multi-task when I have the urge to watch T.V. I managed to get this much spun yesterday.

I'll give Gudrun a proper introduction in another post. Meanwhile I've been sidetracked with a new obsession, trying to acquire an older model sewing machine. One with an all metal body and gears. I have a line on a Singer Style-O-Matic 328. It has a cabinet, the manual and attachments (including decorative cams). If all goes well I'll be dragging it home this weekend. I haven't seen it and have no idea what condition it's in, but it is free, so the price is right. Speaking of free sewing machines, I've also been given this poor grimy serger.

Its been abused during it's life and is of dubious value. I have no idea if it even works. I'll have the husbeast look it over and make sure it's safe before I attempt to clean it up and see if it's operational.

My Plan To Get My Groove Back

Since closing the yarn shop I've been on a hiatus from knitting and all things fiber related. I used to be passionate about spinning and knitting but once you turn that L-O-V-E into another four letter word, W-O-R-K, it can suck the desire right out of you. Instead of creating something because you WANT to, you do it because you HAVE to. It's not the same. But how to get that passion back? I know...I'll make something from the ground up. I have a garage full of fleeces. I can scour and spin those and knit a sweater. Something I've always wanted to knit, a Cowichan style sweater. I have a pattern (somewhere) for one with a Thunderbird design. One of my favorite cars is the T-Bird. I use to have a '64 Bird but sold it to finance my yarn shop. That and my '54 Hudson Metropolitan. Ugh. I miss my classic cars. But anyway, back to my project. I went to the garage and grabbed the first black plastic garbage bag of fleece. I had no idea what was inside. This is one of the fleeces that a fellow gave me. That's right, FREE fleece. I opened the bag to discover a lovely silver gray fleece. There was a piece of paper in the bag with a name written on it. Rosie. That was the sheep's name. Obviously a ewe. And what a big girl she was. This fleece is huge. It looks to be a cross of maybe Romney and Lincoln. I adore gray fleece. So many possibilities. You can leave it natural, lighten or darken it by blending with another natural colored fleece, or over dye it. Gray fleeces dye up so pretty. Here is Rosie's fleece which will become part of my new sweater. It wasn't skirted but I couldn't be bothered. I wanted to scour this fleece, and I wanted to do so NOW. I picked off the good bits and scoured up about 1/4 of the fleece. Here it is drying.

And after being picked open, by hand.

This loosens up the fibers,

preparing them for carding.

Since I want to totally immerse myself in this project I am going to do everything "old school". I do possess a couple of drum carders, which would speed up the process but I am going to use hand cards, instead. Here I am carding the wool, which straightens and aligns the fibers so they can be spun.

Once the fibers are carded they are rolled up into rolags.

And here is my basket full of prepared rolags, all ready to be spun into yarn. And the remainder of the scoured fleece that is yet to be carded. Now to get some time to spin. Maybe tomorrow?

A Gorgeous Sunday

The weather couldn't be nicer. Sunny and warm with just a bit of a breeze. My favorite kind of day and it's even better when it falls on one of my days off. The past 2 weeks have been incredibly busy. I have hardly had time to think, let alone get much accomplished. I have so much work to catch up on, but I also want to relax a bit and recharge my batteries. I took advantage of the sunshine and got a couple loads of laundry on the lines. And I intend to pull some weeds, but right now I am going to relax and write this blog post.

The bees have been enjoying our current nice weather. They are coming and going from the hive all day long. The apple tree is right next to the hive and I'd hoped to catch a picture of one of the girls on an open apple blossom. I stood still, camera ready. I stood, and I stood. There are literally thousands of bees, not 6 feet from the tree. You'd think one of them would land on a flower. Nope. That's not to say they weren't landing on the tree. But they seem much more interested in the leaves than the blossoms. I had to settle for the picture, above. Here's one of her sisters, near a blossom. That's the best they would do.

They have finally drained the sugar water from the entrance feeder. I'll refill it this evening, and add another jar feeder to the inside of the hive. I want to make sure they have plenty of energy for pulling out comb. Here's a gratuitous hive shot.

Some of you know that one of my chickens, the lovely Laverne, has been feeling under the weather. I suspect she may be egg bound. I have done everything I can for her. Warm sitz baths in the tub, with soothing back rubs. Mineral oil enemas (which she really didn't appreciate). She seems to be feeling a little better, so I am cautiously optimistic. Only time will tell. I've seen chickens bounce back from worse but I won't breath easy until a little brown egg comes down the chute. She's been going in and out of the coop all day, acting like she wants to lay. She even did her celebratory "I'm gonna lay an egg" clucking. Still no egg, though.

What else do I have to share? Oh, I know. The husbeast took me out for lunch to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Vien Dong. I had some shrimp fried rice and, since it was such a warm day, I decided to try one of their juice drinks. It was a Chin Chin Peach Juice Drink and it was A-maz-ing!!! I am not a soda drinker, and I find water quite boring. Drinking more than a couple of beers a day isn't good for me (or my bladder) so most of the time I am dehydrated. I think I found my refreshing drink of choice, today. After lunch we ran across the street to the East Asian Market, found someone who spoke English, and had them direct us to where the boxes of Chin Chin could be found. I am the proud owner of a 24 can (23 left) case of Peach Juice Drink. The ingredients? Water, peach juice, cane sugar and citric acid. That's it. Yum!

I also forgot to share one of the gifts I received from a customer as a retirement present. She had bought the fiber and dyes from me, and this is what she produced. Doesn't it remind you of spring flowers? I'll spin it up once I get a bit of spare time.

And finally, I had the husbeast tote 2 of the tall Billy Bookcases home, today, and I will commence to filling them up. I better get off this computer and get a move on.