selling my Ashford Joy

Since getting the Majacraft Rose, I'm finding I can spin on it longer and more comfortably than on my beloved Ashford Joy. Don't get me wrong - the Joy is a very easy wheel to spin on. There's just something about the angle that I sit at it that triggers my TMJ/fibromyalgia problems. I think it's the angle of the treadles. For me, the tiniest shift in body alignment can make a huge difference while other people wouldn't even notice or be affected by it. So the Joy has been languishing while I spin on the Rose and it really needs a new home.

Here's a pic of the complete package: the Joy double treadle with the padded carrying bag, WooLee Winder with six bobbins, the regular flyer with seven bobbins, and the paperwork for the Joy and the WooLee Winder. Everything is in like-new condition; it has been loved and maintained extremely well.

This pic shows it with the Ashford flyer.

All of the flyers and bobbins.

The wheel folds up...

and tucks neatly and compactly into the bag.
The bag has one large pocket inside the flap and two on the outside so there's lots of room to tuck in fiber and accessories.

I'd like $600 US for the wheel, bag, regular flyer and bobbins, and $300 US for the WooLee Winder and bobbins. If you take all of it, I'll take off an additional $50. Shipping extra. (I just scanned through the Blogger policies and I couldn't find anything against advertising on the blog. I hope I didn't miss something.)

pretty, pretty, pretty

I washed and dried the Lisa Souza blend of Spanish Moss BFL and Shave Ice Merino/Silk. It's just lovely! I got 2 skeins, each about 4 oz. (100 g) and 340 yds. I'm not sure what will be knit with it yet. I was stash diving with Darcie* the other day when she brought her wheel over and found more of each of these fibers in my stash. I had no idea that I had more of them so I guess it's a good thing to stash dive once in a while.

Well, our deep freeze weather finally let up and we are enjoying the mild weather immensely! I guess when you are forced to deal with weeks of bitter cold it makes you appreciate the normal temps that you might take for granted otherwise. Kind of like that old adage about hitting your thumb with a hammer to take away the pain of a headache.

Speaking of headaches, I've got one today. I think it was my own fault. I porked out on BBQ chips last night before going to bed and then I couldn't sleep for hours. I don't handle MSG well so that could have been it. Or I might have had really high blood sugar from the pig out. Or both. Anyway, the headache is my penance for gluttony, I think. That'll teach me.

* Follow the link to Darcie's blog and see her first handspun yarn knit up into a hat. My first yarn wasn't nearly as nice.

honkin' big socks - another Epilogue

Remember these?

They're Dan's Honkin' Big Socks which were completed less than a year ago. Dan only wore them in the house, mostly while watching TV, and only when it was cold outside.

This is what they look like now.
(Note to self: Don't knit socks for Dan unless the yarn has nylon in it.)

They are past the point of no return. I will use Yarn Harlot's method of darning socks and say "Darn!" loudly while dropping them into the trash.

Now I will continue to be a good girl and not go looking on the internet for sturdy sock yarn to make new socks for Dan. I will stash-dive for something suitable, likely a couple of skeins of Opal or Regia that can be doubled in nice co-ordinating shades. I'm not crazy enough to commit to knitting socks for those honkin' big feet with one strand of fingering weight yarn. Double-stranded will be enough work.

Wii (not so) Fit

So I've been a very, very good girl. I haven't bought anything yarny since the New Year - although I still got stuff in the mail from what I ordered before then, so it hasn't exactly been dry in that respect - and I have been trying to get to the Wii Fit as much as possible. Turns out that I'm pretty flexible and can hold poses quite well so I'm doing okay at yoga but, in every other Wii Fit venue, I Suck. Yes, with a capital Suck! I've never been an athletic person so this is not exactly the most exciting news around. But, turns out the Wii has a mean streak. If you suck, it tells you so. In fact, it asked me if I fall down a lot. Mean, I tell you. However, the meanness stays within the walls of my house so it's not too embarrassing and, frankly, it's pretty funny as long as I take it with a grain of salt. The last time something that derogatory was mentioned about my personal fitness, I was in high school gym class. Gym class in the '70s was not all about personal fitness for life the way it's supposed to be now. It was about the teachers focusing all their attention on the jocks and pretty much having to put up with the rest of us. Me, I faked injuries and skipped out of a few classes and don't feel in the least bit sorry that I did even though I never would have skipped classes in any other subject. I was straight-laced even in my teens.

In fibery news, I plied the Lisa Souza BFL in the Spanish Moss colorway with the Shave Ice silk/merino. It's so pretty!
I have two full bobbins of it - about 8 oz.
I gave the Rose a real workout plying these bobbins without a break. It's such a delightful wheel! I think I could spin anything on it with ease. My sister Darcie got her first wheel last week. I recommended the Majacraft Pioneer and it's a wonderful little wheel! It feels very much like treadling the Rose and all of the Majacraft flyers, bobbins, and accessories fit on it. She has a picture of it on her blog. She reports that she is spinning like mad and getting pretty good at it!

eau de canine?

Lynn left a new comment on the post "'Pet the Puppy' hooded scarf":

Very nice!!! But i have to ask, does it smell like dog?

This topic keeps popping up in Ravelry too. The answer: no.

I store the sheltie undercoat in a Rubbermaid bin with a bar of Irish Spring soap. Even though my dogs are very clean and live in the house, there is a bit of a doggy aroma in the undercoat by the time I get to spinning it. When I set the twist in the yarn, I skein it off of the wheel's bobbin, then drop it into a laundry tub of hot water (as hot as my water heater provides) and Eucalan, NO agitation. When the water cools off, I spin out the excess water in a salad spinner and hang the skein to dry. I've asked dogless friends to sniff the yarn and knitted garments, just in case I'm desensitized to the smell, and no one can smell dog.

I've been wearing the hooded scarf in this cold weather. Sometimes, when it's really cold, I wear the hood of my coat and wrap the doggy scarf over my face. The scarf gets wet from my breath and I still don't smell dog.

Maybe if you're spinning dog hair from outside dogs or really dirty dogs it might be an issue but I don't have a problem at all.

resolutions

So it's the New Year, 2009. Is it just me or do other people feel like all the brouhaha surrounding New Year 2000 couldn't possibly have happened nine years ago? That's almost a decade ago, for heaven's sake! I'm not exactly sure where the last few days went, never mind nine years.

We didn't seem to do much during the two weeks of holidays but the days flew by. Dan's back to school today so life will settle into the January blahs now. It's been freakishy cold here and we're all getting very tired of it. It's not unusual for it to be cold here in the winter but we don't usually get such a long spell of really, really cold weather. The temperature got up to -15 C (5 F) and it felt so much warmer than it's been; it's all relative I guess.

I'm not a big maker of New Year's Resolutions but I'm going to make a couple this year. You will be my witnesses and keep me accountable, I hope.

First, I will get more exercise. I'm not an active person by nature so it's really easy for me to entertain myself while being physically passive (knitting, spinning, reading, etc.). A new Wii Fit made its way to our house over the holidays and I'm going to use it.

Second, I'm going to drastically reduce my on-line shopping. I have a lovely big stash, 3 wheels, many spindles, full sets of knitting needles, lots of fibery books, and a knitting machine. There is no good reason to keep buying more of them; it's gotten totally out of hand. I'm not foolish enough to say that I will not buy anything more but I'm going to reduce my spending considerably. There, I said it.

So, here are pics of things that are new to me. I will enjoy them but will not let them spawn more of the same. These pictures will be the last to share for quite a while if I can stick to my resolution.

This is lovely merino silk from Zebisis Designs. It's such a pretty color!

I ordered this spindle from Zebisis too. It came with this wisp of silk. Both are very pretty.

This merino roving is from Sheepish Creations. Again, beautiful colors!

It came with these two samples: the left one is Romney and the right one is merino.

I bought this as a destash on Ravelry. It is Abby's Batt Club First Frost. I have never seen such beautiful batts before! It's merino, baby alpaca, and silk with a touch of firestar. Gorgeous!

I haven't accomplished much in spinning or knitting over the holidays but here are some update photos.

I'm almost done spinning the Lisa Souza merino/silk.

This sock has been my carry-along project in my purse for a while. It's almost done.

I'm dithering about the best use of the Buffalo Gold sock yarn. As you can see, I'm finishing up the gusset decreases on the sock on the left. Then I thought that I might rather have a pair of gloves. I have some problems with a Raynaud's Syndrome sort of hand issue and was thinking that really warm gloves might help. So I dug out the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd. I don't have enough yarn to do both socks and gloves so will have to decided which one to finish at some point. I'm not sure why I'm having so many second thoughts about how best to use the yarn.

Please send positive vibes our way for warmer weather soon!

'Pet the Puppy' hooded scarf

The wool/sheltie scarf is done. Dan calls it Harrison, as that's who provides me with the most and best undercoat. The newel post kindly offered to model it so I could take pictures.

I decided to stitch a bit up the side to make it a hooded scarf in the hope that this would be kinder to my hair style than traditional hats and hoods. We'll see. It's hard to achieve a good hair day when it's so cold outside.

I'm really pleased with the way the yarn bloomed. It has a lovely haze from the sheltie undercoat. I have a Rubbermaid bin full of sheltie undercoat and continue to add to it. What a treasure!

Christmas was the usual routine for us. We had my sister Darcie and her family here for supper on Christmas Eve, we went to her place for brunch on the Christmas Day, then to Dan's sister's in the afternoon to visit with his extended family, and finally back to our place for dinner. Dan's mom and Darcie's family (sans her husband Dallas who, unfortunately got sick to his stomach just before they left their place, poor man) joined us for a lovely turkey dinner delivered to our house at 6:00. There is a small diner/caterer here in Regina that works on Christmas Day. I started ordering our dinner from them about three years ago and will continue to do so as long as they're willing to work. It's such a relief to trot around on Christmas Day knowing that I don't have to scramble to produce a big dinner. We had a ton of food left over and, luckily, Dallas was feeling better on Boxing Day so they came for dinner again to help eat some of it. Of course, we were all spoiled with wonderful gifts.

I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas!

now this is smart

This arrived in today's mail (Canada Post is working weekends during the Christmas season). It's an Acid Dye Quick Reference Tool from Art Club on Etsy. Each of the Jacquard Acid dyes has been applied to wool in a consistent dilution and set. Then the bits of wool are organized by labeling and creating this swatch book. As it's hard to tell exactly how the colors will look after dyeing when you're applying the dyes, this should make predicting the outcome of a dyeing project much more accurate. Of course, each wool takes the dyes differently but this tool should be a very useful guide when combining colors as it is much better than the printed chart that comes with the dyes. Very smart.

a pretty picture for a snowy day

There hasn't been much in the way of blogworthy news around here. The weather is still cold and snowy. It's only been a couple of weeks of winter weather and I'm already tired of it.

I was sorting through some photos the other day and came across one that I had forgotten about.
This was a candid shot taken by a professional photographer at the Besant show in August when Austin was shown as a Special. I didn't know she'd taken it until I was looking over her candids the next day. Austin was in the ring, baited and stacked, when it was taken. I think it's just beautiful!

Can you spell C-O-L-D?

When people think of the Canadian Prairies in the winter they think -40 degree cold. We are in one of those cold snaps now. The current temperature is -29 degrees C (-20.2 F) with a wind chill making it feel like -39 C (-38.2 F). Here is the forecast right from my TV screen about an hour ago.

You know it's cold when....

the house cracks and groans as it dries out and shifts from any humidity in the vicinity becoming freeze-dried.

there are no puddles from melting snow on the boot tray by the back door. The snow is so dry that it doesn't cling to the boots.

when the dogs run out of time to do their business outside because their feet get too cold to stand on them.

when cars let out a sorry whine before totally failing to start.

when, if your car does start, it feels like you're driving on square tires until the friction of movement starts to thaw them a bit.

when you will wait hours for a cab or a tow truck because everyone's cars are cranky in the cold.

when rural schools close because the buses aren't running.

when city schools run anyway because they never close no matter the weather.

when you have to dress your children and yourself like the Michelin Man because exposed skin will freeze in minutes.

when poor elementary school teachers face days of squirrel-y children because recesses are cancelled and the kids can't burn off any energy. Feel especially sorry for teachers this week because the kids are also wound up in anticipation of Christmas and tired after Christmas concerts. I don't miss my classroom on weeks like this.

when sunshine is deceptive. Usually there are tiny rainbows in the air when it's this cold. We call them sundogs. They only occur when it's really, really cold. Cloud actually helps blanket the earth so clear weather is usually colder.

when there are great puffs of ice fog in the air from chimneys. This picture was also snagged from the TV at noon. It's a pic of the Legislative Buildings from the skycam downtown.

when there's small part of you that's happy that the cold weather is killing parasites that could cause your pets grief. One year it seemed that the vets were overbooked with dogs and cats with parasite problems in the spring and summer. My vet friend Jo-Ann explained that the unusually mild winter hadn't killed them off as usual.

when I'm knitting like mad to finish off the sheltie/wool scarf so that it can keep me warm when I'm outside with the dogs.

serendipity

Poking through my fiber stash the other day, I found some Lisa Souza Blue Faced Leicester in the Spanish Moss colorway so I started spinning it on the Rose. It's a pale, pale green with hints of pink in it.

Coincidentally, I've been playing with some other Lisa Souza fiber, merino/silk in the Shave Ice colorway. My hands hurt when I pre-draft silk so I pulled out the hand cards to see if it would make a difference. Did it ever!

What was this:

Became this:
Yummy mounds of fluffy cotton candy...

which I am spinning on one of the Bosworth spindles.

These two fibers weren't bought to co-ordinate but they look great together so I will ply them. Sometimes serendipity just takes over and it's a lovely thing.

I started knitting a scarf with the wool/sheltie yarn. I'm using Yarn Harlot's one row reversible pattern.
Spinning it long-draw was so worth it! It's soft and has a gorgeous halo.

Christmas socks

Socks for Dan's step-mom Jeanette: my plain vanilla pattern with Eye of Partidge heel flap, Socks That Rock mediumweight in colorway OmaDesala.

Socks for Dan's mom: my plain vanilla pattern, Opal Saphir 6-ply in colorway #78 that I bought from Little Knits last summer.

Almost all of my knitting this fall has been for gifts so I (voluntarily) took on a fair bit of deadline knitting. While I like giving gifts, I've decided that I don't like deadline knitting; it takes a lot of fun out of it. From now on I'm going to stick with fun knitting, at least most of the time.

necessity, invention, and all that

First off, here is the latest yarn off of the spinning wheel. It is 50% Rambouillet, 25% merino, and 25% sheltie. Every centimeter of it is long-draw woolen spun. I'm very proud of that. I think I'll make a scarf with it.

I finally finished the Christmas gifts I was working on. I made socks for Dan's mom and step-mom. Neither of them has a computer so I'll post pics when they're dry.

Last night I swatched the Buffalo Gold sock yarn. Then I remembered how much the yarn blooms when washed so I decided to wash it before knitting. The only problem was that I had already wound it into center-pull balls.

So I pulled out the skein winder and tried to figure out how to wind from the balls without having them fly all over the room. Ta da! An empty CD container with the middle spindle removed. I don't think I can take credit for this brainwave - I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere.
Now the problem was to keep it on its side and on the table so that I could skein off the yarn. I knew I needed to weight it down so grabbed a 5 lb. bar bell and laid it on the container.
It worked perfectly!
Buffalo yarn is very linty before it's washed and dried. I always wear a glove on my left hand when I'm skein winding so that I don't get friction burns on my skin. Here's the glove after winding this yarn.
The yarn will be much nicer after it is fulled. Here it is in a nice hot bath. I'll pop it into a lingerie bag and dry it in the dryer.

going there again

Canadian politics has turned into a gong show. For those of you who aren't familiar with the latest happenings on Parliament Hill, check out Yarn Harlot's blog posts of the last few days to get filled in. As usual she has been able to clearly and concisely explain how things work in our corner of the world.

My take....

Well, neither of the "Steve"s has earned my respect. The Harper one comes across as an arrogant frat boy (remind you of anyone) and the other just seems incompetent (blurry video while he was talking about being clear, and holding up network television because the video wasn't delivered on time, yeah, that inspires confidence). I'm one of the few western Canadians who would have been fine with a non-confidence vote. I'm an educator and have deep distrust bordering on fear of the Conservative government. However, I hope a cooling off period will be useful but I suspect that it will become a propaganda fiasco. The local newspaper, the Leader-Post has a regular humor columnist named Ron Petrie. He suggested in his column today that we should vote for him for PM.

I want to know where I can get the lawn signs.

eta: this explains this post's title

The Buffalo Salon

Purely out of curiosity, I added dyes to a skein of sportweight 90% bison/10% nylon blend to see how the dark natural brown color would take the dyes. I think it's a little like the highlights that I have added to my own hair at the salon.

Here's the result of the highlights treatment. I left the white tie to show where I didn't dye it so you can see its natural color.

These pictures were taken in natural daylight which really brings out the beautiful colors. It's not as pretty in artificial light.

The most amazing thing about this little trial is that I pulled the skein out of the crockpot in the morning, washed and rinsed it, then realized that there was no way it would air dry in time to take to the Buffalo Gold booth at Agribition the same day. So I put the skein into a lingerie bag and popped it into the dryer. I was very nervous about it. It's one thing to throw a knitted garment made from the yarn into a dryer but it's quite a different thing to take a chance on skeined yarn and I was afraid that I might wreck a very expensive luxury fiber so I checked on it a few minutes later. It was just fine so I tossed it back into the dryer until it was dry.

Wow. Not only did it not shrink but it was even more beautiful than before it was washed and dried. It was fluffy, lofty, and incredibly soft! We took turns cuddling it next to our necks at the booth that afternoon. This fiber is incredible!

Buffalo Gold

Every year, Agribition is held in Regina at the end of November. It's a large agricultural fair. This year, Buffalo Gold from Texas is one of the displays in the commercial exhibits. There is buffalo yarn, knit items, and fiber for sale. Buffalo Guy Ron (BuffaloGuy on Ravelry) is very nice and has a great sense of humor. I volunteered to take my Joy wheel and spin some of the buffalo fiber at the set up.

It's pretty amazing stuff. It's so soft and about six times warmer than wool. It wears very well and can go into the washer and dryer.

Here's the fiber:
Yummm.

I've been spinning very fine lace weight to make it last longer.
My sister Darcie is working there for the week and she has more pictures of the buffalo yarns on her blog.

The Rose

Santa came early for me. This was delivered yesterday. It came from Shuttleworks* in Calgary.

It's a new Majacraft Rose spinning wheel!

I love both of my Ashford wheels, the Elizabeth 2 and the Joy. They do a very good job of spinning. However, I was finding that plying was a struggle for me, no doubt mostly due to my fibromyalgia. So I did some online research to find out which wheels are easiest to treadle. One name kept coming up; you guessed it, the Rose. I feel very fortunate to be at a place in my life where I can indulge in the luxury of owning three wheels!

Here she is all set up with the flyer on the right.

Rose is very versatile - her flyer can also go on the left.

She comes with two whorls and two flyers for an amazing range of spinning ratios and options. Here is the delta orifice, no hook required.
The bobbins are very large, light plastic. I like them.

The support arm swings to one side and a handle pops up to carry the wheel. I wouldn't consider this a travel wheel though. It's pretty heavy and I've read that the lovely wood is somewhat soft so I'd be worried about damaging it by carting it around.

All in all, she's absolutely lovely! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some spinning to do....

*I highly recommend Shuttleworks!! Cal is great to work with, the prices are amazing (the Rose was about the same price (Cdn) as the best online price in the US that I found on the net - with the current dreary exchange rate of the Canadian dollar, you can't beat par), and the shipping is inexpensive and very fast (2 days)!

hail or snow, I don't know

When I took the dogs out this afternoon, tiny balls of ice started raining down on us. They were descending more quickly than snow does yet hail is not likely at this time of year. It was only heavy for a brief shower, then it stopped. I guess the temperature differences between the sky and the earth were conducive for rain to turn into ice but I really don't know what causes this.

Here's a close-up of the ice balls on the steps of the hot tub.