Weekends are for Spinning

Odette and I have been getting to know one another. For instance, I've found we have something in common: we both like to be pampered. Odette likes the occasional spa day and oddly enough, hers involves massage oil, too! Her 3-in-1 doesn't smell as good as my coconuty oil does, though.

Also, she needs chiropractic adjustments. I discovered this while trying to get her to spin on the small whorl. I've tried it several times since Melanie so graciously lent her to me, and whenever I'd put the drive belt on the small whorl, treadling would become impossible, even with two feet. I tried loosening the drive belt's tension and loosening the brake's tension, both to no effect.

But then I noticed that one of the maidens was askew. I straightened it out, gave the bobbin and flyer a bit of oil, and suddenly she whirred away. Since then, I've noticed it helps a lot to put a dab of oil in the bobbin each time I change bobbins.


color is remarkably accurate; pink shot through with gold. It reminds me of sari silk.

Which is good, because the fiber I'm spinning--something called Cranberry Relish that I picked up at Spa--wants to be spun fine. And I have a ton of it, so I'm going to try triple-plying this time.



The reason I have a ton of it was because it was beautiful and quite affordable. I discovered once I started spinning why it was affordable. It has quite a bit of vegetable matter in it, and what are they called? neps? nops?, those too. And in places it is dirty. Like, ewwww, wash your hands after spinning dirty. But it is a lovely color and I have high hopes for it after it is plied and washed.

I've been pulling out the vegetable matter as I spin, but ignoring the neps? nops? (wasn't that a character in Watership Down?) and sort of spinning through them. So the final product will not be flawlessly smooth. But I would not expect anything I spun to be flawlessly smooth anyway, so I can live with that.

I've got three bobbins full, so tonight I'll start triple-plying. Keep your fingers crossed! I haven't exactly mastered double-plying so this does seem foolhardy, but it's rare that I have enough fiber to be able to do it.

In other news, Cammy has been feeling a little under the weather, so she's been coming to work with me on vet's orders, so I can keep an eye on her. Here she is, working girl:

And now that the babies are here, I figured Melanie would want her wheel back soon, so, after much consultation with the generous and wise Juno, I ordered a Majacraft Suzie Pro from The Fold (in case you're shopping, they're on sale until April 15th). It should be here by the end of the week. Huge thanks to Juno for sparing so much of her time to help me; I really appreciate it!

The Promised Picture Post

Sewing the fishies was a dilemma. As I mentioned yesterday, I had to overlap the fish slightly at their heads and tails to get them to sew up flat with no buckling. [Note: this is likely my fault, rather than the pattern's, as I didn't follow the pattern exactly.]





I wanted the seaming to be invisible, so I decided to sew with a needle and thread instead of yarn, because it would be easier to create an invisible stitch with thread, especially where the fish overlapped. For the overlapped parts, I used a basic running stitch. For the non-overlapped parts, the parts that lay neatly next to each other, I used a horizontal made-up stitch:



At that point, Americ*n Id*l was on three nights a week, so I managed to watch enough TV to sew up two rows of fish.



Then I tried sewing the two rows up, only to experience horror. Oh, the buckling! The buckling! As I mentioned yesterday, the two rows did not line up anything close to well enough. I realized some sort of buffer would be necessary and I started crocheting.

Sorry, Blogger is having photo issues this afternoon and refuses to load this picture right-side-up

I was going to put a crocheted border on each side of each row of fish, hence creating an approx. 2" wide buffer zone between rows. But as I went to sew up my two crocheted borders last night, I realized that the second row of fish was upside down. I had crocheted the wrong side of the fish. Well, not really wrong (I'd have to crochet that side eventually, anyway), but wrong if I wanted to sew last night.

And I did want to sew last night, and Dinah wanted to help:

See the disdain in her eyes?

So I decided to give it a go with only one crocheted border between the rows. I haven't gotten far (Americ*n Id*l was only a half-hour long last night) but so far I think it just might work.

Going Commando*

*which in this case means without a camera, not without undies!

I am not as talented an artist as Jackie, so I'm not going to draw my recent life for you, but it's been busy. Work is amping up for the spring (and that's where I do most of my blogging), and in my spare time I've had Town Meeting, a birthday and been somewhat under the weather. So I did sort of drop the ball, blogwise, but things should start to settle down a bit now.

There was some knitting and spinning while I've been out. My Town Meeting knitting project was a circular shawl not unlike the one Grumperina abandoned recently. I was jonesing for some lace, and found the Knitter's Magazine Shawl and Scarves book at the bookstore. In it, there's an idea for a circular shawl knit on progressively larger needles--the increased gauge causes the shawl to wrap around your shoulders better. I chose a doily pattern off the Internet to use for my shawl and ordered some Knitpicks Alpaca. By the end of Town Meeting, I had knit about 1.5 feet in diameter and was ready to start the first border.

I also began knitting the York sweater from Noro Knits for the hubby. While stutifyingly boring (k2, p2, repeat ad infinitum), it wasn't my choice for Town Meeting knitting because sweaters tend to be less portable. I started on the sleeves and have gotten about half-way up on those.

In the meantime, in the little time I've been home watching videotaped episodes of 24 and American Idol, I've been sewing up the fishie blanket for the demon twins. Who, of course, are here now, so I'm late. Oops. Anyway, the fishie blanket. Grumperina had referred me to another knitter who had had extreme buckling issues with her fishie blanket. I was planning on sewing it up differently, so I foolishly thought I was immune. Well, that's not entirely true--I knew there would be some buckling, because no human can possibly knit 50+ identical fishies. Really, so impossible. But never in my wildest dreams did I envision the amount of buckling I had. Like major frost heaves hit the fishie blanket.

[Minor digression for an old college joke. Guy trying pick-up line on girl: "Hey, what's your sign?" Girl's response: "Frost heaves on road surface." Need I explain that I went to college in Vermont?]

I wound up having to overlap the fishies slightly on either end in order to get them to lay flat. Then I tried sewing the rows up, but they didn't line up well enough to prevent more major buckling. So--wait, Maryse, are you still reading?--I broke out my trusty crochet hook and picked up and crocheted a 1" border on both sides of the fishie rows. I'm hopeful that 2" of crochet between the fishie rows will sort of blend out the uneveness. There may still be some buckling, but hopefully it won't be quite so horrific.

I promise pictures tomorrow so you can all see the, umm, innovative (there's a spin for you) way I sewed up the fishies. I should get some more crocheting done tonight so we can see whether or not it helps. The boss is on vacation this week, so while the cat's away, the mouse will blog!