"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
- Barbara Bush, 3/18/03

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unemployed

general forecast: as of friday, that’s what i am, unemployed. people at work/school, kept asking me, well what’s the plan then? and i’d just grin and say nothing, nada, zip. for this first week at least, i plan to veg – get out silly movies from the library, spin like a mad woman, cook a lot, go sightseeing on the bus for hours, read a ton of books, and sleep sleep sleep.

specific forecast: today has been a jumble of ideas, feelings, pacing, exclaiming, worrying and so on – i hope the next two months aren’t this hectic. anyhow, something big is happening today, i’m holding my breath and crossing my fingers – will you do the same? i’ll explain what it’s all about tomorrow, promise, but for today, no jinxing allowed. just happy thoughts sent my way, please, and i’ll pass them on to where it’s very much needed.

ok, after all, some spinning – my first time with two new fibers: pygora and flax. the pygora was one of the quickest spins i’ve ever done, it practically spun itself. there was only an ounce of it, so at 2-ply, that means 47 yards, but still, what a dream! (oh, and the drink in that pic isn’t milk, it’s horchata – gotta love l.a., the only place i know of where they sell horchata right next to the orange juice and whole milk, yay.)

the minute flax gets spun into yarn, it’s no longer flax but linen. lovely, with 252 yards of it, made up of singles that were pretty darn balanced. it took about four hours to spin, seeing as how i have no distaff, which would have helped tremendously, and that i had to wet each strand as it went (to strengthen the fiber and smooth it down as well, give it a try). after spinning, as you can see, i boiled it for about an hour which did indeed soften it up just a tad. i absolutely love that this came from a plant, and i’m just itching to try nettles. hm.

p.s. you did hear the croc hunter died, right? :( absolutely sucks.

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posted 5 September 06 & filed under spinning, workwork

so much to do!

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i’m going to be posting a lot this week, i’m thinking. there’s just too much going on. so, for now, a quick recap of my awesome weekend and some links.

i went on a fiber retreat and this is what i brought back:
1) a felt hat (!) that needs some stiffening for the brim, some grosgrain ribbon on the inside as well, and maybe some bias tape on the rim to prettify the edges.*
2) two bobbins full of yarn-to-be-plied using janel’s lovely roving (colorway “leaf peepers”)
3) sunburn – on arms (hello, farmer tan!), nose, and scalp

there was a lot of laughing and talking with some fabulous women, good food, and incredible views. see francesca’s post for pics and such. a great time was had and it all passed way too quickly.

oh and yes, that’s my new hair. brown! with some reds, that you can’t see. and some blondes on the top, always fun. a smorgasboard of color. better pics later.

meow girl just posted about the same thing, though her husband did it a bit more cleverly. i just bought mine, and it’s clay, not real eggshell, but here’s my newly sprouting basil. isn’t it too cute? it inspired me to buy some other herb plants and seeds, though pics for that will have to wait.

now, some links:

~ have you seen stephen colbert’s speech at the white house correspondents’ dinner? it’s great and funny as can be. i love how the camera stopped swinging over to bush to capture his reactions after a bit, ha.

~ i don’t have a microwave, and though at times i miss popcorn-in-45-seconds and all that, in general, i feel happy not to have one in my home. here’s another good reason: check out what this science experiment showed when a little girl watered two plants, one with stove-boilded water, the other with water that was microwaved. shudder.[via path to freedom]

~ make your own salt! wow. [also via ptf]

~ the eat local challenge people started a book club, so especially for those of you who can’t participate belly-wise this month (and believe me, i understand, it’s going to be hard at times for me, i know already!), how about head-wise? (oh the new words i make up. don’t groan!)

i’m busy busy in my knitting – and anxiously awaiting some deliveries, yay. love getting mail. i’m about 60% done with madli shawl – 20 out of 31 repeats done, so with about a repeat a day, i should be done in the next two weeks.

tomorrow i’ll post my answers to the the eat local challenge questionnaire as well as some happy photos of local produce. bye!

(*in the photos, you see the felt hat on a hat form – “gambler” – from hatshapers.com)

comment [6]

posted 2 May 06 & filed under hungry, spinning

keeping busy

~ this friday i’m off to a fiber retreat – mostly spinning, but also felting and knitting and who knows what else. should be awesome. i have several pounds of fiber to play with and some great new spinning books, so i’m ready for the weekend. yay.

~ sometime next week, i’ll receive the yarn to start the urban aran (which for the longest time i kept calling the urban armor). cannot. wait. especially after seeing brooklyntweed‘s version. following the trend, i’m making it a cardigan and using elann’s peruvian highland chunky, for which i just happened to have a color card.

~ i’m about halfway through the madli shawl, but i plan on slowing down a bit since my hands hurt after an hour or two. mixing it up with the urban aran should definitely help, though.

~ i can spin woolen! all my yarn up to now has been worsted, which i like, but woolen is so light and fluffy and, more than anything, i just enjoy knowing i can do it. at least i think i did it.. ;) the lovely fiber was a gift from my friend rose, who i hung out with a lot last weekend. thanks rose!

~ got my hair dyed today. it’s darrrrrk. i like it. but it’s bound to lighten up a bit in the next few washes, so i’ll wait to post pics. quite a shock from the whole uber-blonde look i’ve had the last year or so.

~ my great fiber friend francesca just started a blog, fluffbuff – welcome! she’s very cool and has adorable cats, check it out.

~ along with a few other l.a. folks, i signed up for camp pluckyfluff this august. should be a ton of fun, plus i’ll come back making awesome yarn, promise.

~ my sister is pregnant again. yup, that’s right, she has an 18-month old, two 9-months, and is now a little over two months pregnant. can you say “crazy”?! of course, we’re all tickled pink. or blue. not sure yet.

~ i just accepted a mini-job proposal for the summer that has helped me go on a teeny shopping spree (i.e. the yarn, fiber, dyejob, and camp mentioned/pictured above).

once again, thank goodness for fiber and online friends, without you all i’d be rocking myself to sleep at night. off to read a good book and chill out, hope your wednesday rocks ~

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posted 25 April 06 & filed under urban aran

a story of a wheel

[uh, yeah, if you’re not interested in spinning wheels, this might be a tad boring. at least the pics should be somewhat entertaining ;) ]

last thursday, i received the message that my trapezing class was canceled for that saturday and though later i was happy about that since we had crazy rain weather, initially when i heard the message i was totally bummed. what to do with my weekend? i really wanted to do something different, get out of l.a., move around, see new things, something. i was just feeling all cooped up.

sooo, friday night i decide, huh! i sould drive up to solvang, a little town just north of santa barbara, and visit the spinning store there. i was pretty positive that i wanted a majacraft rose, and was saving up money to get one later this month. however, knowing that the solvang store was a kromski dealer, i justified the idea of driving 5 hours in one day by thinking that i needed to try a kromski wheel just to be absolutely sure.

i really didn’t think i would like any kromskis – i had read others say that it was too fidgety and too many knobs and just not very stable. but the logical part of me really wanted to like the wheel since, at half the price of the rose, i could buy a kromski today. anyhow, it was an excuse to touch wheels, fondle fiber (yeah, you heard me right), and just get out of town.

when i arrived at the store, the man there told me that they didn’t have any kromski castle wheels to spin on, only the prelude, one of their saxony wheels. i was crushed and felt pretty foolish for driving all the way up and not checking first to make sure they had practice wheels available. after a bit of chatting and some out loud wishing, he decided to go down to the basement and assemble a krosmki minstral for me to try out. yay!

then, twenty minutes of assembling, with me getting more and more excited – all of a sudden, i just had a good feeling about this wheel. now, for you non-spinners (hurrah to you for reading this!), no one wheel is perfect for everyone. really, the only way to know what’s best for you is to sit down and spin. with the minstral, as soon as my feet hit the treadle, i was grinning from ear to ear and laughing with happiness. always a good sign. after about two minutes, i knew i was going to buy the wheel and take it home with me that very day. total excitement!

and that is how i got a kromski minstral. since then, i’ve just had a total feeling of rightness about my decision, like it’s a continuation of all kinds of interests and styles i’ve been following my whole life. the minstral looks like it came out of a eastern european fairy tale, spins like butter, is solid as a rock, and is just a well-thought out , beautifully wood-turned tool.

[another day when my cameria is more accomodating, i’ll give you all a nice little tour of the wheel – it’s particularly clever with the storage of the extra whorlsthe use of, and the leather and hemp used replaces any need for plastic. i’m still trying to figure out the staining – initially, i wanted a rich dark walnut stain like my table, then i tried a fruitwood stain, as seen on the darker bobbin, but now the snow white-y-ness of the unfinished wheel is starting to seem right. hm, decisions decisions. also, yarn-wise, that’s about 250 yards of merino in each color, mostly worsted weight. all in all, this is the sweetest smelling softest yarn i’ve made yet. yayyayayayayayy. love my wheel. ]

comment [7]

posted 14 March 06 & filed under my wheel, spinning

spin span spun

first off, check out the brand new spinning magazine spindlicity! janel, one of our local l.a. spinners, has done a tremendous beautiful job. go ahead and look, i’ll wait. ;) there’s a lot of good stuff there – patterns, article and more, including an article by julia perfect for those who want to get into spinning but don’t know where to start. ..oh, and you might see some pics that look familiar in the reader’s gallery section, yay!

in the same spinning spirit, here are some photos from my last spinning rental, mmm. i love how this batch of yarn came out! definitely getting better at the spinning thing and i must say the majacraft rose is a dream to spin on – quiet as a mouse, no oiling in over two weeks of regular spinning, incredible rations, smooth treadling and very pretty to boot.

first off, the gorgeous red and orange roving that was from my stitch ya neck out pal bethieee.
and that’s not all she sent – see that cute handmade cat? she also sent the some pink roving that i wish i’d taken a close up of, it was the prettiest deep pink with this occasional creamy white stripe, so lovely. i was so excited when i got the package, i sat straight down and spun all the fiber up. in my excitement, i totally forgot to even thank her till now! bad me, very bad. thank you bethieee!!

some experiments were done here.. first off, the striped chunky yarn was my first try at spinning thick. some beginning knitters spin thick, some thin, and i’m the latter category. but i absolutely love some thick yarn i see (especially on the excellent live journal ‘spinning fiber’ community)
and so wanted to see if i could spin do it too. it was hard but all in all, i was really happy with the results. and honestly, i was squealing a good majority of the time i was plying, that was so very much fun.

then, some felted soap as you see – ta daa! that’s my soap i talked about a while back – it lathers beautifully, smells very clean ;), but was fugly as can be. so! felted soap it had to be. what a great great way to use up bits of fiber. i definitely will be making more of these, that’s for sure. chicas, if you’re reading this, these are my stocking stuffers for the family – cool, huh? ;) (ten points to anyone guessing which one was the first felted soap..!)

lastly, my pride and joy would be these low twist singles – first off, some hand-dyed superwash from a store in the valley, then slow careful treadling, excited winding on the niddy-noddy, and finally a gentle wash in the sink. ahhh! i love this yarn – and here, unfortunately, the limitations of the web really show, for this yarn is the softest and cushiest yarn there is. i’m biased, but really, it is. love it love it.

i’m once again(!) trying to organize my fotos, and so i set up a spinning album with finished pictures of all my yarn – including these here, check it out..

happy day, everyone ~

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posted 1 December 05 & filed under spinning

ketchup

two of my favorite jokes ever, proving the forever immaturity of my mind:

~ what’s the color of a burp? burple.
~ where do generals keep their armies? up their sleevies.

here’s some one photo for now, showing my mad spinning skillz, while i indeed play catchup to work, school, swap knitting, emails, laundry, and the such – i started thinking what pics to post and man, there’s too many. tomorrow for sure for sure i’m returning the wheel, so i figure i’ll do some last spinning tonight, and i’ll post a whole slew of pics this weekend. for now, this one sums up how i feel about my handspuns, and yes that entire basket is filled with them.

too many good links out there:

~ ten dollar sale for threadless tees, very tempting.
~ i’m determined to finally this year go to l.a.’s own bazaar bizarre..
~ especially now that i know jill bliss will be there. i love her stuff, and i’m liking a lot her new 2006 calendar (can you believe it’s time to already be thinking about 2006 calendars!?)
~ one day, i too will have a secret room [via absinthe knits]
~ for you book and techie lovers, check out the internet archive’s new open library, very very cool. try turning the page – it uses AJAX (for coding, not cleaning) to make it look so purty.

and lastly, a question regarding hair color: (more of the) blonde or platinum?

comment [11]

posted 17 November 05 & filed under lots of links, spinning

who knows where the time goes

last weekend, at the fiber festival, i went crazy and got a lot of stuff: three bags of roving from crosspatch creations, a “totally tubular tube” from three bags full and crosspatch creations, two spinning pamphlets by bette hocheberg (i love reading about the history of spinning and clothing and all that. by the way, if you like that stuff too, definitely check out ellizabeth wayland barber’s em_women’s work: the first twenty-thousand year_em, it’s excellent), and a handful of old ‘handmade’ journals from the early ‘80s.

unfortunately, since i got there later in the day, in time for the fashion show (very fun and some gorgeous weaved stuff), i missed seeing other online knitters, like mj and julia. though it looks like they got got some good spinning inspiration also, yay.

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and now some closeups of the yarn i made ;) the purple-and-yellow yarn is double plyed and the other purple-y yarn from the tubular kit was navao plyed, which i’m growing to love love as my favorite type of plying. i’m still working on consistency (who isn’t!) and the navajo plying tends to smooth that out a lot. plus it’s fun to do and there’s never leftover yarn. i’m still working on getting the perfect low twist single yarn..

the tubular tube fiber was really fun – you see it in these pics both still on the bobbin, and then all plyed up below. i highly suggest it for those that are just starting to spin and want to try a whole bunch of different types of fiber, prepared differently, etc etc. plus the color changes are very fun to spin and i absolutely love how the yarn came out. i’m thinking i have about 350 yards dk weight of the purple-and-yellow and around 300 yards worsted weight in the purple, maybe more.

and some random links:

~ greatest 100 internet moments according to one guy

~ randomaccessmemory.org, i can get lost in this kind of thing for hours

~ knowing what you want, been on my mind a lot lately

~ good use for singles and also for trying out beads and lace..

~ check out the winter interweave knits preview – looks like an awesome issue, especially the mulaks, ‘brilliant retro’, and the b-colored cables top.

any guess on the title of this post? [..insert jeopardy theme..] if you guessed it’s the title of the song by fairport convention, sung by sandy denny, go you. this song has been haunting me, i woke up the other morning with it in my brain and the beauty and sadness of it has not left me since.

have a great weekend, everyone.

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posted 11 November 05 & filed under spinning

picture overload

hi. it’s friday, so i decided to post a ton of pictures, hoping to entertain you on this last day of the working week (yeehaw).

first off, meet slim, bubby’s cousin. unlike cuddly roly-poly laid-back bubby, slim is a little older and, so, a little more worried. he’s also a bit scrawny and has a sprained left ankle – hence the swelling you see (ahem). he is destined for my sweet niece kiyra and hopefully she will make him a happier bear. (more info on slim’s project page)

black sheep knittery, a good lys – though usually too pricey for me, recently had an enormous sale, with a ton of really great yarn for $1-3 a ball. i went and shopped my heart out (what a weird phrase, now that i’ve typed it..), buying maybe $250 of great yarn for $50. the kind of sale you dream about (silly me, what dreams i have!)

the haul: eight balls of lana grossa’s 100% merino royal tweed, eight balls of some GGH cotton tape, one ball of GGH java – i love that yarn – and lastly i snagged some old R2 paper skeins in a pretty green.

then, when i got home i decided to take a good hard look at my stash – and nope, this isn’t all of it, but probably half of it (gulp). i frogged a number of items – it felt so good, just riiiiip, you know? i even tossed out one, just put it right in the trash – the stitches were really reluctant to part with each other – and it felt good.

i’m also finally accepting that i’m becoming one of those purple people – i love purple! really though, i think it’s red’s fault – i truly love red, so much that i’ll take it in any of its various forms, however distant, i.e. pink, burgundy, rose, lilac, purple, etc.

until that day, when i took a good look at the yarn i had, i hadn’t been knitting much at all in weeks – partially because i was traveling, the weather was too hot, my mood was bad bad, but also partially for reasons i couldn’t figure out. i was worrying, maybe this knitting thing for me is slowly ending, that my enthusiasm is just going going gone?

now, i’ve realized, i was just feeling overwhelmed with all the knitting stuff i had accumulated – especially all the unfinished projects that i just wasn’t crazy about. i’ve slowed down my yarn-buying these last four months or so, and am now only buying on sale and only getting enough to actually make something, i.e. at least four balls, in general.

that same weekend, i went to my first spinning guild meeting – it was great. i was all nervous and shy, but the women (and a few men) – about twenty-people – were really welcoming and sweet.

they brought in a professional storyteller and we all sat there either spinning, carding, fluffing, knitting, felting, etc. etc. while he “spun yarns”. ;) i got to try out three more wheels – a lendrum, a journey wheel, and a reeves. and one very nice women gave me this basket of, as she called it, “sacrificial fiber”, i.e. for any newbies who came to the meeting to practice spinning.

i’ve learned i don’t mind double drive wheels, that i do in fact prefer double treadles, and that while i’d be happy with any sort of wheel, i love the classic look of older castle wheels. that is, the lendrum is a great wheel with amazing ratios but the look, for now at least, a little too modern for me.

i’m hopefully going to try out a majacraft rose some time this month, and i’d really like to see a kromski in action. one thing for sure, as much as i like – and miss! – the ashford traveller i rented, the way bobbins are taken off worries me more and more – it’s just plastic! – versus on other wheels, it seems to be done much more thoroughly, with wood and hinges and sturdier material.

then, here’s some yarn i discovered while sorting through my stash (!). when my mom came to visit me back in march, she brought me some yarn from bolivia! 100% alpaca in various weights and colors – here, i skeined up the buttery worsted-weight white alpaca.

i’d love to make a hot lava with it – a la winnie’s gorgeous white one – but i’m such a wuss, alpaca makes me itch like crazy. but the cats go crrrazy over the alpaca smell and that’s always good for a laugh.

then,like a month ago i happened to spy at a local very-expensive-and-very-snooty yarn store (coughwildfibercough) in their 50% off section some brand new ashford hand cards. i couldn’t believe the price but they said yes it was 50% off and then asked me what hand cards where used for – one sales lady said “oh, that’s for felting, right?” ha.

(hey, if anyone else wants some, just write me.)

last but not least, christine’s bevin tank top pattern – i love me some lace! and this top came out so cute – except for the fact it’s three inches too short! once again, my powers of self-recognition fail me – this is like the third top i’ve made that is just way too short. so frustrating. it only took a few days to knit, and the yarn is really fun to knit with, so i’m hoping this frogging and re-knitting won’t be too sad.

and there you have it, folks – a truly fiber recap of the past month. this is what’s helped me just deal with these last horrible angry sad weeks. i know i rambled a bit – hey, i’m lonely – but if you lasted this far, lemme just say you are sweet and patient. yes, you are.

p.s. didn’t realize it, but my fotos section was down for a while so i decided to just overhaul it for good – i’m still working on the styling, but it should at least work now.

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posted 9 September 05 & filed under slim, spinning

returned my wheel yesterday, sniff.

i’ve been thinking about this for a bunch of days now, and it certainly shouldn’t come as any surprise: i want a wheel. real bad.

i don’t feel right buying one right now – i’m too disorganized and anyway, august is going to be so busy, i won’t have a lot of time to spin then, so i’ve come up with good solid three pre-requisites before i can buy a wheel.

1) try out at least five different wheels. so far i’ve spun on:

i really want to try out a majacraft, a kromski, a louet, and a lendrum (thanks deb). i’m not really interested visually in a louet, but people seem to love them. i think i prefer castle wheels to saxony wheels, plus space is definitely an issue. i haven’t tried otherwise, but i’m digging the double treadle, single drive wheels. with that said, any suggestions/tips on buying a wheel from you spinners out there?

2) get rid of stuff. i have wayyy too much stuff – and as i mention all the time, my apartment is teeny, so the packrat in me shudders, but i intend on selling/donating some of the following:

and the real kicker:

3) no fines whatsoever for 60 days. this includes:

i’m horribly bad at getting fines. i was doing some budgeting last week – ack! horrible! hated it! – and i saw that 8% of my income in june went to fines. 8!! ay…. so. i decided if i do get a fine, i can’t get a wheel till 60 days from that day. hopefully this will help me get a grip on fines, cause i’m obviously out of control with them, yikes.

ah, and that’s the list. i feel good about it – a spinning wheel is most definitely a worthy prize to look forward to.

p.s. the top pic shows the results of my handspinning for two weeks. i’m knitting up a scarf (merino – in this weather! crrrazy) using this stitch. also, i’ve started a journal detailing my handspinning progress for all the various yarns i made. the close-up pic shows some olive merino that was pretty evenly spun, yay. the last pic is the best of my handspinning -it’s superwash corriedale, only four oz., and i got two skeins of a little more than 120 yards each, plus a smaller skein of 30 yards or so (gotta figure out how to ply all the way through bobbins at one stretch), and a teeny skein of singles and some navajo-ply that i tried out. the yarn is totally balanced (hoorah!) and so super soft, i love it.

comment [16]

posted 24 July 05 & filed under spinning

uh oh

i don’t want to give it back.

i went from this…

to this…

awesome, huh?! and it was so. much. fun.       gulp, i’m in trouble.

p.s. i’m meeting with joy and winnie today – yay! and i have excellent aunty news, just waiting for some pics so i can do it properly ;)

comment [12]

posted 20 July 05 & filed under spinning

july is just flying by

hey there ~

pictures from hanging out with my sisters are up – leave a comment here if you like them. shoot, leave a comment anyhow! i’m sending a link to this post to my sisters in a attempt to get them to start blogging, so i want them to see the power – and addictive tendencies! – of blogging. and yes, that’s a lot of makeup on my face, i know, it was totally fun.

i’m plying like crazy – hence the pic (from left to right: my first drop spindled singles, my first wheel-spun singles, and then my pride and job, my first wheel-spun 2-ply skein – i’m such a proud mama.) and boy do i love the internet, so much great content for free. here’s the bestest of the bestest, or at least what i found so far ;), of spinning online:

i want to make felted soap badly. i’ve had a soapmaking kit for years now – wonder if it’s still good? – and this seems like a perfect segue. heide made some, and don’t they look pretty?

there’s so many good spinning books out there, and one that seems interesting, though i’m less interested in knitting really crazy yarn than spinning it, is pluckyfluff. they even have a camp going on later this year. as much as i like the crazy stuff, i really want to be able to make yarn that looks picture-perfect – shoot, i want it all, you know what i mean?

have you heard about the august eat local challenge? liz writes about it very very persuasively. here in l.a. we’re lucky to have a ton of really great farmer’s markets that i used to go to on a somewhat regular basis. many a time i’ve toyed with the idea of getting local organic produce delivered to my home on a weekly basis, but i always backed off.

last but not least, how’s my no-refined-sugar week going? good, though i’ve had one very guilty transgression: tofutti’s delicious cuties ice cream sandwiches. they’re so good and i was just craving like mad and it was midnight, in my own self-defense. i may have had other transgressions, too – i haven’t been as vigilant as i should – but in general i’m being good and reading labels and cursing high fructose corn syrup’s name. typical me though, instead of researching what i can or can’t eat and shopping for healthy food and all that, i just end up eating less than i usually do. so lazy! i have had a large amount of delicious ratatouille with rice, and some great tofu & broccoli sandwiches, though, so it’s not been too bad.

i have some knitting disappointments but i don’t feel like brooding so i’ll deal with them later and not bother you all, for now at least. have a great weekend everybody ;)

p.s. harry potter day! i’m holding off for a few weeks till i can get it super cheap – it’s all good, the anticipation will just be that much stronger.

comment [11]

posted 15 July 05 & filed under spinning

the beginning of something big

or rather the middle of it, maybe. i’m talking about fiber, about yarn, about cloth, about textures and colors and warmth, oh my.

i love their gate and fence - it's not clear, but the gate is a spider and her web. the fence is a series of shuttles ;)

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the beginning was years ago, when i started getting really really into weaving – not that i did any, i just devoured book after book about weaving, cardweaving, rughooking even, loom weaving, everything. (though they might have forgotten about it by now, i never will! hee.) ultimately, i did some card weaving, sighed over looms, read desicriptions of week-long classes at the mannings and ultimately decided to devote more time to book-making, which is also fiber-related and, most importantly, cheaper.

then, about a year and a half ago, i watched amanda start knitting and just like that i got bit finally by the persistent knitting bug. so i started and that was that. or so i thought. but now this spinning thing – hmm, it’s worrying me. it’s making me think i’m going to go just hog-wild with fiber. and the word fiber just hasn’t ever, and still doesn’t, inspire a whole lot in me. it’s just not the prettiest word. but spinning? and spindle? and treadle? and roving? ah, beautiful words they are, making me feel like i’m in a fairy tale, or involved in magic, which just sucks me right in.

for others, the sign that one is truly into spinning would be the buying of a wheel (or dare i say, multiple wheels) and stocking up of roving. me, i’m already looking at attending SOAR, Spin Off’s Annual Retreat – not this year, but maybe next year or the year after. call me crazy but first read this review [from knitters reivew] and then call me names if you wish.

me? i just want to dive in with both feet – the class was amazing and, for anyone else in the so. cal. area that wants to try spinning, i can’t recommend more highly the weaver’s cottage’s classes – as well as cheryl ambrose, the teacher. she was excellent, thorough, patient and just so sweet. i’ll definitely be back and for now, i just can’t stop staring at this beautiful traveller wheel – it’s mine for a week!

comment [9]

posted 9 July 05 & filed under spinning

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