spinning

Houston, We Have Lift Off!!!!

Nicky12 Comments

My Sunday morning devotional reading was devoted to the Proverbs 31 woman.  What stood out to me specifically:

13 She seeks wool and flax,
And willingly works with her hands..

&

19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hand holds the spindle.

What?!!!!!  Obviously my mind was not where it should have been.  Or was it? After reading how she rocked her distaff and her spindle, me and this chic right here, Ms Olga if you please, had to have a serious chat.

I had to set her straight and let her know that I too wanted to rock my spindle and distaff (that would be her).   After a brake band change to fix her uptake issues, and a test run on some commercial yarn to get used to feeding and treadling.  We moved from:

Seeing uptake with commercial yarn

Lift Off I

to getting impatient (despite my most sincere promise to practice only feeding and treadling for a week) and adding fiber … to end up with … dun, dun, dun …

IMG-20150630-WA0003

The skein is under spun, overspun, thick, thin, messy but deliciously mine. I have no idea what the fiber content is, it was given to me by the talented lady who taught me to knit (Monique R) but there’s no label.  I don’t even care about the fiber content.  What the resulting skein does is remind me that perseverance does pay off.   Now to set my Ravelry Tour De Fleece 2015 goals (I’ll be back on Thursday to tell you what those are).   I’ve already wiped down Ms. Olga and given her a good oiling and ready to go on Saturday!!!!   By the time those games are done (on July 26th), I want to be able to call myself a spinner.

After almost 2 years, Houston, we have lift off!  😀

Choices

Nicky14 Comments

This week, general life has been filled with interesting situations with opportunities to make well thought out, deliberate choices and my craft life has been no different.  Now that I have two spindles of similar weight — an Ashford and a Bosworth — I figured it was time for me to spin two braids so I could do a two ply mix.  But of course, since I have multiple options, I’m kinda stuck deciding which of the combinations I want to mix into my final yarn skein.

Choices

The top braid is an October House beauty — Falkland Combed Top, in colourway Lupine — I got for my birthday and the other two are Knitpicks Highland wool roving in Amethyst Heather (purple) and Wild Rose Heather (pink) I bought at last year’s Cyber Monday sale blowout.  Both are long staple length so I’m not worried about which way I’ll spin them, I’m going on right now about colour combination.

I’m thinking that the Amethyst Heather with Lupine would be a lovely contrast complementing the dark shades of purple in Lupine and highlighting the Lilac shades OR Rose Heather as a more muted option just blending into the mix and keeping the final plied yarn more spring like and light.

Now this is where you come in.  😛

Let me know through the poll which of the combinations you like:

And while you’re at it, would you consider making another choice?

I was contacted by designer, Maria Yarley aka ElegantEconomy on Ravelry, to help support a fellow knitter who’s been having a really tough time.  Maria created the pattern — Graceful Pullover — as a fundraiser for our fellow knitter.   The goal is 1000 sales by the end of November but if you aren’t in a position to purchase now, would you consider doing it in the future or at least adding it your queue, favourites or maybe sharing it with a friend who might have a sweetie this pullover would be perfect for?  However you decide to help, the choice is yours and very much appreciated!

photo credit: Misi Photo

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.

Albert Schweitzer