It’s only an intermediate stage but just yesterday I finished spinning the singles for this fiber:
I love it. Then I spent the whole afternoon winding it all into a ball for plying.
Dec 012011
without even realizing it. Here’s what I got in the past two days minus a pair of jeans that I’m currently wearing:
I think it might be spring fever.
Yes, I realized it’s mostly spinning stuff, and books, books on spinning even. So there is one book I need for research for the knitting class I want to teach next semester (“How to knit perfect fitting sweaters”), then one on color in spinning because I might have to take the dive and start dyeing fiber as well, there’s the next installment of the Foreigner series which I love very much, there is a new flyer and bobbins for my spinning wheels which will help me make very fine yarn (I hope), and then there is all that cotton and a new spindle which will help in spinning it because my equipment is more suited to spinning wool.
And all this stuff is making me really happy right now.
But I might better stop buying things for the moment.
Yes, I will write a real blog post at some time in the future, but this week I’m still in holiday mood. Yesterday I went to the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Munich and took a gazillion pictures. Mostly of textiles since I was there to look at their Mayan textiles exhibition. Since that only filled one room I went and saw a bunch of other stuff as well. Most of the brightly colored stuff is woven on a backstrap loom, something I’m a bit fascinated with at the moment. In fact I’, thinking about making one for myself. Then there are African things as well, made from tree bark, and something called Raffia (I had never heard about that before but I bet it’s some sort of bast fiber. (And I looked it up, yes, it’s some kind of palm.))
And I haven’t forgotten the blog or my readers or listeners, and I will wish you a happy new year properly next week.
Oct 302010
This is what happens when you stop doing project 365, and then you no longer feel guilty when you blog less than once a week, and then life happens, and – you know… You post a short thing about the crap you lug around every day, and that was that. Thanks for all of you ideas, by the way, maybe I will get a basket or tote, or something. Maybe I will just re-organize myself and put things back in time, and then I won’t have to carry all that stuff around all the time. I also had this vision of making a giant tote bag with extra pockets for the laptop, all the gadgets, my giant thermos, and a used mug. The idea was great, and I could use the expandable tote pattern and Lisa’s laptop bag pattern from her book “the bag making bible” and mix the two. Right after I have finished making the skirt, and a couple of spindle bags and a Kindle cover. Which reminds me that I have dowels and toy wheels sitting on my desk that I had wanted to make into drop spindles.
But then this is the first day of fall break (which lasts a whole week, ahem), and we’ll ignore the fact that it’s only two more days until NaNoWriMo, and that I still have to read through the first part of the novel I’m supposed to write the second part of so that I can make a list of things that happened, and people I wrote about. It would be especially nice to remember the spelling of my main character’s name.
I’m also currently doing a self-imposed round of spinning workshops. I suppose things won’t get boring any time soon, which is a good thing. I did take a few more pictures that I haven’t shown here, so get something nice to drink, lean back and let me show you what I did:
I recorded more podcast episodes:
I got out my sewing machine and made “treadle booties” for my spinning wheel. When folded the treadles tend to knock against the wheel which then leaves marks in turn. Majacraft recommends wrapping the wheel in a towel but that’s bulky and tends to slip.
My husband happened to run errands for once, and he remembered how much I love roses and got me these:
I looked around for pretty things to take pictures of and these were on my desk.
Trying to take another “artsy” picture, this is a table that my son arranged in his room.
I got a surprise package that was all wrapped up in Mozart galleys:
That confused me a bit because I have a friend who used to do research for the new complete edition of Mozart’s works, and that was what the package was wrapped in. It turned out that the package was a very belated birthday present that a knitterly friend had gotten for me in Scotland:
It is the most amazing roving. It’s from sheep that live on the beach and eat seaweed. They have a dual coats and the soft layer is gorgeous and really soft, and special. I might have to learn how to dye fiber for this.
I also spent a lot of time and energy finishing knitting projects that have been sitting around for up to a year. First, a new sweater (pardon the sweat pants):
Socks for my husband:
A shawl (another Damson by Ysolda Teague made from Drachenwolle):
Now on to my self-imposed (and self-taught) spinning workshop. I wanted to learn how to make really thin singles for lace because I have this gorgeous Blue Faced Leicester top that I want to make into a shawl. I started spinning from that top only to find that there is much to learn, and so I used something else I had sitting around. Here you see the fruits of an evening of spinning:
After two nights of this I decided to learn how to chain-ply it on the third night:
The pin in the picture above is a big pin but still, the yarn is pretty skinny. I know a lot more about spinning real thin now, I also think it might be a good idea to wait with the spinning of this until I can afford a lace-flyer and lace-bobbins. Not that they are a magic trick but I think they will make spinning lace yarn considerably easier.
I will go on and take pictures and post them here because I like it very much. I only stopped doing the “a picture a day”-thing because I have too many things I need to see to every day, and more often than not I was frantically taking a picture at 11.30 at night. Also my life is not very visually interesting, I sit at home all the time, and often when I do go out I forget to take the camera.
Oct 132010
I promised my podcast listeners to post pictures of my stash. (And this is all of it by the way, nothing hidden, all out in the open.)
First the corner in my bedroom that holds all the crafting books and most of the yarn:
Looking into those boxes:
The biggest box holds sweater yarn, the medium one is mostly dk and sports weight, and the smallest one holds most of the sock yarn. Then there is the drawer that holds mostly the yarn of works in progress. Also, miscellaneous sock yarn, notions, fabric and interfacing. There is more fabric stash elsewhere, I have a box with 3 meters of canvas in another dresser, and a box with 3 meters of denim up in the attic. On top of the dresser is a plastic bag with yarn for a hat and mittens for my husband, and several pairs of socks in use together with the library books. (Since taking the picture the socks have been washed, I have installed a dirty socks basket, the hat has been knitted, and the rest of the yarn has been put into the drawer.)
Then there is the small shelf above the bed that holds all my handpainted sock yarn. Also dictionaries. (You might note that there are way more dictionaries than sock yarn.)
In my studio there are some bins with spinning fiber. There is also another, very small box that holds yarn and finished projects that I need to take pictures of for ravelry. Don’t panic, the yarn fits easily into the drawer in the bedroom.
Looking at these I think that I might not have enough yarn in the house. What do you think?
Oct 052010
because I have been given a blog award. Winterkatze kindly presented it to me weeks ago, and only today did I read her post. As I usually did back in the days I tried to see where the award originated but I had to give up after being unable to find the relevant posts on several blogs. See, I was wondering why an award presented to me by a German book blogger had all these pictures of nail polish and shoes:
Well, I managed to follow it back to a couple of fashion bloggers but was unable to find it’s origin, sorry. Nonetheless there are of course rules to this award which are to tell you about ten things I like, and to name ten more bloggers for the award. I will gladly show you ten things I like but I won’t be tagging anybody, sorry, I have this feeling that I have done enough tagging for the moment.
Because I’m sadly behind with the posting of my daily picture I thought I’d combine the ten things I like with that (for the rest of my daily pictures please visit my flickr):
homemade tortillas with guacamole
watching my son sleep (this was a picture he wanted me to take, he is actually posing)
blue skies
knitting a new hat for my husband
roses
beer
me
watching my son read- fiber
- books
I promise. Every day I think about my daily picture in the morning, at breakfast or so, and then I keep forgetting about it or pushing it back until I have to take yet another weirdly yellow picture. I have tried taking them with flash but that will make them look even worse. Also doing this has given me the sudden urge to get myself a nice digital SLR camera. I own one that’s analog, and as much as I like it I never use it anymore. I used to really like my camera but it can only do so much… Or maybe it’s me after all, who knows.
I usually opt for accurate memory of the day over artsiness so that may be a factor as well. Here are the last few days:
On Wednesday I did a ton of stuff and went to IKEA all by myself. By car. I played “guess the right exit” being hindered by having a road map that’s about 15 years old and doesn’t show all those fancy new autobahns they have built since then. In the end I got there and back with a ton o new shelves and things, like you do. This is something for my “new” stereo (it’s one of many in our garage that have belonged to my late father-in-law). Ii all started with an offhand remark of mine that my speakers really are crap, after which a neighbor and friend of ours came over with huge, enormous speakers. I had to get rid of one of the smaller shelves in my studio for them. Then we found that the new speakers sounded awful with the amp I had, and my husband lugged another one over from the garage. The new amp (and pre-amp) didn’t fit into the old stereo’s home, so I got myself a new one. Came back home, had dinner, and put the thing together. Mind you, I had had my camera in my bag the whole day.
More shelves. Thursday was the day I had a dental operation to have a titanium screw put into my lower jaw. It was actually less painful than I had imagined it to be but I spent most of the day sitting in my comfy chair watching old Fred Astaire movies (as far as I know there aren’t any new Fred Astaire movies, it’s just that I went on a “musical from the thirties”-binge while icing my cheek). Meanwhile my son pestered my husband hard enough to make him put together his new shelf.
A miracle happened. The day before my husband had gotten my son to help him tidy his room and clean up! For the first time in months (if not years) not only can you see the floor, it has been vacuumed as well. Instead of de-cluttering I opted for buying a new shelf and bins…
On Friday my son and I went to the local library, and here you can see why he truly is my son. He even likes the same books I liked as a child. This pictures was taken while he started reading his first ever Dr. Dolittle-book. (He had read it all through by the next day, ahem.) Here’s my bonus shot, library shelves (yes, I know I have a thing with shelves this week):
As you can see in the picture I took today, new stereo finally in place:
It sounds magnificent, now I only have to get back into the habit of listening to music through speakers. These days I put everything on my ipod and listen to it while I’m walking but that doesn’t really work for all kinds of music, and I think I stopped listening to music because the sound was so awful before.
On a totally unrelated note, I don’t quite know what to do with the fact that a lot of you don’t understand a word of both my new knitting podcast and the accompanying show notes. Maypole alerted me to the fact that all she could (almost) understand of my last post was “click here” (well guessed by the way). If I start the show notes with some explanation in English the podcast looks a bit weird on itunes, like a German podcast with English show notes. Translating the show notes on the other hand is a bit peculiar as well since everything is out of context.
Anyway, the things I mentioned on the podcast – apart from what I’m knitting on right now – is modern sword fighting, something I took a class on some years back, that tries to merge medieval sword fighting techniques with martial arts training; NaNoWriMo, which I’ve written extensively about, a couple of knitting patterns, and the “World Wide Spin in Public-Day” website. Come to think of it, the only thing I linked to that’s in German is the sword fighting thing.
I hope mixing things up here on my blog doesn’t bother you all too much. Of course I could go and put my “pictures a day” somewhere else, and the knitting podcast still somewhere else but I’m not posting much as it is.
So please don’t get angry at me for posting in a weird language from time to time. See, there is dire need of a German knitting podcast. There are tons of them in English, and pretty amazing ones at that, but looking for a knitting podcast in German right now is like looking for water on the moon.
(And now I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to listen to a podcast in a language I don’t understand at all. I might have to try that out some time.)
Sep 082010
I have been taking a picture every day (except for once) but I was not organized enough to share them here. So, instead of leaving you with a huge post with 13 new pictures loading very slowly I leave you with a short post with another slideshow (probably loading very slowly as well). I hope to present pictures in a more timely manner from now on. Here are my last two weeks:
Aug 242010
I have gone on taking pictures for the project 365, only I haven’t posted them until yet. And here they are, we went camping, then back home, then off for a party (where my husband played with his new project for the first time), then back home, then we had guests, then we went to another party, and in between I finished spinning sock yarn. For now you’ll only get this as a slide show:
Aug 082010
I’ll be offline for a few days at least, maybe for the whole week. See you again after that. Oh, and wish us clear skies, please.
