great wheel plying continued

I'm finished, all that remains are the empty quills.

For the most part, the lazy kate I made for the Great Wheel is functional..but it is not without it's quirks. It needs tweaking. I ran into problems with removing and replacing the cops. It was humorous to me that my husband noticed this before I even started plying, and warned me that I should make adjustments to the kate, least I run into troubles. He is not a spinner, but I suspect that he watches me and observes what I am up to when I'm not looking. The kate will have to be modified before it works properly.

It was not just the lazy kate that gave me trouble, sometimes it was the original construction of the cops. Several of them would snarl on themselves as I would unwind. I expect that with more practice, I will perfect my cop construction. Now that I know the size and shape that is desirable for plying, I will know what to shoot for when I am spinning. Being self taught has many disadvantages and time is lost on trial and error activities, but there are always lessons learned.

Once I filled the spindle with the plyed yarn, I released the tension on the drive band from the wheel, and wound off directly to the nod. I then washed the skeins and blocked them to dry.

Stats... Romney wool roving from Two Wool Crazy Ladies, one pound purchased at Endless Mountains Fiber Festival September 2007 ($28.00)

approx 1250 yards per pound of a soft woolen spun yarn with a wpi of 12 to 14

It is impossible to figure an accurate tpi..my plying is very inconsistent at this point in time (as is the overall yarn!)

Not sure where this yarn is going from here...I think it needs to marinate in my wool basket for a spell....

walk with me wednesday hawk

Yesterday, a hawk came to visit. The blue jays announced his arrival. He was not hunting. He perched in the bushes.

I could not identify him/her. Sharp-shinned, or Cooper?...can you tell?

I took only two photographs...choosing instead to watch and listen. It is not every day that a hawk flies into my life, and I need to pay attention.

finishing up

I've been plying, skeining and finishing the last of the bobbins from the pound of Romney that I spun on the Great Wheel.

I decided to block the yarn while drying. I use a pair of antique wire sock forms for this method....although there are a number of things you can use that will do the trick. Whenever I hang my skeins, I always remember what Katy Turner suggested....

A convenient blocking method from Katy Turner: "The skeins are suspended between two dowels or sticks. The upper dowel is hung from a clothesline, chairbacks or shower rod, and the lower one is weighted with plastic bottles containing water or jogging shoes. Not your own, somebody else's, because they get wet."

wwmw as slow as molasses in january

I'm slow this week. I'm only just getting around to taking my Wed walk on a Thursday. But everything slows down in January...even the molasses. Is that because most of it is gone from the holiday cooking...leaving only the dregs in the bottom of the bottle to slowly make their way to the spout? Or is it due to the cold?...the cold is returning you know...

you can feel it on your fingers, and your face, it sets your cheeks to stinging. it can make a body shiver..... toes tingle.

The interval is over. I can see the cloud of my own breath again. It is January, and things are slow. Even as I walk, my pace is slow and deliberate. A slow deliberate walk through the rest of winter. I don't mind it. In fact, I'm pretty OK with it. The tide has turned, even though it does not feel like it today. We are gaining light daily. And that is good enough for me. It has to be...it's going to get cold again.

take 2, they're small

This past weekend, we had some old friends come to stay for a few days. It was great to see them and get caught up on what has been happening in their lives. They have 2 large dogs that they brought with them, and we enjoyed their company as well.

But, chickens and dogs don't mix and our chickens were not allowed to free range for a few days. They were all confined to the run and the henhouse. When I went to check on things late Sunday afternoon, I found that the Banty hen had started to lay! There were four nice green eggs! I always wondered if her eggs would be green or blue. Sometimes, you can tell from the color of the earlobes...see?

Banty hens are smaller than a standard size chicken. In the photo below, the larger chicken is a standard Cochin rooster, the two smaller chickens standing next to him are the banty rooster and banty hen. They are Aracuna's. Both breeds have feathered legs.

The banty's arrived here this summer, they were a gift from happyacres. I wasn't sure if they would get along with the bigger chickens....I was afraid they would be bullied. But everyone seems to have established a pecking order, and they are doing fine. In fact, I am enjoying the smaller size. They take up less space...make smaller droppings..eat less...but most of all I love the small size eggs! Two of them are equal to about 1 regular egg. Visually, one egg is about the size of a teaspoon.

I wanted to taste them. Very fresh eggs are good if you would like to have coddled eggs. I don't make them very often, but now and then, on a frosty morning, a coddled egg with toast and black coffee is comfort food. Coddled eggs are tricky to make. You have to make them "just right".

"Eggs are very much like small boys. If you overheat them or over beat them, they will turn on you and no amount of future love will right the wrong." Irena Chalmers.

Ice Queen Version A

So it seems that my snowman was able to execute his duties to such perfection that it lead to his own demise....never fails.

And, as I suspected, with the January thaw, I was able to finish a knitting project. I give you Version A of the Ice Queen.

Try not to notice the placement of the beads...I was using artistic license and not following instructions to the letter..

.... (actually, I wasn't working in good light, and failed to notice that the pattern has 2 different colors for bead placement...and the small print instructs you as to which row to place which bead)..no matter....

I will pay closer attention while knitting version B. I have started working with Judy's Alpaca/ Silk yarn...and it is lovely.

Like water flowing through my hands. The beads are foil lined, and provide a nice contrast with the dark blue yarn. Version B includes many more beads than Version A. The beaded picot cast on took me the better portion of the evening, but once that was finished, the pattern takes off and speed picks up....now if the weather will hold....

Great Wheel Plying

"The art of spinning was an honorable occupation for women as early as the ninth century; and it was so universal that it furnished a legal title by which an unmarried woman is known to this day. Spinster is the only one of all her various womanly titles that survives; webster, shepster, litster, brewster, and baxter are obsolete. The occupations are also obsolete save those indicated by shepster and baxter—that is, the cutting out of cloth and baking of bread; these are the only duties among them all that she still performs." written by Alice Morse Earle in the year MDCCCXCVIII

Yesterday was Rock Day...or Saint Distaff's Day, if you please.

I did return to my wheel. I finally made myself a Lazy Kate to hold the bobbins from the Great Wheel. I really needed something that would hold them, not only for storage, but for plying.

Up until now, I have been plying my Great Wheel spun yarns on the Ashford Traditional wheel. It took me a little time to find out how to do it correctly on the Great Wheel. For those non spinners reading along, a spinner should ply two single spun yarns together in the opposite direction from the way they were created. Spinners refer to the direction as Z-twist (or clockwise) and S-twist, (counterclockwise). It didn't seem right that I should spin my Great Wheel in the opposite direction to ply, although I have. This time around, I made an adjustment to the drive band, and now I can spin the wheel clockwise, whist the twist, and the spindle are going counterclockwise!

Great Wheel spinning and plying makes for a very woolen yarn....

I measured out a bobbin that was equivalent to 30 minutes of spinning. It measured 81 yards. I was pretty happy about that because most of my bobbins are about that size. It seems that if I make them any bigger, the tip of the cop is always ready to fall off or tangle. The reason that I am happy about this length is that it will be easy for me to produce these results again, and incidentally, 80 yards just happens to be equal to one lea. A lea is a "traditional unit of length for yarn, varying with the weight of the fibers in the yarn. Typically a lea of wool is 80 yards (73 meters); a lea of cotton or silk 120 yards (110 meters); and a lea of linen 300 yards (274 meters). For cotton and wool, a lea is equal to 1/7 hank. A lea is sometimes called a skein."

Now...I just have to make 7 of these to produce another traditional measure for a length of yarn...that would be called a hank!

The spun wool in the basket above represents one pound of Romney, that I purchased in the form of roving from Two Wool Crazy Ladies..both of whom I met at the Pennsylvania Endless Mountains Wool Festival in September of 2007.

Farm Show

The PA Farm show starts this week, the biggest indoor AG show in the nation. I like to watch the coverage on TV.

There are always many interesting facts and figures to learn. For example, right now --there are only 8,400 dairy farms left in the state of PA. Are these family farms, I wonder? As a people, we are several generations removed from family farming...at least 3 maybe 4. When I taught 7th & 8th graders about spinning, most of them didn't know that the wool from their sweaters came off of a sheep. Do people really care or wonder where stuff comes from anymore? When I asked the kids where their sweaters came from, they said, "the mall."

This morning when I pour the cream into my coffee, I find myself thinking about which one of the cows, from which one of the 8,400 dairy farms, gave me the product I need to keep the 206 bones in my body healthy....

On Wednesday, they will air the Sheep to Shawl contest...which is usually hosted by Tom Knisley from the Mannings Handweaving School in Adams County. He taught the workshop I took last summer. I have read that the Farm Show will be starting a Junior competition this year. I'm anxious to see how many participants they get!

sparkle

In light of the inclement weather we have been having, I decided to build a snowman to ward off the evil winter spirits. I placed a broom in his hand, and entrusted him with the task of keeping the cars and walkways swept clean of snow.

If the snowman takes care of his share of the sweeping, that will give me more time to knit.

Look what I am working with. A beautiful Alpaca and Silk blend from Ball and Skein. I have it wound into a center pull, ready to go for this project....

After I read over the pattern and realized that I was not familiar with the cast on and cast off methods, I decided to work up a test run in some stash yarn. That way I will work the bugs out and be ready to knit the Alpaca/Silk without risk of having to frog.

So far...

I really like this pattern! It is a fun knit, and I get a kick each time I come to beaded round. I'm putting the beads on with the threaded floss method, and it works nicely. It is nice to be working with a little sparkle at this time of year...for some reason, I keep noticing sparkling beads everywhere....

phenological events December 07

phenological events December 07

3rd river snow daily
4th duck weed still green
10th ice storm
12th snowstorm
25th redpoll sighting

2007 went out with a flash!

The snow storm that blew in on the 31st, took a huge limb off of our old Maple that grows just outside the kitchen window. The Maple my husband built the swing in. The Maple that holds a soft spot in my heart. That swing was swung on nearly every day. It holds many dear memories.

Pictured above, is only 1/3 of the tree that came down. Note the red arrows indicating the wires that it pulled down with it when it fell.

I woke up before dawn- to see a flash of light outside my window. I've seen transformers blow before. I nudged my husband.."did you see that?" "yep...transformer.", came the reply. After that we lost power...and went back to sleep. We didn't realize that the Maple had taken out the transformer until we got out of bed and went downstairs to make a pot of coffee...

Help arrived after several calls to the power company, and the insurance company... trying to hammer out whose responsibility it was to take care of the damage. The tree even yanked the wires off the house, breaking the old ceramic rings that are mounted into the side of the cabin.

It was really a beautiful day, and I wished I could take photos of the beauty, but was busy recording the images of the repairs. But the photos made for a good analogy in my mind...encouraging me to focus on what is really important.

Noticing the soft blue sky that was starting to show through the clouds, it whispers hope for the coming year. One has to remain optimistic in this day and age. Best wishes to all in the coming year!

why notebooks?

A long time ago, before I had a virtual notebook on Ravelry, I kept a spinner's notebook. The year's end seems like a good time to update my spinner's notebook, as I'm in the midst of cleaning up bits and pieces of past projects...and re-organizing my stash, and writing a TO DO list. Out with the old, in with the new. Cathy has been doing a clean out too. We seem to be on the same cleaning schedule, previously~ we were both washing windows at the same time.

The notebook was a gift to me from my SIL, a non-spinner, very thoughtful person. She found it on eBay. It is handmade from mat board and handmade papers, bound together by ribbon. I record my scribbles about where I brought the fiber, as well as technical spinner speak notations...receipts or business cards...and other flotsam and jetsam I find noteworthy.

As I was adding the PG yarn to the notebook, I remembered that several people had emailed me wondering about the outcome of the shawl that I made with it. I had posted the finished project to Ravelry, in my virtual notebook, but didn't post it here...didn't want any peeking going on, as it was a gift.

I had success with the hand knit border, which was hand sewn to the shawl with a mattress stitch. Then the entire shawl was fulled, and the take up of the weaving and the knitting was pretty much equal and did not present any problems of rippling (which I feared could occur).

So, virtual notebook updated, natural notebook updated, and blog updated... Sheeze...seems redundant. For all of the years that I have been keeping notes, I find that I don't often refer to them for anything really important other than curiosity or a trip in the way back machine. Am I missing something here? Spinner's, what say you?

Redpoll

Saw my first Redpoll ever!

There are many birding sites for the enthusiast these days...I have added a few links to my sidebar so I can keep up with things.

I went looking for information about the numbers of redpolls seen in Pennsylvania in the area that I live, and found this:

We are experiencing the biggest winter finch irruption since the"superflight" of 1997-1998, when many boreal finches went well beyondtheir normal ranges. The cause is the largest tree seed crop failurein a decade across more than 3200 km (2000 mi) of boreal forest fromSaskatchewan into Quebec. Today in Toronto, I had a Pine Grosbeak,Evening Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins and Purple Finchesmigrating along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Boreal winter finchesare being reported in many areas of southern Ontario and the UnitedStates, where some species such as Pine and Evening Grosbeaks haven'tbeen seen in years. There is no telling how far south this"superflight" will go.

Unless you are a birder, you may not understand the thrill of getting to add a bird to your "life list". It made my day.

To view more data on the Redpoll numbers in PA, go here

wassail

wwmw - share the road

It was snowing lightly when I stepped out the door - and the woods greeted me - taking me me to a world where things move at a different pace. I need this kind of walk today...however short, just some time to get away from the clock, the pressures of the other world. I kept my head down, eyes squinting and looking down to my feet, avoiding the flakes that were blowing in my face. Gloved hands tucked deep into my pockets, I walked with a quick pace, a walk with a purpose. Go get the mail and get back to work....

They noticed me first. I wasn't paying attention to what was in front of me. One of them stomped her foot and snorted ...warning me that I was getting to close. It startled me.

I stopped walking and looked at them. They looked at me. I was closer than I have ever been to one, about 3 feet away. The whitetail are beautiful. So I just stood there - admiring them. The biggest one made a sort of bleating noise I had never heard before. Almost like a sheep, but very brief, grunt like.

The whitetail have taken to walking in the road. These last two storms make walking the paths difficult. The snow and ice are hard to traverse. Walking the road is easier for them. They tolerate my presence. Not wanting to navigate the berm of the road where the snowplow has heaved up icy mounds, they allow me to walk along with them. We walk in single file, I fall in step.

There were four of them, the fifth decided to run up the berm and follow along on the deer path that runs parallel to the road...it lagged behind, and then would run to catch up to us.

I followed them until I had to take a different path, back to my world with a clock and things to do. But my spirit thanks them for the interlude.

How can I not love a creature that leaves a footprint in the shape of a heart?

short days

The weather continues to be the main topic around here, winter is arriving early. Night before last, the wind blew and the ice pelted against the windows. It surely would have hurt if it was against the skin. By morning the ice turned to snow and then back to ice, and then back to snow.

This weather is hard on the animals..I noticed the deer sleeping under the pines as I went out to check on the hens this morning. There is not as much snow on the ground under the pines...a good place to find shelter.

As I open the henhouse door, the glare of first light catches the frost on the panes of glass.

Beauty in unlikely places.

The chickens did not appreciate it. They took one look at the snow and ice, and decided to stay inside today. I have given them some squash and pumpkins to peck at - to keep them entertained. Chickens are very busy creatures, always scratching, looking for something to eat...they get bored easily during snow storms. I also gave them warm milk soaked bread with a few raisins.

I finished the mittens, they will be given to charity. They are nice and warm and soft. I put the angora trim on with the crochet hook, and I'm not happy with the results. Next time, it would be better to start the cuff with the angora, perhaps knitting a few rows of garter stitch in it first.

the ice dams cometh

Along with the beauty of the recent storm, comes the dig out. The temperatures rose enough during the day to start the melt, but once the sun goes down, so does the thermometer. This creates the perfect weather for ice dams.

The first winter I lived in this cabin was when I learned about ice dams. The husband was still living and working in the city during the week, and I was alone with a toddler. The snow was piling up, and the icicles were growing longer each day. I thought they were pretty...like gingerbread on a house...icicles on the eves of a cabin in the woods looked like a picture out of a storybook to me. What did I know about the perils of ice dams?

I remember a certain phone call one day back then. It was after I had come home from shopping, to discover water running down the log walls inside the house. There were large puddles of water on the floor. I panic. I went down to the basement and turned off the water. I called my husband and explained the trouble. The conversation went something like this....

me: "There is water running down the walls...I think a pipe must have burst!"
husband: "Where is the water coming from?"
me:"It is coming down from the ceiling and running down the walls!"
husband: "Well, it can't be a leaky pipe, we have no pipes in the walls upstairs, all the plumbing is on the first floor!"
me: "Then where is the water coming from?!!"
husband: "...you must have ice dams"
me: "?????"
I had to wait 3 days for him to get here and fix things. Three days of mopping up water. I wanted to move.

We no longer have to worry about the water coming in. We have replaced the roof, insulated and added a membrane to prevent that. But the ice dams still happen because we have an eve where the ice can build up. If we don't remove the snow, the ice dams will form ..this seems to happen when we get a sizable snow storm- followed by a fast melt...If the ice dams get to big they will pull the gutters off. There are special electric cables that you can run to melt the ice...just flick a switch and presto, melt! Or there is the good old fashion way, get a roof shovel, and shovel it off.

.....think I can convince him that it is about time to install those cables?