Spinning For a Project: The Idea

Beekeeper's Smock by Kate Salomon. Photo @greenmountainspinnery

Beekeeper's Smock by Kate Salomon. Photo @greenmountainspinnery

When I was at Rhinebeck I fell in love with so many sweaters, but one keep tapping me on the shoulder, The Beekeeper'sSmock by Kate Salomon of Green Mountain Spinnery. It looks like something I would wear and something that I would actually finish. It didn't hurt that all of my fiber buddies with me want to make it too. One even bought the pattern and the yarn there and then. It has pockets, come on, I have to make it.

Then I fell in fiber lust with a blend of fiber I'd not spun before Cormo/Romney roving from Blackberry Hill Farm. It's a gorgeous grey/brown and has this wonderful soft-yet-sturdy hand. At first I didn't buy any. It took me until almost the end of the show to put this fiber together with my pattern crush. It would be excellent fiber to spin yarn for the sweater. I bought two pounds! It's going to be perfect.

 

The pattern calls for an Aran weight yarn, 14 stitches to 4 inches in stockinette. I asked my friend who bought one of the yarns suggested (Green Mountain Spinnery Yarn Over ) for a few inches to study the structure before I start spinning and sampling.

I'm going to go through all of the steps of matching a commercial yarn to spin a pattern here on the blog. The next step is to analyze the yarn and pattern to see what I want to keep and what I want to change in my yarn for my sweater.

 

Rhinebeck 2016

I can't say Rhinebeck without adding a wistful sigh, it really is that wonderful. Fiber, yarn sheep, spinning, knitting and weaving are everywhere and no one thinks you're a weirdo for talking obsessively about any or all of those things, it's like finding a fuzzy Atlantis or Brigadoon.

The people are the number one reason I love Rhinebeck. I was lucky to get to sign my book for a bunch of spinners while I was there, so I got to see extra smiling faces. But the oldies are the goodies, the fiber friends I only see once a year or every few years. There was much hugging.

Some of the cool things I managed to get photos of:

  • WooLee Winder has a new electric wheel - so new it's not on their website yet.
  • Jill Draper's Studio party - it was a fantastic crush of people.
  • Green Mountain Spinnery had Kate Salomon's Beekeeper's Smock in their booth - must make!
  • The fleece sale, Into the Whirled and Lisa Souza, I petted a lot but resisted this time.
  • A new-to-me fiber artist Classy Squid Fiber Co.

Then there is the shopping part, here's what I brought home:

It's always a lightening fast few days but the warm fuzzies last a long time afterwards.

And She Picked...

 The University of Buffalo!
I am so proud of my girl. She has worked so hard in the classroom and on the diving board to get this opportunity and her scholarships. I can't wait to see her make her way in the world and watch her fly!

Buffalo means I get to spend more time on the east coast and with my buddies in Ontario, plus it's cold so I have an excellent reason to knit all the things.

Tell me what you know about Buffalo!

Go Bulls!

Friends Can Fix Anything

I'm having a busy fall. I am enjoying every minute of it, but it's busy. Between teaching, writing work and college visits it's been a while since I've had a whole day off. By the time I hug my friends goodbye at Rhinebeck I will have traveled 5 weekends in a row and just snatched half days off here and there in between.

Last Thursday I was feeling particualry tired and wrung out, but then this happened and I was topped off and ready to go again. I really believe that friends can fix almost anything! Carla, Beth and I talked and laughed and poured out all things you do with friends you've known for more than a decade. Bonus points when they are in the same business and really get how much you can love traveling and how tiring it is all tied up in a pretty bow.

I'm on the road as I'm writing this, I'm still pretty beat, but I'm full of new ideas for projects, classes, articles and maybe a new book - all thanks to my friends.

Thank You GLASG!

Last week I went to Los Angeles and taught the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild for three days. It was some of the most fun I've had teaching. What an adventurous and talented group of spinners!

 

 

We spun color and more color, they listened to me talk a lot about sampling and everyone, especially me, learned new things.

I got to dip my feet in the Pacific ocean (it's cold), watch the sun set at the beach and buy pens at Kinokuniya.

One of my favorite moments was during the last class, when Annie and Stephanie,  couldn't stand just looking at the pile of handdyed top anymore..........

Thank you spinners of GLASG, when can I come back?

First Official College Trip

Today Isobel and I leave for her first official college visit.

She'll meet with coaches, the team divers, academic advisors and other recruits while I stand by and watch her grown up a little more. 

This week we're going to the University of Buffalo and over the next couple of months we'll visit Rutgers, The University of Utah and James Madison. We may even squeeze in a few more.

By Thanksgiving she'll know where she's going to college. She is so ready and excited for everything that's next. I'll be the one smiling with the box of tissues.

Let me know if you have any opinions on the colleges we're visiting or have suggestions for food or fun! I've already found a place for fountain pens in Buffalo...

10 Things I Do With A New Spinning Wheel

After I unpacked and built my new wheel, I went through my process of working with a new or new to me wheel. Usually I just do all of these thing in more or less the same order. This time I wrote them down and I thought I'd share them.

  1.  First I read the manual, well at least skim the manual.
  2.  I dust the wheel, oil it where it needs to be oiled and check that all of the nuts and bolts are tight.
  3. I put on a new drive band.
  4. I sit and treadle for a while. Maybe through a TV show. I treadle both directions and practice stopping and starting with just my feet.
  5. I find the perfect chair or seat for the wheel. I have short legs and bad knees; I need a chair that fits me in relation to the treadles.
  6. I put new leaders on all of the bobbins.
  7. I spin 4 ounces of my current default yarn, learning to adjust the wheel a little.
  8. I spin 4 ounces of fiber moving from laceweight to bulky and back again, learning to make bigger adjustments.
  9. I ply yarn.
  10. I get my friends to spin on it. It's the spinners' version of passing around a new baby. I listen closely to what they have to say when they are spinning. Sometimes I don't believe myself when I think something is a little off. I watch them spin too, because sometime I can't see the wobbly wheel.

What do you do with a new wheel?