Spinning, knitting and musing

You've all waited to patiently! So here I am; back to tell you the name of the Muse and the winner of the orifice hook! (As an aside, can I just mention how much I love my MacBook Pro? Here I am, sitting on the couch watching Robin Hood - for the 20th time - with the boys, but I can be blogging and knitting at the same time! Multi-taskers R Us.) :)

The winner - from random.org - the 43rd commenter: Jasmin! Oh, Jasmin, you have won a copper orifice hook!

And the name of the first Muse?

Kleio! The muse of history.

I know. I chose the more difficult spelling. But there is already a pattern called Clio, and so I have named my muse after the Greek rather than Latin form of her name. I absolutely cannot wait for you to get your hands on her. I was told at my Saturday knitting group that she looks even better in person.

So. Guess what?! Remember when I found that Reeves castle wheel last weekend? And it was missing its distaff? And I was going to try to find it at phase 2 of the estate sale? Look!

I went back on Saturday morning and one of the daughters of the woman who had owned the wheels had found bobbins and set them aside for me! Also, a lazy Kate for the Elizabeth. Yay! And then, the search for the distaff began in earnest. At first when I looked at the collection of boxes, bags, and baskets filled with an old jumble of crafting tools and yarn, my heart fell. I saw nothing that looked like a distaff. But then I began going through one by one, and in the second box, I found a piece of distaff at the bottom. A few more and I found another piece and a lazy Kate that I believe was made to fit on the top. And then...in a box of grotty wool, I found the last piece, completely wrapped in flax. Joy! Here she is, all assembled.

And the odd little lazy Kate.

I am guessing this is how it is meant to be used.

Cool, eh? I can't wait to try it!

I also found a Schacht bobbin winder.

A small and light drop spindle.

And some hand carders and small niddy noddies.

I cannot believe my good fortune! I am absolutely thrilled, to put it mildly.

I also had a good mail day. The lovely ladies of Dye for Wool and Dye for Yarn sent me a stunning camel/silk mixture. Their colors are absolutely incredible. The only trouble is wanting one of each and not being able to choose! Their shops are like a candy store for lace lovers. Just wait until you see!

Isn't this interesting? It looks curly!

And now? I am knitting on Muse 2. I designed her while meditating. :)

She's going to be beautiful.

I'm back with a contest!

This could get to be a habit again. :)

So...about those spinning wheels I picked up last Saturday at an estate sale - before the swim meet. My IRL local friend Therese saw a listing for the sale and emailed a few of us who she knew would be interested in spinning wheels. This time, unlike the last estate sale (where some resellers bought every last bit of spinning equipment - except a squirrel cage swift that I snagged - in the first minute and were loading the last of it in their van as I walked up at 3 minutes after the hour), I was determined to be early and have a shot at the goodies. As I was locking up my car, my local spinning pusher teacher drove up with another friend and we all went up together. There were two wheels, and at first we were interested in the larger of the two, rather than the smaller castle.

But something about the smaller oak wheel was so appealing. It looked hand made and we turned it over to see if there was a signature. We didn't find one, but there were two extra whorls screwed in underneath.

Then I noticed the telltale metalwork.

I looked again, and sure enough! Rick Reeves.

Complete with orifice hook, but sadly, missing its distaff. And with only one bobbin. Did I mention that my husband is a woodworker? And he has a lathe. Hee. :)

The second wheel turned out to be an Ashford Elizabeth, again with only one bobbin. This, however, is a much easier problem to solve! A few bits were loose, but were easily screwed back in and tightened up.

I couldn't wait to start spinning a little. It's been so long! I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I had the roving running through my fingers again. It has such an amazingly relaxing effect.

There was no orifice hook, so - of course - I needed to make one. This is copper.

I'm hoping that the family will find some more bobbins and the missing distaff when they go through some of the other boxes. They took my phone number and I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Over the weekend, I finished up Muse #1! I had ripped her out completely and redone her in a much simpler construction that looked exactly the same. I do love simplifying. :)

I didn't have time to block her yesterday because I was playing in San Francisco with a few friends (more on that later) but - believe me - it was the first order of business today! She turned out to be a wonderfully generous size.

She is crescent shaped and lovely, and I am so thrilled with the gorgeous yarn from Sunshine Yarns!

(Why is it that no matter how many blocking tiles I have, there aren't enough? I did manage to have enough T-pins though.)

Are you ready for the contest?! There are nine muses, and so there are nine possible names for the loveliness above: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, or Urania. Which do you think she is? Leave me a comment with your guess by Friday, August 12, midnight PST. I will draw a winner randomly for an orifice hook like the copper one shown below!

Happy guessing! :D

Bitterroot!

The Winter Knitty is up! And here's another of my secret projects: Bitterroot!

There are two sizes. Shawlette:




and shawl!


The shawlette uses four skeins of Royale Hare merino/silk sport in Arctic Sky, and the large version uses my hand spun lace weight from A Verb for Keeping Warm's gorgeous silk/camel in the Glenda colorway. Hope you all enjoy it!

This n that

Remember this project? Well, it's finished and blocked! Turned out great, although I'm afraid I can't show you right now, since it was a stealth project. It's hanging out on my mannequin at the moment, looking nice, but you'll have to wait a couple of months to see it. Here's hoping you'll think it was worth the wait! I think you'll like it. :)

I'm still in the midst of stealth knitting, but I can show you this for another secret project....

This is from A Verb for Keeping Warm.

It's baby camel and silk in colorway Glenda.

And it is sooooooooo dreamy.

This is my very favorite part of my job. I love spinning; it is so relaxing to me. With knitting, I'm very goal oriented and not so much into the process (unless I'm knitting with mohair/silk, my fav), but with spinning it's just pure pleasure and relaxation. :happysigh:

In other news, @catmum won my last give-away, my Toque, Yo! hat pattern! Congrats to you. :) Stay tuned for the next special and give-away tomorrow!!!

Better Late than Never?

Hmmm. As I was typing that title, I noticed that I've used it before. Heh. Running late again!!! So, I promised pics from the Spinners' Day on the Farm, and here they are! It was a lovely lovely day, at the edge of a vineyard in Healdsburg, under towering oak trees. And there was fiber. And yarn! What could be better?!

Here's Ba, the local fiber pusher spinning teacher.

Therese is planning her mohair purchase. I always smile like that when I buy mohair, too. :)

Karen of the Royale Hare. She's holding some of my designer colors!

A local knitter from Santa Rosa that I met for real and in person!

Brooke and wee one. :)

Maia looking happy about all the fibery goodness.

Yummy, sheepy fiber.

Some gorgeous wares.

Jan contemplating the amazing Tactile fiber I was trying to enable her into buying. I succeeded. Hee.

It was an amazing day. Too short, if anything. And I'm afraid this was probably the last year. They've had the property up for sale and it looks like it's going. Maybe the purchasers spin. ;)

Verdigris!

The new Knitty is up! And my first spin to knit pattern is up with it. :)

Verdigris fingerless mitts come in a short version,

and a long version.

I used twisted stitches, cables and lace. I wanted to make sure I covered everything. ;)

Many thanks to the lovely Olivia Foppiano for her modeling!

I used some lovely merino/tencel fiber (in Gingko) from Tactile, and some gorgeous high twist sock yarn (in Verdant) that can be found here, at the Royale Hare.

Enjoy!!!