I’ve Had an Amazing Day!

Wow…I learned a new skill today!  Spinning!

I am so proud to announce that I bought a 40 year old Ashford spinning wheel on Thursday night!

I’ve oiled it and tightened up the screws, then buffed it out this morning.  It still makes a bit of noise when spinning, even though I oiled every place I can see or think of!  All I can say is ..more oil is needed…somewhere!!

I spent the morning with my friend Diane, of Russet Lodge Knits, who has given selflessly of her skill and passion for knitting and spinning, learning the basics of spinning yarn from a raw fleece! 

Seriously, the woman should write a book! 

She even worked a bit of my raw fleece for me on the carding combs her husband makes, so I could practice spinning!

Of course, being true to my nature, I gave her an opinion on what she should have in the to-be-determined book!  Hee hee!  I would totally pay full price for such a book!

I haven’t gotten the hang of spinning just yet, but getting close…I *might* be a left handed spinner, even though I am right handed….and I seem to want to spin counter-clockwise, to form an S-curve, rather than the Z-angle clock-wise angle.  Maybe that is the machine, maybe that is me….I do seem to do everything backwards!

Now, I am going to ship the fleeces I bought on Craigslist.com to a professional processor, Spinderellas.com,  for cleaning and carding.  I’ve heard that they provide a good service and the product that comes back is very nice.  I spoke with them on Friday; being a newbie, they answered all of my questions and even gave me some idea for blending one of the fleeces I purchased to enhance it, something I hadn’t thought of previously.  They have a lot of great information on their website, so I would highly recommend looking at it if you are interested in processing fleece.

Diane writes knitting patterns, and even has a sock Knit-Along going, using a pattern she wrote herself (she has several for sale on Ravelry)!

I SO want to learn to knit socks…but then, knitting cuts into my quilting time!  Oh, that, and the fact that I keep reversing the sides of my sock, so that I have reversed sides in the outside of the sock …sigh!  I blame the sock affliction all on my friend Christine…

Yes, I could process the wool myself…but as I keep reinforcing to Diane, I am a Quilter who knits, not a Knitter like she is, (yes, with capitals!), and I can have it back in 2-4 weeks and keep quilting!  So, I plan to have my fleece boxed up and in the mail on Monday!

I have been considering bringing my Bronco quilts to several of the summer markets, as well as the spinning wheel, to work on some of the yarn production there, if I don’t have a quilt related project I can bring.  Bown Crossing is a possibility, which is a part of the Indie Works project, or  maybe the Eagle Market, but I haven’t contacted them yet (I’ll post the links later in the week)