Thinning the herd!

I talked to a local woodworker last night who is going to help me fix and refurbish two of the sewing machine cabinets I’ve been storing in the garage.  We determined that the wood on the third cabinet is beyond repair.

So, the cabinet for the Anker went home with him to fix the area that needs to support the sewing machine and in the meantime I need to start stripping the veneer off the cabinet for the Davis VF and trying to figure out how it comes apart.

Part of the deal is that I’m going to throw in the Red Eye treadle head and irons that go with it; most of the wood is rotten and can only serve as a pattern for a replacement top.  The irons need to be washed, brushed with a wire brush and repainted back to their previous glory, but the treadle action is spot on!

While I haven’t gotten to sew on the Red Eye, which is always my goal, I know it’s a very nice machine; when I bought it I was able to turn the handle by hand to get it to sew and have been excited to get it up and running.  Ironically, I thought this one would be the easiest and fastest one to get working.  Once he gets the cabinet built, which will take him hours, it will be an awesome piece.  Of course I’ll go over it and make sure it’s cleaned, oiled and ready to take on a new project.

The upside is I’ll have two working machines that are high on my priority list,  I get to clear out some space in my garage, keeping my husband happier with less clutter, and someone else will get to share this machine.  That’s a winning situation all the way around!

Handspun Yarn!

Today I met with the Emmett Spinners at the Triangle Restaurant in Sweet, Idaho and my friend, Cheri, showed me how to ply singles.

The pink is from Fiber Train 2012 and the dark brown is from Fiber Train 2013, held over Memorial Day weekend in Nampa, Idaho.  The photo of the yarn on the bobbin looks black, but it’s really a wonderful color of  dark brown that has a tint of cherry to it.

I only have standard sized bobbins so I had to break it a part and ply them on 2 different bobbins to use up all of the brown singles.  That means I don’t have one long hank of yarn and I joined the ends with knots.  I chose knots for now, because I have no idea what this is going to become and I just want it held together all in one skein.  Oh, wait, I still have more of the pink to ply with brown before I will be completely finished.

I also got instruction from Rhonda on how to set the twist on the yarn.  I was so excited about having come this far I didn’t want to stop, so after I left the get together I went to Puffy Mondaes and bought a PVC pipe niddy noddy.

During the winding process some of the twist came out of the yarn.  Eventually I cut that part out and re-worked it and then added it back in with another knot.  Purposely adding knots isn’t ideal, but it was either that or lose out on precious yardage.  It only weighs in at 3.8 oz.

Also, I was on the phone with my brother and didn’t have the patience to wait until after the call to research the problem on YouTube or post to the forums.  I really don’t have any patience, despite what I hear when people look at my quilting!

And now I have yarn hanging in my bathroom!

I had planned to spin more of the brown roving tonight, as I didn’t have the same amount of brown singles as I did pink singles when I started today but I’d forgotten my bag of goodies at the restaurant that included the very item I needed to accomplish this task.  So, it’ll have to wait for another time because I have a lot of quilting to do tomorrow!

I can’t believe I finally plied something!

A Perfect Day

A friend asked me recently to describe what a “perfect day” would look like so I could recognize one when it came along.  Here’s what I came up with:

1. Spend time with my husband
2. Start the day off with coffee over email and Facebook.
        Note to self:  that doesn’t mean spend the entire day on the computer!
3. Walk the dogs – this isn’t really exercise because they are Shih Tzu and have very short legs and can only walk about a mile!
4. Exercise for me
5. Work on a personal sewing, knitting, or spinning project
6. Spend time talking to a friend

It’s interesting that as I started making the list more and more items came to mind and any combination of these things could make a perfect day.  It’s very empowering to recognize and acknowledge that I have so many blessings and opportunities.  Truly, our mindset makes a difference whether we see our blessings or only our troubles.

However,  I didn’t add more to my list above only because lately I’ve been over-crowding my days and over-committing my time and I’m tired and stressed.  It’s my own fault, of course.  I’ve been challenged with this balancing act ever since I was a teenager, but it’s also up to me to change this if I want a different quality of life.  I’m taking steps, tiny as they may be, towards this goal.