Christmas has come and gone.
The sheeps have helped with recycling the tree
here’s the before
and the after
Don’t they do a great job?
And we’re all just hangin’ on the couch, waiting for 2013 to roll around
We’re probably not going to make it ’til midnight.
Happy New Year, y’all!
Meet the Denisee Special (aka “Stupid Spinning Wheel”)!
My design + The Man’s welding, woodworking and general mechanical skills.
Here are the specs:
single drive, flyer-lead
lateral treadle
weighted scotch tension
ratios: approx 8, 15, 24 to 1
The driveband is tensioned by a moveable pulley on a horizontally mounted bracket
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways….
1. The lateral treadle setup gives me lots of room to work in front and to the left, which is how I draft.
2. The compact upright arrangement lets it have a pretty big wheel (24″) and still have a relatively small footprint (13.5″ by 26″). big wheel = higher ratios = fast
3. Single drive set-up with the pulleys on the front of the flyer allow me to change out bobbins without having to unscrew anything!
4. Since the bobbin is perpendicular to me, I can see exactly how it is filling up and when I should change hooks.
Next up- a built in-lazy kate?
Denise is such a happy girl. 🙂
And by Cookie Break, I mean that I am taking a brief break from the cookie madness to let my mind wander to fibery topics.
Started spinning the Frank/Felix fleece this week- and have one navajo-plied sample skein so far.
Also finished the Shalom and blocked it out. Looks like it’s actually going to fit me! So that’s cool.
It just needs some finishing around the arm-holes, and buttons- then it will be go straight into service in the wardrobe.
Can never have too many layering options this time of year.
Next week I should have a really cool Christmas surprise to share. It’s still in pieces now, but hopefully will come together within the next few days. I can’t wait!
Yes, the blog has been getting shortchanged lately.
Been trying to get a little too much done on the weekends, it seems.
But that doesn’t mean that I’ve been neglecting the wool!
Now that we’ve got a little tree
And it is looking all fresh and perky in the living room, I feel like maybe I can handle this whole holiday season thing.
It’s nice to have a festive backdrop for a sweater-project-in-progress photo-
And the Shalom is coming along pretty nicely. I’ve spun up one more skein of squishy navajo plied not-my-own shetland from the stash, and I think that might just do it.
I’ve also been carding up quite a bit of Frank and Felix- here they are posing by the tree-
Not sure what they want to be yet, but I want to have it all ready to go when I figure it out!
This coming week I’m doing my Christmas Cookie ritual, so I’ve been collecting supplies and ingredients.
Need to be ready to hit the ground running on Wednesday when the baking begins in earnest.
So today I did a trial run on a new treat. This year I’m switching up the chocolate element.
Rather than the traditional fudge, I’m spicing it up with a Mexican Hot Chocolate Truffle
Fleece Navidad! 🙂