Category: Blog

I had the pleasure of going to a spinning event yesterday! St. Distaff’s Day Spin-In in Burlington, hosted by the Bellingham Spindrifters, NWRSA area 2015.

It was great fun, and very well attended. I’m thinking maybe 200-250 people? A nice range of vendors, used equipment for sale, raffles, door prizes, some snacks. I had a really nice time browsing wares, spinning, and talking wool and wheels with folks.

I took Sophie with, as she’s an easy traveler, and spun up some blendy batts that I’d carded up the day before

And I picked up some more recycled sari silk from Siren of the Skeins to play with on the carder.

like so

Back at home, The Man made great progress on Dala’s end cap repair

We’re almost there! Endcap looks great. Just need to do some shaping on the reconstructed peg, and she’ll be whole again. Here is the repaired piece in place

And today I completed my first sleeve on the unspun sweater-

I’d carefully measured out my remaining Nutiden-

and divided it into two batches for the two cuffs, thinking I was being all clever and organized. But now that I’m ready to start the second sleeve, I’m reminded that I knit two rows of the green just below the yoke. So I’m probably going to have to unknit/reknit the first cuff before I’m done. Oh well.

That’s all I’ve got as far as wool-related content today. But I also wanted to share a link to a video I was watching this morning that really resonated. Jessica Soward of Roots and Refuge Farm on resilience.

Have a great week-

Took some time this afternoon to give the spinning wheel herd some love.

Dusting, polishing, oiling- got the girls all spiffed and ready for another year of wool work!

Also enlisted The Man to make repairs to Dala’s (Mighty Red’s new moniker) front upright endcap. Here it is in it’s original state

And here is the repair in progress. Epoxy curing around a framework of copper wire to fill the void.

Been spinning on her all this time with the compromised piece, and it will be nice to finally have her axle securely tucked in.

And speaking of spinning- I turned a few blendy batts into singles this week-

Also continued to make progress on the unspun sweater, which is really starting to look like a sweater now that it’s got part of one sleeve

And with that, 2023 is a wrap. Really hoping that the neighbors aren’t planning fireworks (for the sheeps’ sake). Would appreciate this year going out without a bang.

Happy New Years, everyone- and all the best in 2024!

Just popping in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Fleece on Earth, Good Wool to Men!

Been busy this week attending to holiday rituals-

Even managed to get some cards written out and addressed this morning. So I’m calling that a win.

And in the spaces in-between, I of course squeezed in some wool work

My Felix yarn (white), while a bit under-spun, is so soft and squishy. Will have to find just the right special something to make out of it.

I’m just past the waist of the unspun sweater project, and everything seems to be going pretty smoothly- though the creamy natural color wool isn’t very forgiving of my occasional inconsistencies in thickness. Feel like I’m getting better at working with the roving- I guess the sweater will show the arc of my skill-building! Maybe I’ll really have it down by the time I’m doing the sleeves 🙂

And though I’ve never met Alice, the sheep from whom this fleece was sheared, I’m starting to feel like I know her. Wonder if I could recognize her out of a lineup just based on her wool. I’ve heard that she’s quite a character. Just diz’d some more of her wool into roving to keep the sweater project moving along-

I’ll sign off for now with a picture of the pasture gang- snapped just after they finished up an afternoon treat (alfalfa pellets)

and here’s Esther going back just to make sure she didn’t miss any bits

muncha muncha muncha 🙂