it's not the size of the box...

OK, I think this post is about other stuff, but I'm trying to be jokey here... and hence, jokes about box size. Please, add in your own joke to that subject header..I can't even think of one! Willow (I think it was Willow?) asked about our box sizes. The smallest boxes I have packed have been, roughly the size of a canning jar box from the grocery store. The kind with a dozen 8 oz jars--this is a big shoe box size. There are a very few of those, and they are usually packed in larger boxes, so don't count. The largest box size is called a "Wardrobe" box, and I packed cushions, dog beds, pillows, and a king size duvet into one of those. Most of the book boxes are liquor boxes, from our kind local liquor stores. Bowling Green is a "wet" city in a largely "dry" region...loads of liquor stores, all with extra boxes here in town, and people in the rural areas around just shop here for their alcohol, which they can't buy at home.

It's my basic rule that one should never pay for a cardboard box unless desperate. The professor has bought a few filing boxes for other moves through the years. Those uniform boxes seem to organize his moves. I reuse them as office storage until they absolutely die. Some of these are on their 2nd or 3rd move...and now, to a new country! (way more than you wanted to know about boxes, I bet. Who knew that these boxes would travel so far from their first purpose!?)

I've been worried about whether we'll be ready when the moving folks arrive. The packers come tomorrow to pack up the breakables, and the truck comes on Friday. (At least, I hope so, they haven't called to confirm yet...) The professor was packing and cleaning up his lab and saying goodbye to people at the university until yesterday. Today was his first weekday, packing at home. This has caused me great concern, as I was all on my own, but mostly, I just try not to think about it, and pack more boxes... I had 3 done by 10 AM this morning. Oh, and we're up to something in the range of 327 or something, so all estimates may be too low in our guessing game... Oops. I need to wrap this up and go pack up the Cusinart. I've got stuff to do...(but I need rest breaks, too, right?)

When I couldn't sleep last night, I finished the spinning "task" I'd set for myself. Then I closed up this box. I had a great feeling of accomplishment there. Look at all those neat little balls of singles, ready to be plied! Whew. Then I packed up the last spinning wheel...only spindles and a little wool and small knitting projects are travelling with me.

Sally the dog continues to be pretty anxious...very high strung. It's hard to blame her. The professor thinks it will all be just fine. After all, he seemed to infer, when is your desk ever this clean otherwise? (he's got a point.)

Harry's laidback personality continues to amaze me. He's a little more clingy than usual, but nothing interrupts his serious naps. The dog is a napping machine. I am jealous.

This morning I made our last meal here...tuna pasta salad with basil, parsley, garlic greens, kalamata olives, carrots, collards, and tomatoes. It tastes pretty good, which is a plus, considering we're likely to eat it for both lunch and dinner! Now the pots go into boxes, too. Oh--there's also still one last piece of pie...it's got my name on it.

Thanks (again) for all your good wishes, cheerful comments, and support. It's been an oasis of friendly comfort, the blog posting/reading of comments, during this chaotic period. I haven't gotten to write everybody back --maybe won't be able to, this time, but I really appreciate your kindness.

Now, back to packing...

the last days...

You never can tell...In the midst of packing, I read a great book. It was a 10 cent book I picked up at a used book store in Vermont. At only 10 cents, I started the book figuring it wasn't much of a risk. I didn't expect much. Instead, it lead me into a very thoughtful exploration of women's roles...how smart women cope when faced with frustrating options. The book was by Margaret Drabble, published in 1962, and it's called The Summer Birdcage. Although the scenarios have changed slightly, what struck me was this...all these intelligent, Oxbridge educated women finished school and were so disappointed by society's opportunities for women that awaited them. Although things have changed a great deal in some ways, I found myself thinking "Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.." (the more things change, the more they stay the same.)

After all, why did I end up in Kentucky? (or am moving to Winnipeg, which I'm looking forward to?) The professor's job. I've gotten more used to this now but I was pretty upset the first couple of times I gave up very good jobs to move. We've also gotten better at negotiating this--now the professor knows more about how I feel with each move! (I've also reconciled the fact that I could have kept great jobs --or--the professor. In several cases, it was a tough either/or choice.) Anyhow...that book was unexpectedly packed instead of donated to the library. It was worth keeping--it's an insightful read. Willow asked how many boxes of books we're up to? We think it's a little over 60 boxes of books. After that, we stopped packing purely boxes of books, they are mixed in with other things. Yes, we've got a few books...

The box count is somewhere around 280 now. We continue to pack and things are going smoothly. I've discovered a few quirks that connect to your comments...

Willow also asked what I've been spinning. I finished spinning the chocolate brown Shetland, and I packed up the flyer/whorl and other small parts of the Canadian Production wheel. The way I move wheels is by packing all the small moving parts in boxes of wool or other soft things. Then I watch the movers like a hawk when they wrap my wheels! So far, they've come through moves just fine. (My piano, on the other hand, was dropped in the last move and needed quite a lot of repair work...insurance is a good thing!)

My very last unpacked wheel is the Majacraft Little Gem. I've been spinning CVM on that wheel, and it looks like this. (that's a skein before I've set the twist.) I've decided that I'll keep spinning that for a few days longer before packing up.

The quirk comes in here...I felt this enormous need to finish things I've been spinning. By finish, I seem to mean that I want to have all the roving/fiber spun for these specific projects. It's ok, in my weird "must be finished" world, to pack unplied singles and skeins that still must be set. (I hear they allow plying of handspun in Canada.) That said, I recognize this is entirely irrational, so whatever, I'm letting myself have this weirdness. A little spinning every day is probably good for me.

Mrs.J asked how the dogs were doing with the packing madness. Umm, that's another quirky thing going on. Although we've kept walks and feedings and crate and bed locations exactly the same, our dogs are showing some understandable stress. They've been blowing coat (losing lots of hair) at an alarming rate. We thought it was the hot weather but the vet suggested it might also be stress. We now know this to be the case...because last night, the combination of a thunderstorm, fireworks, and boxes made Sally growl and bark at our dinner guests. Both of our guests are over at the house all the time, so we know it was just her very immense anxiety. Crate training is a good thing--she calmed down immediately once crated but it was a rough night for her. I tried homeopathic medicine to relieve anxiety today when it was thundering--it did absolutely no good.

We're hoping things will be ok as the dogs travel (in their crates) with us across the country. If it's not ok and the dogs seem hysterical, the vet has prescribed some doggy valium just in case. The dogs (or we?) may need it. Harry the dog, by the way, is still totally fine. He's a type B personality--the only one in this household!

Dinner guests, you say? The "breakables" packers arrive Thursday and the moving truck is coming on Friday...and those people had dinner guests on Saturday night?! Yes, we're crazy. We had a couple of friends over for Independence Day celebrations in the midst of the boxes. I've admitted that will probably be our last set of dinner guests, so today I started packing up the kitchen in earnest. That's probably the last quirk. I want our household to stay normal as long as possible...so even with the packing up, today I baked a blackberry peach pie. More pie? (It's the new "normal." I can do it even without a recipe now--as the cookbooks are all packed!)

Got any funny packing moving quirks of your own? New box estimates? Do tell! I'll try to post at least one more time before moving day. (I hope.)

Canada Day

In honor of Canada Day, I was reminiscing about the fun time we had last year visiting Winnipeg on July 1st. (scroll back to the beginning of July to get my full "first time to Winnipeg" posts.) The professor suggested I tell you this particular story about what's been going on lately.

On Monday, we received an enormous set of papers for buying our new home in Manitoba. Essentially, it was all the papers for closing on our new house from the lawyer. Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we went up to our local credit union branch to do all the signing in front of a notary. The professor wanted to go there particularly because, he explained, they all knew him personally.

The joke was on him when the notary smiled up at me and it was my friend (and talented artist) Myra! The professor is an exceedingly careful person and makes me look downright haphazard. (for those who know me, this is hard to believe but totally true.) So, he insisted on being in charge of all the paperwork, although we both were signing it. All went very well until...

We got to the piece of paperwork that asked for another notary to notarize the authenticity of the first notary's work. No kidding!! Now that's careful! Luckily, this bank had two notaries, and the professor pointed out that notary #2 had opened our bank account with us, six years ago. He again felt glad we'd chosen our local credit union branch. At that point, we were using the services of roughly half the employees!

All seemed great until last night, when the professor went through the paperwork one last time before sending it back northward. Then, he found the other piece of paper we needed notarized.

"No problem!" I said, with a smile. (because I had left it all to him, I was just cooperating...and packing boxes. 12 boxes yesterday..) It was another fun chance to see my friend Myra! Today, we hope, we will be able to send off the house paperwork to Canada.

We can conclude from this:
1) We've got something to learn from Canadians about being extra, extra sure that everything is just right.
2) It's just right that we didn't send out the paperwork yesterday, since everyone is celebrating Canada Day today! No one would have been in the office to receive it.
3) The Yarn Harlot does a far better job of celebrating Canada Day via blogpost, as a Canadian, than I (a US citizen) can. Maybe one day I'll get dual citizenship. I aspire, maybe one day, to being as careful as both the professor and the paperwork that requires that the notary's signature be notarized....but gosh, that's careful!

For now, I'm back to the boxes. We're up to 251. I just packed up the spindles from both of my Great Wheels, so no more spinning on those until they're in my new home. Only 9 days until the moving truck comes...and that's the news.

Whew!

It's finally gotten a little cooler here...our streak of very hot temperatures seems to have passed. That has been a relief!

In the box count sweepstakes, we're now up to 233 boxes, so I expect those of you with the higher numbers might be more in the ball park. Things are looking remarkably, well, boxy around here...packing's going well. I'll keep you updated on the box guessing sweepstakes, although by the time someone has "won", I'll have nothing left to send off as a reward!

Although I had a really busy weekend, I got a chance to email or comment on nearly everyone's blog. That was fun! I appreciated some of the exchanges we had. I learned a few things...Nancy and I have often exchanged blog comments, but for some reason I wasn't able to post there...I'm sorry, Nancy! I'm sure it's some sort of cyberspace blip. Another realization...Cathy, thanks so much for clarifying that there are two Cathys out there commenting! I was confused until you pointed out that my friend Cathy, who designed those marvelous crocheted socks in Fiber Gathering is that other Cathy! :)

Things are indeed gathering momentum now that the move to Winnipeg is upon us...less than 2 weeks until moving day. We had guests over for dinner both Friday and Saturday nights. I visited my friend, the farmer on Saturday afternoon. He is now home from the hospital and recuperating. Another friend came over to spin with me on Sunday. It was a busy time, but I've really enjoyed these social intermissions from the packing. I will miss these local friends.

One last, comment related realization...according to Alison, it turns out I have quite a high percentage of blog readers who comment! Thank you for all those positive things you bring to my corner of the world. I see my blog a lot like my cyber living room...it's a familiar concept in blogland--certainly not unique to mine.

For instance, for the first 6 months I lived in Kentucky, I hosted a spinning and knitting group once a month in my real living room. I loved having folks introduce themselves to each other and I welcomed them in. I liked hearing all the conversations buzzing together at once! After a bit, it became difficult to manage hosting this, as we also hosted the professor's lab parties and other events...but my temptation is always to try to welcome folks into my home and my life. As a result, for a long while, I left the "anonymous" option open on my blog comments, and it resulted in some wonderful contributions for quite a while.

In thinking about it, I've realized that I'd like my blog/cyber living room to be as kind and honestly compassionate a place as my real living room is--so I've switched off that anonymous comment possibility. I still welcome all your comments with an open heart so I can respond to you...and I hope this switch won't inhibit your comments. I like listening to what folks have to say! However, for me, reading blogs (and writing them) is about expressing oneself in a thoughtful and caring way--about making friends and sharing ideas and connections. People can be very different in their beliefs or ideas but still treat each other with respect and acceptance. Anything you might want to comment on here should be something you can say with your name attached to it, just as if you were visiting me in my real living room. Anonymity shouldn't necessary here! I want to continue to foster that openness to others and that respect, that positive tone while I move across the prairie spaces to my new home.

Oh, and Kristy, I can't wait to meet you and spin with you in Manitoba! Soyun, thanks for dropping by--you do beautiful work...I hope my other blog readers will check it out!
Now, back to those boxes...

understatements

We're trying to keep things, umm, as normal as possible around here. So, despite that, things are changing fast in the packing world and I'm having a hard time keeping up. That means I haven't managed to get back to most of the commenters...I'm sorry! After all, the moving truck comes in 14 days. 2 weeks. No wonder, right?

Here are some understatements for your entertainment.
We've packed some boxes.
(they are everywhere!!)
Over 200, at last count. The professor has revised his estimate of final boxes packed upwards to 250 or so. I hedged somewhere in the middle, between 200-250, but he might be right.

I gave a small book talk at the local public library.
Yes, very small. While I was packing, I forgot to try to convince all my friends in town to come. It was, after all, over 95F that day, a rough day for fiber arts...but air conditioned at the library... OK, only 2 people came. Lovely, kind ladies who wanted to hear me talk about Fiber Gathering, of course, but only 2. I talked my heart out to them, they both bought books, and I was very grateful.
Hint: If you want to support authors so they can afford to keep writing about knitting, buy those books! I hear that Knit Picks is having a big sale on books this week, or wander over to the right sidebar and click on those Amazon links. I am, as always, grateful for your support, and a little embarrassed to have to mention this stuff. Harry and Sally, the dogs, appreciate every effort towards affording their fancy duck and potato kibble. :)

We are now just tenants here in Bowling Green.

Yes, we are very lucky people. We've sold our house. Hurray! We're very pleased about that one, because carrying two mortgages is more than your average professor and writer can usually manage.

I hear that Knit Green is getting some good attention.

Right now, Knit Green is just a few packed boxes (seen here) of knitted projects and book proofs in my house. However, I hear from my editor that there is definite interest in this new book! It's coming out in late September--and you can actually already pre-order it...just click on that little book title to the right.

Packing requires some exercise.

I have no need for extra aerobic activity these days. I am getting muscles like Popeye. For instance, stuffing and containing 2 flannel duvet (comforter) covers in an overnight bag took such effort that I had to sit down, rest a bit, and write this post. Starting with that stomach virus I got in early May, I've been losing weight at a healthy pace... for me. I might even be fit when I am done unpacking all this. In any event, I'm stinky, sticky and sweaty. (It's hot here.)

I appear to have quite a bit of yarn.

You may note that I do not account for my stash on Ravelry. I don't show it all off to visitors. How much yarn is in my stash? That's MY business. (after all, excess is not an understatement...) So, here's a very revealing photo. There are 9 of these tupperware containers here. Full of yarn..both commercial and handspun. Oh, and that's not all my yarn. I cannot wait to start digging into it seriously in Winnipeg. More warm stuff! Immediately! For everyone!

The best part about this storage technique is that I just put tape on them, number them, add them to the inventory and move on. Already boxed! A brilliant thing. I'm saving that for a day when I'm feeling like I can't pack one more box...

In terms of final numbers, how many boxes do you predict? Is your stash bigger or smaller than this portion of mine? Anything else you'd like to add?

(I see that roughly 40 folks read the blog every day. Yet only 9 usually comment. Wonder why.....Is it because I don't manage to write back to every comment?) On second thought, I think it's because I smell bad after packing all day. Yup, that must be it!

math for budget conscious spinners

Remember the sheep shearing I went to on May 26th?

I bring it up because today, my lovely fleeces came back from the fiber mill. I sent them to Stonehedge Fiber Mill to be washed and carded. I don't do this with all my fleeces, but gosh, I figured I ought to concentrate on packing and not washing 40 some lbs of fleece. Yes, it was a lot of fleece.

I'm frequently asked if spinning is an expensive hobby. I say no! The other spinners around me at the spinning guild will say "Yes!" Why the discrepancy? Well, let's crunch some numbers.

Let's say I already have basic equipment like a spindle or hand cards, and a spinning wheel. Let's not talk equipment, although you can be spinning in no time with a $5 handmade spindle or a $5000 custom built spinning wheel. Let's just talk spinning fiber. Let's talk wool.

I often go to a sheep shearing or a fleece show or auction to get my wool. What does handspinning wool cost? Anything from free to $33 a pound. Free doesn't always mean "bad wool." It may mean the shepherd or shearer doesn't want to deal with the wool for one reason or another, or that the industrial wool pool pays so little that year as to be useless.

$33 a pound is the exorbitant price paid for a grand champion fleece at New York State Sheep & Wool Festival (Rhinebeck) a couple of years ago. This is way too much dough for wool, in my opinion!

For the complete newbie, a perfectly spinnable fleece can be purchased for $5 to $10 a pound. Many fleeces are less expensive, some are more. The price doesn't correlate to any kind of rating or quality. You need to learn to judge a fleece on its merits on your own. For your first or second fleece, bring a friend along. If you're really on your own, ask the shepherd. If they're honest and they know something, they'll tell you what they think of the fleece, too!

So, the fleece comes home and I decide to send it all off to be processed.
Note: Check out Fiber Gathering for information in how to skirt a fleece...

40 lbs of fleece are packed up and shipped via USPS parcel post to the mill. $33 in postage later, I come home. I wait. When the fleece comes back, I've got approximately 23 lbs of gorgeous washed and carded roving. Some of the wool is even blended with mohair, as per my request. Light, airy, and just popping out of the box to be spun. (use your imagination here, I haven't managed a photo!) Cost? $221.
Note: This would be less if I'd washed and carded it all at home, but water/energy also cost money. Likely no where near $221, but worth remembering at this juncture.

OK, so let's round that to $250 for 23 lbs of fiber. If you got this Romney wool for free, as I did, (the farmer's partial to me and he doesn't sell his wool) that's about $10.87 a pound. I always bring the farmer a present in exchange, but let's not budget that in. Instead, let's pretend the wool cost $5 a pound for the raw wool, which would be: $5 X 40 lbs=200 dollars.
Note: $5 a pound, while not a fortune, would enable that farmer to do far better than if he sold the wool at the industrial wool pool. He might even break even or earn a small amount.

That would bring the cost of the wool up to: $250+200=450 dollars
450 dollars/23 lbs=$19.57 a pound

Your average adult sweater weighs around 2 lbs in finished weight. That is equivalent to just under 40 dollars. Not expensive...because I'm not counting all the processing time (knitting/spinning) as being work. If I counted the hours this took to process, it would be a very pricey sweater. Maybe $1000 or more at minimum wage.
Note: This is why it's not generally cost effective to have someone commission a spinner to make a sweater.

As a hobby with a sweater end product, this isn't expensive when you consider the many hours of enjoyment I'll get spinning and knitting this sweater.

Can spinning be expensive? Oh, absolutely. If one buys only hand-dyed roving, imagine paying roughly $20 to $40 for 4 oz of wool. That's lovely colorful stuff. If you buy enough for the same 2 lb sweater and it costs $30 for 4 oz... multiply up and that is $240 for an equivalent amount of fiber.

$40 versus $240. Wow. That's a big spread.

Budget conscious spinners are now wondering about dyeing, and how much those packets of dye cost. Well, it varies in price, but it certainly doesn't cost anything like $200. Time to buy some dyes, you're thinking?
Note: Check out the dyeing tutorial in Fiber Gathering!

Now, even if you only buy processed fiber, it's still an affordable, if not budget-conscious, hobby with practical results at the end. When compared to, say, yachting, or golf vacations, or a ski chalet in the Alps? Spinning and knitting sound downright affordable. However, if you're worried about saving money in a recession?

Buy Fleece. Buy lots of fleece.
(If you don't get to spin it all, it makes great packing material and even better insulation.)

Was this helpful? Please let me know in the comments and feel free to pass along to any spinning friends who might be interested. I'd love more blog readers! Now, back to packing...moving day is in 2.5 weeks. Winnipeg ho!

learning with my dad

In the midst of packing, (148 boxes, as of yesterday--including several boxes of framed photos/art wrapped in paper and cushioned by the ever versatile wool roving) I found I'd forgotten about Father's Day...but I never really forget my dad! (I'm a daddy's girl!) Lately I've been speaking to him often on the phone to update my parents on the moving details and to check in on my grandmother, who isn't well.

Yesterday, I had a chance to make my father proud. The new carding cloth arrived in the mail from Howard Brush Company. It's very hot out, so the professor and I took time out from packing and decided to have a fix-it project together. We took the old carding cloth off two sets of antique handcards and put on new cloth. First, we had to pry out the upholstery tacks that held the old cloth on. (look at the last post to see the rusted tines of the old hand cards.) Then, we fit the new cloth to the wooden card "backs" and tacked on the new carding cloth.

This sounds easy, but as I pried out ancient tacks and rotten carding cloth with two kinds of screw drivers, plyers, and sheer force of will, I spent a lot of time thinking about my dad. (Imagine lots of dust, rusted sharp metal, and a good chance of tetanus if we weren't careful!) My dad had me out in the garage, building and fixing things, when I was in preschool. Both my parents believe in "making things"--many of my school clothes were sewn by my mom, and my toys were made or fixed by my parents. This wasn't because we couldn't afford new--it was because we could both make whatever it was "better" and enjoy the process more at home. It also gave us lots of time to experiment and learn new (or old?) skills.

I reflected on that this week while I set yarn twist by washing a lot of handspun. I tend to let center pull balls of single yarns pile up and then do my plying all at once. A few days ago, I washed 600-700 yards of chocolate brown Shetland two ply. (approximately 14 wpi, a lofty sportweight or heavy fingering weight yarn, I think) I also washed one skein of heavy worsted two ply Fleece Artist hand-dyed yarn, and some Polwarth and silk yarn. My dad enabled much of this fiber art stuff. He helped me learn to spin when I was twelve by driving me 45 minutes each way to a 3 hour class, once a week, for 12 weeks. My dad also took sewing and weaving lessons with me. My mom taught me to knit (Dad learned at the beach as a kid with his mom, although he doesn't knit now) and both parents taught me to think that if I wanted to learn to do anything with my hands, I just had to apply myself. Experiment, take a class, and practice--and then I'd know enough to decide if I wanted to keep doing whatever it was!

You'll note from the hand card photo that the professor and I aren't experts in restoring cards yet. (that is, we may not want to keep doing it!) One of the cards wasn't overly sturdy. The wooden back was held together by glue and the rotten carding cloth. When we took that cloth off, we had to reglue the back. The thickness of the wood wasn't consistent--some of the new staples came through the card back. This is now fixed with glue and..as the professor puts it... "one of the five forces of the universe." That is: gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force, the strong force...and, our hero: DUCK TAPE. The cards work fine again, and I can't wait to show them off to my dad! We fixed it! They work again!

Last, my dad helped me learn--especially to teach myself via experimentation and self discipline. I'm usually not a trendy or "competitive" spinner, although I've won ribbons at a couple of state fairs for my handiwork. Lately, 3 ply sock yarn has become the rage of the spinning world. The challenge: Is a spinner skilled enough to produce so fine a yarn that, when made into a 3 ply, it is good for socks?

I mostly make 2 ply, or Navajo 3 ply yarns. I don't knit with laceweight yarns all that often. I don't enjoy spinning extremely thin, fine wools all that much. I sometimes find plying very fine yarns unenjoyable. I wear the heck out of my socks, so most of my handknit socks are coarser wool fibers, blended with nylon or mohair, and machine washable. That said, I couldn't sleep the other night. (heat/moving stress/concern over my grandmother...)

At midnight, I spun very fine Finn wool yarn on my Little Gem spinning wheel. I think it was roughly 36 wpi, but I find wraps per inch can be somewhat inexact as a measurement when things are this fine. I then used my favorite Icelandic drop spindle (got it on our honeymoon) and spun it into a navajo 3 ply right off the spinning wheel bobbin. I knit the resulting chained 3 ply on #0(2.25mm) double pointed needles. It made a finger sized sock at 8 stitches to the inch. The resulting "finger sock" has a halo to it, and I can feel the twist of the yarn and firmness of the stitches on my finger tip. It hasn't sold me, for all time, on the necessity of this 3 ply yarn, but it was a learning meditation that calmed down...at 1:30 AM, I fell asleep.

It also helps me celebrate the learning through experimentation that my dad taught me. It's what keeps me up at night, thinking and trying new things until I learn what I need to know. My dad also gives me a stubborn trial and error determination, a learning through intuition, (gut instinct!) and the willingness to make mistakes until I get it right.

Thanks, Dad, for doing all that driving, warping the loom, lugging the sewing machine and helping put together my first Ashford kit spinning wheel.
Happy Father's Day.