Faster by the day

 There's an old phrase floating around that says something like:
Spinning on a spinning wheel is faster by the hour.  Spindling is faster by the day.  This has gone through my head repeatedly since having kids.  While I was gluing knitting needles and shooting other photos, I hung up some yarn to dry on my (dirty) porch.  First, I hung up an experiment I'd done.



Last summer, I bought some Clun Forest roving from Custom Woollen Mills in Alberta.  It is a down breed, bouncy, and hard to felt.  Perfect for boy mitts.  I spun it up in two ways.  One was a slightly over twisted chunky single ply.  The other, which took much longer, was a skinny single that I plied into a 2 ply.  It's well balanced and the skein looks much nicer.  I will continue onward with this experiment and knit both into mitts.  My best guess is that even though the 2 ply looks nicer and would perhaps last longer, the chunky single will save a lot of time.  My boys don't often lose their mitts, but they do insist on growing, so they outgrow them, but not before they get dirty repeatedly, felted, and well-worn.  Sometimes the end game is about efficiency and not perfection.

The second batch of yarn was ALL spindle spun.  I spun and plied it all on the spindle.  Much of it was spun and plied right on the same porch, as I watched kids.  I have no idea how long I spent on this.  I recently dug around in my spinning basket, noticed a had a lot of odd single balls of spindle spun yarn, and plied them.  That added up and amounted to a lot of yarn!

I have no idea what these skeins will be one day.  What matters here is volume- I was actually productive during those hours on the porch. The kids' wheelbarrow (well-used in 'weeding' play) caught their drips as they dried.

 I often feel stymied by the number of interruptions, illnesses, and other details I manage...it's not a professional 40 hour work week or lifestyle.  However, I recently applied to something and realized that I'd had 60 articles published in the last year.  Sixty!  (some were reprints, but that is ok) So, just like that water dripping, a little at a time does add up after a while!  So...spin on!  (or write on?!)

the Cubby Imp

On Sesame Street, there is a segment called Abby's Flying Fairy School.  The one I can't get out of my head is called "the Cubby Imp."  Essentially, there is this lonely guy who lives beneath the cubbies at school, and he steals people's stuff.  The characters at the fairy school have to get into his little lair and retrieve all their belongings.

The thing is, our household is usually pretty good at keeping track of our stuff.  I have the same keys my parents gave me to their front door when I was eight.  I hate losing things.

When I was pregnant, over five years ago, we did a bunch of painting and moving stuff around.  Substantial parts of my fiber arts life got moved around, including my floor loom, and I was just not physically able to sort it out then.  Plus, a lot of it was still in boxes from when we'd moved the year before, because that was how I'd stored it in my office.  It's a pretty easy leap from there to conclude that I have not had loads of time to tidy since having my twins, either. :)

Since then, things have been shifted and reshifted.  I am preparing to teach at the Manitoba Fibre Festival next week.  (Please come!  It will be super!)  I have all my students' bags stuffed with goodies, and all is well except for one thing.  I cannot find my tahkli spindle.  Now, you can teach about support spindles and cotton spinning without this spindle, but I just don't wanna.  I have this spindle and its little bowl, dang it.  I do.

I think the Cubby Imp took it.  AHHHH!  Actually though, I know that I have brought it as a demo spindle to other classes I've taught.  I wonder if it got left somewhere, like at a spindling class I did last winter.  Or, more likely, I brought home everything after the workshop and dumped it in my office and thought...I'll just sort this out later.  The thing is, I am exhausted after my workshops are over, and then I have to jump right into Mommy gear, and I lose track of things.

This never happened before I had twins!  

(Clarification...I was tired after teaching workshops. I had clutter... but I cleaned up and knew where things were...nearly all the time.)

A kind friend (the one that reviewed the spindle, above) is going to bring hers so I can show everybody what one looks like at my class.  AND, I still have a week to look for the darn thing.  However, it seemed like a good opportunity to start cleaning up.  I am trying.  Still, I am plagued by feeling like this darn spindle has disappeared because of fairies, or cubby imps or something.  It kills me that I have lost MY tahkli.  I don't even want to buy another.  I want to find the one I misplaced, you know?

--If you were a student in one of my spindling classes recently and read this blog (like, in the last few years...), did you see my brass tahkli spindle with the little brown pottery bowl it spins in?  When did I last have it!?

A new article- a new year- a new half-finished project...

I attempted to post this sentence somewhere around December 21st, while we were in Florida over winter break:

"We are on vacation, visiting family, but this article came out on the CBC:

Ditching online anonymity could actually make us better people"
----
but as you might guess, it didn't work.  In fact, I am not sure if it was the Blogger app, or juggling twin 4 year olds in a new place, or what!?  but I just got down to basics.  I gave up on the complicated online stuff, and focused on the essentials.

There were a lot of things to focus on: sunshine, sand, beaches, digging (our guys love to dig) and trying to keep them from killing themselves or others.  In the process, in the first week, we visited Sarasota, saw 21 relatives from the Professor's family (yup.  21.) and in the second, well, that was my family, and there were only (wait here....) 11 of us, getting together to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  Yet, on the second week, we drove across Florida to Cocoa Beach, took our first ever cruise (Disney cruise), and you know, there were over two thousand people on that, and that does not count the crew.

We ended the vacation back where we started.  Our direct flight to Winnipeg left from Orlando, and if you have ever been to Orlando during winter break, well, even if you do not go to Epcot or Disney?  Even if you just try to drive to someplace for dinner?  Crazy making.

But?  It was warm and sunny, there were endless amounts of sand, and the boys met a lot of relatives. We had some important celebrating to do.

I think it would be fair to say that I am an introvert, and that I was absolutely peopled-out.  We are very glad to be home, in "snow time" again, with our dogs.  Yesterday, both twins cheerfully pulled on their snow suits and boots, and the Professor, our sons and dogs all went out to the front yard together to dig, move around about a foot of accumulated snow, and chase each other.  Ahh.  Home.

I will definitely be adding more excitements to other posts, but in the meanwhile:
Here is a quick snapshot of twin sweater #2, knit on #5(3.75mm) needles.  That's 2 ply handspun Shetland naturally brown yarn for the body of the sweater, and the collar is 2 ply, hand-dyed (by me) silk/merino handspun.  This is the only shot I could find where he wasn't moving at the speed of light.  The sweater already looks a bit worn= he likes it!

I brought a small Turkish spindle, a little pocket of Tussah silk, and some sock knitting on the beach adventures.  Each morning while we were in Sarasota, we took all our borrowed sand toys and walked to the beach for an hour.  I tried to sit still as much as possible, watch two boys constantly, and I fit in a bit of spindle spinning.  (More on that coming up, too.)

I plied the yarn yesterday, in between loads of 'coming home' laundry.  It's about 22 yards, for a friend who makes books.  She will use it to sew exposed bindings, I think.  It's shiny, skinny, and strong stuff--just a bit of gorgeous fluff can do with a spindle.

I'm continuing to use that Patons Kroy sock yarn.  I've always found it wears well, but am noticing that the most recent batch seems silkier than I remember...always good for little boy feet.  Their feet are growing like weeds so I need to get going on making more woolly socks!

Last, but certainly not least....if you're interested in picking up a spindle and beginning to spin, I've got something for you!

I'm teaching a Learn to Spin class on January 24th in Winnipeg.  It's a Sunday afternoon event, hosted by the Norwood Naughty Knitters, and it's designed to enable new spinners to walk away spinning on a spindle by the end of class.  You'll leave with a spindle, some wool, and a brand new skill!  Please sign up soon to get your spot!

What I did this summer...

What I did this summer...
by Joanne Seiff

Among other things, I spent hours outside in our front yard as my boys dug in the sandbox, in the dirt, in the garden, played and argued.  Usually, I knit or spin on a spindle to keep from killing anybody, due to unnecessary sibling arguments or sheer boredom...I need to be close by in case of disasters.

This year, I tried something new and attempted a big project.  I wound 2 plies of handspun alpaca-silk singles (yarn) and 1 ply of handspun merino wool together into a ball on my nostepinde.  (that long black wooden thing in the photo)  I then used the nostepinde as a distaff, by tucking it under one arm.  (usually my left, mainly by using my armpit)  Then, I used that turkish spindle in the photo, and starting and stopping all summer, I made a big ball of three ply yarn.  I skeined it up and measured it recently.  It's about 110 yards of three-ply...all spun on a spindle.

I also knit a new sample for my Turkish Lace Camisole pattern.  I used Rowan Pure Linen, and I suspect I'll get good use out of this version!  Of course, I finished it right before Labor Day, and it is already beginning to get cool here...there's always next year.

I spent many hours on adventures with my twins, who told me firmly that their favorite parts of summer were spending time at the wading pool and with Mommy and Daddy.  So, this summer, we went on lots of trips..including to the Aviation museum, the Firetruck Museum, the Railway museum, the zoo, the Assiniboine Park Conservatory, the gardens, the Forks, and of course, several different city wading pools and their adjacent sandboxes.

Finally, while I dangled my feet in the wading pool a fair bit, I also continued writing, creating knitting designs, and freelancing where I could by staying up late, writing through naptime, and using PBS on occasion.  (we love some Curious George, Sesame Street and Clifford around here...)

  (I'm SO looking forward to getting back to work in the new year!)

Also, we're celebrating the start of preschool.  Hurray!  I have had 3 full days off of twin duty so far, and it has been nothing short of miraculous.

However, the high holidays are coming...and with them, many interrupted weeks of school so we can celebrate them.  I looked at the preschool calendar, and my guys will not have a full 5 day week of school until after Canadian Thanksgiving, in mid-October.  Right.  So, I spent part of this week cooking and getting ready... here's a shot from my baking session.  I made 4 round challahs, two plain, and two with raisin.  Here are two explanations on why a round challah is traditional for Rosh HaShanah.  (A note about the links in that last sentence...the first one is short and sweet, the second is more detailed, and finally, the last one is about the whole holiday and not just baked goods!)

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, sweet, fulfilling, healthy and prosperous 5766.  May we see more peace in the year to come.

L'Shanah Tovah U'metukah!

A happy and sweet new year!

It must be summer...

We all come to realizations about ourselves...and sometimes we have to realize it over and over.  I'm just not much of a joiner.  That is, I seem to do things in my own time, but not really when everyone else does it.  So, it has come as a surprise to me that even while other people have started their "Tour de Fleece" in style, I have been managing to spin, card, or knit every day...all on my lonesome.  The Tour de Fleece is an event for spinners, where people watch the Tour de France (or not) and try to commit to spinning every day during this period in July.

To be honest, I didn't see myself doing this.  First, I watch very little TV, and much of what I do watch is kid-related.  Second, the 10 days between preschool ending and camp beginning had me very busy with twins and without childcare...but to my surprise, there were brief moments for spinning.  I did some wheel spinning as we played in our basement play room, and a bit of spindle spinning while we played in the yard.  Unfortunately, we spent a lot of time struggling with a summer cold, an ear infection, and feeling unwell due to the smoke from enormous forest fires, even though they were hundreds of miles away, in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Then, summer camp started this week and I threw myself into getting both my work life and our household back in order.  Again--I had my own set of surprises.

I wrote articles...and then had not one but two editors indicate that basically, I was on vacation because they were.  Yup, no articles coming out right now in July, because, uhh, there's no one there to receive or edit them.  Maybe next year, I should ask for folks to tell me their vacation dates and social calendars?!

Right.  So, even though I could work really hard to produce new contacts, pitch to new places...odds are they are also either on vacation or operating on summer autopilot.  hmm.  Also, I have been the lucky last person in the household to get over this bug, so as the boys went off to camp, I discovered that I really wanted to take a little rest, which was not to be.

I have changed a lot of bedding, done some grocery shopping, frozen some berries, and attended to a lot of other minutiae.  So, perhaps despite the fact that I did not show off shiny mounds of roving to be spun this month, or make any broad commitments towards what I planned to accomplish, I am finding a few minutes to play with fiber most every day.  I'm carding (with hand cards) a chocolate brown Border Leicester fleece, and spinning it up.  I'm plying some white Romney wool.  I'm spindle spinning some ancient brown Merino that has been in my stash for 16 years now...

I'm spindle spinning some white Rambouillet cross lamb wool that required combing (by hand) and so I only spin a very small amount at a time.  There's no sparkly stuff with sequins, no roving processed for me, but turns out I'm participating --again, in my only special way.

Quirky loners?  Is there a Tour de Fleece team for that?  I guess I'm on it. :)

Oh, and I guess it must be summer, since all the editors seem to gone fishing...guess I'd better fill up the time productively.  Maybe with a little spinning...

Spindle article in Spin-Off!

This issue of Spin-Off Magazine, the Summer 2015, has my article about spindling in it!  It's called 'Slow Spindles?  7 tips for making more yarn.'

 Here are some outtakes--photos that the Professor shot that did not make it into the article.  He took these in the dead of winter.  It was so cold that his camera would freeze up and stop working...Meanwhile, the editor asked if we could catch some shots of me spinning outside!  (Not on your life.  At -20C or below, I require double mitts, and you can bet I am not spinning outside!)

If you have a copy of the magazine, you will see one shot with a spindle on a white background.
That is snow.

Luckily it is warm and green here now.  Whew.  Just when I thought winter would never end...

This is a "spindle" basket, ready to go: I put it over my arm, loaded with fiber, and wander around spinning.  Works very well while watching twins or helping at the Manitoba Fibre festival!

mitten fashion shoot

It's full-on winter here.  Windchills of -20C (-4F) and blowing snow.  Yup.  Happened pretty fast, actually.  We've all got a virus, complete with sniffles and coughing and general sore grouchiness, so we weren't outside this weekend.  We skipped our dance class and mostly played in the basement.

Every year I try to produce at least one pair of fancy mitts in colors that my twins want to wear. To clarify, every kid has to have at least 2 pair of mitts, so one set can dry out, if necessary, or when it is really cold, so we can double up the mitts.  Until this year, we had some wool handknit sock/mitts which we just rotated onto feet and hands as necessary, but the boys are beginning to get why we have thumbs in mittens, so that won't last much longer!

This year I was running a bit late.  I finished my second pair yesterday and we had our photo session.  Both boys got their cameras out to shoot photos, and we were off to the races!
 
Note in the first photo--we were checking out the inside of one of the mitts, as it's just as colorful and "beautiful" as the outside.  (that multicolor yarn is Mountain Colors Twizzle and it meets the requirements of the twin who wanted blue, purple, red, yellow, green...etc.)  Contrast colors are the leftovers of blue yarn I used for  the Wrap-Around Cardigan design and some lovely plain old natural yarn from Catherine Friend's farm.

OK, contestant #2 for the photo shoot was just not in the mood.  Very sniffley and grouchy, and dressed in his "train conductor" uniform.  (The sweater shirt has a small train emblem on it and he felt the cannonball style hat was part of the uniform, of course.)  Anyhow, his mitts were also the first finished, so he has been wearing them for a few weeks at preschool recess and cannot figure why we were putting them on in the basement.  (I know, that crazy knitting mommy) 

These mitts are special for different reasons.  I dyed the green wool myself from beast roving, which is a wool/mohair blend that is reclaimed from the machines that produce Brown Sheep yarn in Nebraska.  All the yarn for these mittens was produced on spindles, plied on spindles, and then knit up--while chasing twins.  So, all this past summer, when I was standing around in the yard while we played at the sandbox, I was spindling.  I made mitts to order.  Green, to match this kid's coat, with a gray natural colored Shetland stripe from our friend Margaret's (& Linda, but he doesn't remember Linda's) sheep.  I threw in a white stripe of some random handspun I had, which he does not seem to mind, but having Margaret's Shetland wool in the mitts was deemed very important to this kid.

It takes me forever to make anything these days but making kids' mitts (size 4, in case you want to do a pair or two for us!?) is very quick.  We have these two pair, and a couple pair our Didi made with matching winter hats (Didi = my mom) and we're very nearly set for real winter.  We've got something like 10 or 11 handknit sweaters that currently fit us, so between my needles and my mom's, I think we've got that covered.  Yes, it gets cold here.  I cope with my obsessive worries about being warm enough for winter...by knitting more. 

Sadly, it is now too cold for me to knit in the parking lot before preschool pick up, though!
Enjoy the photo shoot!  As soon as we stop sniffling, (come spring?!) we might want to smile again, too.

Dog days

I want to thank everyone who left a comment or mentioned to me that they still read my blog.  Thank you...I clearly needed to know that this was still worth doing.  As a thanks to the knitter folk who have hung in here with me, I wanted to let you know that have a 20% off pattern sale for the dog days of August going on until the end of the month…this applies only to the patterns available on Ravelry.
The Ravelry coupon code is:
dogdays2014

This is a good deal on some of these downloadable patterns!

  In order to honor one comment, most of the photos of this post feature Sally, my pointer-mix.  She came to us at around 8 months-1 year in 2005, which makes her 10 this year.

Remarkable. 

Sally has always been hard to photograph.  She is a very bright, skittish, high energy and loving dog.  Since my boys were born, the dogs get less time to laze about outside...because if the dogs get to barking at people beyond the fence, neighbors could complain.  So, we call them in quickly most of the time.  (and juggling 2 3 year olds and 2 dogs in August, by myself, has sometimes been tricky.)
Sally likes to sunbathe, and she likes to roll in the grass or snow to clean herself.  She comes in smelling good, either way, and watching her relax and roll is a real pleasure for those who know her.  (She's wary of ever being caught in a submissive pose.)

Most of the time, she is "on guard."  When my boys were infants, she would act as a dog nanny, guarding them.  She'd also rush over to their diapered bottoms and bark when they needed changing.  This wasn't ideal; it sometimes woke the boys up, but mostly it alarmed anyone who was trying to help me with the babies.  Sally did not really trust the nervous, non-dog people who tried to help, and she let them know she was worried about her babies.

Sally had to be taught a new command--"upstairs"--so she would have a way to be off duty and rest on my bed while others were over.  This summer, both boys have been home alone with me a lot, or with one or two other people Sally trusts.  As a result, she's often right near by these days, and I feel like she's back where she belongs, resting on a rug in the living room or patrolling the yard as we play.

Although I am really worn out from being on constant "mom" patrol with few breaks, I did have a couple of surprises.  One is that when there is no one to help, I HAVE to sit around with the boys in the playroom or in the yard.  I have to be the one who takes them to the park or the wading pool.  As a result, I've had more time both outdoors and sitting down--time to "rest" as compared to rushing about behind the scenes to get things done for the household or my work.  I often bring my spindle out to the yard to spin...and it can be surprising to see how much yarn gets made while they play in the sand box.  (nothing sweater-worthy, but better than nothing!)

In other news, we are in the midst of transitioning to "big boy beds."  These are really toddler beds, but the amount of chaos twin boys can cause when loose in their bedroom, alone, is unreal.  We have created a sleep time chart (color coded for boys who don't read!) and they get stickers and prizes when they settle down to sleep quickly and quietly.  That means--no yelling or sitting on or hurting your brother, no taking apart the furniture or destroying your bedding...you get the picture.  Naptimes go smoothly, most of the time.  We're still working on bed time.  As always, sleep is still a challenge here.  I am still up with somebody 1-4 times a night.


Making food in August has been hard.  With no summer camp and only a mother's helper some afternoons, it is difficult to find 20 minutes to make a meal.  I have developed a loving relationship with my slow cookers and Stephanie O'Dea's books...
365 Slow Cooker Suppers and

 Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking. 

These two books have enabled me to throw together a lot of dinners in a hurry, and everyone seems to like them.

Last but not least, I succumbed to something I swore I would never do.  I started baking bread as a 12 or 13 year old, and when I went to college, my mom bought a bread machine "to replace me."  I really love the process of baking bread and miss it dearly.  However, it is really hard to manage rising times and a hot oven between the competing needs of two very different preschoolers and two dogs while by myself.  Also, flour is very cheap in Manitoba (on sale, I can get 22.5 lbs of white flour for $6.50 CAD, and whole wheat is not much more), but decent wholegrain bread with no preservatives is expensive by comparison.  So, I got this bread machine on sale, and it has been churning out 2 or 3 loaves a week for us.  I was lucky; my bread baking experience meant I concocted my own whole grain recipe straight away and have been innovating since.  Sometime when I have more time, I will post some of those recipes.

I posted this marathon blog entry on a rainy Sunday morning while the Professor took the boys out to visit with the turtles and fish at the Assiniboine Park Conservatory.  This is the first time I have been alone, without twins, for any length of time, in 16 days.  I shared it with you.

Progress

I've been meaning to post.  However, a few things got in the way.  First, I'd be crazy not to admit that this winter (the worst since 1898) in Winnipeg really got me down.  We decided to travel east to see family in the USA for Passover, and that was a good decision.  Family visits are complicated and travelling with 2.5 year old twins internationally is not a great thing to anticipate...but just getting to see family...and all those flowers, all that grass, all those playgrounds and long walks outside made the effort worth it.

In truth, the plane rides were smooth and if you have to go across the continent on two flights each way, we somehow found the best  combination of flights to Virginia.  I figured out (mostly) what to pack.  The only person with a deficit--only two weather-appropriate pairs of pants--was me.  Luckily, we made good use of my parents' washer and dryer.

Right before I left, I finished two sweaters.  One is for the boys (the striped lett-lopi from a previous post) and I don't yet have a photo of it in action.  My mom was kind enough to sew a zipper in, and away we went out to play in it!

The second sweater was for me.  This one was amazing to contemplate, so I had to try it.  A  whole sweater from Bulky Lopi (very thick, lightweight singles yarn) on size 17 needles.  I made Nu but skipped the turtleneck and knit it a little differently, with a slight A-line so it would not be too tight.  It came out so well that I am wearing it today.  This might seem bizarre to those in warmer climes but we had sloppy snow this morning here and dark clouds; it ain't all flowers here yet.

It was hard to catch a whole body photo of it, so here is a close up of the enormous stitches and a poor snapshot of the sweater as I am wearing it.  One advantage to long term tummy trouble (finally, a diagnosis, for those who are medically inclined, you can click here) is that my sweaters fit better now.  That is, everything hangs loosely on me.  I've lost some weight in a way I did not intend to, but things seem to be stabilizing, I hope.

Another bit of progress:  When the boys were very small, many of my 5 spinning wheels stayed just where they lived before the twins were born.  Over time, we moved things to fit more toys, play pens, etc.   Also, the only time I managed to spin was while wearing one baby in a sling and the other boy was asleep or with another adult.  This was a rare occurrence.  As they became more mobile, I faced reality and moved all the spinning wheels to my office space, far away from daily activity.  One wheel remained in my bedroom, but it got dusty and dirty from lack of use.  In fact, it had been months since I spun on a wheel.  I used my trusty spindles in the basement playroom every so often, and that was it.

Both boys like to play at spinning and one "knitting" attempt involved an entire skein of yarn and many of the toys in the play room.  We had to cut off that yarn to clean up after they went to sleep!  Anyway, lately, both boys have asked me to put a spinning wheel into the playroom so "Mommy can spin on a spinning wheel" again.  They have been entranced by a Curious George episode with spinning in it, and I am thrilled.  Maybe the novelty will work, I don't know, but today I moved one wheel back to the playroom where I can use it again while they race cars and build block towers.  We'll see what happens...but it might be a small step towards getting some of my old life back.  :)

Manitoba Fibre Festival & A Spinning Class

I may have mentioned before that I've been working with a friend to help organize a fibre festival here in Manitoba.  Well, actually, my friend, Margaret Brook, has done the lion's share (or is that ram's share?) of the work.  I have worked behind the scenes, making suggestions, talking up people at the farmer's market, printing flyers, and trying to support my friend as she does the heavy lifting.  I am so excited and pleased that Winnipeggers will now have a chance to make connections right in town with local fibre producers and to learn, buy, and gather to discuss all things fibre!

Of course, if you live in North Dakota, or South Dakota, or in Ontario or Saskatchewan, this might also be the festival for you...we'd love to have you!

I am also teaching an informal spinning class at the festival.  I believe there are still spaces left!  Here is the description:

 "Ask a spinner!" 

Instructor: Joanne Seiff
Spinning is a solitary activity; lots of questions can pop up on your own. Many of us experiment or research by ourselves, but sometimes it is good to talk out solutions with your peers. Join Joanne Seiff, longtime spinner, fibre arts writer and educator, as she facilitates a question and answer learning session covering anything to do with spinning. Bring your own wheel or spindle, some fibre, and a willingness to ask questions and share the answers you’ve found on your own. 

1:00 - 3:00 pm    2 hours
Registration fee: $20
No materials cost

To register for my workshop (or any of the others!), visit the festival workshop page here and click on the Paypal "Buy Now" button for the appropriate class.

I am really looking forward to seeing you at the festival!

spindle secrets

1. Ice dams seem to be under control for now. Demolition of our 3rd floor bathroom plaster was successful--we now have an entire wall that is covered with insulation and plastic/taping. It isn't pretty but the plumbing all works, so that is fine for the present time... our second floor bedroom still has an enormous hole in the ceiling and will have that until the spring melt. I have been knocked for a loop by all this weird unexpected house renovation. That said, we're now working on roof estimates so if you have a roofing company recommendation in Winnipeg that does insulation too, let me know, please!

2. My spinning class on Sunday went very well. I'm very tired out --shlepping around twin fetuses while teaching is a lot of work, it seems--
but there are 10 new spinners in the world! Hurray!

3. Geri asks:

What are the specifics of the spindles you're assembling for your class? Are the whorls readily available from a home centre? Does the hole in them readily fit a particular dowel size? What is the size of the dowel (spindle)? I'd love to learn the specifics if you don't mind sharing.

---
Well, the short version is that there are some very basic "making a spindle" instructions in practically every how-to spindle book. There are even instructions in my book, Fiber Gathering.

The basic information is: you need a weight and a stick. Here are some other great books that have illustrations or information on how to make/use a spindle:
Spindle Spinning: From Novice to Expert

Respect the Spindle: Spin Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool

Spinning in the Old Way: How (and Why) To Make Your Own Yarn With A High-Whorl Handspindle

Productive Spindling

I strongly encourage anyone who is even remotely interested in spindling to check out some of these extremely useful books. There are also many wonderful resources online and at your local spinning store/guild/friend's house/spinning class.

Now, some of you are wondering why I'm not revealing all the exact details of these spindles. Well, first I'd refer you to this post. One summary on this end is--I sometimes get paid to teach people how to spin. I've been spinning about 25 years, and I spend a lot of time learning and thinking about it. I don't think any of the information is top secret. I am also certainly not the only one who knows how to spin out there!! However, I also am sure you will understand when I say that I don't need to help you re-invent the wheel (err, spindle) either. There's lots of information out there...seek and ye shall find.

Even if I did want to write a "recipe" for how to make a spindle and give it away for free, I'm afraid it wouldn't work. Everyone lives near a different hardware store. Some folks sell dowels or sticks in metric and some don't. Some people use whorls that aren't toy wheels and some use other kinds of weights. Oh--and I don't always use the same size dowel and whorl. I buy what's available and I teach people to spin on many different types of spindles with different weights and sizes. I don't always make/teach the same thing because there isn't just one way to make a spindle or spin. I'm flexible about it.

Thankfully, all these spindles will work. If they didn't, humans wouldn't exist--we humans would all have frozen to death, naked without textiles, thousands of years ago!!

I know some one out there will think I'm purposely withholding vital information here, and that's not my intention. I just don't have the time/mental energy/desire to create a pattern/design/recipe for this that I can then have edited, formatted and sell efficiently online right now. I also can't afford to always do this kind of thing for free. However, I can point you in the right direction towards making your own, and I hope this post is a good first step.

Congratulations to the 10 new spinners in Manitoba! I am so excited to welcome you to the world of spinning!!

the mid-week update...

Yesterday I missed my usual blog post day. That's because I got the chance to give a talk about Knit Green: 20 Projects and Ideas for Sustainability for the Manitoba Eco-Network! The talk went very well and I enjoyed myself. However, between getting downtown on time and my usual pre-talk jitters, it exhausted me for anything else! Had to have a quiet afternoon and a large cup of tea to recover.

However, continuing with the green Earth Day theme, here is my new summer dress. Yesterday was also the warmest day this year so far in Manitoba. It hit a high of 21 C! (above 70F.) Although many people stripped down to shorts and sandals, there was a stiff wind, so my dress will wait for another day. In the meanwhile, here's what a little green dye can do for a buttercup yellow dress. The dye was probably a buck or so, and then there's my time to dye it, but all in all, I'm enjoying good value here with this recycled outfit!

Lately I have been pondering how much my time is worth, and what I should spend that time on. As a freelancer, I manage my work schedule and I decide how to allot my work hours. For instance--I figure --aside from knitting--that I spent about 8 hours getting The Winnipegger scarf ready for sale. That included things like formatting the pattern, proofreading it, getting outside tech editing support, doing the photo-shoot, etc. I was lucky that the professor could shoot the photos, as then I didn't have to pay a photographer as well-another expense. Anyhow, I was so pleased to post the pattern for sale on Ravelry.

So far? Not one single purchase. Nada. Nothing.

I know as a designer and writer that a portion of my work is just a business risk. This appears to be part of that risk. Whether my work is calculated at $9 (minimum wage in Manitoba) or $20-30+ (teaching rates) or $35 (editing rates)---well, I just have to hope someone is interested in buying a pattern I post or I lose 8 hours of that income. Never mind the knitting time! For now, it's just available via Ravelry as I don't want to waste the time of my webmaster (another small business owner) in terms of posting it on my site too. We'll see how things go. I remain hopeful that someone will like the pattern enough to consider purchasing it.

The books I wrote are another kind of risk--and this morning, I heard of this kind review! Hurray!

I haven't had a lot of time for spinning lately. However, when I've spun, it's been exclusively on spindles. Here's a shot of my SpindleWood spindle, complete with a rich brown alpaca/silk blend yarn. This blend of fiber is slick and I had little luck using my Great Wheel to spin some of it up when I got it--nearly a year and a half ago. I'm not sure if it was my inexperience with my new Great Wheel or the tendency of this fiber to drift apart. It lacks the "grab" that wool fibers have. With the control of a fine spindle, it's speedily becoming yarn! I hope these singles will become a luxury sport to dk weight 2 ply in the weeks to come.

Oh, one more neat bit of local news. Check out this article--soon the Muslims of Inuvik (that's in the Arctic) will have a place to worship, thanks to those here on the prairies! What a wonderful way to reach out to others. In a place so cold, it is an amazing gift to get an indoor location to gather.
That's the news from here!

the cold case of the fireplace

Once upon a time, some newcomers to Winipeg had a lovely old house, built in 1914. Said house needed a lot of tender loving care. It had some things that worked splendidly. It had some things that done broke a darn long time ago.

We have a chimney. It is your average chimney for our neighborhood. It has corbelling but not too much corbelling. (Yes, this was a word I've learned since moving here. It's in the dictionary...) It was built in a sturdy way, back in 1914. However, we now have a chimney where the bricks just rest gently on each other, touching intimately. No mortar between the bricks. At all.

This is complicated by the fact that we have these lovely original cast-iron coal burning inserts in the fireplaces. Two small fireplaces. Gorgeous. Limestone in the living room, and brick in the professor's study. Totally impractical for today's world. No, we do not burn coal. We do not burn anything, because if we did, we'd burn down the house...cause remember, no safe chimney, shallow fireplace, etc.

We've been doing research on how to fix all this. The options are ridiculously varied. Take down chimney. Rebuild chimney. Get a woodburning insert/woodstove/gas fireplace insert/gas logs/gas stove/etc. Put decorative flowers in there, put a note on the mantel that says NO FIRES and call it a day... All suggestions people have offered us.

Some things will not work. For instance, new gas fireplace inserts will not fit in our fireplaces, so we've had more than one person suggest they just cut up the masonry surrounds (from 1914) to make those new things fit. Does. Not. Sound. Safe....or historically respectful.

We've got lots of advice, including some from an architect (professor's father) and an engineer with experience in natural gas (my father) and several tradesmen in the area. However, neither father has ever been here, so I've put up these photos for them to see the fireplaces. Please, join in the fun! In my best case scenario, by next year this time, I'd still be admiring these cast iron coal inserts. I'd be sitting next to a gas fire. It would feel warming, and I could shut it off before going to bed. (a woman can dream, right?!)

Have I mentioned that all of the above options will cost something between $9,000 and 15,000 to come up with a solution? Oh, and that if we don't fix that dang chimney this spring, it's likely to just fall off the roof and kill a passerby in a stiff wind?!

Now, if the above scenario causes you hyperventilation problems like it bothers me (and believe me, this is just one of the interesting problems we've encountered this year, between new/old house, immigration, work, etc.), you might need to calm yourself. Quick. Look at this spindle. Breathe. Think peaceful thoughts.

The professor bought me this as a treat and it arrived yesterday. It's made of Walnut, 33grams, and it comes from this kind man:
Ray's Spindles
It doesn't replace the one I loved that snapped in my bags while travelling to write Fiber Gathering. However, it's a nice spindle, and if you look at that webpage? I have pretty much every variety of spindle he makes. I especially like the Turkish and Bedouin spindles. The kind that broke, a "hi-lo" spindle, is one I think he might no longer make. I do miss it.

I also have been weaving to "beat" the band. Or at least, beating the heck out of these roving rugs I've been learning to do. Here are a couple of pictures of my efforts. I've done 2 twill rugs, one plain and one striped. I've done 2 plain weave rugs, one plain and one striped. All the rugs are roughly 2 by 3 feet, with the striped plain weave one maybe a few inches longer. The wools used are Icelandic, Romney and Cotswold. The warp is cotton.

I haven't quite finished off these rugs yet, but well, warp #2 is off the loom and I'm fixing to start warp #3 with the start of the new month. As soon as I figure out how to use a warping board. See? I'm definitely learning something new at least every day. Good to keep the brain active. It sure does seem like a lot of work some days. Especially the hyperventilating while trying to make expensive house decisions part...

spinning along

I'm stretching out this vacation (in my mind) for as long as I can this time!) That's because my daily life, while good, is full of things like laundry and house repairs and moving details. So, vacation is good. Let's keep talking about Crete!

It wouldn't be vacation without finding fiber arts things everywhere we went. Let's start with, say, spinning wheels. There aren't a lot of spinning wheels on Crete; it's not a strong part of their spinning tradition. Spindles are shown in museum exhibits, but not wheels. However, when we were in Chania, at the very end of our trip, we were shopping for knives. Cretan knives are well known for being nice tools, and for someone who cooks lots (me) a handmade paring knife or two is a great souvenir. That said, last time we focused on a bone handle--this time, we were happy to take plastic. Plastic is easier to clean, it's all recycled from something else, and the bone was a lot more expensive. We were paying for the knives when we saw this wheel behind the counter. The flyer and bobbin were on the floor next to the wheel and the cost? 250 Euros. It was a wheel I didn't need, but an antique spinning wheel, in any event!

Ok, now back to the goats... we left our car park in Myrtos (next to the goats) and took several driving trips. We went to Sitia, a city in Eastern Crete, one day. This is a pretty large, bustling place with a lot going on. Our first focus was olive oil--Sitia has some of the best in Crete-- and a good meal at the Balcony, a great restaurant. What we discovered was that the olive oil was available at the grocery store in Myrtos, so we didn't need to drive so far! The restaurant was nice, and...we found a yarn shop. We'd found others, but unfortunately, most are only open in the mornings, so I'd missed going into one. Crete mainly focuses on embroidery and lace crochet now, but I got some nice worsted weight cotton (like Tahki Cotton Classic) at a yarn shop in Sitia. I had the help of a kind Greek American woman who was also a tourist. She was from New York City, spoke very functional Greek and helped me get just the colors (navy and sage green) I wanted!

The trip was made entirely worthwhile by a super trip to a folklore museum in Sitia. I will post on that soon--it deserves its own post, it's an amazing museum.

When we left Myrtos, we chose to stop in a town called Kritsas. It was described as the "biggest village in Crete" and as having some nice arts and crafts. It was actually more of a town than a village, fairly touristy, but very picturesque. (click on all these photos to embiggen, it's worth it!)

As we walked through the town, we heard a sheep's baa and the professor caught a photo of this...looks like this farmer was either transporting these sheep to another farm or to market. They are hogtied, which means their legs are tied together, to prevent them from jumping out of the bed of the truck. The sheep didn't appreciate this (lots of baaas!) but it didn't hurt, from what I saw. It seemed like a logical way to transport sheep in this very hilly terrain. ..otherwise, they'd just leap right out of the truck bed! Also, one could note here that sheep on Crete are a special and primitive breed. Very tough, wily and clever, they provide milk, meat and wool--a true triple purpose breed.

There are lots of textile shops in Crete with embroidered table and bed linens--sadly, most of these aren't hand done anymore, and probably not made in Crete. However, as I walked up through the town, peering into the shops, I saw what could only be a distaff, loaded with wool, and a spindle. I rushed into that shop!

Most women on Crete don't spin or weave anymore. In fact, spinning and weaving were common on the island up until at least the '70's, but today, there's not much need for it anymore, with the improved availability of commercially made goods. However, this lady showed me with very little English, that she spun and wove for her own pleasure. When I showed her I too spun, she was tickled! She got out her handwoven blankets and sacks to show me. They were gorgeous! All single ply yarns, spun with the coarse wool of Crete.

When I tried her distaff and bottom wool spindle, I saw what well-made and beautiful tools they were. Well balanced, and handmade! She explained that they were hers, she had none for sale. She also showed me her handmade wool combs (a lot like Viking combs) that she used to process the wool herself. She did a beautiful job of that, too.

Before we left, she showed us another traditional skill. The cords used on handwoven sacks are braided/woven on a distaff like stick. The stick is tucked under one arm, and the little prongs or branches at the end are used to separate strands of yarn. The braiding is done with both hands free--this could obviously be done while walking or tending children.

I was sad that we didn't have enough language in common to talk further...but thrilled to see someone spinning for fun in Crete. What a universal language we spinners/knitters/fiber arts people have!

...more about the folklore museum next time...I'm off to make a traditional Southern cole slaw for the Biology picnic! (in Manitoba, it might seem exotic!)