Snowstorm Files, Day 5

Day 5 of the snowstorm brings this: MORE SNOW.

School is closed (for the kids) through the end of the week. Friday was scheduled to be a teacher professional day (aka "training") in the first place, and we've been instructed to check back in to the website after 4 on Thursday (I think) to see if we will need to report. My guess is yes, since it's just us adults, but that's okay by me.

I finally made it out of the house today. I'd been leery because my sister and dad reported messy roads, but enough was enough and I went for it. Since my ex, who has the same model car I do, made it in to take The Boy to dinner last night, I figured I'd be okay. We won't mention that he got stuck on a hill, and had to go back and take the "smart" route out of the neighborhood or anything. I made it free and clear. We stopped by the post office and tried to go to the library, which was closed. A stop by McDonalds finished our run, and now we feel much, much better.

Good thing, too, because it's now snowing again. There's another storm upon us which will bring mainly snow, but has a chance of sleet and freezing rain as well. In all, we expect maybe 15 more inches and lost of wind. Whoa. We're praying that the power stays on, but if worst comes to worse, we'll hunker down in the basement/den with good ole' PopPop and his woodburning stove.

Today was momentous in another way - I finished the wheel. Here she is in her glory:



Not the best picture in the fading light, so here's a better picture of the wheel portion of the staining.



That's when (I feel) I had really gotten the hang of it. Thank goodness, too, because I was actually not too happy with some of the pieces - there are a few drips and 'runs.' But the wheel? Perfect (if I do say so myself)!

Everything is in working order, and I even spun long-draw style pain free to test her out.



This is some of the stuff I've been dyeing during the snow - I blended a bit of the lime green and brown with my handcards a couple times, and got a good blend. I think the brown/blue will be fabulous. My earlier thoughts of blending this romney with some of the lincoln locks I received are quickly dissolving, though - the romney is so very easy to spin and very, very soft! YUM!

:O)

Off The Wagon

Guess who now belongs to me?


Her!

I'm very happy, if even more broke, now. I'm happy to have supported my favorite all-time local yarn shop in buying it, and I think the Ashford products are wonderful besides (and I have bobbins for them already! LOL).

Currently, I have one full bobbin of the BFL/Cotswold fiber that I'm carding up from the fleece I just purchased.



The plan still is to spin and knit that fiber into the Ravensong sweater from A Fine Fleece. The plan may just have to wait a bit longer.

Remember the lovely brown merino I'd started spinning when I first borrowed the wheel? Well, I'm now finished spinning that up, and that's only because I decided I was FINISHED spinning that particular fiber.

I've spun with merino before - in commercially prepared rovings, and very often in the "superwash" form that's very popular right now. Lovely fiber. No problems whatsoever, and I 'can' spin this stuff. This fiber, however, was very short, and required an immense amount of control from me to spin.

So much so, that I now have a bit of a trigger finger (well, thumb) because of it. I was pinching really hard to get the fiber to stay together long enough to spin the way I wanted, and there was a lot of it! I spun about 600 yards, but then did a 2-ply, so wound up with 301 yards. The rest of the fiber? I 'gifted' it to my sister. Since she and I split the fleece to begin with, this will help her to ensure she can do whatever she wants with the fiber - she'd have more than enough for a cabled sweater now.

But I'm through. I'm going to take a self-imposed knitting/spinning break for about 2 weeks. I may have to test out my progress to see how I'm healing by knitting a row or two here and there, but I really think I need the rest before I require a doctor! I'm already going to Drs and PT appointments for my back and hip pain, I don't need to add on any more ailments!

While resting, I think the first order of business will be to take my new wheel apart and stain it, get it (and myself) ready to go for the Olympics. 'Cause you know there are Olympic Knitting events as well, right? If not, clicky the linky and find out all about it. Join in the craziness. The more the merrier!! I hope to begin carding more fleece during the opening ceremonies for one 'event' geared toward spinning, and will work on a few knitting works-in-progress for another.

Until then, I'll be reading regular old books - returned my audio books this afternoon - and checking into how to disassemble and stain my wheel. That should leave plenty of time to cook up some new spinning and knitting plans!

:O)