The year ended with business paperwork showing an abysmal year for the shop. A putting away of last year and a clean house to start the new year. The last of the Christmas roast that had been frozen was thawed and warmed for supper last night with Huevos Rancheros on the schedule for the morning. We stayed up to watch the ball drop over the empty Times Square.
I started my double challenge spinning while watching another 30 minutes of new year festivities after midnight.
Yesterday, I knit the first square for the blanket as a test, using wool spun in November and December, and though it will be part of the finished blanket, it doesn’t count in the challenge. The wool I am starting with is BFL, 2 ounces each of the two colors above, Parrot Head and Kingfisher. One will start a new square after enough is spun and that will be my official one for the challenge, the other will be added to the square under them to provide the finishing corner of the blanket when all the quadrants of 4 breeds each are sewn together. The two spindles are “new” (within the past 5 weeks) and the fiber new at Christmas, so that satisfies the second challenge.
The morning brought an awakening thought that I had no eggs, so no Huevos for the Rancheros. He got cheese enchiladas and sausage instead. Our weekly curbside groceries were ready shortly after and again, the substitution or lack there of was a problem. It is frustrating that simple common sense can’t be used in offering substitutions. But it did get me the collards and black eyed peas that I will enjoy tonight as hubby has ham, au gratin potatoes, and something green. I enjoy corn bread with it, but have gotten frustrated that I make an 8″ skillet of it and half ends up going to the chickens before it all gets eaten. Maybe I should look for a tiny cast iron skillet and divide the recipe so that there are only 4 slices instead of 8.
The new year started rainy and cold but the rest of the week looks lovely. Tomorrow there is no official Farmer’s Market, but a few vendors have offered pre orders with a short window pick up. We will drive in to get eggs and some veggies. Next week, the winter markets begin.
Let’s hope that the vaccines get distributed fairly and quickly and that there are no more incidents of deliberate waste of them. Let’s also hope that the “adults” that hold positions in our House and Senate, act like adults and move the election result to completion. This year has to be better than last. A new grandson last January, socially distanced meet ups with our children and their families a few times, and my spindle spinning and knitting have gotten me through the past year.
Being home all the time reinforced the old school skills that I already practiced, such as growing vegetable and flower gardens, cooking at home (though I do miss eating out in a restaurant occasionally), baking bread, making soap and other body and household products, spinning, and knitting or weaving. However, the bread baking, soap making, and spinning needed to be moderated. The freezer filled with breads, soap wasn’t selling online and there were no craft shows, and spinning on my wheel produces more yarn than I can knit up and again, there were few sales in my shop and no craft shows.
Slowing down some of the skills was easy, but slowing down the spinning required some thought. I began spinning with spindles, top whorl drop spindles. Over time I discovered Turkish spindles, bottom whorl spindles, supported spindles, Dealgans, and Mayan spinners. I never got the hang of supported spindles, the Dealgan, Mayan spinner, and my two whorl spindles are only used when I am doing a demonstration at a camp or school (not this past year unfortunately), but the Turkish spindles I fell in love with them. I have had several from different makers, and artists. Trust me, some are as rough in quality as tinker toys, some beautiful but heavy for their size and still somewhat blocky in appearance, then I discovered Jenkins spindles. The quality if far above any of the others, the arms are sleek, the shafts smooth, slender, and well turned. I have tried most of the sizes he makes, some have come and gone from the ones I own and some replaced with the same style and size but in different wood or different weight. His three mid sized spindles are my favorite and I have one of each. Hubby managed to get me the middle of my mid sized ones for my birthday and it is by far my favorite.
To slow down my spinning, I returned to my spindles. They are portable, one is always with me if we go out to pick up groceries or on the two occasions we got to do socially distanced meet ups with Son 1 and family. My spinning is even and consistent. My mind settles into a calm rhythm, stress melts away.
When I discovered the Jenkins spindles, I also discovered a social media group for those spindles and I have made dozens of new friends worldwide that share the same passion and the group had an ongoing challenge for 2020 to spin at least 25 grams (less than an ounce) a month. Sidebars to that challenge were to spin a rare or threatened breed and do knit, crochet, weave, felt, rug hook, or otherwise create a finished object using at least 25 grams of yarn you had spun on the Jenkins spindle. I didn’t discover the group or the challenges until too late in March to participate, but joined in for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters of the year. Some months, I spun an entire 4 ounce braid, some months, spinning at least 15 minutes a day, less was done. In May and June, I spun and plied a braid of more than 4 ounces of gradient dyed wool with the intent of using it as the yoke of a sweater, then decided not to knit the sweater. The skein of over 500 yards of yarn went into my shop and didn’t sell, so a couple weeks ago, it was wound into balls and knitted to complete my second finished object of the month.
This group has filled a hole left by not being able to go to the local spinning group each week. As the year is winding to a close and we can slam the door on 2020, but knowing that we are still social distancing, the group challenge for the year is called the Breed Blanket Project 2021. The object is to spin on Jenkins spindles, monthly, enough of a pure breed to knit, crochet, or weave 1/12th per month of a blanket to finish at least baby blanket sized by the end of the year.
I decided I wanted to learn to ply on the fly (spin and ply in one pass of the fiber). I practiced it for a few days and though I can do it, I don’t like the yarn I was producing, so I will return to spinning singles and plying them for the yarn. My spindle spinning produces a yarn that depending on whose standards you are using is light fingering or heavy lace weight yarn. I had 115.5 yards of a pure breed, Jacob, spun, plyed, and washed and decided to use it to get gauge and see how much yarn it is going to take to produce the squares I will use. The blanket I am going to make will be 56″ x 56″ at the end of the year, but I will probably knit a border on it when it is assembled to make it closer to 60″. The sample I am doing can’t be counted toward the blanket as I can’t begin spinning that yarn until January 1, but I will continue knitting, using up mini skeins and make a throw pillow out of it. I have lined up the 12 breeds I will spin. Each 28″ square will take 4 months and will have 3 natural colored breeds and 1 dyed fiber of another breed. Here are some of the dyed fiber I will spin.
With them and another dyed fiber in route to me, I will use natural grays, whites, and browns. It should be a fun challenge.
When I wheel spun yarn for the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em challenge, I had considered using them for a breed blanket, but knit the half hap shawl instead.
Along the way, there will be pop up challenges, the first is something new. My new will be new fiber, the teal and multi color in the left side of the photo, the fiber hubby gave me for Christmas on a new spindle (one acquired in November or December so my birthday spindle. A side part of this challenge is to use an Aegean spindle, so I will also use the one on the right in the top photo, the one with the dandelion painted on it. This fiber is a pure breed, so it will satisfy both challenges at once.
So socially distanced, hoping for a vaccine soon enough to make at least some going out safer, I will relax and spin the challenges, chatting with the friends I have made worldwide in this group. Spindles have been my sanity for the past 10 months.
A friend reminded me that I had been silent for a few days. Time spent with hubby and via phone and video chat with family, time spent finishing my December spinning challenge, trying to finish a shawl as a finished project for the same challenge, and getting ready for the start of the new year, spinning challenges and mentally preparing for even more isolation as we are seeing about a dozen new cases of COVID in our county each day (56+% of the cases in the county since December 1) and between people travelling and gathering for Christmas and New Years, it will get worse.
When I went to the Farmers Market on the Saturday before Christmas, part of my goal was to obtain a Christmas roast for our Christmas dinner, we still have Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer. The vendor apologized that his abattoir had not gotten his latest beef back to him, but he expected to pick it up on Monday. He made a stop on his way home and let me buy a 3 pound rib roast. It was a much more expensive cut than I would usually purchase and wanted it to be cooked perfectly. When we have family here or that we can visit with, we usually have Italian food at Daughter’s on Christmas Eve, and Turkey, ham, and all the sides on Christmas day here. As a younger married, I would prepare either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, my Dad doing the other and extended family gathered. The Christmas dinner was always on Christmas eve and we grazed on left overs and other goodies on Christmas Day. Traditionally, I make Huevos Rancheros for hubby on Christmas and New Years Day mornings. Because it was just the two of us, I did prepare the breakfast then later in the day, prepared the roast that I had seasoned the day before. It was perfect and delicious. We have eaten about half of it over two days, the other half frozen to be pulled out in a week or so and enjoyed again.
We woke to a white Christmas with continued snow showers all day. Gifts had been exchanged with our children and grand children via distanced meetings or mail. We celebrated with just the two of us. My gifts included items lovingly chosen based on my interests, fiber to spin, a Jumbo flyer for my wheel, a travel Lazy Kate, a leather tooled pocket notebook cover, counter top herb garden with grow light, hand made pottery planter made by DIL and bee barn from them as well, wool socks and a wool tee shirt to keep me warm. It was a calm, lazy day filled with too much food, but no in person family except hubby.
My December spinning got side tracked when I started knitting the Peacock shawl, but I still finished with plenty for the challenge.
Yesterday was spent plying yarn, the “Redbud” ended up about 450 yards of light fingering weight and the Jacob (the gray) is this month’s and last month’s plied together to about 115 yards of light fingering weight.
The fiber hubby gave me is the left of this photo and will be the breed I begin my January challenges with, both the “Something New” challenge and a Breed Blanket.
After several frigid icy days, the sun is out and the snow and ice are melting, the temperature finally above 40 degrees, so we ventured out to take a walk, figuring the paved rail grade being the safest path. For the most part it was clear or wet, but there were some areas like this below.
Some of the areas that looked wet were black ice, but it was good to get out and stretch our legs and get some fresh air.
I have about half an ounce of yarn left before I have to use the rest to do the picot bind off. I’m hoping it is enough to finish the repeat I am on.
I’m very pleased with how the gradient blends until it gets to the purples and the gradient isn’t as subtle there, almost like the purples were reversed, but I spun this yarn on spindles and was very careful to keep them in the order they came off the braid. It is still a pretty shawl. Once finished, washed and blocked, it will go in my shop.
I hope you had a safe Christmas and will have a safe New Year.
About 22 months ago, we were rear ended while stopped at a stop light. After weeks of dizziness and headaches, I was diagnosed with Post Concussive Syndrome. A couple of years prior to that, I had taken a spectacular fall skiing when I hit an icy patch and once gathered back together and down the mountain to assess the damage, concluded that the blow when my helmeted head hit the ice, that I probably had a concussion then too. I recovered from that one with no obvious effects, but the accident one is a different story. I ended up in vision therapy because my eyes weren’t tracking together, the dizziness continued for months and still certain visual movement like waves on the pond or water beads from rain on the windshield can trigger a wave of dizziness.
Another side effect is a short term memory issue that I never had before. I used to be able to make a grocery list and if left at home, could still remember all the items once in the store. Now if I don’t have a list in hand, items get missed. I only go in the grocery when curbside can’t fully fulfill my order and doesn’t provide alternate suggestions. The most noticeable short term memory issue is that I can’t seem to remember even a 4 line knitting pattern any more. I have to keep the pattern close at hand, carefully note what row I’m on and refer to the pattern.
I have no trouble with spinning on the wheel or spindles, no pattern required there, but other than plain vanilla hats and mitts, I have trouble knitting. As a result, I haven’t been knitting much. In May and June, I spun a gorgeous skein of gradient yarn in peacock colors.
My initial plan was to knit a sweater for me with that skein as the yoke with gray Shetland yarn as the body and sleeves, but hesitated to knit a sweater, so I put the skein in my Etsy shop to see if it would sell. With no craft shows because of the pandemic and few purchases being made from the shop, I decided to knit it into an asymmetrical triangular shawl, a pattern I have knit several times. I started it day before yesterday, knitting while hubby was watching television. Last night while he was watching the football game, I realized that there was a glaring error that was causing the lace edge to grow wider which it wasn’t supposed to be doing. I ended up ripping out about 30 rows to get to a point where there were the correct number of stitches on the lace side. That was about 3 inches, 1/5 of what I had already knit. The shawl is back on the needles, the two lace rows completed again and I have the correct number of stitches, so I will continue.
I will have to make sure each time I complete the lace edge, that I count to make sure I haven’t managed to add any stitches. Eventually, the greens fade to blues, then on to purples. If I can keep my focus on it, it will be a pretty finished shawl, but the frustration of not being able to knit anything that isn’t plain vanilla wears on me.
I have been asked many times, “How long does it take you to spin that yarn?” That is such a difficult question to answer without just saying,” it depends. ” Four ounces spun Aran weight or Worsted weight takes much less time to spin than Fingering weight or lace weight. The type of fiber makes a difference as does the fiber prep. Also, whether it was spun on the wheel or on spindles. Then comes the internal argument about how much to price it if it is being sold as yarn and not knitted or woven into a garment or accessory.
Saturday morning I started spinning 4.5 ounces of a soft unknown wool, I believe it is Merino, but it wasn’t marked when it was given to me. I didn’t spin continuously, but did try to track about how long it took to spin and ply it. It spun to 17 WPI, so fairly fine. The fiber wasn’t in the best condition, there were small pieces, some matting (not quite felted). My estimate is about 10 hours to produce on the wheel. I ended up with 313.5 yards. If I knit it into a simple lace asymmetrical triangular shawl, it will take another 10-15 hours. To price the yarn at a price it might sell, I would charge 10 cents per yard for basic wool, and at that price, I have to accept that the time I spent on it was basically recreation, as my time would be only $3/hour. This particular fiber was given to me, often I spend $25 for 4 ounces of dyed roving which then negates anything I would have earned and it basically just provides money to buy more wool. If I knit it into a shawl, it would list for about $40-45 for 25 hours of hand spinning, then hand knitting work if it sold. If it was purchased roving at $20-25 for 4 ounces, plus 25 hours of my time, I would be making less than a dollar an hour to create a one of a kind, handmade item.
I typically only use my handspun yarn for garments I knit for my shop, once in a while a gift skein or trade skein will be used, but I have to value my time as therapy and recreation as this region won’t support the true value of hand spun, hand knit items.
This is the skein I produced, it really is quite pretty, soft and with nice drape, but I definitely can’t use this photo in my shop. I don’t know what you see, but I see a huge turd pile. I guess I need to work on my photography skills.
And in that vein, this is what I saw when I woke.
It isn’t much and it won’t last, but it is pretty now. Again, I need to work on my photography skills.
All day yesterday in preparation to turn from November into December, the temperature that wasn’t that high in the first place, fell. From mid 40’s to 28. Yesterday morning and the night before, we got about 2″ of rain. Overnight, a dusting of snow and there are still flurries.
It isn’t the earliest snow we have ever had here, but with it are gale force gusts of wind driving the wind chill to bone penetrating cold. When I opened the coop pop door, they just looked at me like I was crazy if I thought they were going to step their dainty claws into that white stuff and wind. Their water is frozen, that I have to remedy even if they stay indoors all day. It is only going up a couple of degrees today and even colder tonight.
As November ends, so ends another month of Jenkins spindle challenge.
The month ended with a bit more than 130 g of spun fiber, some spindle plied. The purple skein on the left if BFL wool that came with my birthday spindle, plied with BFL/silk blend with more of it on the spindle. The white/burgundy is Alpaca blended with dyed Coopworth. Last night I finished spinning it on the wheel as I didn’t like the way it handled on the spindles and ended up with 268 yards of fingering weight yarn that went into my shop for sale.
December will begin finishing the gray Jacob seen in the bowl above and here, along with more of the Redbud colored BFL/Silk.
Last month’s spinning was slowed by knitting as I finished the sweater for one grand daughter, the Intarsia knit Christmas stocking for the newest grand son, and a pair of fingerless mitts from spindle spun yarn for my shop.
All have been wet or steam blocked and ready to go.
Somewhere during the month, I also finished this skein on the wheel as it frustrated me on the spindles. And it joined the Alpaca/Coopworth in my shop.
Yesterday a jar of Daikon radish kimchee was started, two batches of soap made to saponify overnight. Today I will wash out the pots and spatulas now that the caustic mix is soap and make one more batch of the soap I use as shampoo and body soap for my use this next year.
I decorated the outside on the porch Sunday afternoon, I guess I should start on the inside too. I also need to get some gifts wrapped that will have to go in the mail soon.
We always had a rule that no Christmas decorating could be done until after Thanksgiving, then daughter got old enough to complain that we had to wait until after her birthday on the 29th. It became a family tradition to which I still comply. Even when she was younger, she wouldn’t complain if I put up the door wreath between Thanksgiving and her birthday, but nothing else.
She is a grown woman with children of her own and her own house, but still, I wait. I still usually put up the door wreath and pull out my Santa lap quilt in the interim, but nothing else. I am struggling to make the holidays as normal as they can possibly be, and will haul out the Santas, Christmas linens, and in a couple of weeks, the lights and ornaments for a locally cut tree. First, the house needs a deep cleaning. Living on a dirt/gravel road and driveway and having two large shedding dogs in the house, keeping the hair and dust down is a full time job and though I vacuum the exposed areas daily, the deeper mopping under furniture and thorough dusting doesn’t get done as often as it should. Each year that I pull the Santas out, I dream of the Library box shelves with the glass fronts that would help keep the books cleaner and the decorations I take out more dust free. Or maybe the revolving shelves like in mysteries, so the shelves just need to be revolved to the decorated side at Christmas and the book side the rest of the year.
All gifts are purchased or made and ready to be wrapped and packaged. One box to be mailed to Son 2’s family which will include the Grandmom made hand knit stocking for the youngest grandson, born about two weeks after last Christmas. Another box to be delivered in a second socially distanced meeting with Son 1 in early December. The gifts for daughter and her kids, as she lives nearby, will be delivered to their door on Christmas, an opportunity for us to not spend the day sitting in our house alone because the kids can’t visit this year. We will give them their gifts outdoors and come home.
In mid December, I have an opportunity to again set up a craft display and honor sale at Wilderness Road Regional Museum. Since the spinning challenge that I do each month with the Jenkins spindles encourages projects made with the yarn spun, I spent the last couple of days knitting a pair of plain, no pattern, hand spun, hand knit fingerless mitts to take to the sale. A few hats, mitts and mittens, a couple woven and lined bags, and a few smaller simpler shawls or scarves will also go along with a basket of handspun yarn skeins. The event is by reservation for two afternoons/early evenings and will hopefully reduce my inventory a bit before I have to report it to the county for tax purposes early in next year.
For now, I am going to grab mop and dust cloth and get ready to set up for the next holiday as soon as it is “legal.”
Take care. Hopefully next year will be closer to normal, even if the normal is a new normal. I want to hug my kids and grandkids, not see them at distances of a dozen feet.
“Zen emphasizes rigorous self-restraint, meditation-practice, insight into the nature of mind.” Meditation of any sort can help reduce stress.
My Zen time is spinning with my spindles. It is total focus on the single process, it quiets my mind, slows my breathing. That wasn’t always the case, like with any new endeavor, there is a lot of tension involved as you learn the skills, but with time, you relax and it becomes enjoyable. I have been spinning now for over a decade, starting with spindles, moving on to wheels, and for the past 8 months or so, returning to spindles.
When spinning with my spindles, whether in my chair, the car, waiting for an appointment, or out in nature, I feel my shoulders relax, the tension drain from my neck, my breathing focused. It gives my mind a non stressful activity on which to focus, a form of meditation. It ceases to be production and instead, is a serene, peaceful activity. I am still making yarn, but at a much slower pace.
As I am approaching the end of the month, as a spindle is filled and emptied, it isn’t necessarily getting refilled. The Fig Aegean, my largest spindle is resting right now, my newest Ambrosia Wren is filling, the smallest Honduran Rosewood Finch is almost full and will soon sit idle for a few days. The notched shaft bottom whorl in the left of the bowl is my Living History spindle and doesn’t generally spin at home. They rest in a wooden trencher, also from living history, or sometimes a basket or pottery dish depending on my mood. And it all sits on a small hand woven “towel.” The weaving process is still in the tension filling realm as I haven’t gotten good enough at it for it to be relaxing, maybe someday.
In a few weeks, some of my yarn, knits, weaves, body care items will go to Wilderness Road Regional Museum to an Honor System craft display during their Noel Nights weekend. If you are interested, you can reserve a spot for a tour, goodies, and shopping on their website. Twenty percent of my proceeds from that event will be donated to the museum for their operation and educational programming.
A front came through with wind and rain, the warm is gone. We will see two nights in the low to mid 20’s this week. After all, it is mid November.
The day was spent crafting. The men of this family are tall and bearded. Son 1’s face is long and he has to go to campus a few times a week to teach and for meetings. I had made his family some masks late summer and when we had our distanced meet and greet, he expressed that he wished he had a couple that covered more of his beard, and he liked the ones with two ties, so today I played with my pattern to extend the sides by about 3/4″ and used bias tape folded and stitched for ties instead of using elastic loops. Four more larger masks are finished, packed, and will be shipped off to him tomorrow.
In my early fabric purchases, I had gotten two that ended up being lining, but found a use.
This morning during my alone time, I finished spinning most of the frustrating fiber on the wheel, all but a few grams. After the masks were done and packed up, the last little bit was spun and then a major plying session done. The two bobbins of very fine singles ended up a very full bobbin of 2 ply yarn that is 22 wpi, lace weight. This is the second skein I have done recently of soft, smooth, shiny yarn that is thinner than I like to use, so it will look for a new home.
The fiber is 50% Merino wool, 25% baby Camel, 25% Mulberry Silk, so it has great sheen and should knit with great drape. The bobbin couldn’t hold any more. Tomorrow I will measure it off and see what kind of yardage it is.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the peas will have to be covered, hopefully to protect them enough to get a small harvest from them. Daytime temperatures this week should be great for some walks and hikes.
I think we got our month’s worth yesterday and last night. It rained hard enough last night to again clog the ditches and culverts along our road, filled the ditch on the top end of our culvert with road gravel and washed huge ruts down our driveway. Again I have filed a report with VDOT, but they would rather come in and grade and clear ditches half a dozen times a year than do it right the first time. The ditch needs to change sides of the road several times which would involve putting culverts under the road.
I had a package to mail, so we went out to get a newspaper, drop the package in a post box and get carry out lunch. I also needed two flower pots as I made a decision to let the two huge hanging spider plants stay outside for the winter which will result in their demise, but I cut plantlets and brought them in to root to start them over in clean soil in the spring. The plantlets were ready to be planted, so we went to the local nursery to get two terra cotta pots and plastic saucers. The nursery is near the road down to the river so we chose to come home along the river. This is what we found.
The river was over it’s banks, the rocks at the falls totally submerged. We saw a pick up truck go through that overwash on the road, but we wisely turned around and came home on the high road. That isn’t the only low spot, or even the lowest spot on the route home.
Our creeks are rushing, the one at the bottom of the mountain is very full, but not as full as we have seen it a few times.
The rain seems to have tapered off, though it is still thick with gray clouds out.
Yesterday I commented that I didn’t care for the red fiber, it is very slick and not fun to spin on the spindles. Last night I decided to just spin it on the wheel and though it is going faster, it requires so much hand tension to keep it from pulling apart or slipping away, it is still going to take a while. An hour of spinning and my hand, elbow, and shoulder ache. I still have more than half of it to do. The singles are spinning up at about 38 WPI, so it is going to be fine yarn. I hope someone wants a lot of yardage of fine, smooth, soft yarn.
I have plenty of Shetland, Jacob, Coopworth, and Alpaca/Coopworth blend to keep me busy. Not the pretty colors, but much more fun to spin.
Cabin Crafted 