The Package

Oh boy, Oh boy. I got a package! It is something I was expecting and came all the way from Alberta Canada. I got it at work and it sat in my cube for 2 hours, taunting me. I didn't open it though. It stayed all sealed up and safe for the ride home. No tape was cut till the box was sitting in my living room.



 People were guessing what might be inside.  You got a mail order alpaca! Nope. That is a BIG box of wool. Good guess, but nope. I pointed out the lack of air holes. A live alpaca needs air holes. A dead alpaca would smell. Nope definitely not an alpaca. Is it a spinning thing or a dog thing? Wait, is it a thing or a bunch of things?

Gosh, that's a lot of questions. I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.




 NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Get the FLUFFY pillows. No NOT the FLUFFY pillows!




Something wrapped in paper. It feels like one of those plastic air pillows they use for packing stuff. I'm thinking, cool Canadian air! IMPORTED Air! I'm gonna blog that!



Woh, how wonderful! Imported fiber!! Alpaca, merino, mohair.
Squeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!



What is it Harley? What did you find?



It's official. Harley has claimed this horse blanket as her own.



Kinda like a tootsie pop or a Cadbury egg we get to the goodness in the middle.





This is soooooo awesome! A Majacraft Rose.
She is smooooooooth and fast.

~~~ happy dance ~~ happy dance ~~~

Faster Faster, with a little more TWIST

About a year and a half ago, when I got Harley got me a spinning wheel for Christmas, we saw stuff like wheel ratios but the numbers didn't mean all that much. Don't get me wrong. I understand what a ratio of 5:1 or 12:1 means. One turn of the big thing equals five turns of the little thing. Got it. What did that feel like when spinning? No clue.

We settled on the Ashford Kiwi. Nice sturdy beginners wheel. Rock bottom of the price range on new wheels. Very affordable. Was in Harley's budget, anyway.  Out of the box ratios of 3:1 and 5:1. With an speel whorl (gear) available that tops out at 14:1.

There she is the day I got her.


Believe you me when I tell you that the slowest speed was too fast at first! I was inching along at 3:1 and I couldn't keep ahead of the twist.

We managed to turn this. (that's baby scooter in the background)
 

 Into THIS.

That is actually my very first yarn right there!

It didn't take long though, to need the faster whorl. It did seem quit a bit faster... at first.

At some point last week I realized that the pain in my right shoulder, the one that was causing me to put my coat on funny, the one keeping me from picking my purse up with my right hand, was probably from long draw. Been spinning long draw a lot lately, stretching the fiber past my body then holding it there while treadling like mad to get the single twisted. Immediately after bring the right arm to the front of the body to wind on the new yarn it of course goes right back to stretching it back and behind again.

Don't get me wrong Kiwi. I still love you. You will always be my first wheel. I just need another wheel who can keep up on high twist jobs.

Etsy 'Bout Time

Wow, I can't believe how many decisions had to be made to open an Etsy store. I had a bunch of yarn spun up and spent quite a bit of time measuring, reskeining, weighing, naming, pricing and labeling. Whew, that was a lot to do! I'm ready now, right?

Yeah, keep thinkin' that. Oh, innocent optimism.

I... Had... No... I-dea

Once I got into the store set up there so many dang things! How fast am I going to commit to running to the post office? How am I going to do shipping? Where am I going to get boxes? Do I offer international shipping? What is my return policy? Oh Look. I need a Texas tax number. . . send off for one of those.

I'm really not sure how many weekends have been "the weekend" the first item goes up on the Etsy store. Yup, this weekend I'm gonna get a couple of yarns online. More than one friend has told me that I was stalling. Just Do it.

Just now noticed that I have a crappy profile. Pretty much nuthin in there. Ugh. That IS important but I am really tired. The store policies are written. They can be changed if I think of something new. The shipping is FINALLY figured out!

Then I found a way to put the store items on this page! Wow! Check out the bottom of the right column there. I gotta stop... shutting down.

where My Stitches At

typing this on my phone. sitting in a parking  lot waiting for my package to be ready for pick-up. i forgot my knitting! So right now all I can say is Where My Stitches At

I don't even have my new button with me. I didn't buy this button. Well, I DID buy it. It was part of a three button set. I was really after the "hello my name is" button.

Here I am now. With out my knitting. All of a sudden I feel I really understand the Where My Stitches At button.

Holy Shamrock - Oops I could have worn a handknit

My head has been in other spinnerly places this last week. Just got to work and saw on the calendar that it is St. Patrick's Day!  I had no idea!

I'm wearing a multicolored sweater, and even if I really stretch the very definition of the color green I can't say there is any present in this outfit. Not even a little bit. This is a reason to be grateful for grade school being many years behind us.

I even have a handknit that is green. I could have worn my alpaca lace shawl/stole thingie. Funny, I wonder why I only have a picture of it when the thing was barely started? Was I not excited about finishing it? I sure was! I need to get a FO picture!

Ooops I could have worn a handknit.

Scary Knitting!

I have to admit that there is a bit of knitting that I really really need to get on but I am kinda scared of it.

My dear daughter Jessica and her family went on a European vacation last summer. They took time out of their day (more than once) to locate and visit a LYS (local yarn shop) !!!! Just for ME! European yarn! How exciting is that!

Jessica apparently spent quite a bit of time with the store owners. They chose a sweater pattern at each store and then purchased enough yarn from each store to complete these wonderful sweater patterns. Isn't that the sweetest thing a non knitting daughter and son-in-law ever did for their Mom/Mother-in-Law ?? I think so too!

I put it all in a basket to keep it together.

Nice isn't it? There is even two skeins of Regia sock yarn in there. Check out one of the sweater patterns. It is beautiful. Jessica has wonderful taste.

The yarn is really good quality too. Nice soft merino in beautiful rich colors. I love the labels. I can almost read them!

Here we are entering the spring season. I've had this since last summer. That is dangerously close to a year.... poor yarn.... sitting in the basket so long. I'm so afraid to dive into these projects though! I need to make the sweaters that Jessica chose for me. Oh my.. Oh my... what the heck am I going to do. I can't read these patterns. Take a look.

I don't speak or read either of these languages! Egads! Patterns in German and Spanish? I can sigh in French though.  Le Sigh

It Is My Stash !!!!!

If you are familiar with the website known as Ravelry skip this paragraph. Ravelry is an online fiber artist community that I have become addicted to. In addition to the forums where you can make yarn friends or ask questions, it has a nifty feature in each users profile where you can keep track of the yarn/fiber that you currently have hoarded   stashed around your home. You can upload pictures and descriptions and it has come in handy when I have been out at a store... wondering if I still have that hot pink eyelash yarn at home because I see a pattern or complimentary yarn that would go well with it. I can look it up on my phone! Look at that i have three skeins of it! Perfect.  Here is a screenshot of my ravelry stash page.

Lately, like twice in the last couple of weeks, I have logged onto Ravelry to find a message waiting for me. Yippee! Someone wants to talk to meeeeeeeee?????? When I go read the message I am a little confused.  First of all it is from a person that I do not know. . that isn't alarming really. It is a site to meet and get to know other artists, after all.  Here is where it begins to get weird.

This person whom I do not know is saying something like  "I'll take that blue chenille". Uh, ok???
 It takes me a few minutes to remember that I do indeed have some old Lions Brand blue chenille in the stash. Then I look at their next email. They sometimes have sent several because I wasn't writing them back. Hey, I sometimes don't log on for a week or so..... real life takes over. The second and third emails from them get more and more frustrated.

"I've written to you for 4 days! I want to buy the chenille!"

About this time I begin to wonder out loud to myself. Am I the one misunderstanding what the "stash" feature is for on this site? I thought the stash gallery was to document MY STASH!!! I may want to trade or destash some of it, but until then can't I just keep track of it? Did I accidentally open a store here? I am really not sure anymore.

I am going to go read the Ravelry FAQs to make sure I am not using the site incorrectly. I DO want to sell some of my handspun online. I just haven't opened a store yet. .  . or at least I didn't THINK I had!