Drop Spindles

It has been so long since I last wrote. Much  has happened and much has changed. But my main obsession at the moment hs turned to Top Whorl drop spindles. And I finally took to spinning wool instead of silk. Back Later

When Some One show's you !!!!!!!!!!

Maya Angelou says when someone shows you who they are believe them!!!
I have found this a good thing to remember in my life.
Having said that I was inspired to write a short entry today after reading Thrums,only because she used the word Moth in her title. Thrums was referring to silk worms. I however was reminded of what happen to me a couple of weeks ago. I was at my Tai Chi class and I asked this Japanese lady who is the sweetest liveliest little women in the class if she had any old chopsticks hanging around her kitchen. Then began the longest and funnest conversation. Every Chinese and Japanese lady in the class got involved. I finally explained to them I wanted to make a hand spindle out of a chopstick and a bead. Only because I had seen one on Sara Lambs blog.
After the conversation ended this elderly chap comes up to me and said if you are a spinner I have a barn full of wool are you interested.??
OK I am an English lady born and raised in the city of London. I have never been up close and personal with with anything other than a dog or a cat. Since I have moved here I have met a some delightful people who have told me they have sheep, llamas, goats. living quite happily in their backyards.I'm quite fascinated by all of this but truly don't relate at all. Fortunately for me I have been schooled very carefully by other spinners how to responded to some one who says they have a barn full of wool they want to give away. "Is it clean??? ""of course!" "well perhaps you could bring a sample and show me". Two weeks later my husband brings home a shopping bag that was tied very tightly he informed me it was the wool that had been promised. I rather nervously open the bag and peered inside. Tied it up very tightly again and threw it into my freezer. Then I phoned my friend who came and looked at this frozen wool. She said those little dead bodies and husks are MOTHS!!!!
My fiber stash is all neatly cataloged and sealed into zip lock bags and then sealed inside a plastic container.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

I had to really think how to take a photo of the mirror with out taking my self as well. My husband bless his heart took the mirror off the wall in our back entrance. then we propped it up in my small weaving room so I could check the shed whilst weaving this double weave. I actually managed to take a better picture of it this time around. I have to fess up and say I haven't woven on it in a week. I did however go back to the small loom and do a bit more to my silk scarf. However my mood has been to spin . I finished spinning my Tussah silk then went and dug into my stash and pulled out this bombyx silk that was called sea shells very pretty. I must have had this silk in my stash for at least 6 years. I know when I go it I was a bit hesitant to spin it for fear of making the colours look muddy. But they don't. So I phoned Treenway and asked if they had anymore. I felt very lucky to get the last 2 packages. And I have actually decided to knit myself a sweater incorporating  quite a bit of my spun silk.
Can anybody who might happen to read my blog explain to my in basic terms how to get the printing in between my photos.
OK just a little story . this morning at Mass the visiting Priest got up and called all the little children to the front. We have this program where the children go down stairs and are read a bible story and they can colour and do other little projects. Saves them from a bit of boredom and squirming around in the pew. Two tiny boys go running up so Father offers them the bible that they are supposed to carry down stairs. So this tiny boy pipes up "no thanks "Father" I have my own book "See!!! the Priest looked completely flummoxed. Until an even smaller little girls comes charging up  grabs the book and takes off. Very funny.
Well I'm going to post this and explore the options on this blog to see if I can figure out a better way of writing this

Moth balls

Well the time has flown by since my last post. Lots has happened . The last thing on Friday my husband had a incident ,that is how the young Dr Alan described it. The upshot of that was my Husband spent the day under observation in the Hospital. I won't go into all the details but we were told to call the ambulance right away next time. When they were releasing him to go home I said"" so basically we go home and" "Wait For God". The Doctor smiled and said more or less.

After a day of eating hospital food which is all wrong for a person with Diabetes type 11. I decide to put on a pot of very hearty fresh vegetable and black bean soup. His Nibs one time had listened to the radio and then informed me we should be eating Cumin. Not knowing what Cumin was :) the people in India don't suffer from Alzheimer's because they put Cumin in the food. "You should buy some" Every time we eat beans I have been putting a pinch of cumin into them. OK you are way ahead, I decided to put in a whole teaspoonful into the soup. I'm umummum!!!!!! this taste really good.

Supper time rolls around and we sit down for our meatless meal, hot homemade scones and soup. His Nibs is half way through his meal, when he turns looks at me and say' "what is the Moth Ball taste in this soup". Cumin "OH OK" I'm cleaning up the dishes ,"well you finished " "Yes but only because I told you Cumin was good for us" "I had no idea it tasted like Moth Balls" this is you regular old English man born before World War Two . We just looked at another and laughed. Today for lunch we are eating the remainder of the soup I have added some curry powder after another discussion. It has completely obliterated the Moth Ball taste.

I won't even go into the fact that I've got him going to my Tai Chi classes with me. That is a total hoot. I'm just not ready to Moth Ball this old man yet.

On the weaving and spinning front. I am weaving a double weave very slowly. It's overshot woven as double weave. I haven't taken any photo's of it thus far. I have been Hand Spindling and this is my Alpaca and silk and some Cashmere and silk. I'm very slightly obsessed with the drop spindle. It take some of the wrinkles out of my life, in other words its very soothing to spin. I'm also back spinning silk on my wheel. Well I did find a picture of the beginning of my double weave not very good but it gives you an idea. It took me over a week to thread that up. First of all I had to figure out the draft which was only half . The overshot part, then I had to put in the double weave part. Meaning every time I threaded a 1 I then had to thread a 3 and so on and so forth. The biggest stumbling block for me was forgetting about the light threads go on the even heddles, and the dark threads go on the odd treadles. Weaving Overshot as double weave doesn't work like that. I'm happy that I stuck with it and didn't just give up. Because I'm happy with the colours that haven't shown up very well here and the weaving of it it self.

Well it's now time for lunch. Tonight I plan to watch "Celebrity Apprentice".I get a kick out of that show and the Amazing Race. :0

When I grow old and losing my hair.......

many years from now. Will you still be sending me a Valentine,Birthday Greetings ,Bottle of Wine. The Beetles....... On Thursday of last week it was my birthday I reached the grand age of seventy. I had got up and after switching on the tea kettle I went straight into my loom room to fiddle with my weaving. My husband stuck his head around the door, and said" I bet you didn't think you would be doing this at seventy" Your right I didn't. There I was sitting in my flannel nightie and hair uncombed messing around with twisted threads. I have been fooling with this warp for an entire week. (However that is a story for another day.)
My friend Joan Cameron came down and visited with us, bringing me a birthday present and this hand made card. I was very touched that she found me special enough to give me a piece of her Theo Moorman Technique. This card is so lovely I'm going to get it framed, it is definitely is a keeper. Joan is my good friend an mentor in the weaving world. As the expression goes Joan has forgotten more things than I will ever know about weaving.

Well this was going to be a longer entry. However I hit the wrong button and lost my blog. In my search, I decided to change the background. Since I feel slightly dotty doing something that dumb.
Tomorrow I'm off to the hospital for a horrible procedure called a Gastroscopy. I had better get off my butt and get somethings done. Because tomorrow will be a lost day.

Romney Sheep and Hand spindling

A while back I went off to the spinning group toting only my hand spindles. My friend Terry whom I think of as the guru of spinning, had shown me how to get started on the hand spindle. I wanted to show her that I'm nothing if not persistent, and perhaps a wee bit obsessed, when I want to learn something new. She was dutifully impressed with my efforts. It also got some of the other ladies interested in learning this ancient skill. I said to my friend Terry, I have read the Alden Amos big book of spinning. His foot notes are hilarious and he is extremely opinionated. That is just my personal opinion of course. I said, the thing that stuck with me was he said to order a bag of Romney fiber and just start to spin. Well I have been in several fiber source's and never seen Romney for sale. Terry says "I have a big bag of Romney at home. I will bring some round". (I'm thinking Crikey she giving her valuable fiber away to the likes of me).

Any way around she comes a few days later with this bag of of really lovely brown wool. We had tea and a short visit. And I immediately started to spin it up . For any fiber enthusiast you just don't know what your missing. Its gorgeous stuff , easy to spin really soft, and lovely to knit.

Terry and I will eventually get together again and drool over the Romney.

I looked up Romney sheep on the net. And they started life in England. We english people are so smart to produce a sheep like that. We do get some things right. Not like the politican who spent the tax payers money on getting his moat cleaned out. But I digress here.

Changing the subject my double weave is off the loom. I have woven in some of the skips in the bottom layer. When I say some, I thought I had all of them however when I took it into my laundry room I noticed a tiny one. So I will go over it again before wet finishing the piece. I will next ask Kiera if she would like me to make it up into a bag that reverses. She might need a new bag for her ballet slippers.

Inspirations and Doubleweave

My Granddaughter was here last year visiting us with the rest of the family. It was a very fun time for us even though we were totally squished into this little house. Our house was built in 1912
the rooms are small. The saving grace is that the ceilings are 12 foot. So one gets the feeling of space. Even if its over your head as long as its not in your head. Sorry I digress!! Kiera has to draw and write everyday its part of who she is. So one afternoon she sat amongst 3 and 4 year old trying to show them how you work with a box of paints. They mostly loved dipping the paint brush into the glass of water. In the process she painted this. The colour in this little picture, I thought quite remarkable. Of course I am very bias all my little ducklings are swans and geniuses to boot.

Up on the fridge it went and I felt inspired to try and weave something that would incorporate those colours.. Because of weaving being so structured I thought a double weave would maybe work somewhat. I like what is happening here in the weave and I have had many ideas just weaving how to produce another piece with some of the flower colours too . If I was Alice Schline I could copy it exactly. But I'm not, and I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I have this real love affair with weaving double weave. Its so slow . I had better get back to it while I have a bit of time. Also Kiera really is a lovely child to look at, with a huge sense of humor. Yippy they are all coming again in May. We will grumble about packing everything up to put up beds. But cry when they leave to go home.