i'm cheating on mecchia...

i have fallen in love with mecchia... not love at first site it is true, but a steady respectful growing kind of love. so much so that i am finding edammertje has not been what i had hoped for. there is nothing fundamentally wrong with eda. but i've discovered that i really love the wood of mecchia, and the fine turnings, not to mention i love scotch tension vs the bobbin lead drive/tension eda has just like a louet.

so i guess i want eda to find a new home. mecchia is much too big to take anywhere, she is a stictly an at home kind of gal. so i purchased a peacock! i expect to meet the peacock in 2 weeks. my dd has taken up spinning on eda, but if things work out with this new wheel... she'll share this one with me and we'll pass eda on to someone that doesn't desire scotch tension and who will love her for the modern lines and clean functionality that she has!




i also carded up the rest of my stash enhancement from the retreat. this is batch #2 of the handdyed merino that i carded in bamboo. plans are to spin up more lace to light fingering weight.
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this is me with other ladies of the moon this weekend celebrating what we call "fiesta de la luna" and our daughters moving towards womanhood. fall on the lake was lovely. we found our first snow in town on the drive back in! we walked, cooked, nourished, celebrated, welcomed a new moon daughter, committed, rejoiced, reaffirmed and "walked in beauty"


spin on, knit on!

wow, it is almost like christmas around here...

first... i had a fabulous time at the fall 2007 spinning retreat. this is the culprit who introduced me to spinning! notice her fabulous wheel... she waited 3 1/2 years for her turn to have it made by a gentleman in oregon who is no longer making wheels now.


these are other alaskan spinners and knitters! sure they look harmless, but you should have seen them during the gift exchange!


i should have taken pictues, 49 of about 60 women participated. i came away with 4 skeins of lovely fall colored fingering weight yarn! all that fiber, spinning and knitting supplies in one place, whew... slurp slurp slurp!

this is the latest of what mecchia and i have spun up. i still have to set the twist, but overall it looks good to me. i love mecchia.


and look who arrived today!


last but not least...


i took this picture last week, there is so much more snow in just the last few days. so we hurried and did fall clean up on the gardens, and now we are almost ready, ready as you can be for the winter to arrive when you haven't yet got enough of summer!

make peace, spin fleece!

meet mecchia

the rest of her finally came today. it wasn't really head over heels love at first site, but we're getting to know each other, and i like her alot. i can tell she isn't a perfect first love, but maybe the love will grow and deepen as we become more aquainted. assembly took me quite awhile as i have only had personal hands on contact with simples such as the louets and ashford kiwis. but i think i have all of her parts in the right places. i am a lazy spinner, much as i am a lazy knitter. i like it all mindless. now, i have been knitting (and other fiber work) for over 30 years, beginning as a very small child. but spinning is something rather new to me. 5 years max, and most of that on drop spindles. i get to attend my second spinning retreat next weekend! i am sooooo excited (picture squealing and jumping up and down) fall in alaska, spinning (or knitting/felting) to my hearts content with no children or cooking, and a white elephant gift exchange with other fiber enthusiasts as excited opening gifts of fiber as new brides are opening lingerie!

meet mecchia, getting settled at my house



i spun up some border leicester
what i learned: second cuts make a cut difference in the outcome (or work in processing) of your spinning!



now i know that i said that it wasn't head over heels love... i can tell you right now, i was thrilled to think that she was coming with 5 bobbins. this is the problem with having an internet affair. when reality arrives... i see that the bobbins are actually mini bobbins. "tweensie" as my son would say. they are also not the quick change variety.

this might responsible for the giddy and irresponsible action i took today in purchasing this:



check out her bobbins! i am giddy like a guy checking out boobs!
we meet in person in 2 1/2 weeks. after the retreat, but oh well. tomorrow i start making some mittens with my handspun leicester.

speaking of the leicester. i have (until today) happily gone without really knowing what the significance of second cuts are. this fleece, while well scoured, and in good health.... has horrible second cuts. being the lazy spinner i am, there are small blobs of these second cuts all over my skein. i spun a worsted weight thick/thin homespun, single ply woolen style. i tried to spin long draw... i didn't really succeed being that it was still a wee bit sticky with lanolin, and i am a lazy carder, but oh well, we had fun... and chocolate chip cookies with bailey's on the side.