Spinning during "Ice Days"....

....as opposed to the normal "snow days".

The following is wool that I picked up at the Fall Spinning retreat in 2008. I didn't work too hard at removing short cuts, so there will be some pilling. But I am making felted mittens and slippers with it so who cares right? :)







This is a wool/tencel blend, which I love so much from Susan's Spinning Bunny.


And this folks is a memorial to the lovely crisp clear and very cold winter we *were* having... that has now turned to craaaaaaaaaaaaap! It is now in the 40's and blowing hurricane winds every so often. School's been closed for the past 3 days because no one can walk to their cars without risking serious injury. Well, some of us can, but not too many (I may dislike people with heated garages).


make peace, spin fleece...

Dang it's cold out!

Okay minus 24F this morning. I realize that it is colder in other places, but this is just too cold to not have a garage! The good thing about it???? It is GORGEOUS out. Clear blue skies and lovely sunrises and sunsets.

This is what it looks like when someone you love goes on a 12 mile run at minus 10F


I spun this up last night... will ply it tonight :)


I felted up some small bowls over the holidays.


Henry always has to sit on or in something. For some reason he thought he'd fit in this one. After he squatted down on it he figured out it just wasn't working. So cute! :)

Make Peace, Spin Fleece!

so much for global warming....

We could wish it were warming up here today. We had an exceptionally early snow fall already, and now we've lots of drooping trees because many still had their leaves. The good news is that the lawn got mowed, and the flowers mostly cut back and most of the fish caught from the pond before snow flew! Now I can ignore weeds and not feel guilty about it anyhow. I also got all my fushias cut back and checked into the local greenhouse before they froze too. This is good! Now on to winter knitting and spinning. sigh :)

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.
.

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!