Tilt-a-whirl

Spin spun colorful stuff

Here is a break from all of the SERIOUS stuff that was on my mind yesterday, ok?
  First of all, I had someone here trying the Pioneer today and as a newbie spinner, she declared it the easiest for her to spin on, of all of the Majacraft wheels. So there. :o)

Now, remember that riotously autumnal silk/merino fiber that I showed you a little while ago? After having 4 ounces of it wrestled out of my hands by Vanessa, this is how MINE turned out.

Here is some spinning basket clean-out stuff...4 ounces of dark-ish Wild Things BFL plied with 4 ounces of light-ish Wild Things Merino. Mmmmmmm.

Vera Cruz BFL.

Rod has begun to load the Big Ass Van for Oregon. I will be dyeing a little more before I am fully packed, trying to get promised yarn out the door before we leave on Thursday morning. I am looking forward to getting on the road again, just so that I can see my PNW friends and then appreciate coming home again.

We saw my mom today at the nursing home and she had the beginning of a really funny story brewing in her brain. One of the characters she described as being "pale to being on the verge of transparent". I howled. She told me today that she thinks about these things when she is not sleeping at night. She looked at me seriously, telling me that she had decided not to come to live with us and that she was proud of us. She also said that she is kept awake at night worrying about all of the rotten things that she did to people all of her life and asked us to forgive her. I told her that it is all ok and that she has done a lot to help us. Perhaps now she can find some peace...enough peace to finish the hilarious tale that she is concocting. It was a gift...

This country...whattamess

You know what? I consider myself to be a pretty patriotic person who loves being an American MOST of the time. I feel privileged to live where I do and have the freedom to write my feelings in a forum such as this.  I like the idea of having a World View as well as enjoying a hotdog and a beer at an old fashioned ballgame. Four years ago, celebrating our 35th anniversary, Rod and I flew to New Zealand and took with us the deep disappointment of what happened the last time that we had a Presidential election. I may not have been a true believer in the people who ran against the current administration but I, for the very first time, gave money to a political party because I believed that there had to be an end to what had been occuring to all of us. I had long discussions with Kiwi's and Aussies about their perception of what was going on in our country and in the world and their perception was right on the money with how I felt. The Aussies were crabbing about THEIR guy and we crabbed about OUR guy and we knew that we had no power to change this thing that had been decided by The Lied To.
  I became an Independent voter because I was sick of the whole thing...the finger pointing and blame and the nothing. I stepped away from the pain and stopped accepting phonecalls from my old party. Phooey.
  This mess that we are in right this minute? Could we not see this coming like the bright lights of that GIANT freight train heading our way? For YEARS I kept wondering how in the world ordinary people could afford all of the STUFF that they seemed to think was important...boats and RV's and giant gas guzzling SUV's. New and enormous homes were being built in the area around us and I always said the same thing...WHO makes this kind of money??? WHO can afford so many luxuries? We lived in a tiny home in a 1950's development in Lafayette, a bedroom community that feeds San Francisco. There were modest homes all around us but where our kids went to school was up in the area where the upper upper middle class lived and that always intimidated the hell out of me. We stayed put for 25 years and witnessed the dizzying rate at which the houses on our block sold and sold and sold for higher and higher (what are they thinking) rates to people who moved east for the schools and quality of life. We considered ourselves to be the church mice of the neighborhood! We did not draw money out of our home for anything other than a new kitchen that Rod built with his own hands and when we sold the place last year, we parlayed it into our dream...a dream that we could afford.
  I listened to someone close to me talk about buying a home with an interest only loan or some other convoluted thing and told him to rethink this terrible and dangerous plan. He did find something more "normal" and ultimately saved himself the agonies that are facing people who were offered such dazzling numbers that only a gambler could appreciate. I AM NOT A GAMBLER. Now we are all going to be bailing out the people who sold these loans over and over again, folding the stinking product into pretty packages that insinuated themselves into  the portfolios of people who do NOT gamble. WHAT A MESS. I blame the same bastards that brought us the Savings and Loan debacle...the greedy manipulative people who brought you the Enron collapse. They are all the same and where is the money? Safely in some "legal" off-shore account, I suspect.
  Enough. Enoughenoughenoughenough. ENOUGH! I have watched the stock that my grandmother bought from the old Roseville Telephone company, which changed its name to Surewest when they got high and mighty, lose almost all of its value recently. This company, in the old days, paid a dividend to stockholders, like clockwork and too many older people relied on this to keep them like an annuity, which it really was not. This dividend stopped in June. It is a good thing that my mother is losing her mind in the convalescent hospital because if she was in her RIGHT MIND, she would lose it all over again in the fear known to Children of the Great Depression. People who put their trust in a bank in the Pacific Northwest have seen their life's savings go up in smoke as well and why? I'll tell you why...those damned junk mortgages. The greedy sold those things, got their cut and got the hell out.
  I want something different. We live each day with what my friend calls the ultimate F-word, Faith, that the man who has helped us with our savings is as smart and honest and true-blue as I intuit him to be. (I jettisoned a Merrill Lynch guy when my gut went off, years ago...smart, eh?)
Now I want someone different to lead this country. I have once again put my hard earned money where my goosebump intuition has told me is the right place. I have listened to the man from Illinois and my inner self tells me that he can lead us through this, bringing a team of people who LOVE THIS COUNTRY to the table to stop the bleeding from the self inflicted wounds that have gored us. I have no faith that the Man from Arizona and The Woman Who Worries Me can do anything for us, anything that will turn this around. I, for one, am tired of the swiftboat crap and mean spirited rhetoric that has poisoned the well of the US. We have to be brave because we are in a mess, a mess that I saw coming FOREVER! I am speaking my truth right now because I am tired of remaining silent about the country that I love so much.
  To the young I say, register to vote and really DO IT. Don't just give lip service to voting on the internet because this is YOUR FUTURE! YOUR future. Take your future in your own hands and have your say. If you differ from my opinion then so be it but you will have done something for yourselves and your children and grandchildren.
  I am voting for Mr Obama and I hope that on election night, when we are in our hotel room in Baltimore for Stitches East, Rod and I can shed a tear of joy, get goosebumps for the Possiblities instead of shedding tears of despair that it happened to us again.
  I am not a political person. I am an artisan and I love this country, warts and all.

The Majacraft Pioneer has arrived!

Well now, these politicians like to talk about putting lipstick on a pig and yatta yatta yatta. Make a Majacraft of modest means and she is STILL a Majacraft. We got our three wheels from Arlene's mail truck this morning and after some easy assembly by Rod, I got to sit down, take off my shoes and fire up this new little dandy. My assessment is that the Pioneer spins like a dream and you have a REAL Majacraft in every sense. The treadling is smooth and easy. The little MDF wheel is thoroughly sealed and lovely and the pine, with its whitewash is smooth and light. There are little rubber stoppers on the bottom of the wheel Pioneer that keep her from walking, even though she weighs slightly over 10 pounds.
  Honestly, I think that this wheel is a real keeper and I can see her being customized and tarted up by creative people everywhere. If you like, you could give her a colorful finish or decorate her in any manner, to make her your own. I ordered these wheels, sight-unseen because I believe in the Majacraft product and the Poads and I am NOT disappointed at all.
  If you buy your wheel this month, she comes with a total of 5 bobbins! She will take all of the different flyers, making her a versatile little wheel. I took shots of her all the way around and while she does not fold, like her more expensive sisters, where the knob is on the right side, you can loosen this and remove the spinning head, much like the Little Gem. I am more than pleased with this wheel and can't wait for you to get to try her.

So, in the words of Al Pacino in Scarface...meet my little friend. Ladies and Gentlemen, Majacraft's new baby, The Pioneer.

It's Quiet Around Here!

So what do I do while waiting for 12:45 to roll around (try to keep the dye off of myself for a LITTLE while) ? I drove Up The Hill (varying degrees of Up The Hill around here) a teensy bit to the Camino Garden Center, which is a little bitty nursery that specializes in varieties of plants that can withstand COLD and if you are lucky...deer. I am relishing the simple now because I have to narrow my choices to beautiful things that those big black nosed critters don't want to taste. When the nurseryman went out to tally my wagon, I heard...somebody really loves Gaillardia! Yessir, that'd be ME. They make nice cut flowers to take to my mom, who would rather have "homemade" bouquets, it seems. The elderly couple that were walking in as I was rattling out the gravel to the car just beamed when they saw the colors. I told them that I left them one or two...

I got these guys up on the porch, dragged the comb through my hair and headed back to town for haircut day. I guess that I am going to need a new Avatar cuz I got me a Har-cut. We have been working on this shape for a bit now and Lorrie finally figured out how to make this baby fine hair do something fun. Here you go, the new me.

I am batching it for a few days, now that Lauren is off to work at the big Dental Show and Rod is up in Portland at the Model Railroad convention. No excuses...got to get more work done. No EXCUSES, Lisa...get BUSY!!!

The Magic of Mistakes

If anyone witnessed me buying a phenomenal black baby alpaca fleece from Lin Murray at Lambtown for a LOT of money, they would tell you that I am over the moon for baby alpaca. There is no way around it. For a member of the camelid family, this fiber is up there with cashmere, in my estimation. This bag of black gold is tucked into my spinning basket for some time when I can give it my full attention (the Schnickle is a little distracting).

Soooooo, I recently had a conversation with my friend who works with the mill to have my Baby Alpaca Lace and Baby Alpaca Silk spun for me. Everything was moving along swimmingly until she got the yarn and discovered that instead of the Baby Alpaca Silk yarn, they had mistakenly spun up pure Baby Alpaca in a DK/sport weight. I got a cone of it to inspect, just "in case" I wanted to buy this OOPS Lot of yarn. I felt up the cone...mmmmmmm...dreamy. I plopped the cone onto the skeining machine and dialed in the yardage and it was still dreamy. Ok, this needs to go into some dye that is sitting here from a project...hmmm, pretty and rich. Ok...wash, yes, dry, yummy.

I picked up my Old Friend Walnut Brittany's in size 4/3.5mm and cast on the usual 20 stitches. Soft. Very nice. It looked like about 6.5 stitches per inch so I dunked the swatch in the wash and put it out to dry in the afternoon sun. OH MY WORD...it comes in at 6 stitches per inch for me with the bloom fluffing out the stitches.

Needless to say, I am buying this Mistake and have the promise that the mill can do it again for me after I show YOU GUYS just how fabulous this three ply yarn is. I am going to skein it up at 330 yards/ 100 grams for $24. I am giving it the shed test and has passed beautifully.

Oh yes, let me show you My Precioussssssssss...I can't quit petting her.
all together now...mmmmmmmmmm, dreeeeeeamy. :o)

Just thought that I would show you something

I drove up to Apple Hill yesterday, trying to fill my morning with enjoyable errands. I know that autumn is coming because I can feel it in the morning air, when I finally have to put  a shirt on over my T-shirt when marching down the hill to the road for the paper. Brrrrrrr. Of course, this quickly burns off when the sun gets high enough in the trees to warm the place up. It is a fabulously bright and beautiful day today, by the way. Anyway...I drove up to the area across highway 50...the "back way" for us, up past the new organic farmstand (they were closed) and up Carson Rd (Kit Carson is big around here, you know...). Pumpkins are bulging on their vines and the apple trees are laden with bright yellow orbs of sweetness. The autumn days are my favorites and not just because it is nearing my birth month. I see great possibilites ahead and love to see things come to their apex before being tucked in for the cold winter months.
  As the sun goes into Libra, at the end of the month, I go to my first fiber show since February. Wow, a lot has happened since then but I feel the movement of people toward happier days. I am so looking forward to seeing my Sheila again, not to mention my sweet friends from the Pacific Northwest...Sam and Barb and Denise. Lovely.

This is my idea of October. I can't WAIT to feel this silk/merino top slide through my fingers. I gave myself a present yesterday...do something that can't be reproduced...like the OLD DAYS when art was for art sake instead of just commerce. Mmmmmmm...pumpkins nestled amidst falling leaves. Smell the autumn? Yes, it is just that complex...

Thanks, I believe I will...

As Schnickle says...Howdy FOLKS! (He heard this at the Wagon Train day and has found that it makes us laugh and so it is our special greeting...Howdy, Grampy Folks, etc.)

I thank the Muse for coming to me when I need her. When you are the primary in a business such as this, the Chief Cook & Bottle Washer, sometimes the keeping up with orders takes over and the Muse is picking her fingernails over in the corner on that big pile of fluffy fiber. I hooked her by the harp and asked her to follow me over to the dye table so that I could channel the colors that I was seeing. She took the tape off of her adorable little lips and whispered, just so...

I have some wonderful new colors and if you are not on the mailing list, this is a chance for you to see them here. I was inspired by a photo that I acquired recently and came up with The Shore, seen here in Sock! Merino. I ADORE this moody colorway, which reminds me of vintage funnies.

The Shore led to Atlantic, this time in Sock!.

Then I took it one step simpler and extracted "just that blue" for Ice Ice Baby, shimmery in Lace.

Now, on the other hand, there is a color that has been part of some of my FAVORITE colorways like Aww-tum and now The Shore. I call it Tah-mayta!, as in that is one hot tomato. It will brighten up your day, fo-sho. Shown here in Baby Alpaca Lace.

My latest colorway had to bubble around in my brain a little because I certainly pulled this one from the ether and the Thousand Yard Stare (the good kind). I call it Bijou because that is what came into my ear, from You Know Who...the Good Fairy. Hardtwist Petite, this time.

Rod is packing his bags for his journey to the Pacific Northwest, for a week and a half of trains, trains, trains. If you see him wandering around Portland next week, you don't have to do a double take...knitters at TKGA and Train Geeks at their convention will be milling about together in the streets of that fair city. He comes home and before you know it, we will pack up the Big Ass Van and motor on up to Canby, Oregon for the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival. I'll just take this quiet time when Schnickle and his mama are gone and work, work, work but I will also plant a jillion daffodil bulbs.

Daffodils/Jonquils are my tangible hope for the future. You plug them into holes in the ground and wait for them to come up and thrill you with color after a long cold winter. I am planting other seeds for Hope now, too. My hope is for the time when we can come together and bring our country back from the brink of Fill In The Blank.

Mom is a wee bit weaker each time that I see her. She still knows us but the mechanism for coping with her predicament takes her away from time to time. The tulips...I planted them for her. I thank her every day for allowing us to come here because knowing myself back then, I would not have left her behind and would have sacrificed myself. She helped us by allowing us to go through the elimination of her things and house BEFORE she Graduates, giving us the gift of knowing that we can be happy and she can be cared for properly in these final years. The one thing that I can say about the addition of the constant oxygen supply is that her hands and feet are warm again and she can be quite lucid. The breathing treatments keep the pneumonia at bay. Perhaps if she had seen a doctor about her chronic bronchitis, back in the day, she would not have gotten so bad. I always attributed her shortness of breath to her weight and perhaps her heart. Now we know that the COPD that is taking her was a long long journey from her days of deep breathing while singing at the Opera House. Some people came through the paint dust unscathed but mom is the proof of this being a work related injury. Too late now but there you have it. She has her own oxygen generator, round-the-clock care and a new plush puppy to add to the group of stuffed animals tucked under her arm in bed.

That is the latest. I have to photograph the pretty new handspun yarn and new additions to the offerings of fiber. Remember, you can ask for any of my colors or colorways in Top. Oh yes and I bought some yummy BFL Superwash Top...I'm just sayin'...