Pamela's House of Blues

A Merry Christmas for some ...

A big event this year at our house was a new kitchen door -- new, as in now there is a door in the doorway between the kitchen and the rest of the house that has been door-less for at least 30 years.  Some household members did not greet this development with great joy and are working hard to devise a solution which does not involve growing thumbs.  Others of us are thrilled that now knitting, fiber and anything in a plastic bag does not have to be placed in a locked container or positioned at least 8 feet off of the floor. 

 

 

 

Tour de Fleece Finale

While I didn't capture photos on a daily basis -- who wants to see yet another single in progress ? -- I did finish my personal challenge.  An entire Dorset fleece, which I had previously scoured/carded/combed and spun into singles, was plied into 14 skeins of 5-ply gansey yarn.  By day 5, my challenge was complete, so I took on spinning 2-ply laceweight 75% angora/25% Dorset which will end up in an Estonian shawl or scarf. 

I really, really liked the way the angora/Dorset laceweight came out.  The angora gives it such a silky sheen and the Dorset still shows its bounce.  For this one, I am going to venture out into designing my own pattern, based on the designs in THE HAAPSALU SHAWL.  I love this book -- the production quality is incredible and the stitch designs are beautiful.

If I were to do it again, I would spin the Dorset singles even finer to get a finished yarn more to the gansey side of things than the dk/sportweight that I ended up with.  As luck would have it, I do have a gansey pattern which calls for a slightly heavier than normal yarn and I think it will work out fine.  Of course it has sheep in the design!

Before I began plying, I realized I would need to do something to access enough kates to handle the five bobbins at a time.  I looked around and did not find any 5-6 spindle kate that I really liked.  I prefer kates with the spindles in a single row, rather than grouped in a circle or a square.  I had long been lusting after a Will Taylor "clever kate" but had never bought one since I already had several 3-spindle kates that had come with wheels I had purchased.  On the off chance that Mr. Taylor made a 5-6 spindle version, I contacted Morgaine at Carolina Homespun -- she said she was sure he could make one for me.  Since a couple of months went by and I heard no more, I assumed that it was a no-go, so I made do with a two different kates lined up in a row.  That did present a bit of a problem as they were a bit light weight and kept moving out of alignment -- a bother, but one that was manageable.  About a week after I finished plying up the entire fleece, Morgaine e-mailed me -- the 6-spindle cherry clever kate was ready to ship to me -- what was my address?  It was meant to be!

This means I will definitely go for a repeat of a 5-ply yarn, maybe the Rambouillet that is sitting waiting to be scoured?  Of course, this yarn is nothing compared to the Tsocktsarina's 18-ply yarn. If you look closely, you can see that she is doing this on her antique CPW.  I hear she is going for a 128 ply challenge next year!

TDF Days 5 & 6

On Day 5, I took a little detour to show Ghillea in the Bearded Collie Club of Southern California's regional specialty.  Gil cooperated with me in his usual way -- as soon as we started to move in the ring, he shook out all my careful grooming to insure that he met the breed standard which states that Beardies should be shown in their natural state.

So much for keeping the hair out of his eyes so the judge could get a good look at his expression.

The go-round, was not bad considering who he had as a handler.

Oh, yes, the Tour de Fleece -- having completed my personal challenge in the first 4 days, I swapped over to a Dorset blend from the same flock.  This flock was developed by my friend, Laura, when she lived in Jamul.  In addition to her registered Dorsets, she also bred Angora goats which she had blended 75-25 with the Dorset to create a beautiful lustrous fiber.  I have 2 lbs of it so I spun up a sample as a 2-ply laceweight.  I just love the luster and glow of this and think it will make a beautiful lace yarn -- overspun singles and underspun 2-ply.

TDF Days 3 and 4 -- What? Done Already?

It took 9 months to scour, card, comb and spin the singles from the entire Dorset fleece and only 4 days to ply it all up into fourteen 300 yard 5-ply skeins for a gansey.  Much of this is due to the plying demon, aka Melissa,  the Hansen Mini-Spinner.  This is a dream plying machine -- absolute consistency of twist and plying speed.  I do think, though, that I am finally going to give in and get a woolee-winder for this one so that I can just set the speed/tension and go with no stopping to move the slider or hooks.

So, this is how an entire fleece looks, post all that processing:

The Orphan from Quebec

Two weeks ago, I succumbed to the siren call of a soon-to-be orphaned Canadian Production Wheel (CPW) and drove 13 hours round trip to Sacramento to pick up this grand dame:

The wheel (still puzzling over just the right name Quebecoise) was acquired by the person from whom I bought it more than 50 years ago when she lived in Alaska. Family friends, who were antique dealers, brought to Alaska 5 wheels which they found on a buying trip to Canada. This one was purchased by the seller -- she just liked the look of it -- she neither spins nor knits nor weaves. It became a featured and well-loved decorative article in her home. As she had children and they grew up, all milestone photos included the wheel -- birthdays, graduations, proms, Christmas, etc. The wheel traveled (fully assembled including MOA and flyer/bobbin with no mishaps) with moves from Alaska to various cities up and down the west coast. No one ever tried to spin on it or to convert it to a planter or chandelier or to treat the wood in any way other than to keep it oiled. Now the seller lives alone -- kids visit but all have their own scattered households -- she decided the wheel needed a new home. Until I put on a drive band and sat down to try it out, the seller had never seen a spinning wheel at work -- or yarn created. Neighbors passing by were invited in to see the wheel in action on my test drive. As I was packing the wheel into my car, the seller came out with a set of primitive hand cards which she insisted I take as well -- they came with the wheel when she bought it and thought I might be able to use them to make yarn on the grand dame. So -- somewhere out there between Alaska and Los Angeles there may be 4 other CPW’s waiting to be found.

So what is the big deal about CPW's, you ask -- just look at all this lovely detail:

A very interesting tensioning mechanism for the MOA, which sits in a cast iron bracket bolted to the top of the table.  You adjust the tension by loosening the bolt on the bracket and changing the tilt of the MOA -- as opposed to moving the whole MOA forwards or back via a tensioning screw.  The orifice on the flyer is TINY -- perfect for spinning the fine thread for lace or weaving that this high-speed wheel was designed to produce.

Then there is the treadle -- no problem putting a shod foot on the cast iron treadle or fearing that it will wear out like a wooden treadle.  The drive wheel has a heavy rim -- again a mark of a high speed wheel that spins pretty effortlessly with a lot of momentum.  And that drive wheel with its 14 spokes is 31 inches in diameter -- another big momma!

And I know who made this wheel, probably around 1890 or so -- Frederic Bordua of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec -- the maker's mark is faded but still pretty clear!

Like any lady of her age, she has some issues, so I spent this last weekend taking her apart and cleaning her up with denatured alcohol to remove any vestiges of old finish and 50 years of "lemon oil" which left her with a pretty tacky surface.

Her major problem is a worn/broken bearing in the rear upright.  A leather shim went a long way to correcting this temporarily, but what I really need is the missing upright support and to stabilize both uprights which are pretty wobbly.  Then I found this on the rear leg ...

It looks to me like there was a knot in the wood and it fell out over time as the wood dried and aged.  I plan on consulting the experts on RAVELRY's CPW group who are sure to have a solution.

Tour d' Fleece - Days 1 and 2

If Lance can spin his wheels at 39, then I can at 39 + XX :)  My personal challenge for this year's TDF   

is to ply up the entire Dorset fleece I have spent the last 9 months spinning into singles for 5-ply gansey yarn -- at Judith M's instruction.  I used first the Lendrum and then the SR-Saxony to complete the basket full of singles, but that is a heck of a lot of plying so the electric Mini-Spinner gets to earn her keep as the plying machine.

The first challenge was finding a 5-ply lazy kate -- could not find one anywhere.  So I opted for two of these.  Worked a treat!

Then I carefully reviewed Judith's video on plying, and placed my fingers just so -- kind of hard to hold the singles and a camera as well.  NOTE TO SELF -- teach Ghillea to work the camera and leave the sheep in peace.

The Mini-Spinner is taking this on so nicely that I am sure I will complete the fleece in the first week and will have to dive into the stash for a backup project.  Here are the first six 300 yard skeins, hanging to dry after their final bath.

 
 

The Nursery

The nursery is VERY full with new arrivals. 

The latest birth was scheduled to arrive 3 weeks ago, but due to gestational delays she arrived yesterday... but not at the specified delivery place, my office.  I went home thinking the Brown Delivery Team would be making good on its promise a day late.  Good thing I turned around after opening the front door of my house to see two HUGE boxes sitting on the other side of the patio.

Then the delivery process began in earnest.  First the small bits ...

Then the bigger bits ..

Then on to the bigger box where we found this warning ...

Tubes?  Judith's video did not say anything about "tubes"!  Do I have to supply an airway as well?  An oxygen tank?  An isolette?  So I just cut the tape and lifted the cardboard sheet to reveal ...

Said "tubes" were there, alright, but not "attached" to the cardboard sheet -- they appear to have slipped sideways.  So, showing my genetic heritage, I proved myself my engineer father's daughter and assembled the wheel lickety split.  Well, not exactly my father's daughter -- I read and carefully followed the very detailed instructions.

That 30" drive wheel REALLY is a marvel of long spinning, perfectly engineered and balanced design ...

Meet the newborn -- BABS (Big Ass Betty Spinner) -- a Shacht-Reeves 30" Saxony !

And her baby sister, Melissa (MS from Hansencrafts) ..

Here she is perched on her little traveling house, a Zuca bag -- never thought I would be buying something from an ice skating supply shop!

And just to make sure that both new babies have enough nourishment, a small furry kitten has joined the toolshed ...

The midwife is both exhausted and dead broke.

The stars made me do it ...

Here is what my horoscope said for last Saturday:

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
★★★★★ Ask a friend or loved one to hop in the
car and join you for a day exploring a new area of
your state, town or nearby countryside. You could
be amazed by the ease with which you refresh.
Realize that everyone needs to recycle.

Since I always a) believe everything that is written in the newspaper, b) do what I am told by anyone who speaks with the voice of authority, and c) have an unshakable faith in the stars, (VVVBG here) I easily convinced my fiber buddy to drive with me to Solvang.

It was a glorious day, beautiful sky filled with puffy clouds, gorgeous drive along the coast where waves were crashing and sending up sprays of foam. While strolling about Denmark-in-California, I managed to eat only one pastry; purchased 3 pair of socks (you’d think I had knit enough by now to not have to ever buy any); entered a shoe store and was confronted with a customer trying on a pair of shoes, while also trying to corral her miniature Schnauzer on a leash who was demonstrating his complete lack of leash training/socialization while she also carried a Maltese in a large mesh bag hanging from her shoulder (why is it that some people feel the need to carry dogs in bags or push them in strollers, rather than letting them be dogs?); and bought a copy of the English version of THE HAAPSALU SHAWL (gorgeous book in either English or the original Estonian). Oh yes, I nearly forgot the recycle bit – bought a Schacht-Reeves 30” saxony wheel in cherry, which means I shall likely be wanting to “recycle” my Matchless.

So now, I only have to wait 7-8 weeks for my Big-Ass Wheel to arrive and I can begin some serious production spinning -- like finishing the Dorset fleece that is way-too-slowly being turned into 5-ply yarn for a Gansey.  Can't wait.  But it will all have to wait until I complete my annual pilgrimage to the land of wonderful fiber, teachers, knitters, spinners, and true winter weather -- the Madrona Winter Fiber Arts Retreat in Tacoma.  This will be my 5th year and I am looking forward to it all, including the predicted rain every day :( 

A Tiara and Something to Look Forward to

It seems like it took forever, but the little puppy is now CH Lonetree Turn Back Time, RN PT JHD

 

If you look closely you will notice that he not only won the major but also defeated the WB and specials for Best of Breed!  This photo also shows that I have apparently embarked on a fourth career as a hairdresser.  Just to top off the weekend, the next day we finished our first obedience title!

Dogs are great friends and they keep us young.  Here is proof that you are never too old to have a great relationship with your dog -- this gentleman is 97 and his little dog is 7.

George Richards & Hummel at Dachshund Speciality 2009 from John Richards on Vimeo.

P.O.E.M.

The perfect T-shirt for an English Major, as well as the perfect meme:

Instructions:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Underline those you intend to read.
3) Italicise the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger

19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John SteinbeckAlice
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’dolin - Louis De Bernieres Mans
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73.The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

80/100 - not bad!  Miss Sackett of High March School in Beaconsfield, who taught me to read, would be proud!