Thursday, March 24, 2005
help!
ok- this isn't the big promised post full of pictures of my spinning, dying, and knitting. however, it is a plea for advice. i'm strongly considering buying the ashford kiwi wheel with my next paycheck. i need advice. does anyone have this wheel? is it good? should i save up and wait for six months til i can afford a joy or a majacraft suzie? if i do get the kiwi, should i put a finish on it before i assemble it? how hard is it to assemble? any and all advice about the kiwi please please leave in the comments or email me at rachelm AT gmail DOT com.
thank you so much.
8:41 AM /
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
i'm going to update tonight tomorrow night. i swear. things got a LITTLE crazy last week.
bear with me, once again, please?
6:23 AM /
Sunday, March 06, 2005
my head is spinning.
so, i don't think lisa had a clue what she was starting with the simple gift of a drop spindle and a small amount of roving. i'm hoplessly hooked already! i started by teaching myself with the help of the internet and soon found myself with fabulously bulky worm like wool. which was lovely, but why wasn't i spinning like everyone else? enter mary! you may know her as the talent behind thesmooch.com, i call her 'spinning mary' and let me tell you- this woman is fabulous. you've seen the adorable pictures of her dogs? you have no idea how lovely (and spirited) they are in person! her cats are adorable, her knits and wools are fabulous. she invited me over for the afternoon, last saturday, and not only taught me how to improve my spindle spinning but let me spend an hour or two in front of her majacraft wheel and let me spin spin spin! i was terrible, at first, but by the end of the night, felt confident and i kept exclaiming, 'i'm making yarn!'. after keeping mary up way way too late, i returned home a happy spinner. here are some of my attempts, thus far:
this is a good sampling of the spinning i did before my lesson with mary. i was getting more even in weight, but it was all very bulky, very overspun and kinda earthworm like.
this was spun on the majacraft suzy with a ton of blue faced leicester wool that mary had in her stash - and that she graciously let me practice on (she even gave me a bunch to bring home!). i was really really really bad at first. i had no control, couldn't get my feet working the wheel properly, putting way way way too much twist into the wool- and then it started to click and i even started to make slubs ON PURPOSE. i'm now scheming and saving to buy my own wheel (an ashford kiwi- most affordable from what i can tell. donations accepted. hee hee).
after my lesson with mary, i came home and practiced spinning finer yarn on the drop spindle. i succeeded! the white was spun at mary's out of unidentified wool leftover from feltmaking at kent. the turquoise was the wool sent by darling lisa, and the small dark blue skein was a sample of merino in the 'denim' colourway from ashland bay trading company. i spun fairly even wool and then practiced a simple two ply using my spindle. i'm so proud of myself! here is a closeup of the denim merino:
and last,
here is 8oz of merino, also from ashland bay (by way of ebay). the colourways are 'cranberry' and 'endicott'. this wool is so deliciously soft and the colours are unbelievable. i started spinning up the cranberry colour on monday and tuesday night, before the sinus/migraine crap took over again.
this is my most even spun wool to date. i cant' wait to spin it all so i can ply it and make something out of it!
other than the newfound obsession with the spinning, i've been dealing with the neverending ick in my head, working, coming home and going right to bed, working on the sockapalooza socks, working on a baby blanket that is doomed to be finished AFTER the baby makes her way into the world, and right now? hanging out with my fabulous adam who drove down saturday morning. he's still asleep, so i thought i'd finish this update! so. in conclusion, wool is awesome, mary is wonderful, lisa is a peach, and i needed a new hobby like i needed another hole in my head. xoxo.
7:30 AM /
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
coming soon....
pictures of my spinning! the tale of my visit to mary thesmooch, herself. my neverending sinus pain!
can you handle the wait?
see you tonight.
ETA: i cannot get decent photos of my new yarns in my dim apartment. this future entry is postponed until the weekend. blame the dim light, blame the migraine. you could blame me, but i'm just gonna go back to bed :(
11:33 AM /
i'm rachel m, i'm 26 and i live in cleveland, ohio. i knit, spin, and read. i have a steady sweetie, two chubby cats, a full time job
and a messy apartment.
