I'm excited to participate in Jillian Moreno's 100 Day Challenge which starts tomorrow, December 1st and runs through March 11, 2024.
I mostly spin every day but starting tomorrow I'll plan to spin every day for the next 100 days thataway I'll have 100 brightly colored sheep to welcome the first day of Spring on March 19, 2024.
A little bit of rain but a lot of gray skies today.
In the afternoon the animals and I sought out the small patches of sunlight.
Mangle: A machine for smoothing linen or cotton cloth, as sheets, tablecloths,
napkins, and clothing, by roller pressure, often with heated rollers. (The Century Dictionary)
I gotta say the Weavers (Capital W) in the CCW Guild are serious about their textiles and their time. Today I got to see a Mangle. One day I hope to see it in action.
The Mangle is not only used to speed up the time it takes to press finished handwovens but it also seems to make the cloth look uniformly smooth and shiny.
Now that's a serious iron!
The ITW November Club fiber will be arriving in the mail this week.
While I wait for it's arrival I'm prepping "Inevitable Betrayal", Gray Cheviot, 4 oz.
Beautiful braid out of the bag.
Fiber carefully unfurled.
The fiber is split in half vertically. One half is set aside. The other half is further split in half (2), then again (4), then again (8).
The big ball-o-fiber will be spun on one bobbin. The skinny balls will be spun on a second bobbin, then the two will be plied together. This is called a fractal spin.
I've been winding handspun yarn onto plastic cones. The same Churro yarn - several times and I've lost count - trying to get the tension figured out.
I'm still working on it, stay tuned.
Yesterday I made a delicious heart-healthy lunch with a Green salad (Lil Gem lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado) along with a Quinoa Salad (quinoa, carrots, sweet orange peppers, broccoli, black olives, and kale).
I'm hoping the grains and veggies will balance out the meals of the next few days.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone ~
Sampler #3 (the hairy one) was shedding so much I had to take it outside.
I'm using a 3-D printed Turkish-style spindle which I purchased from Turtlemade (Etsy) in 2017.
The cool thing about a cross-arm spindle is that when you are done spinning . . .
you remove the shaft - er, chopstick. (The chopstick works great as a replacement shaft when you - ahem - sit on the original shaft and break it.)
Anyway after you remove the shaft . . .
then slide out one of the arms . . .
and then the other . . .
and you are left with a center-pull ball. If the singles aren't too twisty (like this one) you could find the two ends and ply them together to make a 2-ply yarn.
Instead I'll be rewinding this center-pull ball onto a "storage" bobbin and ply off of the storage bobbins.
Let's see (pick pick pick) feels coarse, definitely not next to skin,
and it's multi-coated too (pick pick pick)
okay I see the finer fiber, must be the wool undercoat (pick pick pick)
maybe this is the hair (pick pick pick) and this looks like kemp.
Very interesting fiber, but it's shedding all over me, pick pick pick.
Last month The Man and I took a five-hour road trip so that I could attend Lambtown Festival at the Dixon May Fairgrounds in Dixon, California.
We arrived Thursday afternoon and found a shady campsite. It was going to be a hot weekend.
In the morning I was attending an all-day workshop, The Man brought his motorcycle to explore the back roads while I was in class.
Friday morning quiet.
Class was great! I learned so much and I am inspired.
Oops, I was busy spinning so I didn't take any class pics luckily Jillian did so I grabbed a few screenshots from Jillian's Instagram (I hope that's allowed).
Saturday, the Wool Show and fleece judging with Amy Ross Manko of Ross Farms, Ohio.
I attended only to watch and learn not to bring home a raw fleece though there were quite a few fantastic fleeces. We all collectively gasped when this black Romney fleece was pulled out of it's bag. AH-mazing!
As we were packing up to leave the campground I overheard our neighbors discussing different spinning wheels. I asked them if they wanted to try out my wheel. I demonstrated how to treadle, draft and spin, then left them to it as I packed my stuff in the camper. They were still spinning when I returned and I complimented them on their first-ever hand spun yarn. It was exciting for all of us, I'm sure.
We woke to rain this morning and the showers have been on and off throughout the day. So far we've gotten an inch of rain.
Boots and Jack keeping dry.
Cleaning out a clogged gutter - successfully - I might add.
Rainy day meal: Fresh ramen noodles with broccoli, mushrooms, and kale. Manapua and leftover seafood.
Reheating leftovers the easy way.
Bright and fresh when the rain stops.
