Eye Candy

What am I working on now?

Hint:

"I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine
On a cloud of sound I drift in the night
Any place it goes is right
Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here"

Promised Pictures Part 1

Majacraft

So I got my new wheel all set up! She is a beauty. I will have pictures to post later.

When it first arrived, I was so excited. You would think it was Christmas and I was 8:

I open the box and start pulling out pieces. Wheel, check, pedals, check...miscellaneous handle part, check.
I start putting the pieces together, because damn, I want to use it right away! I had just sold my Joy, so I was absent a wheel to spin on. The directions are pretty good, and I am doing OK with the assembly. That handle part, must be connected sometime...but there aren't any holes in it for screws...oh well.

So I continue, everything fits together like a dream. I get her almost completed, look ahead in the directions...and notice, no handle attaching. I look at the handle again, wtf!! I think it is broken. In fact, looking closely, I can tell it is broken. It should be part of the main shaft, as one piece.

Sadness.

My first thought was, damn, I already put it all together and I want to use it! So I finish. Then I go and email Klaus from Crown Mountain Farms (where I purchased it from). Please please advise I write to him.

He checks into it and Majacraft sends out a new handle. It was a very bad thing for me to have put it together though...as soon as I saw the damage (ie. when I was removing it from the box) I should have stopped then and taken it to the post office for inspection. Majacraft could have claimed insurance on the wheel because it broke in transit. But stupid me, I went and put the thing together, so no insurance. They still send the piece though.

Last night I finally get the replacement part...and a dowel rod...
On the rod it says: "conduit removal tool" -- what?!?

So I start taking the wheel apart, and I see it. In the middle section where the base shaft connects with the handle a pvc pipe is inserted to keep the two pieces together and to allow for a bolt to go through there. I push the dowel rod into this hole...no luck. This thing is in there good -- hopefully not permanently.

I find my hammer and check out the hole. This is not going to be fun...I really don't want my replacing this part to result in me breaking the thing with overzealous hammering. So I start...
The dowel is not very sturdy...it starts chipping from my off center hammer strikes. It also starts to splinter around the end next to the pvc pipe. In fact, it starts to shape its self to go INTO the pvc pipe! And the pipe has moved, maybe 1 mm.

At this point Hubby is concerned...he thinks for sure I am going to do more damage than not. He is not very happy with Majacraft.

Eventually, the pvc pipe is out enough that I can grab it and yank it out. Success!!! Slowly I begin reassembling the wheel. Everything is going very well. I get the wheel attached, the pedals, the flyer head...

There is another bolt hole at the top of the handle shaft (the new piece). This is the last part I have to do. This sets the tension for the flyer head part, keeps it in place and allows it to be loosened and re-situated. I go to put the bolt through...and realize that it doesn't push all the way in. Looking, I note that the bolt has a square part next to the head...this keeps it from turning and allows tightening of the bolt. I look at the hole, I look at the bolt again...the hole is round, the bolt is square...

I am trying my hardest to get a square peg into a round hole...sigh...

The wood is hard, I cannot simply push this bolt into the hole. I get out my trusty hammer again. By this time Hubby is freaking out, he is positive that I will break it if I try hammering this thing in. He is also very disappointed as I point out that the original part had the square already cut out of the hole, and inserting the bolt was easy peasy. -- Why didn't they do this to the new piece they sent me?!?

Anyway, I managed to get the bolt in enough for me to tighten it on the other end. There is a small gap, but its not bad. I might at some point try again to get it in all the way. So at this point she's up, functioning and looking beautiful, handle and all.

Spinning

I haven't been doing much knitting lately. Really, I have just been obsessed with spinning!

Wild Thing!

Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything
Come on, wild thing

Wild thing, I think you move me
But I gotta know for sure
Come on and hold me tight
Oh you move me

Here we see my latest spinning fiber. Wild Thing from Crown Mountain Farms. I LOVE it! The colors are so vibrant and beautiful.

Flickr & Sock Blockers

Yes! I finally broke down and signed up for a Flickr account. I only have a few pictures up, but hope to transfer nearly all of my images there. I signed up for Ravelry too, but have yet to hear about getting started there. Really, the reason I signed up for the Flickr account was because I heard that it interfaced with Ravelry so well.

Anyway! Yesterday in the mail was a nice surprise...beautiful hand crafted sock blockers from Chappy. Hubby likes them too and knew what they were the moment he saw them. Tomorrow I will post some pictures with them with socks on them.

For spinning news: I am almost finished with the third bobbin of the Lapis Sheep 2 Shoe kit. Hopefully my extra bobbins and lazy kate arrive soon so that I can get on with the plying! This will be my first three ply, so I am extra anxious to see how it turns out.

I had bought the kit from The Fold at Maryland Sheep and Wool, and I wanted more! So, I contacted Toni and she was just great. We chatted a bit about what I was looking for, and she mailed me an order! So, I got another Sheep 2 Shoe kit in Little Bunny Foo Foo, 10 ounces of Extra Fine Merino in the Carbon colorway, and 8.5 ounces of the same in the Highway 30 colorway. The Extra Fine Merino is WONDERFUL. I have to check but I am pretty sure the micron count was something like 19 -- almost as soft as cashmere! I am so very excited to spin this!

Beautiful Colors

I have come to the conclusion that all obsessions with yarn and spinning fibers originate in the lust for color. I LOVE color.

Spinning

Well, I did not post over the weekend...mainly because I was busy -- Spinning!

Friday I took the beginning spinning class at The Mannings. Tom, the instructor was awesome. All the ladies in the class were great, we had a good time, we learned A LOT.



After the class was over...I went ahead and purchased a wheel. Tom had assigned me the Ashford Joy for class. He said because I am small it would be a good fit. Plus its very simple and easy for a beginner. I fell in love during the first few seconds of using it. So, that is the wheel that I purchased. The fact that it folds and is light to carry is a big selling point - especially now with my limit on space in the apartment.

I am glad that I had spent money at Maryland Sheep and Wool on some rovings. Immediately I began spinning the red colonial. This was my "practice" roving. And it went quite well. A little lumpy and bumpy, but not too bad. Overall, I think I have picked up spinning pretty easily. Something that I tend to be able to do: read about something for months, lust after it even, and then, because I have read so much about it...be able to just pick it up and do it.



Spinning is this way with me. I not only finished the 8oz. colonial red, but then did the 4oz. Merino/Tencel, and started the Sheep to Shoe kit!













For the first two I divided the fiber by weight into two equal parts. Then spun two bobbins and plied. Both times I had more on one bobbin, and so after skiening the two ply, I would try to split the left overs by spinning half onto a new bobbin, and then plying those two for a mini skien.

The Sheep to Shoe kit is a different story. Here I split the roving lengthwise into three sections. Sadly, I couldn't get the weight to work out evenly without messing up the color progression, so I just left it a bit uneven. I figure that I will work from heaviest to lightest, knowing that in the beginning I am going to have trouble keeping the ply light enough anyway. Hopefully by the end I will be very good at keeping a very thin single.



One problem with the Ashford Joy: its built in lazy kate. It is very nice and convenient to have it built in, however, it only holds two bobbins. Therefore, in order to do a three ply yarn, one needs to buy a separate lazy kate. I decided on the Ashford precision. It takes three bobbins. Technically I guess I could do up to a five ply now, three on the precision and two on the wheel itself.

I also had to purchase a few more bobbins as I only have three, which leaves no bobbin empty for plying. Another drawback of the Joy, only one flyer available. Now, as a beginner, I would expect that this standard flyer would be plenty for me for many years. However, after plying my first two spinning projects, I realized that having a bigger bobbin for plying, and therefore a bigger flyer to go around, would be very advantageous. Looking at the catalog, maybe I should have opted for the Traveler instead. That way I would not only have a built in three-bobbin lazy kate, but also the opportunity to have other flyer attachments, including the jumbo (perfect for plying).

But no worries! I am still VERY pleased with my purchase. I love my wheel, and I love spinning.

As Promised!!!

Here are some yummy pictures of my Maryland Sheep and Wool loot!

Maryland Sheep & Wool

This year was my first visit to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. It truly was an unforgettable experience. There was so much going on, and so many people, I quickly became separated from my party. It was a beautiful day, we did not arrive until 10:30-11ish. As we approached the fairgrounds it became very clear that all the traffic was headed for the festival. I wished I had brought my camera so that I could have taken a picture of the sea of cars both parked and trying to park.

We started to wander around, and after the first couple of venders I couldnt find my friends anymore. I continued to walk around, making sure to get into every barn and every building. At The Fold's booth, I bought some lovely Socks that Rock Seduction in some almost solid colors. They were so pretty. I am glad I got to see them in person, on the web page it is hard to imagine how beautiful it is. I also picked up a Sheep 2 Shoe kit in Lapis.

After that, I continued to wander and ended up buying some good priced top and a top whorl spindle to practice spinning. At the same time, I found that Visually learn Handspinning book that many bloggers are talking about.

I was very good and self restrained -- I passed up awesome deals at the Tilli Thomas booth and the only Handmaiden Sea Silk that I had spotted that day. Also passed on where many many lovely, beautiful, deliciously dyed rovings and fleeces.

Toward the end, I met back up with my party to relax. They got in line to get some tee-shirts, and I decided to go back to The Fold...This was my downfall. I saw that they had put out some Sock Candy! So I grabbed up two each of two colorways (you need two for a pair, I bought 4 skiens). I also grabbed a skien of Twisted in the Fire on the Mountain color. This is destined to become a scarf, I will probably get another skien online of something almost solid to pair with it.

I will post up pictures of everything when I get home!