Spin Me a Fish Tale

The spinning retreat is history and my wheel is set up once more in my craft room.  I unpacked the last of the fiber samples today, put the extra bobbins back in their spot, and should have all of my needles reorganized soon.  There's always a certain hint of sadness when I return from a retreat like this.  I miss the camaraderie of fellow knitters and/or spinners.

I probably won't spin a lot of these fibers again simply because I tend to purchase 4 oz. packages of dyed and prepared fiber.  I think I have "fiber ADD" in that I get bored very easily when I'm spinning and 4 oz. of spinning one colorway is about all I can handle before I'm ready to move on to the next color combination.  It IS a good feeling, though, to know that I CAN flick locks or card wool or comb it if I have to.  I know how to do those things and, should the need arise, I can prepare and spin fiber in less processed forms.

Saturday afternoon I left the retreat and headed straight over to our church for the dress rehearsal of our children's musical.  That's me, the old overgrown "kid" in the middle.  Despite being exhausted from 4 days of knitting, spinning, and not enough sleep, I managed to get through my scenes.

We gave two performances of "Fish Tales" on Sunday and the congregation in each of the services seemed to enjoy it.

I had a sore throat but only had one choking spell (unfortunately in a scene where I had lots of lines).  Since there was no good spot to turn off my mike, I just hacked away and then made some comment about having a fish caught in my throat.  Groan!

Speaking of fish, we only had one little mishap when one of the children was supposed to pull a fish out of the "pond" attached to her fishing line.  The fish came up fine but then fell off her hook down below the stage.  She looked at me with big eyes because the next few lines were all about admiring the fish.  Not to worry.....I handed her a fishing net and suggested that the kids try to "net" the fish.  Luckily the little magnet on the end of her line snared the fish yet again.  I didn't dare try to get down on my stomach and try to reach the fish myself because it would have taken half the cast to get me back on my feet again, I'm sure.

I even got to do a kazoo solo and let me tell you, I was sweating it about that.  I never knew that playing a kazoo could be so challenging.  I couldn't get a buzz out of that thing initially but eventually I got the hang of it.  I swear that kazoos were round, white things back when I was a kid.  Maybe there is a different technique to the ones today.

I managed to do most of the choreography for the songs and remembered most of the words to the choruses although I did get a little freaked out at one point when the girls faded out on me and I was practically singing a solo - on a section that I didn't know all that well.  Here I thought that I'd just lip synch through the parts that I didn't know very well and let the kids do the singing in the spots where I was shaky.  Not to be, eh?

The kids who had the speaking parts did great.  They got their lines down pat and also did a great job on their solos.  All in all, I had a lot of fun being back on stage.  Now I just have to get through one more performance at a retirement community and then we can put "Fish Tales" to bed.

On Fiber Overload

It's been a busy few days of spinning and knitting.  Yesterday and today we've been spending the mornings flicking or combing fiber and then spinning it up.

Once we've spun enough to ply, we've made up little sample skeins for ourselves and have been encouraged to knit up little swatches, when we have the time. 

I haven't found that time because I've been too busy working on the Pine and Ivy shawl for the knitting portion of our retreat most evenings.

Anne Hanson has been giving us some fantastic lessons in lace knitting and then sitting with us while we work our way through the shawl patterns we've chosen.  Today's lesson was particularly insightful as she brought out swatch after swatch in different yarns to show us how the same pattern can vary so much in appearance, texture, and size by using a different yarn.

I've been working LATE every evening trying to get more rows done on this shawl although I'm usually so tired that I end up knitting the same row over and over as I make foolish mistakes.  I was thrilled, however, when yesterday Anne came over and picked up what I've done so far and showed it to the class.  I'm hoping some of her expertise will rub off on my needles just by her having touched them.

We also did a little exercise in provisional cast-ons yesterday, knitting a tiny swatch and then going back to pick up the live stitches from the provisional cast-on edge.

I always run into trouble when it comes time to take out the provisional stitches but Anne showed us the trick to easily removing them.

Now I'm headed to bed to do a little reading and then to call it a night.  We have one more day of spinning and knitting and then our retreat is over this year.  Phooey!  Just like last year, it's been a great experience.

On Site and Ready to Spin

I headed out today to the Pheasant Field Bed and Breakfast in Carlisle, PA for a 4-day fiber spinning workshop with one of my favorite spinning shop owners, Beth Smith from the Spinning Loft and one of my favorite knitting pattern designers, Anne Hanson. 

I've got my own room with private bath.  How lovely!  And I've only been dive-bombed by 2 stink bugs so far.  My friend, Linda will appreciate the fact that I just screamed very quietly when I saw them.  Usually, she has been my stink bug killer when we've gone to scrapbooking retreats but this time around, I have to be brave and get those buggers myself.  Ugh!

There's a little desk and a TV.  This week is a pretty momentous week for some of my TV shows so I might be tempted to retire early several nights to watch my shows but then again, if my hubby will PROMISE to DVR them for me, I'll try to concentrate on my knitting and spinning.

To help me keep that resolve, there's a lovely chair in the corner where I can curl up and knit.  I still am working on two sleeves for my Havre de Grace sweater and I might get a good bit of it done.  Then again, since we'll also be working on a lace shawl as part of our class, I might not get any of it done and just work on the shawl.

Time to call it an evening so that I'm wide awake tomorrow morning.  Breakfast is at 8 and then it's a full day of fibery delights.  Yippee!  And may I send any further stink bugs your way?

Ladies, Start Your Wheels!

Day One of our spinning retreat and we're off and running.  Well, we're off and spinning, I guess I should say.  Every seat had a goody bag filled with different kinds of fiber when we arrived but we had to control ourselves and not dig into it before our instructor, Beth Smith gave us the go-ahead.

First on the agenda was a lovely bag of Polwarth wool.  This was what we practiced on this morning, as we tried different wheel settings to spin laceweight yarn.  It was quite educational to observe all the different wheels in use and how each person's yarn varied.  One of our spinners was spinning yarn so thin that a normal camera couldn't even capture a picture of it.  We needed a hi-definition camera to see the thread.

Mine wasn't any where near that fine.  However, it was a lot thinner than I had been spinning it.  My main goal this retreat is to learn how to get more yardage out of my fiber and I'll just be thrilled if I can get around 400 yds. of plied yarn from 4 oz. of fiber.  The spinner in the previous paragraph HAD been spinning around 800 yds. of yarn from 4 oz. of fiber.  Wow!

We even had "guests" in our class.  One of our group brought her two greyhounds with her.  She set up their cushions by her wheel and they settled right down and slept while we spun.

After a great lunch, we switched to the lace knitting portion of our retreat with Anne Hanson.  I'm doing her Pine and Ivy shawl pattern.  Casting on 303 stitches for the small version was challenging simply because it was afternoon and I'd had a big lunch but then, once I started knitting, I really had to keep on my toes from the sheer terror of thinking I might lose my place in the pattern and not be able to figure out where I had been.  Thank goodness for a growing ability to "read" my stitches, which DOES help, if that happens.

Now I'm back in my room and ready to put my feet up and work some more on my shawl.  It's a long day when you've been in a spinning class for 4 hours (doesn't that sound so physical?), especially when you say that you "covered a lot of territory."  Ha!  As if this body would ever be poured into spandex and sweating on a bicycle in a gym.

Plying to a Playlist

When I ply yarn, I tend to keep a rhythm going in my head.  It can become quite hypnotic.  In fact, I've been known on numerous occasions to fall asleep in the middle of plying, actually waking up in the process of tipping out of my chair.  Yikes!

Yesterday was a marathon spinning and plying day.  I started it off with a morning of spinning with our local spinning guild.  That put me in a spinning mood so when I returned home, I finished spinning the fiber that I was spinning on my Matchless.  It's one of the monthly club fibers that I get from Southern Cross Fibre.  I couldn't wait to see how it would look plied so I got out the Lazy Kate and started in.  That's when a major case of the "drowsies" hit me.  I DID manage to finish plying it all up but had to stop occasionally to slap my face to stay awake.  There HAD to be a better way.

I still had more yarn to ply.....namely the fiber I had spun at the spinning guild meeting.  This was a lovely merino fiber dyed by BeeMiceElf.  If I could just stay awake, I could get it plied and then have a clear conscience so that I could go through my fiber stash for some new beauty to work on.

I have always found certain types of music to be invigorating.  Since two of my wheels are in my computer room and since I have Pandora on my computer, it seemed like a logical solution to bring up Pandora and start one of my playlists.  Which one, though? 

Jazz was out of the question.  It was too relaxing.  Inspirational piano music was also eliminated.  Too slow for the rhythm I wanted.  I had started a playlist of cutting-edge Scandinavian rock bands but they were just too choppy.  I couldn't find any sort of consistent rhythm with them.  My Celtic channel would have some suitable music in it but only the songs that were the raucous kind with a driving bodhran beat.  I used to LOVE to listen to that type of Celtic music when I was doing my Library Science coursework for grad school in the middle of the night and definitely in danger of nodding off.  Unfortunately, my Celtic channel also had other, more haunting Celtic music on it which would also lull me to lullaby land.  My Country station was promising but I had just listened to it for several hours the previous day when I'd been working on the computer so I felt like something else.  What I felt like was some Latino music.  Yes!  That fit the bill quite nicely.  My Latin Channel was just what I needed to ply at a peppy pace with a lovely rhythm to it.  Salsa, Samba, Merengue...those all have a wonderful beat that keep me wide awake and totally in the plying zone.

Two bobbins done and one more to fill and then I'm all caught up on my plying.  Ay, carumba!  Why am I suddenly in the mood for a frozen margarita?

A Day of Distractions

Have you ever had a day that seems to be spinning in a million different directions?  Boy, has my day ever been a strange mix.  It started off when I came downstairs to feed Fresca the Wonder Dog.  As she was eating, I decided to make myself a cup of coffee.  As I reached for my steaming mug (we have a Keurig), I noticed a few dishes that hadn't been washed from last night.  OK, I decided to wash them up quickly so the kitchen would be all tidy when the Commander got up.  After I washed the few dishes, I still had a nice, soapy basin of water so I looked around and thought maybe I'd wash down the stove top, which led to me washing down the counters, which led to me washing out the inside of the microwave, too.  Are you with me so far?  Now this was all before 7:30 a.m.

The Commander was still sleeping so I decided to fire up the computer and check my email.  With Jason and his family living in a timezone that is about 12 hours difference from ours, I like to see if there is any news from them in the morning, since they would probably have posted while I was sleeping.  As I checked my email, I noticed a newsletter from a digital scrapbooking company that I've purchased items from in the past.  I opened it up and was reading it and saw an ad that caught my eye.  Of course, I had to click on it which took me to their online store and of course, I found some very nice digital packages that were on sale at 40% off.  So I went ahead and purchased them and got right to downloading them onto my computer.  Naturally, after doing that, I wanted to bring them into my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software program.  As I finished doing that, I realized that my folders in Storybook Creator were getting rather voluminous so I decided perhaps I'd better do some reorganizing of those to help me pare down the number of categories which would make it easier for me to find things.  Oh yes, somewhere in the middle of doing that, my brother called with a problem to do with Ebay so I had to stop and handle that long-distance.

At some point the Commander came downstairs and stuck his head into the room to say "Good Morning" and as I eventually glanced up at the clock, I realized that it was 10:30 a.m. and I hadn't even brushed my hair or eaten breakfast.  Whew!  I'm tired just writing all of this.  No wonder my days just fly by and I can't figure out where the day has gone when 5 p.m. rolls around and I'm still working on the computer.

But speaking of eating, how do you like that rack of BBQ ribs and sweet potato fries?  That was my meal this past Friday when the Commander and I went out to enjoy a late anniversary dinner.

I didn't realize when he took my picture what the scene was behind me.  Goodness!  This could be a poster for a diet ad.  I actually had filled up on an appetizer and when they brought my meal, I only had room for a few of the fries and a few bites of BBQ and then I had to box up the rest to bring home.

This cheesy "firebread" dipped in seasoned oil was the culprit.  I LOVE cheese and melted over warm bread is even better.

When we got home, I hurried up and set up the camera, put it on automatic timer and we ran for the couch so we could get a picture to commemorate our belated anniversary outing.

Now I'm busy spinning wool for the next few weeks as part of the "Tour de Fleece", an event that spinners around the world are taking part in as we spin wool on different "teams" each day as the Tour de France does its own kind of spinning.  This is some lovely wool from the dyer Bee Mice Elf and I've been spinning it up as I watch TV in the evenings. 

In other news, techie that I am, I just couldn't resist Barnes and Noble's recent price drop on the Nook so I am now the owner of a Kindle AND a Nook.  I didn't buy the 3G version since my Kindle already gives me that full ability but instead I purchased the Wi-Fi version, which is fine for me.  I'll give you my initial impressions of the Nook in my next post.

Friday's Fave Spinning

I’m writing this Friday’s Fave Five from a gorgeous restored Victorian mansion somewhere outside Philadelphia.  And therein lies the bulk of my five highlights of the week.  Shall we begin?

1.  I headed off this week for a 3-day spinning retreat headed up by the fun and very knowledgeable owner of The Spinning Loft in Howell, Michigan.  Since it was to begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, I decided to roll into town Thursday evening and just stay an extra night at the Bed and Breakfast that is hosting the event.  I am SO directionally challenged.  I was supposed to take an exit that apparently was immediately after another exit off the turnpike.  Well, I missed it and after a long drive away from Philly, as I was approaching New Jersey (luckily I recognized landmarks from when we recently drove to New Jersey for a wedding), I decided I’d better call the Commander and ask him to check on Google maps for me.  You see, I had forgotten to bring the GPS and just had the written directions.  Sure enough, he informed me that I was way beyond my exit and needed to turn around and go back almost to where I had exited the turnpike.  Happily, it was a beautiful day and the rush hour traffic hadn’t gotten too bad yet so I made it eventually to our B & B.

2.  The Bed and Breakfast…..ah, what a wonderful old house.  It’s called Shearer Elegance and is run by our instructor’s mom.  The woodwork in this place is incredible.  Here are some shots of my room.  Incredible.  And I’m happy to report that there isn’t a ghost in sight.

3.  There are spinning wheels of all shapes and sizes and makers here.  For a spinner, this is a real treat.  Some of these wheels I’ve only seen in magazines so to be able to see them up close and personal is great.  It’s fun to hear the other spinners explain why they chose their wheels and what they like and dislike about them and to actually have the chance to really look the wheels over.

4.  I was a tad intimidated by heading out to meet spinners who I didn't know who already knew each other but everyone has been great.  Here we are practicing drop spindling out on the patio on a beautiful afternoon.  What has been especially wonderful has been that they are all eager to share their knowledge.  Fiber people are some of the most generous people with their talents that I know.

5,  So today we've been learning how to spin different short-hair wool breeds.  Since I'm just learning how to spin on the Schacht Double drive Matchless, this is a great chance for me to really learn, especially from Beth, owner of The Spinning Loft, who is such a good teacher (and a hoot to boot).  Here's Queen Beth holding court this morning before class.

To read what others are writing for their Friday Fave Fives, visit Susanne's site at Living to Tell the Story.  Now, I'd better get back to my spinning.

Getting Ready

I'm getting ready for something.  Can you tell what it might be from this basket of goodies?  I'll give you a clue.  I'll be using everything that is inside the basket.  Here's another clue.  It's happening later this week.

I have my smaller supplies packed inside this little bag .

I emptied this so that I'll be all set to fill it with whatever goodies they have us working on.

I got out the Wood Beam polish and gave things a good rub down and buff.

And now Valentina is all set to be packed up in the car.  Yes, I'm heading out later this week for the Philadelphia area for a spinning retreat organized by the Spinning Loft.  Two and a half glorious days of spinning instruction, not to mention good eating and a chance to finally meet the folks I've been talking to up on Ravelry all these months.  I'm a little nervous (ok, a lot nervous) but I know that once I get there and meet everyone, I'm going to relax and have a great time.  I consider myself a novice spinner (and DEFINITELY a novice spinner on Valentina), so I know that I'm going to learn a lot this week.  I'm not sure if I'll have internet access in order to blog while I'm there, but if I don't, I'll be reporting on my adventures when I get back.

Our graphic for today is an old calling card that belonged to my great-aunt.  Hands and roses were common motifs for calling cards and this one is no exception.  I love the typeset that was used for Aunt Cora's name.  Quite ornate, eh?