Tuesday

Woolly Business...

Hobby Farm magazine offers a variety of topics.  At the check-out of our local Rural King (a farm and gardening supply store), I purchased this magazine "Sheep."  The sub-title caught my attention "Start Your Sheep Business."  Sheep milk cheese?  How-to make it is in there too!  Reading the history of how sheep were taken hundreds of years ago to different parts of the world and how they even today are still breeding sheep for fiber is interesting (I did not enjoy history in school at all).  Sheep history is good!  I'm enjoying the beautiful photography and lots of woolly talk! 

Seeing Red...

My next project is spinning a skein of Blue Faced Leicester combed top in reds, pinks, and dark reds.  This one is called "Estrogen" and is from Happy Fuzzy Yarns.  I can't wait to see the results. Please subscribe to Three Wooden Spindles so you can see the results too!


A Skein from my Spinning Wheel...

Doing the tasks that a woman has to do on a daily basis is cutting into my spinning time.  It's taken me approximately three weeks to get from long staple hand-dyed Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) spun on the wheel in singles, then plying, to the niddy noddy, washed and hanging to dry.  It's over 200 feet of beauty.  Do you love the colors?  I'm sharing with you a couple pics of the process and then the end results.  


Freshly washed skein hanging outside in the garden to dry.  I add weight (a can of tomatoes) at the bottom of the wet skein to keep the kinks out of the dry skein.  


Waiting in a basket ready to knit into something fabulous! 


Close up pic so you can see the colors.  It's #232 Blue Lagoon purchased from Happy Fuzzy Yarn. The company the roving comes from is frabjous fibers.  They help women of Nepal with the proceeds from the fibers. 

Friday

Free emag from Spinning Daily

Interweave has published an informational ebook called "Introduction to the Spinning Wheel."  Get your free copy at www.spinningdaily.com.  Once you are there, click Free Stuff at the top of the website and then "how-to."  Topics include caring for your spinning wheel, drafting and others. 

Wednesday

Zinio

Please subscribe to Zinio.  I have discovered a wonderful fiber emagazine you are going to enjoy seeing!  Once you subscribe and create a password and all of that go to Art then Crafts and look for "Entangled" emag.  You can view the entire Preview emag.  Entangled includes nice photography and interesting articles about all of the things for the love of fiber, fiber animals, people who also love fiber, spinning and how they got their dream LYS and how they have succeeded in the business.  The one year (4 emags) subscription is only $20 US.  You can even download it to your ipad, PC, Mac and Android. 

Knit Class #3

My last class gifted and some of the ladies from the first class are back.  Another glitch, where is Ann?  She is not our instructor tonight.  Oh, I was doing so well with her.  Our new, to us, instructor was knit savvy also and very patient with the group and individually gave us attention after asking at what level we were knitting.  We reviewed different methods of cast on stitches, knit, purl, and binding off.  She explained the yarn skein label icons and how to do a gauge sample.  The ladies in the third class and I wanted to learn increase and decrease.  Kelly, I think was her name, had us practice knit and yarn over.  Once that was practiced I asked about beginning the triangle wrap I had always wanted to knit.  I learned that straight needles weren't going to get the job done and was introduced to addi Turbo circular needles shiny silver and not too expensive at $15.00.  I cast on four stitches using the second skein of the KUDO yarn from the Plymouth Yarn Co. and was making a triangular shape.  When Kelly asked me how I was doing with the  the addi Turbos I told her they needed to come with a seat belt because they were really helping me knit faster!  What a great birthday gift from my daughter I have really enjoyed my knitting classes.  Below is a pic of the beginning of my triangular wrap and my new addi Turbo circular needles.  

Knit Class #2

During the week when time allowed, I cast on stitches and knit my bright orange yarn.  Upon arriving at my second knitting class, I was excited to be there but was confused because that ladies that I attended class with last week were not there.  I thought maybe I was in the wrong class.  But, I found out that everyone comes to the same class regardless of the level they are and you are not required to attend consecutive classes.  Ann again was knit savvy and attended to everyone in a group and individually.  At this class we reviewed long tail cast on, the knit stitch and learned how to purl, knit 2 purl 2 for ribbing and binding off.  I had learned all of this and was actually knitting, purling and binding off.  How much fun is that?  At the end of the class Ann asked us to think about our third and final class to get started on an actual project.  I bought two skeins of different colored variegated KUDO yarn from Plymouth Yarn and received a free pattern for the Waves Scarf.  I learned yarn over and DSP.  I ripped out quite a bit of it and had to start over a couple of times but I think I'm on a roll now.  

Knitting Class #1

The group of ladies of all ages gathered around a table at our LYS KnitWitts in Evansville after checking in and receiving our ball of yarn, size 7 bamboo straight knitting needles and a booklet.  We were surrounded by beautiful colors of skeins and skeins of yarn and knock out sample displays.  Our instructor, Ann, was very knit savvy and kept up with everyone in their different stages of knowledge.  First, we learned to long tail cast on.  Seemed pretty easy to understand.  Then we learned how to do the knit stitch.  So, we ripped out our progress and cast on and knitted many times.  I found out that I was continental knitting and the woman who told me that I was knitting all wrong was herself wrong; I was knitting but not the way she was familiar.  Okay, now I "throw" because that is the method Ann was teaching.  I felt pretty satisfied upon leaving the class and impressed with Ann's ability to hop from one student to another dealing with their level of ability.