Medievel Reproduction Spindle

Recently Bess (proprietress of Make One Yarn Studio, spinner, SCA participant, and owner of the worlds' most impressive yarn/fiber stash) gifted me with a bottom whorl spindle that she's carrying in her store. I have not been a great big fan of the bottom whorl, but I was happy to give this one a spin. Bess describes it as follows:

"Mark Shier of Gaukler Medievalwares makes the spindle whorl of lead-free pewter in a hand-carved stone mold. It is based on a spindle whorl in his collection. He is a registered antiquities dealer.

The whorl comes with a hand-finished wooden spindle shaft."


When I received the spindle, it had just arrived from Vancouver Island, so in a day or so the shaft had shrunk enough that I could move the whorl up by approximately 1/4". Since then it's been stable and I'm not worried about it coming off. It's a small enough spindle that I was able to successfully spin in the car as we ferried to and from soccer today. That's big talk for somebody who is spinning silk, has dry hands, the windows are open and it's a bottom whorl. As you can see, all went well, and the cop is on it's way to being full (OK.. that might be stretching it somewhat!).

Some of the reasons I love this spindle are that it's unique and not mass produced; it spins solid, straight, and it doesn't take much room.

I'm spinning silk hankies that Aunty Tink gave me, and that I dyed. I am not really a blue person, but I totally love these.

So there you have it! My first intentional product review.

Dear Darts

Who is that really SMAD girl on your ravatar, and why is she there? Do we know her at all?

And, congratulations on your bubbly toes sock pattern being available for purchase. Posting that pattern must have been very empowering.

a
xoxox

Look who came home for dinner

Today Opera, Aunty Tink and I took a drive out to Olds College to have a look at the vendor area of the 'Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta' annual conference. The vendor area in particular. (though we did take a tour of conference entries, and found some amazing - totally amazing - pieces of functional and non-functional fiber art)

We took a quick tour, and although there were some really awesome booths, noted that only 60% of who we might have expected to be there had actually made the trek. Jane Stafford? Treenway? Not present.

I didn't get too far before I found a purveyor of bison fiber. $12.00 an ounce, I kid you not. There was a great deal of Fleeceartist fiber and yarn there, and I am amazed to announce that only two hanks of merino/silk came home with me.

And then I saw it.

A secondhand Pat Green Triple Picker. Besides being dirty and having a couple of scratches on the upper deck, it's in perfect condition. It came with a grabbing tool of some sort, a leather bib, and the original padlock. However.. no instructions. I asked the lady for her best price, and after and hour of thought, she decided it was $450.00 cdn. I figured that was pretty good, overall, and so the triple picker became mine. I'm so excited.

I spent this afternoon cleaning it up and giving it a whirl and learned that the teeth were too close together. That turned out to be a really simple adjustment, and all is now well. The fiber I chose to test on it was wayyyyy too long, and although it was eventually picked, I would stick to teasing anything similar. I had an undyed lb. of kid mohair that I was absolutely tempted to pick, but decided that patience is a virtue after all. I'll wait.

So today turned out to be more exciting than I had ever anticipated, and I love my new tool.

A couple of poorly executed videos to give you a giggle:





Hey, know what else? I saw puppies. 3 days old. Too cute to register on the cute-o-meter.

If you looked at your queue

I mean really, really looked at it; and ignoring the patterns that you've already purchased, and the yarn that you already have on-hand.. what would you actually knit?

My hair stands on end when I see a few patterns, and so I'm going to call those 'the ones'.. and honestly, I ought to delete the rest of the queue. But I won't.

So here's my must-knit list, as of today.


Tulip Cardi (that just has to be Dream in Colour, don't you think?)


Glows (maybe Claire will take pity on me, and get that colour of WM)


Kingscot (I have the pattern, and the problem is that I can't decide on the perfect yarn. And what can I say? I love a bobble. Me and Denny. We're for the bobble)


Cosima (because I'm just.that.tall.and.thin. or not)


Dianna (Nice name, huh? I want to spin/dye for this shawl.. I think I'm going to make two; a DK and a laceweight)

So there you have it. The list.

Now can someone tell me why I have 4 complete pages of other stuff on my queue? Clearly they are never going to see the light of day.

Patternfish

Have you seen it yet?

Oh oh.. the bfml is in the bucket now.

My famous meatball recipe

I should really think this post over.. to get it exactly right. I think that I only have one chance, and I'd hate to blow it.

So.. tonight was the guild meeting. Marilynn, Correna, Gordana, Rose and I had volunteered to do snacks. As you may know, I'm just wild about snacks at guild. I've been thinking this over for months, and I really wanted to do a great job. Correna and I talked on the phone; Marilynn and I passed notes back and forth on Ravelry, and it went a bit like this: Marilynn was going to bake all day long for her contribution. We're talking the most lovely lemon loaf, perfection in carrot cake. Correna had planned to prepare squares of dark bread with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Unfortunately Gordana had to reschedule because of a family get-together in BC.. but we felt as though we'd do a great job even tho one of our members had fallen by the wayside. Me? I decided I'd provide cream puffs and meatballs, which I'd prepare at work, sometime in the afternoon.

Then came THE CALL. Correna's Juno was giving birth to puppies as we spoke. She wouldn't be able to come after all. It was a blow.. but we had Rose in reserve as our secret weapon, and things still looked good. Marilynn said she'd see what else she could come up with as far as appetizers go. Little did we know that Laura would arrive at guild with 2 extra cakes. It's possible that we have pulled together the Snack Night of All Time. The table was resplendent.

After the meeting was over, people began to line up at the food table! I was thinking that things were going well..... suddenly the room was filled with the smell of meatballs in sauce. I heard that our group should be hired to do snacks every meeting, and then I found myself standing up and acknowledging that I was the meatball person. Someone asked me if I'd consider putting my recipe in the newsletter? Another came to ask if I could please let her know how to make the meatballs so that she could prepare them for her son's family.

I was riding the wave, baby. Snack perfection. Newsletter worthy.

Following you will find my secret meatball recipe:

Open a bag of frozen meatballs that you have purchased at Costco. Use scissors. Pour said meatballs into a crockpot.
After consulting with Kim, pour on most of a bottle of BBQ sauce and some water.
Press 'Start'.

It's good to be me.

PS: Marilynn says that next time she's racing me to Costco. And Juno? I don't know how she's doing, but when I talked to Correna, there were 2 puppies. I'll say a little prayer for her and hope that all is well.

Pink

That's Dida ahead of me, and Nini holding my hand. She has some crazy sunglasses on that are bending her ear over. Believe me; normally it is a perfect little ear. ;)

I used to laugh at my dad and my brother when they walked together. They looked exactly alike. I just noticed that the same is true of Dida and I.

I'm a snack person at guild tomorrow. I'm really excited. We're going to provide the best snacks ever.