Eastburn Adventures

In my last post, I was so excited to have brought my new wheel home, and I've been spending a lot of time reading everything I can get my hands on about spinning - books, blogs, Ravelry spin groups, etc. - in addition to just jumping in and spinning. The spin groups on Rav have been an enormous help to me because it's like an informal classroom. Don't know what this part is? Post a picture and someone will help you. Can't find what a certain term means? Ask and you'll get lots of answers. No question is too stupid, and for the most part, everyone is willing to jump in and help out the beginners - from how to find and select a wheel, to processing your own fiber.

But the problem I'm finding with these groups is of a different sort - it's the enabling factor. Now, as knitters, we never have an issue encouraging fellow knitters to buy yarn, bags, or knit the latest wildfire pattern, but with spinning, the investment is a little more substantial. I paid a hefty price for my wheel - and planned for months where the funds would come from - but what I missed was all the extras that I would "need."

For example, a WooLee Winder. I didn't know I needed one until the Fling and I saw people using them on theirs. The regular flyer on the wheel has these little hooks that you have to stop and move the spun yarn on a regular basis so that the bobbin fills evenly. But with the WooLee Winder, it eliminates that step and winds the yarn much like filling a sewing machine bobbin. Way cool, right? And, it's a significant additional investment, because not only do you have to get the new flyer, but you need the WooLee Winder bobbins because the regular bobbins don't fit. It comes with one bobbin, but you need at least 4 because what if you want to make a 3-ply yarn? You'll have 3 bobbins filled with singles, and then need the 4th bobbin to ply them onto.

And then there's the miscellaneous stuff. Like, why in the world didn't the wheel come with the needed oil bottle? Oh, and it would be good to have a Go-Knits pouch or other bag to hang on the side of the wheel to hold scissors, tape measure, the oil bottle, a small cloth for wiping up any excess oil, extra whorls - did I mention extra whorls? Yeah, because as you get better, you're going to want whorls with all the available ratios. And, let's see - you might want a WPI tool, so you know what weight of yarn you're making, and you'll need to have some kitchen twine or pony bead lacing and connectors for extra drive bands, or even an official polyurethane drive band. Oh, and a niddy noddy or skein winder would come in handy, too, so you don't have to wind the yarn off the bobbin onto a chair back in order to make your skein.

And all of this before you get to the fiber. What's the point of having the wheel if you don't have a fiber stash? And knitters beware - it's much faster to spin up fiber than it is to knit up yarn from your stash - plus, when you're done spinning, you have even more yarn! Talk about a never-ending circle!

Of course, you don't have to get absolutely everything right off the bat, you can slowly add to your spinning tools as you go along, and that's probably wise, if you're not certain that you're going to love spinning.

But there's one tool that's non-negotiable - an absolute must for a spinning wheel.



A cup holder. Yeah, I needed it.

Where does the time go? It seems like every time I make a post, I think that I'll be caught up and stay on top of it, but then something always seems to happen and suddenly it's 2 weeks since I've posted. I know it doesn't make for very exciting reading.

So what's been going on? Well, I've been practicing my spinning a bit. This is only the 3rd roving I've spun, and I'm pretty sure it's almost a fingering weight. I'm pretty proud of it and think it came out really nice. It's a 2-ply, and I used Fleece Artist roving. I forgot to count the wraps on my niddy noddy, so I'm only guessing at the yardage, but I think it's about - not bad for 4 oz. of fiber.

I also finally finished the Uptown Boot Socks, and I'm almost done with a pair of plain stockinette socks that I started at the Spring Fling. They're knit in Hazel Knits - I think the colorway is Olympic Rainforest - I've misplaced the ball band.

Last weekend was the Marshfield Fiber Fair, and this was my 3rd year to go. I found it to be a lot more fun this year because we had such a large group from Knit Together there - Kate, Brianne, Angie, Ester, Christa, Ginger, and Sarah - and since I started spinning, I was more interested in all the fiber booths. I had no idea there were so many alpaca ranches in southwest Missouri!

So now it's a 3-day weekend, and I'm trying to catch up on laundry, cleaning the house, and Robert and I are doing a major landscaping project in the back yard. Since we went to Italy in March, it's not likely we'll take another week-long vacation until fall or winter, so we at least want to have a nice place to relax while we're home.

I'll try really hard not to wait so long between posts again, but no promises. Life happens, you know?

While at the Spring Fling, as I was standing in line to check out with my bag loaded down with fabulous yarns and fibers, another Flinger was fondling a gorgeous skein of yarn. "Oooh, that's pretty," I said. "What is it?" The Flinger responded, "It's HazelKnits in the Olympic Rainforest colorway. Sheri and Cookie were both knitting with it last night - there's more left, want me to get you one?" Of course, the answer was yes, and after paying for it, I immediately went back to TLE's ball winder and swift and wound it up into a cake. By that point, I knew that the other projects I'd brought to work on weren't happening, and some stockinette socks were in order. Of course, when I got home I resumed my other projects, but I finally finished them this past weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, I had grand plans for us to complete some yard work. We'd removed the hideous above-ground swimming pool back in February, and are still searching for a reasonably priced option to get the hole filled, but in the meantime, I wanted to start the landscaping in the back. When we moved in, there was the pool and no trees, not one. We planted a little redbud we'd dug up on a friend's property a couple of years ago, and it's doing fabulous. So to start, we marked off the bed along the fence line and used a couple of gallons of Round-Up to kill the grass, and Robert used the weed-eater to knock it down almost to the dirt.

Saturday morning, we thinned out some of our pompous grass, separated and thinned out our bamboo plant from the front yard landscaping, and dug up a baby Crepe Myrtle that started off of another large bush we had. We got those planted in the new bed just barely before it started to rain again, which led us to indoor activities, including assembling the bargain Adirondack chairs I found at Ace Hardware for $29.99.

Sunday after church, we took advantage of an hour without rain and quickly thinned out our ferns at the side of the house, discovering that we still did actually have hostas planted there as well, and got the ferns into the new bed again, just moments before the rains came again.

Monday morning, the cloudy skies were again ominous, so we slogged our way to the bed that was now really mushy and waterlogged, and while Robert dug a couple of trenches, I pulled up the Gladiolus bulbs that were in a raised bed we're going to tear out. Once those were safely underground again, we attacked the irises in another raised bed we're tearing out, and divided them and got those in the ground right as it started sprinkling. I still have a large clump of irises to move, but nowhere to put them for the time being.

But for now, where there was nothing, we have landscaping, and since we used plants we had elsewhere, it was entirely free, and just required hard work. We'll be buying some mulch, soaker hoses (because someday, the rain has to stop, right?), solar lights, and probably a couple of urns for annuals to add some color to the green of the bed, but all in all, it's a pretty inexpensive project. We've got plans to get a couple more small trees from our friend's property, another redbud and dogwood, and once the huge hole is filled, I think it's going to look really nice.

Now, if only it would stop raining so I can sit on the deck in my new chair and enjoy it.