Bits and Pieces
Having the furnace on is lovely. It is definitely warmer with the furnace on, but it's not exactly warm. We have an old house (built in 1920), and it has the original windows and absolutely no insulation in the walls. We love it, it's beautiful, but it is more than a bit drafty. We also have an old furnace. It's not quite as old as the house, but is still rather elderly as these things go. The combination of old furnace and drafty house means the gas bill gets rather staggering if we set the heat above about 58. So [...]
The Three Rs, Part Two
So if day one was rowdy, day two would have to be described as reverent. The second day was spent spinning with Judith MacKenzie. Now you all know that spinning was the thing I was most concerned about. Just days before the class was announced, I had declared that I was done with spinning. It's only due to an entirely uncharacteristic delay in getting rid of stuff that I hadn't chucked all my spinning fiber the week before the class went public. I had put it all in a pile to go away, but just never got around to finding [...]
Not Actually Embarrassing
I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not even saying it's good. I am, however, saying I don't find it overwhelmingly embarrassing. It is demonstrably yarn. Even someone who didn't spend much time interacting with yarn would likely identify it as such. Funky, exuberantly-textured, oddly-colored yarn -- but yarn none the less. The suggested skill level for the retreat was "able to spin a continuous thread. (Note that we didn’t say that you should be able to knit well, or spin well. A basic beginner would be comfortable.)" I think this qualifies. If it doesn't I'm more or less out of [...]
Utterly Without Shame
So I've gone and done it. Once before I succumbed to the biggest knitting blog cliche out there and showed you my cat. Apparently doing it once broke some sort of internal restraint, because here I am doing it again. It seems all my kitten-based indiscretions are related to spinning. The last time I mentioned them, it was in a post where I declared that my affair with spinning was at an end. Two weeks later, I found out I was going to the silk retreat in Port Ludlow which features spinning. A deep and abiding fear of being the [...]
Practice Makes…
Practice makes...well, it hasn't made perfect quite yet, but it is getting better. I can now consistently spin for at least half an hour without feeling the need to swear profusely. It's looking prettier too. Maybe there's hope yet.
You Spin Me Right Round Baby, Right Round
The fiber show was, rather as expected, full of fluffy goodness. Kinda smelly, but good none the less. While I was there, I realized that I'm not as clear on the difference between sheep and goats as I thought I was. See these guys? I'm pretty sure buddy on the right there is a sheep, but what about buster on the left. Do the creepy rectangular pupils mean he's a goat, or do some sheep have those too? I managed not to bring home too much yarn. I picked up some goodies for the book, and I'll tell you all [...]
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