Not much to show..........

Not much to show for my time. Been here and there, haven't gotten much done in the studio........would be very grouchy over it except that I've been doing fun stuff. Above are two drop spindles with Japanese paper yarn. The one on the left is mine, on the right friend Kathy's. Next up to weave some simple little weavings (couple inches) to use as embellishment on journals. I tried one using a Weave-it type loom but it will be easier just making a cardboard loom with straight pins.

The heat wave is wearing on us and it's not even at it's hottest yet. It's over 100 today, tomorrow the forecast is 115. Fires are popping up all over - it's darned scary out there. As I was driving home from my spinning get together this afternoon I could see smoke to the west of our house. I found a little info on a new fire that had just started. We're fine as long as it doesn't blow up........with this wind and heat I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. The retardant tanker (DC-7) has flown over the house twice - looks to take 50 minutes to get from Medford (to my east) to the fire and back. I'm taking a guess our little airport here in Grants Pass is too small for it to land and fill up but I'm not sure. It should be flying over again shortly - if needed. It's so hard not to know what's going on - the fire is in steep terrain, are they making headway before it gets big? is it growing? did they knock it out quickly? The unknown can be so scary..........

Update - ODF (Oregon Dept of Forestry) once again did a great job of knocking out a fire before it became a problem - it's not out but it's contained and is in mop up stage - kudos to them.

New spindle spinning

Since I finished up the last spindle spinning I thought it was time to pick out some roving for new spindle spinning.........and a spindle I haven't spun on before other than to try it out. 

This is a sweet little Turkish spindle from Jeri Brock Woodworks. It weighs 7/8oz/24gr. There is no website listed on the tag but if you're interested she is on Ravelry under the name jeribrock (I did not buy directly from her but from a shop a few years ago). It spins beautifully.

The fiber I'm spinning is from Crosspatch Creations - it was the Special NWRSA Spinners Blend - The Spinning Shepherdess colorway made to celebrate the 2006 conference.........yep, it's been in my stash since 2006, got buried behind something else on the shelf. I've got 4 oz of it to spin, should take a while as I don't spindle spin that often. This type of spinning is always a challenge to me - the blend is not meant to produce a smooth yarn, it's going to have lumpies/bumpies due to the nature of the batts. Crosspatch always has fun batts - this one was only available at the conference but check out their site for others.

I've also picked out some merino/bamboo/tussah silk roving, my own hand-dyed, to start spinning on the wheel. Will post a picture of that once I get started on it. Actually, here's a picture of it in my etsy shop - I really should try and get a better picture, this one doesn't do it justice, the colors are lovely and sheen incredible.

More spinning...........

Finally finished some drop spindling that I've only worked on here and there. This was some of my own hand-dyed superwash merino. I've got 350 yards - maybe a cowl......who knows........not my best spinning but it will look great once knit. It's super soft and I love the colors.....in spite of blue not being my color.............

Weekend on the coast

We took off Saturday morning for a 3 day weekend on the coast. We were worried about finding broken pipes knowing the temps there got pretty low while we were in freezing temps here in the valley - all was ok - phew.

It was a weekend of relaxing and walking on the beach - many small treasures to be found.....it was a big weekend for seaglass, probably 2 handfuls full, many sea snail shells which I find actually house little hermit crabs......picked up a handful of cockle shells..........although have to stop picking those up, they were on the beach by the thousands this weekend and we've already got way too many antique blue ball jars full of them.....but sometimes I just can't help myself. My goal this year is to find some fun project to use them for so I can gift them and continue to pick them up by the thousands...........

The top shell is a olive shell, this one a baetic olive shell as it's brown, I've also found olive purple shells that have a blue/purple tinge to them. These were once very valuable among the Indians to use in necklaces and to decorate clothing with. The other shell is a clam shell, I think, I couldn't narrow it down in my shell book but it looks to be some sort of clam.........it's the first I've found in these colors.

Driftwood on the beaches is very fun, from minuscule to gigantic tree trunks like this. This one caught my eye because of the incredible patterns on it....some close ups below.

Look at those swirls......

.....and these.......

.....and this neat knothole........

I did a little spinning while over there - went to the spinning group at The Wool Co and worked on some drop spindling I leave over there.....problem is that this project has been going on for so long that my spinning isn't real consistent.........too much time..........need to finish it up soon. It's some superwash merino I had dyed a while back. Not sure how many yards I'll end up with, am hoping for enough for a cowl......it's not a large amount of roving. Sad news we knew was coming - The Wool Co is closing by the end of January - from what I understand it's time for the two partners to move on after many years.......aging parents need help out of the area for one and the other is ready to retire.

I need to do some editing of pix for my festive post for tomorrow of where we went last night over on the coast....but right now back to preparing yummies for our family Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow evening.......

New Toy.....

Here's the new toy I ordered last week - a Jeri Brock Turkish Spindle! Now, I didn't find this one myself, another blogger enabled me. I saw it on Fiberewetopia's blog banner and wrote her to ask about it.......not only did she tell me about it but directed me on where to buy one! I had to pick it up at the post office yesterday which made me late to my spinning get-together but I wanted to show it to everyone.....several others wrote down the name and where they could get one, and I found out my friend Cathy has one on order. I bought mine from The Spinning Loft but one could also contact Jeri Brock directly - she's on Ravelry under the name jeribrock. (that roving is some of my hand-dyed polwarth wool)

On the AVL front - haven't had time to even try turning it on yet, so busy for the next 2 weeks preparing for Fiber Mania. Also still waiting for answers to a few of my questions. Can't wait to have lots of time to devote to learning it.

It must be autumn - $5.99 pumpkin pies at Costco.......was over in Medford today dropping scarves/shawls off at the Rogue Gallery so also did many errands including a stop at Costco.....love those pumpkin pies!

A bit of spinning.....

A bit of spinning took place while on the coast this weekend, did some reading, lots of walking, then decided to pick up the spindle and some superwash merino I had dyed a couple years ago.....once spun there should be enough of this for a pair of sox. Isn't that a cool pillow in the background?! It was made from a bathmat - Sam thinks it's weird, actually downright scary - I love it, bought a light blue one too! Forgot the camera once again so this was taken with the phone, not too sharp....

New Toy

Here's my new toy - picked it up at the post office today. It's a Golding Drop Spindle - isn't it beautiful?! Now those that know me are probably wondering why I needed yet another spindle of any kind, let alone my third Golding Spindle.......well, it's not about need, well, maybe it is, I needed it for my mental health. Put some of my birthday money from last month toward it. Can't wait to try it out but still working hard at the sewing machine, hoping to finish up this afternoon or sometime tomorrow.....in the meantime I'll just admire it............

What's on my drop spindle

Here's what's in the process of being spun on my Golding drop spindle. This is 2/3 shetland wool and 1/3 merino from Sporfarm in The Dalles, OR. It's a dream to spin! And no, I did not buy this fiber at BSG (Black Sheep Gathering) - it was in the stash from a purchase 2 years ago at OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival).