Part the Second, or, "Ghetto Grass"

Thanks, Gretchen, for the subtitle for today's blog post. :)

Well, it's a grey, gloomy, chilly day here in Chi-town. Much like the Saturday I went for my second day at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival (seemless transition, no?). I so meant to post this a while ago, but I got caught up in the actual Spinning and Making of Things, so I never did. Hence, a post that sums up the last week and a half - let's hope that blogspot lets me put all my pics up!

So I made it to the Festival on time, although I wandered around for a few minutes trying to figure out which was the east store and which was the west store. Stupid Cardinal Directions. What's with that up here? Why does everyone in Chicago insist on using them? I'm still not sure which was which, but I looked for and finally found something that seemed to be a class. I was, of course, the last one there. (Incidentally, I was apparently the youngest, too, which seemed strange. I thought there would be more of us thirty-somethings. Something to consider, however, is that I appear - and act - much younger than I am. There could have been some younger ladies who were just more mature :P)

The wheels were provided by Babe's Fiber Garden. More on that later. Suffice to say, it's where the "Ghetto" from today's subtitle came from. I had high hopes for this class. I understood the idea of fiber drafting into the twist because of the drop spindle. What I didn't get was how the spinning wheel made that happen. Luckily, these wheels are just about the simplest things ever. It was almost immediately clear to me that pushing the treadle (think: gas peddle made from plywood) made the big wheel turn. The plastic-y tubing connected to the big wheel made the little wheel turn. The little wheel made the fiber twisty. My hands let the fiber get twisty and turn into yarn. That, my dears, is wheel spinning in a nutshell. Easy, right?

Ha!

So, for the first half hour, I suffered from Idiot Foot Syndrome. To save my life I couldn't get the wheel to turn in the right direction for more than 3 seconds. I was trying to get it to turn clockwise, and it basically went back and forth clockwise-counter-clockwise-counter-clockwise-counter-clockwise-counter...ad infinitum. Well, ad tempore media. (I don't speak Latin. I don't even know if that's right. I do know that those are related in some way to the words that "time" and "middle" or "half" come from. What I'm trying to say here is that I went back and forth for a half an hour doing No Spinning Whatsoever.)

Anyway, suddenly, I got it. Magically, I got it. I was spinning. Yes, it was ugly, but it was happening. And - can I brag because I was always the girl who ruined the curve in school and the need to be the best in a class has never changed for me? - I was the best newbie spinner. Sure, that will bite me in the butt later, when I think I know what I'm doing and I don't, but for a few brief hours, I was a spinning prodigy.

My first yarn:

Yeah, I'm a little more proud than I should be. Now, I realize that this is either the worst yarn I'll ever spin, or it resembles very expensive novelty yarn. Actually, it's a bit of both. I promise, I got better. But the first skein - that's always a big deal. I don't think I'll ever knit it.

The class I was in looked like this (the instructor, Lisa Hurst, is the lady in the tie dye shirt):

I've been trying, for the last half hour, to post a picture that had me circled in it. Instead, you can find it here, the last picture in the right column (although I took the class in the morning, not the afternoon). I am the one wearing the white long sleeved shirt with the ponytail, right behind the instructor's butt.

I was super jazzed, and I putzed around trying to decide if I would buy a wheel. Wheels tend into the hundreds, even thousands of dollars. We really aren't there, financially. Did you notice the wheels in the pictures? Did you notice that they are a little wierd? They are. I got one.

Oh yeah. That's PVC pipe. That's plywood. The little black bits are velcro. It's functional, but not entirely historically accurate. It was, however, HUNDREDS of dollars cheaper than a real spinning wheel. And, quite frankly, I'm getting the hang of it. I would rather get the hang of it on something like this than waste money on a real wheel only to find out that I'm no good at it or I don't like it.

The guy who makes these, "Babe" of Babe's Fiber Garden, reminded me so much of my grandpa (Papa). I could totally see him sitting at home, bored, retired, looking at his wife's spinning wheel, turning it around to see how it worked, and saying - I can make one of those, and it won't cost a thousand dollars.

I'll be honest. After I bought it, I was a little embarassed carrying it around. I took it straight to my car. When I got back to the shops, though, I walked around and bought stupid amounts of roving. Hey - I'm not going to get any better if I don't practice! As soon as I got home, I pulled the Plastic Monstrosity out and showed Gene what I learned. He has always been nice about my knitting (he doesn't understand the thought and complexity, I don't think), but this time I brought home a machine. A Machine for Yarn. He was interested in this. And he was very excited about the fact that I can make my own yarn. And now, he is waiting for a pair of socks made with Emma hair.

Dog fur, by the way, is too warm for people and too slippery to stay together, according to Stephania. I'll blend it with a wool so that Gene's feet don't catch on fire when he's snowboarding. I'm actually thinking about the design - he is either going to be the strangest looking boy on the mountain, or he is going to be the most fashion forward. Regardless, he will be warm.

Speaking of Gene (and explaining the "Grass" part of the subtitle), look what I came home to after my spinning epiphany:

He calls it his "Grassterpiece". He said I wasn't the only creative person in the house. I believed him before he turned our backyard into a chessboard.

Ciao!

I'm an Ohio Girl in a U Dub Badgers World

This is pretty entertaining - if you've lived in Columbus. Otherwise, you know why we Ohio people are mostly mellow people.

Franklin (County)

J

Part the First

So this past weekend was very fun and exciting!

Friday, I took the day off work (and who doesn't love that?) and went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI. It's about an hour and a half from my house, by Madison. The drive was BEAUTIFUL! Southern Wisconsin was so much like Northeast Ohio - it actually looked like I-77 to Cleveland, or the Turnpike up north, by the valleys next to the Cuyahoga River. If you've ever been on those roads, you know what I mean. Hilly, trees...I love the Midwest! I thought about it - I'm quite comfortable in flat yet I think hills are pretty. I don't know that I could live in the mountains. How strange it would be to not be able to see miles and miles around!

Did I take pictures, though? No, I didn't. Instead, I offer you this picture taken from entirely the wrong angle:

The better view is from on TOP of the road, looking down into the Valley. Can you imagine how cool in the fall that looked? Wow, I've driven that particular stretch of road a lot. Kent State was at the east end of the state, while Toledo was at the west end. The connector? The best kept road in Ohio, the Turnpike. If you are ever stuck driving in the Snow Belt (which I have been - many, many times), the road you want to be on is the Ohio Turnpike. It's impeccable, even if you can't see out your windshield.

Anyway, I'm excited that I have a spot near-ish me to be a leafer in Wisconsin. I bet I'm the first one to ever think of that. I bet I am!

Neat as it is, the Ohio Turnpike has nothing to do with fiber. On to the excitement of the Sheep and Wool Festival. I was signed up for two classes. The first was Friday morning from 9-12. This meant I had to leave no later than seven-thirty am. ON A DAY OFF! Only for fiber would I do this. I was, however, late. No big surprise to most of you, I'm sure.

The class was about hand spindles, and the girl who taught it - Andrea Mielke - is absolutely amazing. Her hands worked the fiber effortlessly. She didn't really look - she demonstrated while looking at us, and yet every inch of her hand spinning was even. These are basically sticks with knobs at the top, middle or bottom, people. Once of the oldest tools, next to the knife, the arrow and the toaster oven.

Just watching her hands was a learning experience. We did get a chance to play with the 80 bazillion spindles she brought. I'm going to give a plug to their online store - Mielke's Fiber Arts. The booth at the festival was quite hopping, too.

I was taken aback a bit, though, at the beginning. (espescially because I was late and I had to grab a noisy metal chair in a concrete building. Not a graceful entrance). At first, when I saw Andrea, I thought Amish and quickly changed it to Mennonite when I noticed she was wearing Birks. Then I noticed that she had an email and a website. So I thought, well, maybe artsy and some sort of back to basics thing? I honestly couldn't figure it out. When I got home Friday afternoon, I looked at the entire website. The answer is D - None of the Above. Why I was so fascinated, I don't know, but it was some interesting reading. I left the family page and looked at the online catalog. The prices are incredibly reasonable, Andrea's knowledge and patience were beyond outstanding and she improved my spindle spinning in about 30 seconds to the point where my yarn is even. Mostly.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The difference is amazing, at least to me. Seriously, she spent hardly any time (basically told me to relax and that plus watching her hands made all the difference in the world).

I also learned about supported spindles. Andrea showed us a bead whorl spindle with a little cup. I was fascinated with how it worked (I haven't entirely figured it out yet, but it's sitting in my brain waiting for the a-ha moment). Then, she blew me away by saying that she made it with a bamboo skewer and a bead with a large hole. I tried spinning with it (it's most often used for cotton and silk, so it's commonly used in India). At first, it was awkward - just getting the spinning part right without having the spindle fly across the table was a challenge. But I did eventually get it. And I loved it! I loved the feel of the cotton roving (it's called top I believe, but don't quote me just yet). So soft! Plus, I can make really fine thread/yarn with it. And I know a few people in my life who need non-wool stuff. (Gretchen - the vision in my head is pretty amazing. All I can say is that next time you are in Friendship, look for very thin knitting pins and a silk ribbon you really like that's about an inch wide and about a yard and a half long.) I dream so big.

So, anywho, of course I went home, looked online, and found a big auction of prepared cotton top on ebay and bought it. I also bought some Sculpey (which I have never used before) and made some beads to put on bamboo skewers. I did, in fact, make one, but I can't get the spinning right, again. I shall have to take classes specific to it, but boy, it's cool when it works!

An interesting side note about my blogging process. I have difficulty putting in pictures, sometimes. I have learned that if I load the pictures and then do something else for five minutes, the pictures will magically show up. If I'm actually looking at what I've been typing, then it won't show. The Watched Pot, I guess. The main reason I bring this up is because this isn't the picture I wanted right now, but after about 10 (no lie) failed attempts, I thought I'd try another image, plus the whole patience thing. This pic shows the beads on the bamboo skewer plus a bowl I bought on Saturday. (I wasn't going to talk about Saturday yet, but that's the picture that came up. This bowl, by the way, since it's right there for you to see, is hand thrown. It's incredibly balanced, and of course it has the blue I love so much :) Very very nice! The beads close up are supposed to show what they are - an ice capped globe and a color matched bead.

With that, I have to get the dogs ready to go to the groomers. Despite the date on this blog, I'm actually putting it up a week after the fact. I haven't figured out how to fix the dates. Maybe another time.

Ciao!

Measure Twice, Cut Once.

I'm not sure where the wierd comment came from on the last post. I've never played the guitar. Apparently, I was on some sort of random blog something or other. I also apologize for the VERY convoluted sentences in my last post. Faulkner would have been proud, I think.

Since the vacation, I've done a bit of knitting on my lightweight sweater from the Katia book, but I need to do some math because Mediterranean women apparently don't have the volumnous upper arms that I have. My brain isn't ready to do it - it took a very long time to get the pattern right. I knitted and frogged the swatch about 5 times before I got it right.

Instead of think too hard about math, I've made this long weekend a sewing weekend, since I had to finish up Delores' Puppet Show Curtains. They are done, and I've eliminated most of the extra Emma fur that was stuck to the red velvet.


I also worked on the bag I promised to Sharon 2 Christmases ago. It was supposed to be for her trip to Italy. Well, I missed that deadline (November of 2005) but luckily she is going to Europe again (gee, hope Europe doesn't get boring...) and I hope to have the bag done by then. It has mostly been hand sewn. I tried today to do a bit of machine sewing. Unfortunately, the tension is strange and it bunched up a bit on the front. I'm going to have to put some piping along the edge to cover it up; I decided to finish the bag's details with hand sewing and save the machine sewing for putting the thing together. The bag will be my new car project, since hand sewing is portable.


Finally, I started on the quilt for my next door neighbor's new baby. She isn't due until January, which give me some time. I chose fabrics I would use if I could have kids. I love blue and yellow with sweet, delicate patterns. Dan (the dad and dad-to-be next door) says that Melissa (the mom and mom-to-be next door) says it will be a girl. Not a big surprise since they already have two little girls, but I still think blues and yellows are sweet for a baby. I planned out the parts and measured and trimmed and paid attention to the print on the fabric. I spent a great deal of time, actually, in the planning stage. Alas. Dinner beeped and freaked me out, and I cut something an inch short. Then I cut it again. Would you believe it's still too short?

Luckily it's only half a yard of one of the fabrics. I'll cut all the remaining pieces and see about getting another piece. Of course, the piece I miscut was the largest piece - the one I was building the design of the quilt upon. Así es mi vida.

I thought about working on my shades for the guest room, but how many projects can one flub in one day? :)

I'll be going to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend. I'm actually taking a day off work to take a spinning class! I'm quite excited about that. I'm going both Friday and Saturday.

Until then, ciao!