Knitting, with Dogs

Interlude: Questions and answers

Sandy asked:

"The fleece came to you washed? Or did you do that prior to?"

I hate washing wool, so when I found out that you could buy fleece already washed, I was delighted.  I bought this 8 oz. of fleece from WooliesforEwe on Etsy.  I suspect this fleece may not have had a lot of lanolin to start with (not a bad thing), and it's washed just enough. 

I'm using my single row Viking combs to comb it with.  As I comb, little bits of stuff falls out, which is also normal and fine with me. 

I have some other, white fleece that I've washed myself that I'll be spinning as I go along.  It will have stuff falling out of it as I comb it too.  :)

Sandy also wonders what I'm spinning towards.

Well... I have have this pie in the sky dream of spinning the yarn, weaving the cloth, and sewing together something I could wear.  My ultimate goal is to spin cotton into yarn that I could weave into cloth that I could sew into a dress that I could wear out to spinning demos. 

There.  I've said it.  I don't know if I'll actually get there, because I'm pretty ADD where projects are concerned.  Plus, whenever I say "I want to do X", I immediately lose all interest in doing X.

I'll have to go in small steps, because I'm not actually as competent at some of these skills as I'd like to think I am. 

So I'm starting with wool, and a long-staple, strong wool at that.  Then I'll work on weaving samples.  That will tell me how my yarn holds up to the weaving process (I'll be using singles), and I'll learn more on the loom as I go.  I also have some old handspun yarns in my stash that I can play with too.

We'll see how far I get.

And so this won't be pictureless, I present two laser-eyed dogs in a very rare side-by-side configuration, with me in the background:

Day 3

Looks a lot like day 2, actually.

One: the fleece

Two: the combed wool

Three: today's yarn.  Not quite a full bobbin, so probably just under 600 yards.

It's getting chilly here.  I got a picture of Jasper curled up on the coverlet.  Yes, we have dog hair everywhere.

And Dear Robert sneaked a picture of Bouncer curled up next to me.  Geeks will note the Star Trek mug beside the bed, and my old Palm Zire that I read ebooks on at night.  I had to crop out the chaos that is my bedside table.

First bobbin finished

I stopped spinning last night with about 3/4 of a bobbin spun:

I finished up the bobbin tonight:

The second picture is truer to the actual color.  It's dark, dark grey Border Leicester fleece.  I bought 8 oz of it from Etsy seller wooliesforewe.  Border Leicester isn't a soft fleece, but it's long stapled and spins fine pretty easily. 

This bobbin held about 650 yards.  It's skeined off and blocking on a niddy noddy now.

So far, so good.

Jasper is trying to decide if he likes the slice of elk horn that came from the Daily Coyote Etsy shop.  He's more accustomed to softer chewies, like rawhide.

Long time no see...

I should either blog again or give it up. 

Let's try blogging again first.

I wonder if I could do something like this:  Furr Homespun Dress.

I'd like to try.  First I'll have to see if I can spin finely and strongly enough.  Then see if I can weave it.

Sampling will be involved, of necessity.

Stay tuned!

Spin a mile in one day

I took on a challenge in the Tour de Fleece this year -- spin a mile in a day.

I managed to do it today.

I used the Paradis Canadian Production Wheel that Betty gave me.  It only has one bobbin, but I've spent the last couple of days experimenting on how much the bobbin would hold, so I figured I could do it in 2 bobbin if I spun it fine.

Here's bobbin 1 -- 540 wraps on a 2-yard niddy noddy (a little more than 1000 yds):

and bobbin  -- 435 wraps on a 2-yard niddy (a bit more than 800 yds):

The two skeins on the scale:

That's 4 1/8 oz, so unless I've got the math wrong, that's about 6900 yards per pound.

It took just over 10 hours off and on today.

I'm pretty please with this.  And very, very tired.

Well, I'm back...

Remembering my dad

At my wedding rehearsal:

My dad, me, and my brother at the Lawrenceville hamfest.  I became a ham radio operator so I could talk with my dad on the radio.

Dad in a reflective moment at my wedding:

And even though it's a crappy lo-res PDA photo, this is one of my favorite pictures of my dad from
Christmas a few years ago.  That's my mom's picture behind him.
 

My dad died a year ago today.  I have days when I want to go all Inigo Montoya on the universe and cry, "I want my father back, you son of a bitch!" 

My dad forgot a lot of things in his last few years.  But he never forgot he loved me.

I miss you, daddy.

Jasper update

Jasper spent a good part of the afternoon at the vet, getting blood drawn and x-rays taken.  Preliminary bloodwork looks ok, the x-rays were a little inconclusive as to whether there was any intestinal blockage or not.  We don't THINK there is, but the next 24 hours will be key.  If he has any more vomiting or diarrhea (especially vomiting) he'll go back to the vet for more x-rays and tests.

He seems to be feeling ok right now.  He was hungry tonight.  I cooked him chicken and rice (bland diet), and fed him 3 times over the evening, about 1/3 cup at a time, to keep from stressing his tum.

So far, so good.  I've got to get a poop sample the next time he poops, but picking up poop holds absolutely no terrors for me. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us. 

No Thing today

Jasper's had a tummy ache.  He's had some vomiting and diarrhea today, and didn't want to eat at all for a while.

But he never felt so bad that he couldn't bark at the dogs on TV during "Eight Below" or bark at the motorcycles going by. 

And tonight he finally ate some rice cooked with chicken broth. 

So far, so good.  

Thing a Day 2009: 6

Grey and Black:  Bouncer

I took these pictures with the little camera in my Palm Zire 71. 
The last one is a little spooky somehow, which is odd, because Bouncer is the sweetest dog EVAR.