Living the Home Life

New Chickens and Sheep Update

{ 04:51, 2008-Jul-15 } { 0 comments } { Link }

I went to our homeschool co-op meeting on Friday, and my girlfriend asked me if I was interested in four hens and a rooster. Being assured that the hens laid and the rooster was friendly, I said sure.

A few hours later, I was in the process of de-hairing a big bag of llama fiber, and the dogs all started going nutso. Arriving at the door, I behold my friend on the porch with a crate full of chickens.

They are now installed temporarily in an empty dog run.

Also, here are some pics of the sheep. I tried to do a collage with Picasa, but it didn't come out quite the way I had planned. A few duplicates popped up.

Back Up and Running-AGAIN!!!

{ 03:36, 2008-Jul-14 } { Posted in Maintainting the Homefront } { 0 comments } { Link }

OK, TWO computer crashes since my last post. TWO!!!!!!!!! Arrrgh! Our main computer went down, along with my laptop, which meant losing all of my stuff. Actually, it's not lost, just sitting on hard drives that I can't get to.

Good news, though. I now have a digital camera of my own, and hope to shoot some dog training and spinning videos to post here. It's got good resolution, and synchs up easy with the computer, so I have high hopes here.

I just recently went to visit friends who do promo type stuff locally for Heifer International, and came home with three bags of llama. I'm supposed to do some spinning demos on the 25th for a farm tour coming up. Should be fun! Some pics for you.

Wool Wash Day

{ 12:29, 2008-Feb-19 } { 4 comments } { Link }

If you look to the right in the sidebar, you'll see that I loaded pics of my projects, wheels, and wool wash day. Check out the dirty wash water. That was from what amounts to a double handful of wool. The little lady helping me is my niece, and the kitty is Patches. You see the mountain of wool that accumulated on the counter. I've started running it through the drum carder, and will try to get pics of the carded wool. My cousin came over and looked at the uncarded stuff, and said it looked like something dead scraped up off the road. He then saw the batts and decided it would make nice wool after all.

The Training Tools You Always Carry

{ 07:57, 2008-Feb-17 } { 1 comments } { Link }

There are many training tools available, allowing you to tailor your training to your dog. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the ones I use most often, but concentrate on the ones I find most important.

Collars -
   1. Flat collars - good for tying a dog up, but not much else. If a dog is constantly leaning into his collar, he is going to cause trachea damage, so I don't use them in training, except for rare exceptions.
   2. Traditional training collar (aka choke collar) - this is the collar I use most often. It is the tool of choice for the average dog, and when used properly, causes little damage. You always work a dog on a loose leash, and when you correct with one of these collars, it's done in a quick jerk and release motion. It simulates a mother dog correcting her pup with a nip on the neck. Never keep steady pressure on one of these collars because they can cause damage.
   3. Prong, or pinch, collar - good for precision training, and handling very rowdy dogs. I use them on my dog for precision heeling training, and we use them in our class with people who have high energy dogs and are getting dragged around. This is very dangerous, and can lead to fights. Anyone we recommend these for get one on one training to learn to fit it correctly and how to correct with it. The major advantage is that you get a nice clean correction with a minimum of force. It's easier on the dog because they don't choke themselves out lunging into the collar. This also works on the psychological basis of the mother dog correcting a puppy. Prong collars shouldn't jab the dog, only pinch during a correction. CAUTION: Be sure to fit this collar correctly and ALWAYS use a loose leash unless correcting.

Leashes - I always recommend a six foot web or leather leash. I don't like nylon because it burns your hands and has no natural give.

Treats - Food treats can be anything from Cheerios to sliced up hotdogs. Try some different things to see what works. I usually use hotdogs. Something that has a strong smell, can be eaten quickly, and doesn't leave a lot of crumbs works best. Toys can also be a good treat if your dog has a lot of play drive. A tennis ball on a rope works great. Treats should alway be given liberally when learning a new exercise, eventually moving to a more random schedule as his confidence builds. My husband always says, "I wouldn't work for no paycheck, and neither will the dog." There always has to be a paycheck for good work, either a treat, a toy, or praise.

By far, the most important training tool that you can use is yourself. You can use your body and voice to reward, correct, encourage, calm, and everything in between.

Body Language - You can use your body to communicate with your dog. When you stand tall over it, you are exerting dominance over it, which can be very useful when teaching a sit or down. Just by standing and leaning slightly over the dog, you are encouraging it to lower it's posture. If you have a fearful or uncertain dog, you can lean back to encourage it up. CAUTION: If you are working with a very dominant dog, it could challenge you if you try to show your authority. Seek professional help when working with a very dominant or aggressive dogs.

Voice - A higher pitched voice is very encouraging. It is used for praise, to encourage forward motion, to keep attention, and to call your dog to you. Unless I have a very high energy dog, I use a very light voice when heeling to keep the dog's focus on me, and off other dogs or distractions around it. When I want a dog to sit, down, or when correcting it, I drop my voice so it's deeper. It generally has a quelling affect. If you are someone who is interested in doing "clicker training" your voice can take the place of the click. You could make a clicking noise yourself, or just use a key word. I'll discuss shaping, aka clicker training, more thoroughly in a future entry.

Intro To Dog Training

{ 07:03, 2008-Feb-16 } { Posted in Dog Training } { 1 comments } { Link }

One thing you may not know about me is that I've been a 4-H dog obedience instructor for almost twelve years. Laying in bed, I started thinking about what talents I have that I can pass along and share with everyone, and decided I'd write a series of dog training articles, consisting of basic dog training theory and and training for basic obedience.

There's one thing I want to state right off the bat: There are as many dog training theories as there are dog trainers.
I'm not going to pretend that my way is the only way, or even the only right way.. The other thing I want to say is that what I'm going to share comes from dog training classes I took in college and eleven years of working with people who range in age from six to senior citizen, and dogs that range from the backyard mutt that's been chained up out on the farm most of it's life, to purebred puppies. I've worked with dogs that competed in formal obedience and dogs that were just members of the family. Every dog and handler combination is different, and each needs to be looked at as a unique team.

When I'm teaching an obedience class, I start out with a middle of the road approach. When you talk about dog training, you need to think in a spectrum. At one end is pure motivation. Everything is based on reward. You never force the dog to do anything it doesn't want to do, you never correct it for not obeying. You always stay positive. On the other end of the spectrum, you have pure compulsion. Everything is taught with collar corrections, with no food or toys to reward. You basically just have a leash and your voice.

motivation_______________________________me____________________________compulsion

I have found that, working with the average pet owner, a combination approach works best. You start off teaching with lots of treats, and as the dog proves that it knows the command, you can correct it if it doesn't obey. I think it's basically the same as parenthood. You train slowly, step by step, with lots of encouragement and praise, and as the child (or dog) becomes proficient, you require more exactness and perfection.

Stay tuned for further installations in my dog training series.

Wool, Wool, Wool

{ 02:04, 2008-Feb-14 } { Posted in Crafting } { 1 comments } { Link }

My sister wasn't working today, so I only babysat while she went to the doctor, so I took the opportunity to catch up on some wool processing. I washed a shetland fleece that I got at Rhinebeck, and it's now drying in a huge heap on my kitchen counter. We probably have tax clients stopping tonight, and they'll undoubtedly be impressed by Wool Mountain. My niece, Abby, age 4, helped me fluff the wool up so it could dry. If you are interested in my fiber washing methods, I posted them on my Fiber Junky knitting blog.

I did take some pictures, which I sent with my sister to upload to my Pacassa site, so hopefully I'll be able to post some later, or maybe tomorrow. I'm not sure what you'll find more impressive, the pile of wool, or the basin full of filthy water I produced washing it!

Miserable Weather

{ 03:51, 2008-Feb-13 } { Posted in Critters } { 2 comments } { Link }

Here in Upstate NY, the weather has been terrible. Warm to cold, snowing to sunny, wet and yucky. Last night we had almost 4" of snow, followed by ice and rain, so everything is a slushy mess. I'll tell you what, I can't wait for spring: warm breezes, flowers, and hopefully our first lambing. Time for Old Man Winter to blow himself out.

This picture is of some of the geepers after a storm a few days ago. Izzy and Garth are in the backround, and Gracie is in front.

Back Online

{ 05:15, 2008-Feb-11 } { 1 comments } { Link }

I'm trying to get back on track with my blogs. I've updated my homeschool blog, and I've started a knitting blog at http://fiberjunky.blogspot.com if anyonone wants to check them out. My Fiber Junky blog has some pics of my wheels, knitting, and geeps (goats and sheep). My goal is to make an entry on one blog a day, and rotate, so every third day, I can get an entry in. My sister has high speed internet, so it's going a lot quicker than the dial-up.

Please stay tuned for updates.

Got Some New Goodies

{ 04:31, 2007-Mar-3 } { Posted in Crafting } { 0 comments } { Link }

I finally am pretty much better, so I decided to venture out to the yarn store yesterday, since they were having a 20% off sale. I have wool yarns coming out my ears, because I spin it myself, and quite a bit of silk, but I was after cotton. I came home with 2 balls of craft cotton for washcloths, 2 skeins of sock yarn, and 4 skeins of cotton to try knitting a bunny I found in a knitting magazine. I already broke out the craft cotton and am knitting a washcloth.

http://whimsicalknittingdesigns.blogspot.com/2006/10/yarn-girl-washcloth-pattern.html

I borrowed my aunt's digital camera, and will be taken pictures of some of my yarn and projects, and will post them when I can get over to her house and off the camera.

More Socks and Sicky

{ 07:22, 2007-Feb-24 } { 0 comments } { Link }

Well, I've been knitting while I lay around, and am proud to say that I'm almost done with my first pair of socks. I got one alpaca sock done, and am past the heel on the second. They are nice and warm and fuzzy, oatmeal colored with brown heel, cuff, and toe, and ds has already claimed them. I need to finish up my other pair, and then I'm going to start on some handspun fall colored New Zealand wool pair. My aunt has already hit me up to do a pair for her, so I'm excited to see what yarn she brings. I gave her a copy of the pattern to take to the yarn store with her so the people there can help her pick something appropriate.

On the sicky front, I'm starting to feel better enough that I'm getting restless, and I can't stay in bed all the time; I'll go nuts! Plus, now I can't, because it looks like ds is also coming down with the mono. He started a few days ago complaining of fatigue, throat discomfort, etc. He has been running fevers, and as of last night, he's growing some impressive lymph nodes on the back of his neck. He's been in bed for two days, and if he's still sick on Monday, I'll take him to the doctor.

Today, we have to clean the barn out, or at least at some point this weekend. The poor geeps (collective goats and sheep) have been stuck in the barn for awhile with the bad weather, and it's getting kind of gross in there. The sheep probably wouldn't care about being out, but the goats hate any precipitation or wetness, so they need to be in, and you can't seperate them.

The good news is, dh said he'd do the shoveling, so we just need to find somewhere for the geeps to hand while we clean. I'm thinking the dog run, if we can slog the critters back there. Maybe I'll just halter everyone and tye them off with some feed somewhere.

Socks and Sicky

{ 09:24, 2007-Feb-17 } { Posted in Crafting } { 0 comments } { Link }

After a few weeks of feeling crummy and catching every bug coming down the pike, I woke up yesterday hardly able to swallow, and digging at a rash, so I finally broke down and went to the doctors. I have mono, for the second time, so I guess I'll get plenty of downtime for knitting now. Hopefully dh and ds will be up to keeping the house running while I recouperate.

The more exciting news is, I have gotten to the point of turning the heel on my sock. L was very helpful, bringing out socks that she knitted, and one in progress, along with helping me visualize my pattern. When I first looked at it, I couldn't figure out how it would work, but apparently, it really is right, and I'm just a little slow. I also started another pair of socks while I was waiting for help with this one. The new pair is oatmeal colored alpaca with dark brown cuff, heel, and toe. As I feel up to it, I'll keep you posted on my sock progress. Maybe the mono is a blessing in disguise (yeah, right.)

Until next time, keep on knitting, and spinning, and cooking and cleaning, and chasing kids...

Yay, I'm Knitting

{ 07:22, 2007-Feb-12 } { Posted in Crafting } { 0 comments } { Link }

Well, in my quest to become a real knitter, intead of just some poser, I've been going around to different knitting and spinning websites and blogs, and found some definite must-sees for any fiber buffs out there. I've been laboring over a single sock for months in an attempt to avoid doing the heel, and I've finally finished the leg on sock#1. Now, I've always wanted to learn to knit socks, just like I wanted to spin, so I started looking at sock resources online the other day to see if I could finish this without running to my girlfriend for help (check out Lana's Wool-n-Wheels blog, the link is off to the right). I've come to the conclusion that I can't finish this without help, but I did find a sock addict's dream with Sockamaniac. http://www.sockamaniac.com/

If you want to knit socks, or know ANYTHING about knitting socks, go here asap, and join her lists, too. Looks like lots of fun.

Today I am also going to start knitting a silk scarf that I saw in the Spring 2006 issue of Spin-Off. I finally feel confident enough to try a scarf in something other than knit, knit, knit, turn, knit, knit, knit... You get the picture. I wish I had a digital camera, beause these singles are really nice. I've been spinning them on one of my drop spindles for a while, and am excited about doing something with it. Half my family wants silk scarfs!

Get It in Gear, Already!

{ 01:44, 2007-Feb-7 } { Posted in Maintainting the Homefront } { 0 comments } { Link }

Have you ever met one of those people that have great intentions of doing big things, but it never quite gels for them? That's me. Wannabe writer, knitter, jogger, domestic goddess, and Super Wife/Mom all in one. After some consideration, I think I'll have to try to knock them off one by one.

Writer- I am currently researching to write a short biography about Queen Victoria and the Victorian Age. I will attempt submission, and if it doesn't happen, I will turn it into a homeschool unit study. I've got many websites bookmarked, several books out of the library, and have even started notecards! woo-hoo!!!

Knitter- OK, I spin and have yarn coming out of my ears. I currently have several projects going, including socks, a hat, and I dream of a scarf made from this 50/50 merino-silk that I dyed and spun. It's breathtaking, but I'm afraid to screw it up. I also have a bunch of silk that is supposed to become a scarf for my wool-allergic sister in law.

Jogger- This is tough, because I have bad joints and mommy bladder (Mommies, you know what I'm talking about). This I need to work up to, I think. I ran cross-country in highschool, and while I was slow, I could go out and run 5 miles. I miss that feeling you get when you're running out of steam and slowing down, and then you get the big sweat and everything loosens up and you breath again. Runner's high is definitely good.

Domestic Goddess- I stay home, I homeschool, and I have one kid. You would think I could get my act together. I idolize Flylady and all those people that can get a schedule and stick to it. I wish I had money for gourmet meals. I wish German Shepherds didn't shed. This is a bad subject for me and the object of much controversy between me and DH. I need supernatural intervention. Pray for me, people.

Super Wife/Mom- Until I can get the Domestic Goddess thing down, this isn't happening.

I look at this list, and think "tall order, ain't happening", but we'll strike that here and now and say "Slow and steady will get you there. You see where you want to go, and that's half the battle." Now I have it here on the blog, and won't be able to hide from it. I'm good at the out of sight, out of mind game.

That's all for now. I need to try to get my sister over here for project and critter pics.

Let it Snow

{ 02:45, 2007-Jan-19 } { Posted in Maintainting the Homefront } { 0 comments } { Link }

Well, at long last, we have snow! For all of you out there following the funky weather here in the Northeast (we're less than an hour from Albany,NY), you know that it's been unusually warm. That all came to an end last weekend with a huge ice storm, and now we actually have about half an inch of snow. Ds has a friend from his homeschool co-op over,and they're gearing up to attempt to sled. As far as I'm concerned, winter is just fine and dandy as long as I don't have to go out in it.

This afternoon, we are going to the library for a presentation on birds of prey. For all you homeschooling Charlotte Mason sisters out there, does this count as nature study?

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!

{ 03:45, 2007-Jan-15 } { Posted in Maintainting the Homefront } { 1 comments } { Link }

I know it's been a blue moon since I've posted, but since my last time updating you, it has been rough around here. Not only do we now have two sheep (RomneyX and Cotswold) and two pygmy goats, but we went right from the fair, which went very well by the way (Chris did very well with Izzy the RomneyX and Wayne and Garth the Pygmies), to kicking into full gear homeschooling, to a major family illness.

My dear aunt has cancer, which was diagnosed on Halloween (a real treat, huh?) The diagnosis was preceded by a long period of illness. She ended up moving in with my sister, who is not only sick, but now pregnant, and I spend most of my week at her house, which has no internet access! Talk about a bummer. At least her radiation treatments are over, which were Monday-Friday mornings.

I spend most days at home either sleeping or cleaning. On the road though, I have my trusty drop spindle, a good book, and at least one knitting project. I lug a big bag of stuff with me everywhere I go, and that doesn't include ds's school books.

My big hope is that things will settle down and I'll find some way to get back into a routine. Please, G*d, let me get back into some semblance of a normal life!

I'll try to do better about posting. I've got several spindle projects going, including 2 silk and one wool blend that I dyed and hope to turn into socks at some point. I have an alpaca/angora blend going on the Schacht. I bought an Ashford Joy recently with some inheritance money, but ds has hijacked it, and is spinning some nice wool roving. I also managed to purchase a really nice drum carder and some wool combs. If I ever get home, I want to try out that rigid heddle loom and the triloom I made, but you need more than 5 minutes at a shot for them!

I'm Back

{ 10:07, 2006-Aug-9 } { 1 comments } { Link }

Sorry, I know it's been sinfully long since I last blogged, but things have been a bit crazy this summer, and we've had all kinds of problems staying logged on to do anything, let alone maintain this site. We did, however, get a new modem, which seems to be helping.

I haven't been babysitting this summer, so I've been able to devote some extra time to spinning, since the garden got flooded out. Usually this time of year I'm harvesting and preserving, so I'm really at loose ends.

Our county fair is coming up, and I've been rushing around getting health checks for the critters and trying to get the dog show set up. I'm the 4-H dog show superintendant, and I still haven't pinned anyone down to judge! And on top of that, I have a fair meeting tonight, which makes me look like a real dingdong. This happens every year, lots of maybes and no definite commitments. For heaven's sake, they get $100, two free passes, and dinner for about 3 hour's work. If I didn't run it, I'd do it for sure. I'm also trying to pin kids down for dog demos. We do agility and obedience demonstrations periodically throughout the fair, and all the kids are usually booked to the gills with other activities, so it can be hard to get folks.

This year we will have an exciting addition to the sheep and goat barn-llamas. My son is interested in working with them, and will be demonstrating throughout the fair. It's hoped that next year, we'll have a show, if we can get time in the arena. This year though, I'm trying to set up an area big enough for all of us to set up a fiber arts demo area, where we can spin, felt, and weave. I've been busy making about half a dozen drop spindles for people who want to try spinning, and I'm almost done with my tri-loom. I would have finished yesterday, but I tapped the nails into one arm of it, and discovered that the ones I bought are too long, so they need to be replaced. I'm also in the process of setting up a NY Capital Region Fiber Arts blog and accompanying yahoo group, which I will advertise at the fair for folks interested in learning more about spinning, felting, etc. My plan is to put links to all the local fiber venders to see if we can boost local sales and enthusiasm. With knitting and crocheting becoming so popular, I'm hoping that people who are interested in using exotic fibers will take some interest in trying to spin them themselves.

Well, that's enough for now. My new blog will be up soon, and I'll put a link to it for you all to check out. If any of you are in the Capital District region of NY and have a fiber business you would like to see advertised, or some fiber arts get-together that people could check out, let me know!

Nearly Dead Dog

{ 07:56, 2006-Apr-23 } { Posted in Critters } { 4 comments } { Link }

Well, you guys aren't going to have to read about fiber this time. Instead you can read about the absolutely insane week we've had here. It started out last Saturday with me having excruciating abdominal pain, which lessened, but did continue, all the way through Easter and continued into Monday. After a trip to the local Urgent Care place and many hours in the ER, I found out that I had ruptured an ovarian cyst. If you want to know what it felt like, think labor pains. I spent Tuesday in bed and Wednesday at the vet's office, because my 21/2 yo male German Shepherd swallowed a rock. Actually, he swallowed three, but only one had to get cut out. The surgery was pretty cool, though. Fortunately, my boy came through it, but unfortunately, he needs much pampering. The first night he was home, I had to get up every hour to water him, feed him every two hours, and potty him every three. Now he only needs to eat every six hours, which is a major improvement. In the midst of all this, my son ended up at the same Urgent Care to get his head fixed up after his friend hit him in the head with a rake. He got a tine right in the forehead.

Do we think things are going to improve? I surely hope so because I am EXHAUSTED!!! I am about to collapse. I know this whole entry stinks and is nothing more than a rant, but it's about the best I can do in my present state. I'll try to do better next time, I promise. I do at least have next weekend to look forward to. I get to spend Saturday at a fiber show with a friend, her llamas, and my spinning wheel, which sounds like a little bit of heaven.

I hope all of you had a blessed Easter!

Organ Grinder aka Drum Carder

{ 02:13, 2006-Apr-13 } { Posted in Crafting } { 1 comments } { Link }

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I was sick all last week, and then was fortunate enough to borrow a drum carder and all I've been doing is grinding away since. I hope you didn't miss me too much, LOL.

Last week, and part of the week before, I was sick with one of my flare ups of joint pain, and I get really tired and crummy feeling on top of it, so I didn't do any more than I had to, and then I complicated matters by missing out on getting my bloodwork done before the worst of the flare ended. BTW, if anyone has any idea what can cause a flare up of joint inflammation every few months that lasts anywhere from a week to a month, accompanied by occasional fever, headache, muscle aches, and severe fatigue, let me know because the docs are stumped. It's not Lyme, rheumatoid, or lupus, so we lost the top three contenders right there.

OK, back to the wool story (I know, it's always a wool or chicken story with me). I borrowed a carder from my girlfriend for a few days and I have worked every spare moment for days. I did I don't know how much merino, all types of misc. bags and bits, and some black baby alpaca, which I carded in with some fine mohair, some type of soft wool I picked up cheap at Rhinebeck, and some silk I had sitting in a bag, and it looks beautiful, but I think it's going to be the devil to spin because it's so fine and wispy. The colors I mixed in are all autumn colors, and I think it will be quite gorgeous when it ever gets turned into somtheing. The other thing I discovered during this process is, fiber gets really big and fluffy going through that toothy little contraption, and takes up at least 2-3 times more space, and also, that I have a lot of fiber, so I need to spin more now that everything I have is ready to go. It's so nice and fresh and sunny out now that if it wasn't so windy, I'd take my wheel outside and try that alpaca blend out, but it's so fine, it would blow away on me! I'm actually surprised it came out so well, because I'd been planning this for awhile, just waiting for the carder, and I'm not exactly know for my abilities in the color arena. I have a tough time judging how something will look, so I'm very relieved that it lived up to my imagination.

I need to clean the house at some point today. Between being sick for well over a week and devoting all spare moments to carding, it's bad. Let's put it this way, my 2 1/2 yo neice comes up to me while I'm standing there cranking away and says," Auntie Kimmy, your floor is messy. You gonna clean it up?" That's bad, considering she's not the tidiest herself. I guess the house is on the agenda for the next two days so it's tidy for Easter.

God bless you all and have a holy Easter. Talk to you soon.

Adventures in the Wool

{ 05:09, 2006-Mar-28 } { Posted in Crafting } { 2 comments } { Link }

OK, obviously I didn't forget you, because I'm back, with the same problem, but boy, has my life been interesting. On Saturday, I spent the entire day washing and drying a merino fleece in my kitchen. I literally had a foot of wool on my counter. It was a site to behold. I never realized wool expands to fill all available space. I somehow missed that law in physics...

Anyway, Sunday night, my father-in-law calls me up and says,"How would you like some free wool?' Never one to pass up a deal, I say, "What breed?' "Oh, I don't know," he replies."Call her and find out." So next day, I call this lady, who sounds elderly, and very sweet, and ask her about the wool. She tells me she has a little of this, a little of that, to include Icelandic, Dorset, Jacobs. All different breeds. She has many fleeces, which she keeps under cover, and I can come take what I like, for FREE!

I jump in the car with a box of garbage bags, and rush right over there. The proprieter of this sheep farm turns out to be a little old lady who had sheep in the living room, chickens in the basement, and dogs running everywhere chasing everything. We hobble to the barn whre the fleeces are, and I kid you not, the whole room was FILLED chest high with wool, filthy dirty, with hay tossed on top. I almost fell down. The good news was, in spite of how dirty the fleeces were, under the mess was some nice stuff. I picked around in the pile, brought home 2 garbage bags full, and with offers of sheep, horses, and as much dirty wool as I wanted, rushed home with my treasure.

I did wash some up, and after I got out manure, hay, oats, burrs, bugs, bug casings, etc. It turned out to be nice soft, springy, chocolate brown wool. The only problem is, it will take forever and a day to process all of this. By the time I got it clean, it was very matted and felted up, so I probably spent at least an hour or two pulling it apart and fluffing it up, but now that the weather's nice. I think it will be worth the work, because the really bad parts, like the initial washes, can be done in the yard.

On a more productive note, I'm getting much better with the drop spindle. I'm spinning up some of the merino that I dyed red, yellow, and orange into a fine single that I will turn into something - eventually.

Thanks for tuning in to the Wooly Adventure channel yet again. See you soon.

My First Spinning Group Meeting

{ 03:53, 2006-Mar-23 } { Posted in Crafting } { 4 comments } { Link }

Hi, I'm back and I'm excited. Tuesday, I went with my friend Lana, who you can see on my Wool-n-Wheels link, to my first spinning gathering. I know I mentioned at some point that I was self taught, and it's starting to show. I've been trying for some time to spin some really fine singles to try on the rigid heddle loom or con someone into knitting something lacy for me, and it just wasn't working out. It wasn't spinning tight enough, and it definitely wasn't fine. I tried going up with the tension, and fought my poor Matchless friend something awful. She was snatching the fiber away from me or tearing it off (not snapping it), and I was working hard to treddle and practically bumping the orifice trying to keep up, and it was NOT fun. So these kind ladies watched me, gave me tips, etc, and I just couldn't get it. My back hurt, my frustration was mounting, and I was about ready to quit when I had Melissa, another friend and much more experienced spinner (she's not as cheap as I am and took lessons, smart lady), sit at my wheel and give her a run. She initially had the same problem I did, and then she backed way off the tension and went to work. She also gave me a bit of her fiber to try, which was less slippery than what I was working with, and the rest of the evening was great. I was able to get about two feet back from the orifice and treddle with my toe. Wow! I could even sit back in the chair.

I also got some drop spindle lessons. For me, drop had always been the operative word here, so that was a treat. I actually managed to get something spun on it for once. I almost enjoyed it, and probably will when I get more practice. Apparently pre-drafting is key here.

So, I am very delighted to be more connected in the spinning community, there are some great activities coming up, and I get to go to another meeting next month WHOOOO-HOOOOO!!!

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