Yippee! Yahoo! Huzzah! We just made settlement on our Minnesota home! We are bona-fide property owners now, complete with hefty mortages. Heh.

It's a brand new home, we are the first occupants. So excited!

This is the dining room. See how the inlay in the floor matches the tray ceiling? Isn't that awesome? The kitchen and eat-in area also have this funky inlay (opposite of this floor, it's a dark inlay on light wood).

The living room (soon to become a library if I get my way) has this fantastic recessed ceiling with artsy lighting. There's a small built in bookshelf on one wall, and you step down slightly to go into this room.

The kitchen has maple cabinets, stainless appliances, and granite countertops with an undermounted sink. There's a pantry and a little built-in desk to one side. The edge of the counter facing the eat-in area extends outward – throw a couple of stools there, and we'll have a “breakfast bar.” The cabinetry matches the powder room and upstairs bathroom, iirc, and the overall hue is supposed to coordinate with the wooden stairs. Apparently (and I'm blind to all of this – the builder mentioned these facts to me), there's a rosey undertone to the neutral wall coloring that harmonizes with the reddish tone of the wood, too.

This is my favorite spot in the house so far – the master bath has a jacuzzi tub with Grecian columns and marble! Bwahahahaha! I'm going to have to wear a toga and a laurel wreath! The shower next to it has a built in seat for leg shaving (or just for sitting if you're very tired during your shower?).

Anyway, the rest of the specs – 2300 sq ft (or more? less? can't remember now), 2 story, 4 br, 2 1/2 bath, the den has a remote-controlled gas fireplace (!), solid wood doors for bedrooms/closets/etc, marble/hardwood/carpeted floors (heated tile floors in the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room!), air exchanger, gas heat, central AC, 3+ car garage, the basement is currently unfinished but could be set up to have 2 more bedrooms, a bathroom, and a family room… There are more columns in the entrance to the living room, and fancy crown moulding is everywhere, the ceilings on the second floor are still 9 ft high, even the master bedroom has a recessed ceiling. It's a huge place for just two people and two cats, but – heck, it won't be that way forever.

Yay! A house of our very own! (How fast do you think I can I fill it with fiber?)

If you look at the first comment to the previous entry, there's mention (thanks, Woolgathered) of a LiveJournal challenge community called Fiber Friday. Looking at some of the yarns pictured, I confess my first impression was akin to recoiling. But I went back a few times and began to feel my initial reaction was a bit uneducated.

While I'm relatively conservative (in thought, in dress, and yes, in yarn production), I think these examples really challenged my notion of what I accepted as yarn. (Not that I really thought about it all that much until a couple of days ago, but…) Just as I don't particularly care for Jackson Pollack's work, I still appreciate what he did to make me rethink the concept of painting and being an artist. For me, yarn with feathers and pompoms is still pretty outrageous (and Colinette Point Five? Doesn't that look like yarn from someone who doesn't know how to maintain a drafting triangle?!?), but I can sort of recognize how and why people would be interested in it. Well, this is progress, yes?

I do have some new yarn pics for all y'all.

First up – I've finished spindling the handpainted roving.

Everything was wound onto storage bobbins

Then there was much plying

And we see that it is good. Isn't it interesting how all of the dark dark spots got diluted out? I wouldn't have predicted that. Similarly, I had no truly white patches of yarn, despite having undyed areas in the roving. In any case, I'm still intending to use this in a pair of Nordic mittens. The contrast yarn will be creamy white Bluefaced Leicester top that I got with the purchase of the spindle.

I have 4 ounces of the blue yarn, and 2 ounces of the BFL (though I think I may have another ounce somewhere upstairs). That ought to be enough, I think.

I've seen a quiet sentiment running through the knitblog community recently that really bothers me. I know it shouldn't get to me so – I mean, we're all entitled to our opinions, right? But! It seems like a number of knitters are not interested in learning how to spin yarn. Now in one sense, that's okay and completely normal, just like I'm not interested in learning to cut out my own liver.

It's the reasons they cite for not wanting to spin that are driving me a little batty.

One person (and I'm summarizing here) said she was such a perfectionist, she was sure she wouldn't be able to make yarn to her standards. Another said she thought it was too much effort to spin an entire sweater's worth of yarn. Yet another describes her spinning efforts (in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way) as a Herculean X Sisyphusian task.

Now all of this makes me howl. I love handspinning. I love it more than any hobby I've ever had in my life, and to hear it so easily and casually dismissed tugs at my heartstrings. Yeah, I know, it's just someone else's opinion. I can (learn to) accept that.

I just have to say – it's more than fun. Your own handspun feels good in a way that millspun will never compare, your yarn practically crackles with potential to become socks, a pillow, a rug, a shawl (and if you're really good, you spun your yarn with an end project already in mind, and the yarn characteristics are optimized for that project!). Earlier, I taught someone at work how to spin with a handspindle. While she eventually decided spinning was not her cup of tea (ok, fine), she did tell me about the sense of happiness she had when knitting up her handspun into a little stripe of a winter hat.

When I spin, it's still sort of amazing to see the strands develop in my fingers, the methodical motion of spinning clears my mind of the frustrations of work that day, and it's wholly satisfying to see a big bulge of yarn on the bobbin after a few hours' effort. Your yarn, should you choose to spin it (!), can be beautiful, soft, stretchy, curly, colorful, smooth, or whatever you want it to be.

Why then is it perceived as being so difficult and tiresome, the results capricious and unpredictable, and the effort unworthy of the prize?

I've decided to sell my Schacht double treadle wheel and Woolee Winder flyer setup – asking price is $750. If you're local and would like to buy it, read on! The moving van comes to my home on March 5th, and I'd love to hand it off before then.

I purchased the wheel in Oct (?) 1999, the WW more recently (Jan 2004?). Everything works perfectly. Two regular bobbins have cracks that have been securely glued and function normally. WW has a minor crack (doesn't affect function) that Nathan (builder/son of inventor) will repair/replace if you send it back. I generally don't use the wheel anymore except for occasional plying.

Everything is well-loved and maintained in 100% functional form. I'll be happy to go over all of the tiny issues with you, if you want.

Schacht DT wheel
Four bobbins (two with repaired cracks – see above)
Lazy Kate (missing the tensioning screw, a plastic part that probably costs <$1)
Normal flyer head
Two standard whorls (medium and fast)
Extra two whorls – high speed and slow speed
Carry strap and oil bottle
Manual (when I find it)
Woolee Winder (plus one bobbin)

In today's prices, the Schacht DT wheel retails for $887, the extra whorls cost $39.50, and the WW retails for $148. (All I'm asking – $750 – is what I paid when I purchased the equipment.) I'll even throw in 8 oz of Merino x Romney roving to sweeten the deal.

More info at:
Schacht Spindle
Woolee Winder

Email me (joshiro AT gmail dot com) if you're interested. If you live near Arlington (MA), I'd be happy to drive by and/or meet you halfway to give you the wheel. Someone is borrowing the Schacht right now, so I can't post any pictures, but if something specifically interests you, I'd be happy to send photos after the wheel is back in my home.

I've finished the first part of the left front of the sweater I'm knitting with Odyssey. There are also two sleeves for your enjoyment.

I can't get enough of these colors!

I got an unintentionally funny email a couple of days ago. In preparation for our upcoming move to MN, I've ordered claw covers for the kitties. I sent an email to the seller asking him to confirm receipt of payment and estimate the shipping date. The reply:

“Payment confirmed. Shipping ASAP.”

Heh.

Brownies baking in the oven… Gotta go pour myself a glass of milk!

Many thanks to SpindleRose for hosting such a nice party on Saturday afternoon. You can see the writeup of the event on her blog.

Rosemary, Claudia, Catherine, Rachel

Claudia, Rachel, the ever elusive Catherine, Jay

I had a lovely time and am glad to have met all of you!

What do two gadget-happy geeks do to commemorate their tenth Valentine's Day together?

Why, they buy a “Family Plan” cell agreement, complete with two free phones!

After signing up at the local mall, we sat on a little bench right outside of the T-mobile store and immediately began investigating and programming our new toys. Now I think normal people would make calls, but no, we wanted to see if we could use the IR port to exchange directory numbers. Nerds we!

I've gotten a lot of phone calls and emails lately from friends who apparently read this blog but have little to no interest in fiber arts. This tickles me to no end. (C'mon guys, isn't a fiber blog BORING?!?!) I also recently learned that the mothers of several of my friends from college and grad school read this page… but that's because they are fiber folks. Well, hello to all of you, and thanks for stopping by!

For those of you who leave comments, I also wanted to say thanks. I do read every one, although I rarely reply to any of them. Just so you know.

My newest spindle arrived (another Bosworth), and I began spinning up the painted wool roving from a few entries back. I have plans to use this yarn in mittens, eventually.

Not bad, eh? I wanted short blips of color to better homogenize the yarn. To do this, I started by removing a 2 ft piece of roving. I stripped tendrils lengthwise off the roving about the thickness of a finger and spun it with minimal drafting. Overall, the effect on the single is a medium to light blue, but I think it might look different after plying.

While spinning, I realized I hardly ever see yarn spun from handpainted roving. Why is that? If handpainted fibers are so popular, why isn't the fiber blogging community spinning them up? Or am I just not looking in the right place?

I was browsing an old issue of Science magazine today and came across this photo.

Photo credit: The Academy of Natural Sciences

The caption reads: “Scientific treasure. The ornithology collection at the financially troubled Philadelphia academy includes specimens of the extinct Australian paradise parrot (Psephotus pulcherrimus).”

And I thought to myself, my handpainted silk roving is almost exactly the same color of these poor dead birds. No, really – go scroll down and see for yourself.

How's that for a marketing turnaround – handpainted bombyx silk sliver, in the “Australian paradise parrot (extinct)” colorway.

I've been tagged… I don't do these “memes” – in my head, I categorize them in the same slot as a really bad car accident, my eyes are drawn while the rest of me cringes. I haven't read a single meme in entirety (okay, but I can't stop skimming a lot – anyway – I've never heard of the music anyone likes, I haven't seen/didn't care for many of the favorite movies, etc.), and I wouldn't do this one, except Johanna murmured the fateful phrase, “She never lets me down…” You know how to push my buttons, girl! :D

Lastly – and let me be the first to admit this is purely selfish – I am disappointed that all of these freshly updated blogs don't actually contain any fiber content. So before memeing, let me bring forth new yarns.

Above, we have 7 ounces of 2-ply worsted weight, 70/30 alpaca/shetland. I bought this bump (advertised as 8 oz) via ebay. It's a little overplied, but not dangerously so – I'm fairly certain it will not skew. I'm not sure I like spinning alpaca. It's a lot like spinning hair and easily becomes wirey. It would have been a better yarn if I had made it a 3 or more ply, but I wasn't enjoying it and didn't wish to prolong the project. It made a nice yarn in the end, though. I may overdye it the next time I dare touch a dyepot again.

Next, we have the 1 ounce of Optim. I did the “sharpen more” filter on Photoshop for this picture to let you see exactly how weirdly this drafted in my hands. I am a pretty skilled handspinner and can usually get whatever grist I want (except when spinning froghair, but that's a whine for some other day), and this Optim stuff defied me the entire time. Check it out. But my my my it is soft. I am almost tempted to get more of it.

Okay. Onto meme.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer?
None. I don't like the sound quality of mp3s. Matt tested me one time, and I could pick out the mp3 tracks from CD tracks using 10 second sound clips. I haven't tried it since then, but that day, I was 100% accurate.

2. The last CD you bought was:
The Dana Owens Album (Queen Latifah)

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
I hate to admit this (if you hear a whooshing sound, that's my soul being sucked into the ether), but I don't really listen to music anymore. I bought the CD above in December, a week before Christmas, and I think I've played it twice since then. I used to listen to music all of the time. Now I feel like I need to catch up on my reading, current events, etc., and I've “forgotten” how to enjoy myself in music.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:
Um, see above. It actually took me and Matt about a million years to figure out what song to play for our first dance at the wedding. He has, um, unique/eclectic/weird/inappropriate/bad taste in music, and I didn't listen to anything anymore.

5. What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?
I'm not. Go forth and write about fiber again! :b