Knit & Nosh

the good the bad and the ugly

The ugly?  Yesterday's finished yarn.  It turned out so badly I did not even take a picture.  You do not need to go through the day with that imagine burned into your brain.

The bad?  The bad is that I allowed myself to be talked into something against my better judgment and that is what led to the ugly yarn.  Once the singles were finished I proceeded to plying.  My drop spindle experience tells me that you spin in one direction and ply in the other. I figured I would turn the wheel counter clockwise and all would be well.  I had someone ask me why it is done this way.  I could not come up with a complete explanation.  I was then told that the wheel would only work in one direction, that if I tried to turn it the other way the whorl would unscrew itself.  Um, OK.  I proceeded to ply the same direction I spun.  Woo baby, talk about a mess.

The good?  I must have been a spinner in a previous life because this morning I returned to the wheel, stopped listening to everyone around me, followed my instincts and made this.

A balanced 2 ply.  Yep, balanced.  Very good indeed. 

a 3 hour tour

My pushed back deadline means that I was able to spend the day goofing off.  I did a fabulous job.  I can not think of a single productive thing I did all day.  Oh sure, I ferried kids here and there, but that was about it.  Clean house?  Nope.  Laundry?  Nope.  Writing?  Nope.  Bills, taxes, international studies paperwork...?  Nope.

Today I played with Bob.  I spun 4 ounces of fiber and turned it into a 3 play yarn.  This endeavor, undertaken with a nice drop spindle, would take me 2 ½ weeks.  Bob did it in about 3 hours!!!  Pictures?  Nope.  Right now the yarn is drying under severe tension.  I have never before subjected a finished yarn to this kind of torture.  But this yarn is SO over spun, tension is the only way it has a chance.  The spinning was OK, tension wise, the plying totally screwed any hope of a calm yarn.  Truth be told, I planned to take a pic of the drying yarn, but the camera is not on my desk and I do not want to wake up to household to retrieve it.

I’ll leave you with that tease, to tune in Sunday for actually pictures of the first plyed yarn.

first yarn

Saturday's Writer's Group has been postponed.  While I am disappointed because the meetings are so valuable that I did in fact plan a vacation around the day, which in turn impacted the vacation plans of 3 other families across the country, pushing back my deadline meant that yesterday I was able to play with Bob.

First Yarn

It is not beautiful, but I could not be more pleased. 

I had read that Kromski's can take a bit of fiddling to get then spinning smoothly.  Bob, did not need a thing.  A bit of oil here and there and he was good to go.  Spins like a dream.  I spun almost 4 ounces yesterday while getting the feel of things.  Today I am going to do some reading about the whorls, and try to spin thinner.  So exciting!

bob part 2

So Bob (the spinning wheel) is hanging out in the living room, bringing me a smile whenever I pass by.  Tonight I was catching up on blogs, and read Tara Jon's post and was floored.  Today Bob (the real minstrel) won a Pulitzer.  The voice that has been the THE voice of two generations.  He has been the background to so many of my life's milestones.  Kismet happened with my new wheel.  Bob it is.

bob

After much thought, I find that I can not condense the events of this past weekend into a blog post.  For the first time I feel what it is like to be a part of a tight family.  The shared history and future.  The unconditional nature of it all.  I'm vklempt.

I left you with a tease about a package.  It is a big package and its name is Bob, Bob the Minstrel.  He began the morning looking like this.

Before long he was humming right along.

He is beautiful and I am not worthy.

I started a Knit & Nosh group at Ravelry, join us!

i'm back

What an amazing trip.  I will spend the morning writing it all down.  Check back tomorrow for a post about the trip and what arrived at the doorstep while I was gone.

a weekend in the sun

We are heading out of town for a long weekend.  I am not sure what to expect from the trip, but it is good that we are going.  Our destination?  Casa Grande Arizona.  It has been a dozen years or so since I last visited the town.  I remember it being a little freaky.  Do you remember watching a movie where something really bad had happened and the whole town was in on keeping the secret?  That is the way this town felt to me. 

There is a yarn shop.  I hear it is nothing special, but I will check it out just the same.  I have not yet found my April Sock Club yarn.  Maybe this weekend? 

Finding a natural food store is pretty much out of the question.  I will return home next week with the screaming hivies.

Before I go, an FO

feeds

Today I discovered "feeds".  Are you aware that you can subscribe to a website or blog and receive new information whenever it is posted?  Oh, you are aware?  Then it is true that I am the very last person to know anything computer related.  I had heard rumors to this effect but chose to believe they were misguided.

I have subscribed to a few feeds.  I thought only certain blogs offered this feature, but it looks like it works with them all.  You could even receive a feed from my blog.  Who knew?  Oh yeah, you all knew.

switcheroo

Welcome to the new and improved Knit & Nosh blog.  Please change your bookmarks as I will no longer be posting on Blogger.  This is not a test, nor an April Fool's Day joke.

I have been leaning pretty hard towards TypePad, and then something happened to push me over the edge.  Two things actually.  The first is my favicon.  If you have my blog bookmarked, you will see a little dandelion in front of the blog title.  I learned how to do all of this, and learned a new word, favicon, with step by step instructions provided by TypePad. 

There is also suppose to be a little dandelion showing in your address bar when you are reading the blog.  The address bar thing did not work for me.  So I responded to the help page with a comment.  A few hours later I received an email telling me how to open a "ticket" so that the problem can be fixed.  How awesome is that?

All this in addition to being able to respond to comments. What's not to like?

Let me know what you think.