As The Yarn Turns

Mason-Dixon Knitting

Continuing with the Mason-Dixon Knitting theme, I've been knitting baby bibs after seeing the ones Chris has been knitting. It's quick, mindless knitting as well as being practical. Knitting these gives you almost instant gratification and I like the look. I recommend them. Not wanting to be outdone by Chaos, our big ferret Balt decided to try on the bib for size.

"Hey Mom, this Super Ferret cape is a little too large for me. ...What do you mean it's a bib?"

"Get this thing off of me. I don't need no stinking bib!"

Phoebe, on the other hand, was busy wrestling the dishcloth to the ground.

We finally have some cooler weather this weekend, so I'm going to try to spend some time outside.

by Sydney  |

Mail Day

Today wasn't a yarn mail day but it was a Project Spectrum Postcard Swap day. (Which reminds me that I need to actually get around to taking my postcard to the post office.) Anyway it's an absolutely beautiful postcard from Kitty of Kitty + Stitch. Check this out.

If you can't tell from the picture, the postcard is layered fabric that has been stitched, beaded, and layers cut away in places. She's got some other nice things on her blog so go check it out. I'll wait.

Back? It's been hot and humid here so the postcard really brightened my day. Even Katie and ferrets weren't interested in going out on the patio with me this afternoon. The good news is that it should be cooler for the Helen Keller Festival this weekend. We planned to go last year but didn't get the chance so I'm looking forward to it.

by Sydney  |

Metal Birds and Broken Flyers

First for Project Spectrum Blue Month, here is another one of our metal sculptures that I spotted during our stroll downtown over the weekend. This time it's a bird that is about my height.

Last time I posted a picture of one of these sculptures on my blog, it disappeared right after that. Hopefully this one will stick around. Although I noticed the last one had some broken toes, so hopefully it's just out for repair.

I did manage to ply up the blue-faced leicester I've been spinning, but not without some trauma followed by triumph. As I was taking the first bobbin of yarn off the spinning wheel, I must have hit the flyer on something and broke off one of the arms. If you're not familiar with the parts of a spinning wheel, the flyer is the part with the hooks and such that wind the yarn on the bobbin. Now you may remember me mentioning this before but this is a old handmade spinning wheel. The parts are not easily replaced. So after a brief moment of panic (okay several moments), Rick suggests Gorilla Glue. I'm doubtful but at this point I figure I don't have much to lose. But after some Gorilla Glue, clamps and a few hours time, I now have a functioning flyer again. Warning though if you have never used Gorilla Glue, it is an expanding glue. What that means is that you need to put a very thin film on two pieces of wood, so thin you will think it won't hold. If you put more on there, when you come back a few hours later it will be oozing out of the cracks like lava from a volcano. It's great stuff but use it sparingly. Anyway, yesterday I was able to ply up my second skein so now I have a working spinning wheel and four ounces of handspun that are destined to be socks sometime in the future. I'm looking forward to dyeing and knitting them up.

You remember my computer that was hit by lightning a while back? Well Rick decided it was probably just a bad motherboard. So he gutted it out to take it into the office where he could fix it up and use it to replace one of our older computers. So before Rick put the computer in the car this morning, inspector Phoebe Ferret gave the computer it's final okay for transport.

"It's all clear to go!"

Have a great week everyone!

by Sydney  |