Wheel love

For some reason, I've never actually taken a picture of either of my wheels before. So here it is, my first ever bobbin shot:



And a very familiar view:



I think I might have thought up a name for this wheel (a Lendrum DT). But I'm not completely sure yet. I loooooove being able to switch between the normal & bulky flyers, and the bulky flyer is just a dream come true. My last wheel was an Ashford Traditional, and since I didn't ever get around to getting a bulky flyer for it, I had to cope with the teensy bobbins. All my skeins in my etsy shop are about twice the size they used to be! And sometimes twice as bulky, thanks to the nice big orifice.

Aftermath

I'm starting to recover from the holidays and get back into the swing of things. I got the most adorable fabric in the mail yesterday:



It says "organic sheeps"!!! It was love at first sight. I bought it from sakurafabric on etsy. I dunno what I'm going to make with it yet - a bag? A skirt?

I spun up my cocoa-inspired yarn with the white marshmallow felty baubles, but there was a slight disaster - there is a ton of soysilk in this skein, and I forgot that whenever I set the twist on soysilk, tons and tons of dye ends up in the water and I have to rinse it forever. So when I set the twist on this yarn, the brown dye in the soysilk sort of dyed the white baubles to a pale tan. Whoops! Oh well, it still looks good. Maybe it'll be a chocolate truffle yarn instead.



I'm trying to spin lots of yarn to keep the shop full. I managed to spin a few vegan skeins!



The shiny one in the front is bamboo, and behind it is bulky organic cotton with sections of bamboo. This is the last of my organic cotton, but I'm planning on buying some more very soon. I want to make a cotton-spinning tutorial for both the spinning wheel & drop spindle, since there isn't all that much how-to information on it.

Okay, back to the wheel! If it's sunny out tomorrow I'll be updating the shop, finally.

onward!

I will be so happy when christmas comes and I can stop making things like crazy. I finished the scarf - I am AMAZED at how big it is! I only spun about 5 oz of yarn for it, and that includes the copious amount of fringe. It's actually kind of gigantic for an 8 yr old. It hangs down past my waist! Oh well, she'll be warm. I hope she likes big cozy scarves!





Whew. Next up: stripey fingerless mitts for my cousin!



I also decided to make some spicy brownies to go along with the hot cocoa - I'm making vegan brownies from scratch, with cinnamon and finely chopped bits of crystallized ginger. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to make them with whole wheat flour & no refined sugar, or just take the easy way out.

I got an amazing package from my mom yesterday that contained all of my favorite things (except wool): herbal tea, all sorts of chocolate delights sweetened with evaporated cane juice, and angora knee socks in three different colors! And a book: a brand-new copy of The Golden Compass, which I wanted to re-read before I go see the movie. I read this book when it first came out in 1995 (I was ten years old!) and it was my favorite book for a long time, but I haven't read it in years and years.

holiday freakout!

Okay. I do this pretty much every year, but it still always surprises me: I wait until the very last second to make all my holiday gifts, which results in several days of me freaking out and crafting like crazy. But this year I have a secret weapon: lots of yummy and super energizing tea from TeaNoir! My package from her arrived yesterday, and just in time! I just brewed up a big mug of her Casablanca (minty green tea) blend, and am getting down to business.



I already mixed up a ton of spicy instant hot cocoa from scratch, with lots of cinnamon and a pinch of allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. Yum! Next up, I'll be making chocolate-covered pretzel bouquets and bags of chocolate-dipped marshmallows to go with the hot cocoa.



And knitting like mad - this bubblegum pink confection will be a scarf for my partner's 8 yr old niece. Yay for huge bulky yarn and size 11 needles!

Back to work! I can't wait to be done so I can get back to spinning and playing with my tub of freshly felted baubles.

Felty baubles

What I did today:





Made a ton of felty baubles! I wanted to put together bags of them to sell, but I don't think I'll ever actually be able to let any of them go - they're too much fun to use. I also ended up with some crazy deformed baubles that I already have plans for:





And some fluffy white marshmallow baubles - I think I'm going to spin some hot cocoa yarn with these:



I really love felty baubles. I already want more!

P.S. If anybody wants to trade me things for heaps of baubles, let me know.