BrownSheep- It's been a while

Here is my yarn. Ugly but, hey, I made it !


I dropped it off at my Grammies yesterday and she is going to knit it into a wash cloth for me. I could knit it myself but A) I'm not a great knitter, B) I'm too lazy/busy, and C) it will be more special if she does it.

One of my cousins is giving her masters defense on Wednesday so I'm going to take my grammie out for lunch and then we will go to her denfense.

Glad you had such a great time at your spinning! Your first yarn looks a lot like mine, except mine is all one color and yours is nice and colorful. Such a nice plan to have your grammie knit it for you, too.

I've never tried a double-treadle wheel, maybe I shouldn't till I can afford one! I started with a drop spindle, and it just seemed so tedious. I like a wheel better, too.

I never got the hang of the drop spindle at all. The place I was at also showed us a navajo spindle which looked easier than the drop spindle.

I prefer the double treadle since the movements felt much more natural. With the single I actually spent most my time staring at my foot making certain my timing was right. With the double I could slow down and speed up with out thinking about it, a lot like riding a bike.

BrownSheep said:

I prefer the double treadle since the movements felt much more natural. With the single I actually spent most my time staring at my foot making certain my timing was right. With the double I could slow down and speed up with out thinking about it, a lot like riding a bike.

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That sounds really nice! With my wheel, I spent awhile each evening for about a week, just working the treadle without any fiber on it, till I could keep the wheel going somewhat steadily in the correct direction (I did a lot of 'staring at my foot' lol). That helped, but adding fiber made it more difficult all over again. I gradually got better, then when I finally plied for the first time, I had to figure out how to make the wheel spin in the *other* direction!

My wheel is an older one off craigslist, and I like it, but I know I'll want another one someday for when I get serious about spinning in quantity. I've been thinking of the features I'd want it to have, sounds like I may be adding double treadle to the list.

6-8 inches of snow today. My university canceled classes until noon. My sisters college declared a snow day.

My lab's field season starts on Sunday.... and all of my heavy duty winter stuff is at home
So my mom and dad are bringing it to me! I woke up and they were a half hour a way. Snow and crappy roads don't scare my daddy.

Not much to report....Below freezing weather has been on going. I think we are suppose to get above freezing sometime this weekend.

I practiced spinning again on Saturday and I think I've settled on the Kromski Minstrel for a spinning wheel. The shop I go to is super supportive and told me to feel free to keep practicing on their wheels. They don't want them just sitting. They also provided me with roving to practice with.

The sheep and yaks are doing well. The cold never bothered them any way .
The calves the the guards of the herd since they can escape the feedlot. They like to have stand offs with the dogs. Now that the sheep are back at the house they like to cross the road and have stand offs with them through the fence. They have a very strong sense of what belongs and what doesn't. They also like to climb the hay stacks. We'll be squaring them off so they cant do that anymore since it is pretty high.

I've started work in one of the labs on campus. I worked for one of the professors grad students this summer and they liked me so they're keeping me around . I'm helping with a study on birds of prey. Just surveys thus far but we'll get to trap and tag some pretty soon.

Yesterday, was also the best day ever! I was double checking my work study when all of the sudden I found out I had been awarded a $1500 scholarship back in September. It couldn't have come at a better time since I was looking at my tuition for next semester and .

your spinning looks very nice! We are still working on getting the hang of spinning, we started with a drop spindle and are now practicing on a wheel- we went with the Ashford Kiwi II- double treadle. It does take practice to get the hang of spinning so we are going slow..

Good work on your classes! Keep it up. The spinning sounds so fun. I wish I had been a bit more "responsible" when I was in college. There is so much stuff I could have done but now don't have the time for.

I just finished spinning up a whole 1.5 lb Shetland fleece. I got 1,300 yrds or so and it is so soft. It was my first big spinning project, I tend to start spinning and then get distracted and move on to another project. I used my single treadle Louet and just about killed my ankle. I wish that I had used the double treadle Louet, but it is broken at the moment.

Spinning is very relaxing when you get the hang of it. Also, make sure you really like the wheel before you buy it. Everybody likes different things. Personally, I like double treadle Louets and Lendrums.

The double treadle Louet I used was great but I felt like I was more consistent on the Kromski.

The one thing I never really grasped was how much yarn you get from a fleece. Blew my mind.