I have made a lot more progress this week on finishing the kitchen.  I got the cuboards stained and finished and they look so nice.  I did cheat and buy two new ones to replace the water damaged ones.  You can read the whole sordid details here.

In short we had to pull all the cuboards out, the flooring, subflooring, floor joists and replace half of one wall.  Stupid dishwasher was leaking.  Here are a few observations I will make after doing all this.

Floor joists and subfloor under kitchens, baths and laundry rooms should be pressure treated lumber, as well as the subflooring.  Trust me, it’s worth the extra cash…

If you sandwish particle board between sheets of plywood you end up with a big flat sponge…then suddenly without seeing a single drop of water, the whole floor caves in.

So, we got that fixed and the kitchen sort of set back up fairly quick, but it’s been avoided long enough.  I’ve just been too tired/lazy to work on it.  But I rebuilt the one cuboard, and finally caved and just bought two new ones since they were small and not that expensive.  Now they don’t quite match but I just don’t care.  They look good so it’s enough.

Next I put the top on, and then backerboard and start laying tile.  Enough boring stuff, for now though.

Lambs are dropping in on us every few days - We have a really fun little theme this year - ewes get named for Mixed drinks and rams get names of liquers.  It’s been a really fun theme!

Three Ring Mimosa!

Sire is Jerome, dam is Tassell.  This is a moorit Smirslet Sokket ewe lamb.

Next up was Raspberry, who gave us this delightful little ewe lamb with our ram Liam (He was the santa sheep on a front page once)

Three Ring Raspberry Daiquiri

She looks very much like her grand sire Minwawe Lariat.  She is a lack Yuglet Ilget Kraiget.  I love the Shetland names for the markings.  Such fun!

Our First twins from Totter and Liam

Three Ring Buttered Rum and Three Ring Smirnoff

We were really pleased to have three ewes and only one ram since the last two years have been ram years!

Then Sparkle gave us this little sweet girl on Beau’s birthday

Three Ring Mai-Tai

She is a sweet little dear, very friendly.  Yesterday Maria gave us another lamb, but this one was a ram, I know I’de get one eventually

Three Ring Wild Turkey

That’s all I’ve got so far, but I have one due today or tomorrow, and another due on Monday.

No, still kicking, but it’s been a while eh?

Well, I am finally getting things back together, so I thought I would write a little post to say hi.  I’ve thrown in some great lamb pictures, as this years crop has begun to arrive.

Three Ring Mimosa -

We had the baby, of course, almost a year ago, and then our floor collapsed.  Yes it just fell in.  So with my Dad and dear husbands help, we pulled all the cabinets, subfloor, second sub-floor, sheeting, floor joists out and put new ones in.  Our whole kitchen was destroyed.  What a nightmare, what a mess.

It’s starting to get finished up now that the weather is warmed.  I can’t beleive it’s been torn up since September!

Partly becasue we have a nice sink in the laundry room, right off the kitchen.  So not such a big deal to just wash up back there.  I have a new dishwasher sitting here in the middle of the floor.  I am putting in marble tile countertops.  I will restain the old cabinets I recycled, and also stained the two new ones we had to replace.  My laptop died, my car broke down, and it seems like everything didn’t work right this year.  Things seem to be getting back on track now, so maybe things will smooth out?

Lambing is coming along, we have 4 so far.  For pictures and a play by play you can see the other blog -

Three Ring Raspberry Daquiri

Spindle and Wheel has sat and sat and sat.  I think I have started moving forward in getting some more content published.  What with Julianna being 9 months, and almost walking I have a little more time now.  Too bad she destroys everything in her path.  sigh.  This is such a bratty baby.  If she weren’t so cute/lovable sometimes I just don’t know what I would do.  She bites, scratches, pinches and claws.  I weaned her it was so bad.  Thrown in with the fact that I’ve had trouble with milk supply/quality and her growing well.  I hate to do it, but seems like the best choice at this time.

She’ll get bigger, and learn the rules, sometimes they are just spirited and she hangs out with William the Terrible too much!  Peer pressure UGH!

So, I am planning out the next issue/release and it has some exciting stuff.  Great patterns, a PVC skein winder (that is indestructable and well tested by the afore mentioned little’uns.)  Believe me, it stood up to them, after many modifications and changes lol.  It does a 2 yard and 1.5 yard skein.  It’s great, and I am really happy with mine.  The cost is about $20 to assemble and isn’t too difficult you could do it in an afternoon.

I also have some blending stuff for drum carders, combes and other preparation type articles to put up.

We have placed an order and hope to soon have a shop full of ymmilicious Ashland bay products!  Silk, cashmere and 21 micron merino!  There will also be batts and fun spindles, plus lots of great stuff.  I just needed the motivation.

My spindles have went through a good field test.  They hold up well, spin wonderfully and seem to have been perfected.  So, now that those have been well tested, we will probably start offering them in the shop.  The feedback has been great and I think my spindler friends out there will be pleased.

Three Ring Hot Buttered Rum and Three Ring Smirnoff.

If you have anything you would like to contribute, please send me an email allena at spindleandwheel.com

I have had all of my spinner buddies in my thoughts, just didn’t get around to posting!  I am hoping to do better, and hear back from all of you too!

Hi All -

Apparently the page counter tool we use (Sitemeter) is causing Internet Explorer to crash.  We appologize for this, and are in the process of removing the Sitemeter tool from our site.  Firefox still works fine though.

Thanks, and sorry for any inconvenience!

We’re all doing well and Julianna is growing like the proverbial weed.

Unfortunately, Allena’s laptop died, which is why there haven’t been any blog posts in nearly a month.  We’ve finally ordered a replacement and we should have it next week, so look for more posting then!

Thanks for your patience.

We’re very pleased to announce that Julianna was born at 12:52am on June 18th. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Everybody is doing fantastic, and we’ll have some pictures up in a day or two.

Update - pictures now available (click on the picture of Julianna to go to the gallery on Beau’s site)

Well, what can I say?

I did manage to find a little fiber talk to put up here…

I have sheared several of the sheep, and my fleeces are lovely.  Several of them are ruined this year.  I assume because we had a huge wet and windy weather mess this year.  Several of them have been cotted until most of the fleece is trashed.  Some is still usable though, and they were lovely, except that they got all matted up… a real bummer.

I still got a couple that weren’t cotted, and I didn’t loose any of my best fleeces!

I am always shocked by how little they look after shearing.  Here is Brietta in full wool.  She is a moorit Krunet purebred Shetland ewe.  Her wool is soft, and spins very very fast.  It is a gorgeous gray brown.  This is one that cotted, but there are large peices of it that are good.

She has a big ol wool coat here….

Puny little ewe….

So I have a few fleeces that are so indescribably lovely, I will undoubtedly keep them all for myself.  I didn’t loose any lamb fleeces thank God.  I got two that are just so nice that it’s amazing, both off ram lambs.  Beautiful, and creamy yummy white.  They have such a high shine on them, that they look like silk.

I am going to get them washed and I am thinking I may comb them or at least one of them.

I’ll post as soon as the baby comes.  I am 38 weeks and 2 days preggers.  I predict that the baby will be born on the 17, 18 or 19.

Put your guesses in, and we can have another contest!  LOL.  That would be fun.  I am due the 22, and I have a history of beginning labor at about midnight.  I usually take 12 - 19 hours total, with plenty of light early labor.  So take a guess, and win some raw fleece!

Yeah I’ve been carding batts and building spindles instead.  I am so swollen with water and puffy from being prego - that my hands go numb very easily.  So if I try to spin or knit I loose all feeling within about 2 minutes.  So, I have put that aside and I have been making spindles and batts instead.  I went to a local fiber festival, and the stone spindles were a huge hit with the spinners there.  I sold nine, and still had some left, so I have opened an Etsy shop.

I have filled it up with the products of my labors.  I have a few of the hand carved spindles available, at this time only through the spindle and batt club.  The  club is actually quite a lot cheaper than purchasing individually, I may have to raise the price some.  The fiber you get with the spindle, although super nice isn’t the level of luxury that the batt club is though.  The spindle is actually made and glued together though, instead of using a grommet.

The grommets are nice, because you can assemble the spindles quickly, but the thing is that you always have a little wobble, and have to adjust the whorl quite often.  Still, is this batt not georgous?  I am loving the angelina and soysilk blended with wool in these “Bling” batts.  That is this months theme.  The subscriptions are coming in, and I only have a few left for the next three months, so I guess it is catching on and doing pretty good.

Another shot of a spindle for the club.  I am still working on putting wpi tools on the ends.  I will probably be doing some carving on the tops of the shafts too, but I’m starting small.

I have also been making some hand carved wooden spindles, not just using the stone beads.   Here is one I made with a horse on the whorl.  It wobbles a bit, but still spins very well.  I cut a little too much out of the face part.  I may try to take more off the other side to balance it out.  I don’t know if I can sell this one, as it wobbles so at the end.  Other than that it is fine, but it might bug some people, what do you guys think?

It is beautiful, and that counts for something, it is made to be more of a showpiece.  The battle between form and function is always a struggle when you are producing art that is used for something.  I dropped the function side on this one just  a bit than I normally would, but I like it all the same.  The wood is purple heart and this is the natural color of it.  It reacts to sunlight and turns this lovely color.  When you carve into it though, it is brown like mahogany or something.  Once it sits in sunlight for a few minutes though it turns purple.  It’s really cool to watch.

Two more wooden whorl spindles, one in maple and one in purple heart.  These are just plain flower motifs.  I am working on more designs.  My sister requested a cat.  I was thinking it would be fun to have people commision a spindle with their logo on it, or a special pet.  What fun! These are also destined for the spindle club.  I need to prefect the design and get them more consistent.

So I have been dying and carding too, in generall enjoying myself while waiting for the baby to come.  Seems like it will be forever before it is time.  I am seeing lots of pink coming out of the pot, mixed with purples and blues.  You would think I was 9 months pregnant and expecting a little girl baby with all this fiber…heh heh.

Here are a few batts I made for pictures in the Luxury batt club -  Purples!  and Pinks!  I can’t seem to help myself, I am hopelessly trapped in a downward spiral of girlie colors.

But OOOHhhh so lusious anyway, this stuff is something else!  It’s half 16 micron merino and 1/2 Optim!!!  To say it is soft, is just an understatement.  It feels like nothing you can even imagine…I love it.  But I can’t spin it right now, I have to wait 

Oh look, more purple and pink!

well, I may have it out of my system, excepting of course the angora, optim and 16 micron merino laying on the table that his hot pink, dark purple and pale purple….I think that is going to do it for my pink fix.  I hope.  Anyhow, this is the stuff I am making theluxury batts for that club out of.  It is going to be SO hard to ship it off, that’s all I can say.

I also got my hands on some BABY suri alpaca fleece, a whole POUND of it!  I dyed some purple of course lol.  Like most locky type of fleece it dyed all sorts of colors, and I will be very excited to see how it actually looks carded.  The natural color was silvery gray.  It feels like kid mohair to me, but nicer and softer.

Finally I dyed two skeins of yarn that Heidi my friend in Norway sent me.  These are just beutifully spun and so soft.  Of course I had to dye them baby colors.

They still turned out beautiful, and will make something very very nice for a baby.  I will probably use the blue for a lace scarf, it is subtle, periwinkle color with some slightly more purple places.  It is a little more gray than it looks, so it will make something really nice for a grown up.  The other will be made into something for the baby or one of the girls I imagine.  I may spin more to match for a sweater or something.

Beaus sweater is coming along, he has started the sleeves now, but I haven’t any pictures.  I am really likeing how the handyed fair isle looks.  It is a EZ yoke sweater, and I have ordered a pattern he liked from School house press for the neck.  I’ll get a pic soon - here is one of my sample sleeve.  If you recall I started this sweater and he took it away from me in the hospital when our daughter was having her belly button closed.  Bye bye beautiful sweater….

He’s been slow at finishing it, but he has picked it back up and is working on it.  I’ll get some pics of his version, as this was just my test swatch for the sweater.

My point is, that the pink handspun looks fantastic for the fair isle and the gray is just some plain yarn I bought in a huge hank.  It makes for a really nice looking effect, shows off the handspun, but is a much smaller spinning committment.  You still get all the satisfaction of the handspun look though.

Speaking of fair isle, I want to encourage all of you to learn how to knit with the other hand.  I knit contenental normally, but with patience I have also learned to knit very well american style and now fair isle is so easy and quick too.  It really is worth the time to learn to knit both ways.  Just spend a few minutes a day, maybe 5 or 10 on an “other handed project” something simple like a hat knit in the round or something.  I think you will be surprised how quick you can pick it up!  Good luck!

I don’t know when you’ll hear from me again, but I will pick a contest winner before next post.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Sorry folks, I just am not up to much.  I mostly rant on my other blog about things unrelated to fiber.  Why?  Well mostly because I have gotten so fat that my hands go numb all the time while typing or spinning or knitting so…

I don’t know when the next issue will publish, it lookes like sometime between now, and July.  Not very exact eh?  With my hands bothering me and other issues I am just not up to it.  Everyone has been just great about it and I thank all of you for understanding.

I am doing fine, and so is everyone else.  We are getting used to the new additions, of angora rabbits and goats.  We made goat milk ice cream the other day and it was wonderful!  The milk is quite sweet and very good, if it is handled properly and you take care of your animals well.

I go to a fiber festival tomorrow and I have also set up an Etsy shop.  I am going to offer a luxury batt club, and a spindle club with my stone whorl spindles.  I am also making some other kinds that will be offered there too, I can give you the address when I have more to offer.  I am in the process of organizing and arranging things.

I finally got silk and 16 micron merino ordered, and it shipped yesterday so I should be getting it soon.  I also got optium, and Eco Spun(made from walmart bags and such) firestar and lots of fun fun stuff to blend into batts.  I will be excited to try the new fibers and start making the batts for the club.  I am hoping to offer them at a reasonable price, as some batts I am seeing are as high as $`15 an ounce, and I just think that is ridiculous.  Mine will be about one third of that, or less depending, so very reasonable.

I hope all of you are doing well, and I’m sorry not to write much lately,  only 5 more weeks to go!

ttfn!

There just isn’t anything much of interest going on.  I am working on the next issue now, and because I am HUGE my carpal tunnel syndrome has kicked in, so less typing.  I think I will be able to peice it together, although I may have to make use of a typist….ahem I mean Beau.

The little lamb by the way seems to be doing great, he is in with the flock now and keeping up fine so he should be good.  Two weeks with splints on corrected his pasterns, and I am hoping time will correct his shoulder.  I guess I should have taken him into the vet, but for one, I didn’t see what they could do and also they said that if it was broken or dislocated that he wouldn’t be able to walk.

I am starting to doubt that, but too late now.  Hind sight is always 20 - 20.  So, he runs around fine and is getting bigger and stronger so I suppose it will work out fine anyway regardless.  Now we are just choosing the few lambs that will be registered, and their names…

I am still working on pictures for taking a batt and pulling it into roving.  I am seriously considering trying to do an online video (gasp).  I didn’t get this put in last issue because of time or laziness which ever you want to think… So now I can put it in this issue.  I have a bunch of great angora fiber given to me by Heidi, and Jordan.  Heidi is from Norway and Jordan is from Missouri.  So I want to make some lovely blends with it.  I prefer to blend it with some nice lambs wool or something than use it straight.

Speaking of angoras, in the next week or two I will own some.  Dominic is doing rabbits for 4H, and so instead of a meat type rabbit, why not fiber I says?  Well, he says “Fuzza-buns….CUTE!”  so we will be getting 4 show quality breeding rabbits for him.  I wanted one, but found someone who wanted to trade for lambs, so Clare and Star will be going to live with Jeanette, and four fuzza-buns will be living here.

Pictures when I get them home.  I still have to make cages, although I now have all the supplies so Dominic and I can start working on that soon.  (heh heh, does anyone see an article here?)  Angora rabbits: The fiber pet for ANYONE!

Can’t wait!

Michelle at boulderneigh wins the contest.  So, thanks to everyone for guessing.  Since nobody guessed on Justina, I guess I will close the contest and get on with life.

My kids are all in 4H and Elizabeth and Teresa are in Clover Kids, which is for the 5 and upers.  Teresa is only 4, but they let her come anyhow.  We taught all the clover kids to spin this month at  the meeting.  It was really great. 8 kids ages 4 - 8 were able to learn how to spin on a drop spindle.

There were boys, and girls, 8 in all who learned and everyone had a fantastic time, despite the leaders all being wound on backwards by some assemblist I employ.  Ahem (Beau)  will learn someday which way to wind it on…  Anyhow all the kids had a blast and I have to say it was the fastest meeting ever and a huge sucess.

All the kids picked it up pretty fast, and the parents were nice enough to let me post their pictures on my blog.

Well, I took a bad picture, this one would be me!  Still she’s cute even blinking!

It was kind of hectic teaching 8 littler kids all at once, and the meeting only lasts about an hour, thats  not much time, but we made it count well.  They all left with yarn, that’s what counts, and they spun it themselves.  William took the extra spindles and unspun it… He’s a real out of the box kind of spinner…little stinker.

Heh heh, as you can see, amny of these little kids can do better than most adults lol.  They learn it so fast it’s amazing.  I am always so impressed with how well they do.  Look at that little boogers yarn!  Better than mine was for a few hundred yards….but maybe I’m just a fantastic, amazing and wonderful teacher….probably not.

I think that is all of the kids, except the last two.  Can you believe I forgot to take a photo of my own kids spinning?  What a horrible Mother I am…

On a rather depressing note, Mist finally lambed on Monday and it wasn’t pretty.  I managed to save her and the lamb, but lets just say poor Dominic had to hold her down, and I came away covered in gore head to toe.  Mom is doing great after a pretty aggressive round of antibiotics and anti inflammatorys, and baby is improving, but I suspect he is irrepairably damaged.

I thought I had taken pictures of him but I guess I forgot as they aren’t here on the camera.  I’ll post some in a few days.  He was huge, almost 10 pounds, which in Shetlands 7 pounds is a big boy….  He had one leg back as well, so the leg that was presented got pulled and yanked to the point that his shoulder is all out of wack.  It seems to be improving, there isn’t much to be done about it except hope and give it time.  He would get up and put weight on it from the start, so he has a good chance.  He also had some sort of tendon issue, and walked on his wrists instead of his hooves in front.  Imagine if you walked on the back of your hands instead of on your palms while crawling… I made him some little splints and I am happy to say his left foot is now normal, but the right one (that I pulled on) is still pretty floppy.  So he has to keep wearing his blue shoe on that foot.

His back legs also have something wrong with them.  Poor little guy is floppy in the opposite way back there.  He walks on his pasterns instead of his hooves.  Imagine a cat walking flat footed if you know what I mean.   Anyhow he nurses and gets around well enough to take care of himself.

Mom worrys about him, and I can tell that she wants me to make it ok, and resents that I am not.  Poor girl, I am desperatly trying to save him, so that at least she has a baby to take care of after all that pain.  He is improving and I hope to have him out with the others in a another week.  If I can get that right front leg to working better I think he can manage.  He has a really strong will to go on.  Anyhow, kind of a depressing way to finish off lambing season, and thus why I have been so late to post about him.

So, new contest starts, same rules as always, comment and enter to win!  Every comment is entered into a drawing that will take place around the 15th of next month.

Congratulations Michelle, good guessing.