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!

So I am going to be making an article about batts. You can blend fibers on batts, in lots of different ways. Then stack the batts and transform them into a nice continuous roving. Did you know that?

I had considered the technique for changing a batt into roving, but never actually tried it for some reason or another. Well I did it finally and was pretty darn happy with the results.

This yarn was my first batt, and I just made it with three scrap peices of fiber I had. The colors didn’t really do so well, although the yarn looks pretty enough. I think it needs a bigger, bluer section lol.

Anyway, the batt, went from violet color on one side, and gradiated to a lime green on the other. The effect on this yarn is so so, but if there was a nice blue section, I think it would have been spectacular. There is an important lesson here, in case you don’t know it. The first attempt is rarely what you wanted, but it can prove if what you wanted is possible. Sometimes it might take 10 times to get what you actually wanted…. This yarn will make a swatch that will be lime green on one end, and purple on the other….cool huh? It is much easier to do it this way, then to dye finished yarn to that effect.

So I then pulled the batt into rovings, and the roving was basically lime green on one end, and purple on the other. Pretty roving! I wish I had photoed the batt, but I didn’t.

I navaho plied the singles, and I am sad to say that I stink at it, but then it was only my first try and I did manage a balanced skein dispite the odd variations in the plying. Beau actually commented that he liked the effect. Well, ok, but that only counts as skill if you do it on purpose lol. But the effect could be used in an interesting way, so I filed that away for later. It looks like socks to me, but call me crazy! Might be fun to try, one sock would be purple to blue, and the other sock would be blue to green heh heh. How fun. There is enough here for a pair of baby booties, a small scarf, hat or something. It is around 13 - 14 wpi. Good size for those things.

I will give this skein to my little friends who are learning to knit. Regina, Michelle, Felicity, and Jacinta. They are all under 12, and I give them all my odds and ends, plus any sample skiens like this one. When I have something nice like this, I go and ask their Mom who has been extra helpful that week, and then they get it. If you need to destash, or find a home for left overs, please contact me. These little girls can’t afford nice yarn, and we all know how I feel about WalMart acrylics. Do a great deed of charity, and send some to these little girls who are knitting feinds. That reminds me. Someone offered to spin them some yarn if I donated some fiber, but I don’t remember if I actually sent the fiber. If that was you, can you email me? allena at spindleandwheel dot com.

So, for the article in the magazine, I will be doing much nicer color gradiations. So I did a little dyeing yesterday - well ok a lot of dyeing, about 3 pounds worth.

I dyed very dark jewel tones, in 4 ounce lots. That will give me a lot of carding and blending materials in all colors. I dyed them so dark because you have to card the fibers once, before you blend any together. So for light colors, I will just blend these with some white for now. Once I have a definite project in mind, then I might dye them to actual desired finished colors.

So, this is a sneak peek to the next issue which will have the theme of “Batty About Batts!”

I usually like winter, and I am usually an upbeat happy person.  Today, as I reflect on the last week and a half, I contemplate the fact that there should only be a few more weeks of winter.  THANK GOD!!!

It seems this winter someone has been sick for the entire time.  Usually me lol.  But, with the trees starting to show their buds, and the plump sheep waddling around, it has turned my mind to the idea that it is almost over.  Flu season has hit hard here in our area.  I have tried to go to the Dr twice, once for me and once for William, and couldn’t get in because they are swamped with flu cases.  Luckily my Dr was kind enough to call a prescription in for my ear infection, and so all is well.  Today William seems better so I decided to not bother with a Dr office visit.  Come on Spring!  I am ready.  Once the doors open and the air warms, it seems that all this goes away.  I hope the rest of you have faired better than us.  This last bout, we all got sick, and Beau missed a whole weeks work.  I don’t remember ever having flu this bad, and he doesn’t either.  I feel even worse for people who had flu and then experienced power outages from the ice storm we had.  That would really stink.  So, I am very thankful that Beau had time to be off work, and that everything is coming out ok.  It just seems like I am a broken record.  Lucky for us, when he was at his worse, I was better and so forth.

On another note I have composed a small list of things to not do when you call people who are very sick.  Kind of funny looking back, but annoying at the time lol.

1. Do not mention that the person wouldn’t be sick if they had had a flu shot.  It’s just mean.  They know that, and besides, this flu strain was not included on this years shot and so we would have gotten it anyway.
2. Do not go on and on about how sick you were when you had the same thing.  Especially, don’t go on and on about how your flu experience was obviously much worse than the sick person’s you are calling.  I mean come on people!  Let that poor sick person feel  sorry for themselves in peace, because DANG, it stinks.  So don’t be trying to get sympathy from someone running 104 temperature who has 4 kids with high temperatures, and a bunch of other stuff going on too.  How about offering to bring some soup and homemade rolls?
3. Do not call during obvious napping times.  This is a good rule of thumb for anyone with napping age children.  The hours from noon to three are nap hours for most young children, so don’t call and wake them up everyday checking on the family, and telling them how they should have had a flu shot, and besides you were 10 times sicker than them anyway.  (heh heh I really am rubbing that one in lol)
4. If you call during nap hours and someone is cross with you, don’t take it personally and bring it up again a week later.  If they were that sick, they probably won’t even remember it.  Besides nobody likes being woke up at a nap, much less when they are so sick.  Somebody that sick isn’t in their right minds, so don’t hold it over their heads later, be a grown up.

Just a few hints, I had never thought of anything like this before ha ha.  It’s annoying, and I never realized it before.  I hope I have never done these things lol.  I have just not had a marathon of flu like this before…

On the plus side, I finished some projects here and there.  I have one finger of the gloves left to do, and I’m done with the pair.  All I have in my bag is half a sock and a ball of lace weight yarn for a shawl/veil that I have an idea for but have ripped out and changed at least a million times :).

So, I am shopping for a new project, what are you guys working on?

I also think I have finally procured a supplier for some specialty fibers that are priced reasonably enough for me to resell.  I could buy them through the ordinary places, then charge like $8 - $15 per ounce for hand dyed silk and such, but really I just don’t think it’s worth that much.  People pay it, but it seems like a rip off to me.  After about a million emails, and lots of googling, I have found two places that might work out very well.  I have to thank my dear friend Heidi for helping me, she has been so supportave and helpful.

So, I was thinking about offering some tussah and mulberry silk, as well as some blends and optim which I LOVE.  They would be dyed in a variety of colors, and I was also asked by several people to consider doing a fiber/batt of the month club.  And maybe a sock of the month club that includes a pairs worth of hand dyed sock yarn each month.  These clubs are fun, and they fill up very fast because most retailers can only handle so many sign ups.  I think I could only manage about 10 - 20, depending on if it was fiber or batts.  The batts of course cost more, because you dye the fibers, then blend them together, so there is more labor.  The fibers are easier, but less exciting as they will not be blends of fun stuff.  The fiber club would be 4 ounces, and probably in the $10 - $20 range including shipping.  The would be fibers such as mulberry silk, tussah silk, noils, blends, optim, 16 micron merino and other really fun stuff.  The batts would be similar, but be in the $15 - $20 range for 4 ounces.  Would you think batts and fibers or just one or the other would be more desirable?

The sock club depends on me finding a reasonable sock yarn to resell.  Does anyone know where to buy quality sock yarn to dye and resell for a reasonable price, I have one place to buy, but who knows?  I would want to be able to sell the dyed skein for less than $10 US I think.  I can get good nylon/superwash yarn, but would that be good enough or would people want more exotic blends?  I really am not wanting to try and sell things for a super high price.  I like to feel like I offer a fair price, and that people can afford to spin and knit.  Some of the products are just out of range for many.  So what do you guys think?  This is also going to allow me to be able to write about these things, and of course offer more tutorials, so it benefits me too.  I have trouble because there are so many fibers I would love to write about, but it gets hard to choose, and hard to pay for the materials.  Some of them are so very high in price, not that I am blaming people for over charging, but I would rather make the products available to everyone.  Most people can afford $20 per month, but it can be hard to spend $40 for enough fiber to make a small project.  I would really like to make these things available for almost every budget, and the best thing is, that I won’t be sacrificing quality.  OOHHH and just think, that stuff will show up in the prizes instead of the normal stuff lol.

It looks like I am going to publish March 15, and perhaps we will just forgo the Jan issue in the future.  This seems to be the best way to deal with it.  I have a good line up and a good start on those articles, I just keep getting interrupted!  Thanks so much for all your input and support.  I have a wonderful product and book review for the next issue, and also plan on doing some specialty fibers.  I am still looking for something to do for the something fun article, any ideas???

I was thinking of shaking things up and going off into another fiber arts area that many people haven’t ever seen or done.   I have contemplated doing some embroidery, and needlework articles for something fun, wouldn’t it be great to do some of the lovely needle work crafts, with hand spun threads and yarns?  And what about felting?  That would be fun too.  I’m tossing it all around, let me know what you think.

OH I FORGOT!!!  We found out that our little baby who has caused me so much grief with morning sickness is a little girl and we have chosen the name Julianna Rose for her.  So little Julianna will be coming along in June to make life more interesting.  It will be fun to see how I manage to deal with that and the magazine.  I think I can do it, but I need to organize my time better, and focus on articles everyday.  I did publish an article outside of S&W on spinning.  You can view it here.   I am always pleased to write to a group of people, who ordinarily wouldn’t consider spinning or knitting.  I will be republishing the article on S&W in next issue.  Mostly I plan on breaking it up in to smaller articles, and fleshing it out some.  As they wanted it, all in one shot, it gets too long imho.  BUT maybe I can rope a few more innocent bystanders into the club eh?

So, that’s the news here, I hope all of you are fairing well, and keeping healthy!

Well so, still no regular blog posts.  Part of this is because I don’t have much to say that is relevant or interesting to this audience.  I haven’t had any knitting or spinning or dreaming time.  I have three sick kids, and one is a baby who has to be on me all day, and all night too.

He’s getting better, and now he has to have a couple of shots and has a new tooth coming in.  So not much time for knitting or spinning right now.

I am working on the next issue though, and I expect to be able to publish from the 15 to the  end of the month.  I hope to get on schedule and still publish again in March but I don’t know if I can manage that or not.  At this point it’s hard to establish the difference between legitimate concerns and black sliding.   One thought I had was to do two slightly smaller issues.  Usually I write about 12 - 15 articles, plus any submissions or interesting things I come across.  So maybe I’ll shoot for about 8 each issue, and the additional submissions.  I think I could manage that better.  Do any of you have feature article preferences?  I like fiber spot light, somthing fun, life’s fun, and product/book reviews the best.  Which are your favorites?

So for now, so long, sorry about the bad blogger situation, and I hope all of you are having a good Feb so far…

Life is funny sometimes.  You see, there are lots of different ways to go about things.  Some people research, plan, make a business plan, get investors, and so on and so forth.

Then there is us.  We have a history of what I call slightly spontanious.  I mean it isn’t like we went from meeting to each other to a lifetime spent together in three weeks…er ok well maybe that was more than just a little spontanious.  Anyway, we have trouble with planning and all that stuff, we like to just DO stuff.  I think mostly this is a good thing, but it does stick a few humps in the road at times.

So Janurary marks an important time for Spindle and Wheel.  We are technically one year old.  How it was born, is I was trying to find some information on one thing or another.  Anyhow I was thinking, wouldn’t it be neat if all this information was all in one place, and neatly and well presented?  What if it was easy to find and had LOTS of pictures so you could really understand what was going on?  So I says to Beau,”Lets write a spinning magazine.” and he says in typical Beau fashion, “Ok” and so it went.

It took until May to organize all my previous blog posts and tutorials into the new location.  We also had the setup and all for the conent management.  We use Joomla to organize and manage our site, and EVERYONE should consider this, even for small sites because frankly it just makes putting and taking stuff up and down easy.  Anyway, so we published our first issue,  5 months after we got the notion to do it.  Now a year later we are trying to decide where we want to go, and do with what we have built.

Most of the contributions and active participants on the site are knitters, and so we have been contemplating adding more knitting stuff.  Not that we plan on going strictly to that, but really the bulk of people helping and reading are knitters, so we think we shall branch out a bit in that direction.

I also want to flesh out more of the tutorials, and add a few handfus more.  So part of these will be knitting tutorials, just the basics and some simple explainations.  Mostly becuase other sites have done it better than I ever could, but I think a basic run through of some techniques would be nice.  I would like to add some crochet ones as well.  So if you have any, want to write one, or have a blog post that could be used, please email me.  Of course any fiber arts tutorial would be welcome.

I only had nine posts in the last month and a half.  Like I said, BAD BLOGGER!  But there were 57 comments.  The winner of this month’s contest is:  comment number: 33

KSee 

that is such a pretty tam. Your roving colors are so pretty

Not that I picked it because it complimented my roving lol.  I just picked a few numbers, first 20, which was me, then 21 which was Beau, so then 33 and finally a winner.  LOL.

I have packaged up the prizes (I was still behind) and they shall be mailed quite soon.  I really am sorry winners, you just have to understand I am just now not throwing up everyday, all day…ugh.   Getting better, getting caught up.

So, if you guys could let me know, where would you like the magazine to go?  What would you do to make it better?

So my camera came in today, so I will be finishing up the three or four things I have written and posting them. One article I wrote was on my favorite holiday recipes. They are all my personal creations, inspired by other recipes, and changed, tweaked and improved into something “extrodinaire” at least in my opinion. I don’t know anything about measuring systems in Europe or other countries, so if any of my out of US readers want help converting, let me know and we can work on it. There is a wonderful baked chicken/turkey recipe, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Homemade Rolls, Cinnamon rolls, pie crust/pumpkin pie, chocolate covered cherries, and peanut butter bon bons. All delicious and although some are time consuming, they are all easy. I know it isn’t fiber related, but this is a Holiday Season Special Issue, and I can do what I want! I hope some of you/all of you try them.

I also have another chart to post for the Hurry Up Scarf for the edging. I didn’t realize I hadn’t finished the charts. Oops! And I have another scarf, a pair of baby booties, a puppet, hand-warmers, and some other stuff I forget what all. I don’t know if I’ll get them all done or not.

So Issue 4 is up, and I need to finish it up. So there should be a few more additions in the next few days, be sure and watch for them.

Well hopefully, I STILL don’t have a camera, but I’m thinking I have enough to publish, I only wrote three or four patterns for this issue, so I could put them up a little later huh?

I didn’t have a lot of time, and you know I have no pictures so heres a really cool video showing a lady spinning.

What I would like to know, is right around 2:40 or so she starts winding wool, on her hand or off? I can’t tell but I am rather intrigued by the technique.

Enjoy, what a beautiful lady.

Well, so Issue four is shaping up, but my camera is dead as a doornail.  So I’m going to do the best I can, and hope for the best.

I got my thank You packet sent FINALLY and I also got Nikki’s prize sent, sorry Nikki!  I put in some extras to make up for it.

So I’ve caught up a little, at least on mailing.

So issue 4 is coming along, but day before yesterday my camera broke.  I have a “Protection Plan” which basicly means, “We will fix or replace it, but only in a couple three weeks or so.”  Of course when you BUY the plan it sounds a lot more like “Oh if it breaks we will fix or replace it immediately.”  I don’t think I will be buying a camera from anywhere but a small shop in the future.  Anyway the pictures are just what I had around, and are relevant or not, but fun to look at.

So I have two scarves done, don’t need to explain the lack of pictures do I?  I am working on the design for a Fair Isle Beret, toasty toes, knitted puppets (Dominic’s design, cool huh) and a bunch of 0ther stuff I probably won’t be able to finish on time.  Dominic finished his hat, and it is adorable, but again, you know why there isn’t a picture, stupid camera people.

I STILL haven’t heard from Knitty, I had been warned, but you would think they would know three months later if they wanted it or not.  It only bugs me, because it is a REALLY good article, and I would LOVE to publish it.  ARRRG!

ok, this post is getting boring, here;s a doily pattern from Issue 4.

This was knit in fingering weight and came out quite large, about 24 inches in diameter.  It is very lovely.  I still have to figure out the chart, it is based off an old public domain pattern.

  This is Francis.

On a personal note, (going to be a long and probably boring story about colic and breast feeding)  I am pregnant with baby #5, so right now we are trudging through morning sickness and moodiness.  Here’s the deal.  Once the baby is born, I go on a VERY restricted diet.  No eggs, no milk, no soy, and no peanuts.  Milk AND eggs AND soy is rough, however, with Baby one, and two they screamed for hours a day, The Boy screamed only for about 4 hours.  The Girl screamed for over 10 hours a day and ended up on medication for irritable bowel.  So Baby 3 came and I learned that eggs and peanuts could trigger colic in breastfed babies.  (I knew about milk and tried that with baby2)  That baby was happy, with hardly any colic, as long as I didn’t eat any of that stuff.  OH look, a chicken…

Ok, so then William came along, and again, very little stomach problems or screaming on the diet.  SO where am I going with this?  It stinks on ice to live on that diet, and I hate it.  First of all the only condiment you can have is fake butter, ketchup, mustard and bbq.  Not so great with some things, like uh tuna.  No dessert pretty much, as practically all baked goods have milk or eggs in them.  (I can make a pie, but it’s not as good as usual)  In my previous pregnancies I was always on this diet for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Anyway, enough of me being whiny about it, I think I “may” have a solution out there in the yard.  I’ve been reading about sheep’s milk.  Sheep’s milk is a premeir milk used for cheeses, but it is also good for drinking and cooking.  Most importantly the type of protein in sheep milk is very easy to digest.  It is much less likely to cause upset stomach or gas, because the protien chains are very short and simple.  So maybe I could use sheep milk???  We’re going to find out it would seem.  This is my little “Flour Girl”.

This piece is called, Le Grande Menage, flour on hardwood and throw rug, by Teresa Jackson

Beau also got into Ravelry, his username is WBJ and I have been on there for some time as SpindleAndWheel I didn’t think about it, or I could have been spindle, and he could have been wheel.  Aint that cute?  hee hee.  ah well.

So that’s whats going on, heres the short version:  busted camera, puking editor, Beau on ravelry, want to milk the sheep, knitty won’t email me, got two scarves done and my packages mailed.  Oh yeah and the sheep seem to be starting to get down to business.  One had quite the tail end hairdo the other morning.  So, 4 down, 5 to go.  Excuse me, oh wait you didn’t hear that, oh well, I’m pregnant, and I can’t help it.

Off I go to enjoy my nausea.

I have been offline for a week, now I am recovering from my near death experience, and I need to thank Beau for spending no less than probably 10 to 12 hours on the phone with tech support.  sheesh.

So, I have designed a second scarf, and I am working on getting it knitted, I don’t have time, so I will let someone else do it.  I have some space dyed yarn here, uh anybody want the pattern to knit it? I am giving this yarn with the pattern to a friend, but if anyone else wanted to give it a go…  It’s, I forget what it looks like, but it;s really cool.

So now Dominic has completed his hat for William, and it is adorable, picture soon.

Oh and I found out I’m pregnant with baby number 5.  All that in one week, pretty productive really.

I have figured out a great wrist distaff, and will publish that in Issue 4.  I also have some other cool stuff to finish.  I need as many entries as I can come up with, so if you have any small fun projects on blogs out there folks, send me a link, probably we would love to publish it.  I want lots of neat little things that can be made fairly quickly, with little or no fuss.

I have to go eat now, I can’t just skip meals for the next 9 months.

Well, so I’ve sat on my big fat rear for two days and accomplishing practically NOTHING.

Mostly I have been running outside to see if any of the sheep are procreating. Now, I’m not weird or anything, it’s just that sheep gestate for almost exactly 145 days. So if you can document the um beginnings, then you know when to expect the babies. So I have t check on them every hour or so to see if anyone is feeling romantic.

Somehow, this is NOT conducive to productive thought, work ethics or even housework, which we all know I just say I can’t manage to get done, because really I don’t want to do it. If I were wealthier, I would just buy everyone a new package of socks every 12 days, and be done with it. I do buy the kids all ONE kind of sock, because matching different pairs is just more than my poor little brain can take. So I’ve been pretending to work, when really I’m reading a book, or blogs, telling myself that I em educating myself. (One book is a very good spiritual book) and the blogs, ok you caught me, I’m just wasting my time.

So I did start a pair of knee socks, I was going to put them on the Nov issue, if I can get some completed in time. I have a few other things to begin too.

Today out of the blue, Beau must be feeling sorry for me, because he is coming home early to drive me up to the yarn store. So either he is trying to brighten my day, or one of the little kids is constipated. (They ALWAYS go in the yarn store, all three of them.) SO this afternoon I get to go to a yarn/spinning store and I’m looking forward to that a lot.

Beau finished his dishcloth, and now has mastered the art of perling. It’s all coasting from here honey, well at least until you start on double point, or complicated lace patterns. But really, he probably will just do a scarf or hat or something so he should have smooth sailing for a while.

Dominic has gotten several inches done on his hat, and he’s getting tired of it I think. Well, he needs to learn to keep at something, little brat knits fast for only having knitted like 16 rows or something. I mean really, he can darned near keep up with me.

It’s kind of funny really, on one hand I have a student knitter (Beau) who’s all crabby because it’s so hard. And on the other hand I have a kid, who’s bored because it’s too easy.

So next item to be cast on will be a pretty little neck warmer, scarfish thing for people who have to bend over, thus have scarf issues. It also is great for people who urgently dash into the house to go to the bathroom, and accidentally dip the end of their scarf in the toilet. Hey, I know that person ok? Cause it’s me! I don’t do overalls or dresses with ties either.

opps! Gotta go, chicken on the porch.