Well, I have to thank Beau for getting me caught up.  In his compassion he washed ALL the laundry yesterday while I was away teaching Jr High students how to spin.  It was fun and I wish I had taken some pictures, (of the class I mean, not the laundry ).

They listened attentively and seemed interested.  Several of them commented that the raw fleece I brought was SOOOooo stinky!  And it made me think of dear old Blue my friend Tammy’s Merino ram.   He is aromatic to say the least.  I mean DANG, it makes ME gag!  I contemplated why I found the fleece I had brought not only be NOT stinky, but of a pleasant amount of sheepie odor.  I LIKE the smell of my Shetland fleeces…  Could it be that it’s because I have burned out the smell receptors in my nose by exposing them to the noxious fumes that emanate from the posteriors of certain diaper bearing children that live here?  That is the only explanation I can come up with.

These kids must have never smelled REAL stench, and therefore have no concept at all of what the word “stink” really means.  Some fleeces stink, but this one didn’t, very mild.  It makes me wonder, after I’ve been working raw fleece, and I go to the store do Jr High kids smell me and think I stink???  I mean what if my definition is all wrong and I’ve been going around  smelling disgusting?  Well, if so,that’s ok, because everybody should know what sheep smell like, so I’m doing a public service if you ask me.

The kids were mostly fascinated by the spinning as they watched me.  A few of them fiddle farted around and didn’t do much.  Then some others took it up right away!  I set them to helping the ones who didn’t get it yet.

There were two special needs students in the class, and one of them in particular had difficulties.  One of the lovely girls in the class helped her with the most patience and caring that I was really very impressed with her as a person.  She was a very pretty young lady, and of the sort to be well liked, and I found it to be quite inspiring to see someone so willing to help out someone, despite the likelihood that she would be made fun of for it.  Plus she didn’t think my fleece smelled, so that makes her even nicer yet.

After the class, the two special needs kids drug me by the sleeve up to meet their teacher.  There were about 8 students in that class, and the teachers asked me if I could show the kids there how to spin.  So I gave a demonstration and they were like 10 year olds with a brand new game boy.  Or like me with a pound of some new fiber that I’ve wanted to try forever.  I.. JUST…CAN’T….LOOK..AWAY!  and NO I can’t put it down, (to Beau)  and yes I just might sleep with it.  By the way, where are you sleeping? I hear the couch is comfie…

The kids asked me about our farm and how we live, and I had to tell them the names of all the animals that live here(6 cats, 15 sheep, a dog, two horses, a pony and the chickens).  I failed to tell them all of the chickens names, although they are all named…hee hee, I was hungry and ready to go eat lunch!  They were a great audience, and there is a possibility that they might be having me back to help the kids try to spin.

As an aside, I should tell you I also post on another blog about my sheep and our farm.  You might enjoy that one too, mostly I just talk about whatever, it’s not sanitized and discusses the realities of farm life hee hee.   www.allena.thethreeringranch.com  Someone gave me an award for that blog, and I felt kind of weird because many of the blogs I read, know me from THIS blog, so by the time they knew I gave them the award, they had already got it from someone else.   bummer, well it just shows that people I know are really cool people as I have to compete to compliment them.

So for the kids, I sell the spindles I make with CDs plus some fiber and the lesson for $5 each, so I don’t make a whole lot, but I do get the chance to teach kids to do something productive instead of drooling down their chin parked in front of the tube.  Of course I gave them all my, “Television will Rot Your Brain” speech, but I doubt any of them believed me lol.  I’m not totally against TV, but many people always ask me how I have time to spin, knit, home-school or anything like that.  Well, frankly I don’t waste 3 – 5 hours a day sitting there watching shows that are so stupid that you can see the IQ points falling out of your ears…  I use that evening time to spin, knit, read or do something with the family.  Soo a friendly reminder, watch some TV or movies, but don’t forget to turn it off, because the REAL world is passing you by as you stare off into the depths of the dummy box.  Anyhow, maybe some of these kids will get bit by the bug, and start to spin?  Wouldn’t that be cool?  I don’t mean to be rude to TV connoisseurs, but kids are watching too much TV/video games and all that.  They need to get a hobby!  So take a kid out to smell a sheep today ok?

After that, I was pretty tired, and was treated to a nice red dinner by my friend Liz.  Red dinner is Chinese food, and Elizabeth loves to eat what she calls “red dinner”.  I love the creative ways that children express their feelings, and describe their surroundings.  I will probably call it red dinner for a long time.  It’s a very accurate description.   Speaking of Elizabeth, I would like to point out what happens when little girls play with Legos – at least this little girl…

I have titled the peice, “TK427, Why Aren’t You at Your Post”  Legos on bookshelf by Elzabeth Jackson -  I particularly like the way she used the blaster beams as a table plant..  This shows an irony and depth that is truly evocative of todays modern mindset of childrens toys.  The artist has cleaverly used color for the furnishings to offset the stark whiteness of the figures in the work, which also is contrasted by the black foundation.   The clear reversal of gender roles is refreshing and echoes the irony of the medium used to convey the concepts of violence vs peaceful co-existence.  snicker snicker…

Now, many of you don’t know, but I have a BFA in painting from IU Bloomington.  Back then, I would have painted this, and laughed with every stroke of the brush. I very much enjoyed creating paintings that presented things in a way contrary to their purpose.  For instance I painted a Spiderman reading the paper, like on Sunday mornings he hangs out in his leotard and reads the funnies…  Now, I have to settle for posting it on my blog.  I considered naming it “Storm Trooper Tea Time”  snort.  It does have a lot of interesting concepts, but really, it all boils down to, this is what happens when you give my little girl legos with storm troopers….  Conversely a boy will often take a tea set and suddenly the dishes are flying saucers having in intergalactic battle across the living room floor.  Oh well, I guess what counts, is that they have a good time right?

Kids sure are fun!

Have you ever noticed that different fibers have their own version of the 15 minutes of fame?  Well, I’m going to go waaaay out on a limb and say that these woolly critters will be the next big thing in fiber.  Ok, maybe not.  But they’re neat and it sure would be funny if you could spin their wool/hair/fur/whatever it is.

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?

I really have been bad at blogging. I’m sorry about that..

We will have a new contest winner, but I will be waiting to choose one since I didn’t blog much last month, so I will give a few posts this month, and run the contest from the 15th.  I have two packages ready to send, sorry they are late guys, but they are really good.  Michelle’s package was very difficult, because she doesn’t like spindles, and she has her own Shetlands, so i had to really dig around for her package lol.  Ems was hard, because she lives in Canada, so I boxed it all up and got to the post and realized that I was going to have to pay A LOT to ship it.  More than the package was worth, so I had to find new stuff to send, and get a big envelope.  I have finally gotten some nice stuff together for both of them, and now it’s just managing to get to the post. So be patient girls, it’s coming soon, I’ll let you know when it ships!

Trying to get the next issue ready, and still dealing with life. Darn life, keeps interrupting things.  I have the next issue to get done, and frankly it looks like it will be late this time.  I just had too much to get done, and people were so busy over Christmas that they didn’t send much in this time.  SO if you have anything neat (Like a chicken shaped tea cozy ahem, Em!)  please send me an email, I would love to include that, and any other fun projects.  Also if you have posted any tutorials or interesting discussion on your blogs, I will often use those too, so let me know.  The worse that will happen is that it will be so good it will make me look bad.  We have gotten a big surge in traffic since the Knitty article published, and apparently since Knitty linked ot us, Google now thinks we are pretty darned important.   SO, this is a great way to get more readers on your blog, or on your website.  Enough about that, here’s why I haven’t finished the next issue…

Elizabeth my 5 year old had to have umbilical repair surgery, she had a slight hernia, so they closed it up because it can apparently grow over her lifetime and become dangerous later. So that was fun. She has recovered nicely and is running around like normal. She managed to milk two red dinners out of it. Her favorite food is Sweet and Sour chicken, or Lemon/orange chicken. Her appetite was quite subdued for about 5 days afterwards, so we were trying to get her to eat well. All in all it wasn’t so bad, but I am so glad it’s over.

We have also been running the cold and flu marathon. All the kids and I have both had stomach flu and colds. December and up till now have been constant. That’s how it goes in a larger family though. Even Beau caught a cold this time, which despite his denial is rare. He is now recovering, while the rest of us caught it back at the beginning of Dec, so that’s how long it took him to catch it. Now we have all had it, and gotten over it, so hopefully cold/flu season will come to a close for the Jackson family.

Beau took my sweater too. I was knitting a sweater for Teresa, but now Beau is knitting a sweater for Teresa. We were in the waiting room for the surgery, and he of course didn’t bring any knitting. I of course brought four different projects, you know, so that I had just the right kind of knitting to do for my state of mind. You never know what kind of knitting you will want to do in a situation like this. You might want a difficult lace pattern that will keep your mind busy, even if you botch it. But then you might just want to knit as fast as you can and not think about anything at all. So, I couldn’t just leave him to sit there and stew over his poor little girl going into surgery.

So I gave him the sweater. He’s doing quite well, although his gauge has loosened up a little too much the last 10 rows or so. I am trying to decide if he should pull some of them out, because it really isn’t a big fit problem, but the material at that point is starting to look a bit sloppy and won’t hold the wind off as well.  It was supposed to be a straight up sweater,not sloping.  I knit them straight for the girls so that their skirts are accommodated without stretching the sweater.  So it was pretty much the right size at the pink stripe, a little big for growth.

What do you guys think? I don’t want to tell him, rip it back unless it really needs doing, he really doesn’t want to rip it back. But on the other hand there is a lesson to learn, and an important one. Better to rip back 10 rows now, then have a sweater that you aren’t happy with later.  He seems to think that the sweater will shrink or that he can felt it, but I think this is a bad idea.  It really is beautiful though, and he’s doing an excallant job.  I am not trying to pick on him, I just don’t want him to be mad at me later if it needed tearing back.  Even worse I don’t want to be mad at myself, because I am such a jerk about these things.

See, it doesn’t look too bad, this way.  I don’t know what to tell him to do.  If I tell him to rip, which is my gut feelings, he’s going to be annoyed.  If I tell him not to, then he’s likly to be way annoyed at himself and me.  Mostly I just had to have such a pretty little sweater not come out just right.  This is an EZ yokeless sweater, a perfect beginners sweater.  I love this pattern, but I’m concerned if he doesn’t correct this guage thing, where it can go.  For reference, the stitches above the pink color work are snug but loose (about perfect imo) on size 7 needles.  The last row fits easily on size 10 or 10.5 needles.  SO it is a big change.  I am thinking that he needs to learn to control the guage, and look at his work every few rows so that it stays on track.  Maybe I’m being overly picky, or to hard on him?  I am a perfectionist.  But then, it really isn’t too many rows, only about 5 or 10.

You can see the change better in this picture.  His knitting really is so good for this stage, and this is a perfect project for him, so I don’t want to discourage him, but I also don’t want the sweater to not fit or look right.  So you guys can help us to decide what to do with this project, and then we can feel better about the decision.

On my knitting, I have almost finished the fingerless gloves.  Pics of that soon.

Not a creature was stirring, except Mom who was frantically running around like a crazy woman. None the less, a short update. I am debabting finishing Elizabeth’s tam, because she says she doesn’t like the yarn. She would rather have different yarn. Hmm, but Teresa likes it, so perhaps I should just finish it up for her, and give Elizabeth a skein of yarn to dye herself however she likes. I think I can finish the tam today, it’s almost done.

I have about a million more cookies to bake today, and of course all the other Christmas stuff to get done. Presents to finish wrapping, and shoes to put out for St Nicolas. The tradition of Santa Claus began with the Bishop, St Nicolas. He was known to be a very generous man, and when some poor girls were without a dowery (required in those days) he apparently slipped the appropriate amount into their stockings that were hanging to dry in front of the fire. Anyway, children being the enterprising souls that they are, because hanging stockings, and laying their shoes out too, so as to give St Nicolas plenty of space to distribute goodies.

I am pretty sure that Beau is on the naughty list this year, and it’s quite possible that William is as well. A lady asked me if Santa would be visiting the baby (now 14 months) and I told her I was pretty sure he was on the naughty list instead of the nice list. However, Santa usually gives some consideration for age. Overall though, William is pretty naughty. For example, you remember way back when I published the yarn pillager? He was 6 months old. He’s had 8 months of nos, scolding, punishment, and he clearly KNOWS he should not pilliage my yarn. Yet, as soon as a bag is left unattended, and Mom is out of the room…. Yesterday in fact he strung a ball of handspun angora (about 30 feet worth) all over the house. On the plus side, the incidents are getting fewer. The kids have all been pretty good, what with the idea of Santa watching all of the sudden. I’m sure William will get something nice, even if he is more naughty than nice, he’s certainly got cute appeal.

Finally, another cute Christmas video, since I have no pictures.

It all goes together, really. This is from the new Knitty, and I have made one, so now I am making my own pattern, as of course I found a few ways to improve upon this one. I also want to try one with a repeat of 12, I think that would be really cool. The tam, much to my middle girls annoyance, it was too big for her.

She was very unhappy when I told her it was for one of our friend’s girls. All the girls in that family are extremely excited about learning to knit now, because they all fell in love with that hat! So I have gifted them with some nice white yarn, a few spare needles, and a bunch of kool-aid, so they are going to town. Which brings me to ask, if any of you have way to much surplus leftovers, or small skeins, would anyone consider donating it to these four little girls? Money is tight for them, and I shudder to think they will have to use cheap, crappy, acrylic. So I thought, well I can ask and see if anyone would help out and sponser one with a small yarn gift. It can be anything, but worsted weight wool would be easiest for them to work with right now, any color is also fine. Let me know if you might have anything you want rid of. As you know a new knitter can find it difficult to get everything they need all at once, and to top it off, these are just kids, aged 7 – 12. So if you can help us out, let me know. I have given them lots of roving, and they are learning to spin, but they are more interested in knitting at this point, and they are quickly running out. Besides, if you donate some yarn to some of these girls, then you will deserve a reward trip to the yarn store. Just a thought

I have been dyeing up roving. I MEANT to put it all in the shop, while I was getting a little extra traffic from Knitty, but oh well. I got so discusted, I needed a fix, so I took one peice for myself and spun this up, and it is just lovely. I really like the colorway, but I think I will make the color changes a little more obvious, and also a little darker for just a little more contrast, but it is just beautiful as it is. I know it’s pink and purple, but I do have a 3 and 5 year old daughter I would like to point out, both of which are slobbering over this… Really it is lovely. I’m thinking of making a seamless yoke sweater by EZ. This will be for the yoke design, and the body will be light gray. Gray is wonderful for children.

I have also been experimenting with the drum carder and blended batts. I am finally getting the hang of it. I have this pretty little batt for the shop, it has the sparkle stuff added in. I don’t know what brand this sparkle is, but its like Christmas tree tinsel only very tiny. I have white, and green right now, to experiment with. I am contemplating maybe doing a batt of the month club, as those are so popular and fun to do. I need to get some more specialty fibers so that I can make up something really fun for them and then we’ll see what happens.

I also blended some of the sparklie stuff with some turquise roving I had. It is quite lovely. Very shiny and bright. I haven’t spun any yet, I need to try some, but the batts are so pretty that I don’t want to muss them to spin a sample.

Finally God willing, I have finally taken a picture of the learn to spin kits we sell at fiber fairs. We sell these for $7 with 2 ounces of fiber, so it’s a pretty darn good deal if you ask me. We sell them with a variety of colors, and if a customer chooses one, I can usually accommodate their desires. I sell tons of these at festivals, mostly to little kids, who want to try. I give them to kids for less, $5, which covers my cost. So if you order one of these for a child under 14, let me know and I will discount them. I have taught children as young as 4 with great success, and the kids learn it so fast.

Lastly, we went to the local 5 and dime, and low and behold they had knitting needles! for 70% off!!!!!!!! I bought all the double points for myself (I love Susan Bates double points) and Dominic bought himself his own set of straight needles. Nothing fancy, just colorful aluminum needles, but he likes them, and hey, they were like 80 cents each…. I still don’t know why he wants to use straights (I’m a total circular fan) but hey, to each his own right?

But now, about Internet Idiocy. Supposedly, our internet doesn’t work because of excessive cold. (It’s 13 degrees right now) so that doesn’t really explain why it didn’t work in 26 degrees last week. The support policies of the company we use are so stupid as to border on imbecilic. What happened was we had a little trouble with connectivity (remember) and we got that fixed, they told us that if we upgraded to a new modem, that it would improve. So we upgraded (remember that the old modem was working perfectly) and then it wouldn’t work at all. The would NOT downgrade us back to the old modem under any circumstances. So we were basically told that we had to do without internet until a technician gets around to coming out and looking it over. They even tried to charge us for it, but didn’t have a leg to stand on, so we finally pried the fee out of them under the warranty. GRRRR. They have been fortunate enough that Beau has dealt with them thus far, and he is so patient. They better do something, less I unleash fiery red-headed death down upon them. I am getting close to the point of really needing to bite someone’s head off, and really let them know exactly how I feel about their company policies. I’m trying to remain calm.

Hi everyone – just a little note to tell you we’re not ignoring you, it’s just the time of year for ice storms in Missouri.  Consequently, we have no power, no internet connection, and no phone at our house.  We’re staying warm with a kerosene heater, but other than that things are pretty primitive around our house just now.  We should be back online in a few days.

Stay warm!  Unless your in the Southern hemisphere, in which case, um…stay cool I guess