one down

Tommorow I am taking down the bottle shaped base off of the website...I can't get quality control on that wooden piece, so off she goes and it will be two to tango.
Good news is, while I am there, I am going to fix the shopping cart so that you can add extra spindles to your order..fun, huh?

We started the morning with freezing rain, dripping ice from every branch. A pretty view to work with out the shop window. Worked on a machine knitting tool order, and the current spindolyn orders, until my fingers feel crackly in the unheated damp air.

Then I worked on the "new, improved" (yay!!!!) version of the instruction sheet that goes out with every spindolyn. I will proof read it tommorow (always sleep on it, I say) and post it on the web site as a pdf, too! You know what? spinning is way hard to describe to a newbie.

Miniature Wool Inaugural gown

Miniature wool inaugural gown of glitter yarn, graceful ribbed waistline and snug fitting bodice.

Not really, but doesn't this look like something that would keep Barbie warm, if she had some matching merino/mohair socks, a tiara with ear flaps, perhaps?

Ok, I am being silly, but it is so durn cold...this is the progress made last night on the bag. The bodice is actually the interior pocket to separate the base from the beans (or more technically called "poly pellets") When it is knitted long enough it will be shoved back down in there and attached to the bottom of the bag. I was knitting this tube on 4 needles, but it got pokey, so I switched it over to tubular knitting.

Spindolyn Bean Bag Base -Take Four

I have had several customers bugging kindly requesting a pattern for a bean bag base for the spindolyn. The thing is, even though I have made several that work quite functionally, they are not worthy of writing up a pattern for. Rather, they have been children of my usual "method operandi"

That is to say, I start out with yarn and needles, or fabric and thread and good intentions to make a "standard bean bag base"..and then I get sidetracked into trying out some shaping or technique or stitch that I have been wanting to try, and although the resulting base works, it is not a "generic bean bag base for cradling your hardworking spindolyn"

Nay, it is more like, gee, there is another one of Cady Mays strange experiments.

The truth is that a base/bag is not that big a deal... the bag can about 3.5 to 4 inches wide, round or square, with the sides about 3.5 inches tall, it narrows towards the top so that it holds the spindoly base snugly (could be drawstring, could be elastic, could just be ribbing. In order to keep the bean bag beads (or corn, or beans, or rice spilling out, it needs to have an interior pocket that the spindolyn base goes in, and then the beans go in between the pocket and the bag itself. You can make your own, anyway you want, from this rough sketch and description. Kinda like this poor rendering, but you get the idea.

So, here is the latest bag under construction and how it started out....

I was looking for something to knit the bean bag pattern with that would be handspun

(coulda used commercial yarn, but that sorta seemed like cheating, but upon reflection, whose counting, anyway?)

when I stumbled upon some old roving from the early 90's that a friend had given me. It was a some type of luster long wool blended in lots of pastel colors, and some glittery stuff that made it too scratchy to use for socks. Gee, this would make a good base, thought I.

The yarn, when spun up, was so 90's, glitter and all, which does not show in the photo, but it is highly glittery in real life.

So, I threaded up the knitting machine and knit the sides of the base, then slipped it off onto a circular needle to do the decreases and have the "hand knit fun time"

And was discouraged to see that I had either overestimated the quantity in this ball, or underestimate the quantity needed for a base...either way you look at it, I ran out.

Typical.

Of course, matching pastel multi colored glitter roving doesn't come along every day, so I went searching through my old fiber stash for something at least lustery and pastel, and found some dyed mohair that must date back to my angora-goat-rit-dye-days of the late 80's and found this! Close enough!

Just a little spinning and I should be good to carry on!

Scrub a dub, fleece in a tub

Bath poufs, shower scrubbies, soap saver puffs, whatever you call them, these mesh wonders are useful for more than the bath. With one snip of the center cord I have used them for several years in garden applications, pond filters, yarn bra's, etc. But where they really shine is as mesh fleece washing bags. If you have never opened one, they deconstruct as a long, long tube of nylon mesh. Cut the sections longer than you think you need them, and you won't have to tie the ends shut when you place your locks (with tips aligned all in one direction, of course) into them for washing.

Here we see the jacob lamb fleece from a previous post, the locks being carefully packed into a section of the tube.

Here we see the adult jacob ewe from which this ultra soft fleece came. It appears that her adult fleece is going to be unusually soft for a jacob.

Her name is Rosie (not to be confused with the mule Rose, who was more than resentful when I brought home a dark and scary unfamiliar animal bearing her name, she is over that now, and her fear has turned to fascination, so she hangs near the sheep and goats and watches them as if she were judging then for an "american idol of farm animals" show.

Cross species fleece sniffing

I am washing a jacob lamb fleece right now, in small parcels to divide the colors, doesn't it smell great?

Knitted Finger Ringers and Wrister

(scroll down to go directly to the pattern and skip the background)
Over the years I have worn out my hands. 'Tis true. I could blame it on arthritis, or poor circulation, or candida or even bad genes. But the truth is more likely that I started life with delicate small hands, and over the years did "big guy" work with them.
Farming, wood working, gardening, tree climbing, furniture making, plumbing, milking, firewood splitting...that is on top of spinning, knitting, wool carding (you know, drum carding is harder on your hands than you might think) weaving, rock wall building, basketmaking (now there is another real joint stresser) and computer typing.
So, a few years back, I started taking them seriously, treating them a little kinder, being more conscious of their needs...Perhaps I am supremely naive, but I prefer to figure it is never too late for redemption.
My hands spent last winter in fingerless gloves, keeping them warm really helped.
This winter, fingerless gloves are just "too much" And wristers are not enough.
I have graduated to "Finger Ringers with Matching Wristers"
The first set was hand knit (as in, gee, this is fun, and look how quickly it moves along! One, two, three fingers, snap! your done)

Then it happened. As soon as I could try on one set in delight, I was both happy and bored. The same syndrome as "second sock syndrome" has set in.
So, the second set, I plan to knit on the LK 150.

Here is the handknit version (with commentary) This is a very quick project, I had a ball of Better Buny Blend spun up that was perfectly soft and warm for this project.

Hand Knit Finger Ringers with Matching Wrister Warmer
Finger Ringers are knit on two needles with the double knit (or tubular) method of knitting. There are of course, many ways to make glove fingers (circular, icord, etc) but tubular works quick for these little ringers.

• Yarn: Soft "Sport Weight" Wool (illustrated in my handspun "Better Bunny Blend"® dyed with pokeberry years ago so that by now it has already faded)

• Gauge: 5.5 st/inch US #3 short needles (or size to obtain gauge) I used 3 flexible US #3 needles from a 5 needle set that is coincidentally missing the other two needles)

The Set Up for Tubular Knitting

CO 12 stitches with long tail cast on.
Slip half (6) of these 12 stitches on to a second needle, fold this cast on row so that you can hold these two needles with their respective 6 stitches on each needle side by side.
Using the third needle, first slip one stitch from the front needle, then one stitch from the back needle. Continue alternating in this way, until all twelve stitches are back on a single needle.
Now you are ready to tubular knit.

• Row 1 - Knit the first stitch, slip the second stitch as if to purl. Continue across row.
• Row 2 -Turn and Repeat row 1

What you are doing by slipping every other stitch, is knitting only across the front side of the tube, when you turn, you will be knitting the back of the tube and slipping the front tube stitches.8

• Knit until your ring is the width you want (my rings are 8 rows tall)

To bind off, you have to get the ring back onto two needles so it will be a tube shape. Just pull the needle out of the knitting and the stitches will fall to the front and to the back. Then pick them up onto two needles...or, if you don't feel brave, you could carefully use two needles to slip the first stitch onto the first needle, and the second stitch onto the second needle.

• Bind off with a crochet bind off, or other stretchy bind off of your choice.

Wrister Warmer is knit circularly on dpn (you could also knit it tubular if you want, but it is big enough to knit comfortably with double pointed needles)

• CO 32 st (for narrow wrists) with long tail cast-on.
• Knit 9 rows
• Knit 1 purl row
• Knit 9 rows
• Bind off with stetchy bind off of your choice (I used a loose crochet cast off)