Sliver and Roving and Batts, oh my!

"Anonymous" commented on my roving photo of the previous post, asking (I think) if my jacob fiber wasn't actually a carded batt. The photo isn't very clear, it would have been better to see it like this..


Where you can see that yes, it is carded, but it is also in the form of roving, which was rolled up before the photo was taken. If your carded fiber does not come in this form, you can turn a carded batt into a roving (sort of) by tearing it in long strips lengthwise, or drawing it out with your hands like one would pull taffy.
If you get your slivers and your rovings mixed up or just want to learn more, there is a good article by by Abby Franquemont entitled Roving, Top and Sliver in the Winter 07 Spin Off magazine on fiber preparation
It explains the different kinds available and how they are prepared. Spin Off has made this and other articles available in the back issue are of their website in a pdf format (isn't that nice of them?)

People, I am finally warm!!

First the post office, then fed ex and the sliver lining.....
First the happy, happy, then the rant.
I finally have the materials to get my wonderfully patient customers spindolyns completed. Worked on them yesterday in a sunny shop and am glue drying in the rain right now (well, I am not in the rain, the glue is drying under a light, but it is raining outside)
While I wait for the spindolyns to get to the next stage, I would be working on the roof of the buck goat shed that I am building (with help from the buck) but for the rain, so I am posting here to share my happy over what I think is the "alto solution"
Perhaps this evening I can take the new prototype for a spin with some of the extra soft jacob fleece that I am in love with right now...



Now the rant
My local post office has the most wonderful staff. Helpful, cheerful, humorous and good natured folks who give great personal service. The rest of the postal service gets two thumbs down for jumping up and down with both feet on many of the parcels I mail.
My UPS guy is great, too, he is also helpful, cheerful, humorous and good natured and is very accomodating and nice to my quirky dogs.
FED Ex on the other hand, gets a big scolding from me. They sent my correctly labeled materials that I was waiting on to the wrong state, then the delivery guy just "forgot" to deliver them, 3 days in a row!! If they had arrived on thursday like the tracking number indicated, I would have last weeks orders already shipped and this weeks well on their way to going out. But most importantly, I could have gone to West TN to take Mom to her oncologist and give my sister in law a spell.
However, everything surely happens for a reason, because if things had gone the way I expected, I never would have seen the post on Craigslist for the "Better'n Ben's" fireplace stove, and I wouldn't have had the time to go get it, move out my old fireplace insert, rebrick up the broken hearth (I am a mason now, ha! I laid and mortared 6 bricks) fabricate a new stove pipe to fit it, and slid it into place.
Visually, the new wood stove is a downgrade from the fancy fireplace insert with the fan that I am going to put up for sale on craigslist. Heating wise, it is just plain bomb-diggity! This baby is hot! The cabin and me in it are warm for the first time since I moved in 5 years ago. If my fireplace had been normally constructed, the previous stove would have sufficed, but it had been rebuilt by stoner wanna be rock layers and it needs a certain sort of stove to behave correctly. I have found that stove in this little box shaped stove made in the late 70's.
Usually, on an average winter morning, I wake up to 50-52 degrees in the cabin. This morning, with burning no more wood than before, and not having to listen to that durn fan a roaring all night, I woke up to 62 degrees. wow.
You have no idea how happy this makes me.
And the stove is flat on top. Perfect for natural dying.... : )

Peach "sweatette" done

I finally finished this before the last visit to mom's, she loves the color and it is nice and warm but not suffocating. It was fun figuring out a way to make a button that goes with the band, and am now inspired to work on more knitted closures.

You may or may not remember that this is the "hybrid" sweater that is partly hand knit, partly knit on the LK 150, out of Peruvian highland.

alto on hold and holding pattern

I ran into a major stob-up today while finishing the alto spindolyns due to go out tommorow on my way to Mom's again. They could not be finished and I sat down and cried in frustration. The dogs thought I was nuts.
The materials that I had planned on using are not level and plumb, straight and narrow, sweet and light, whatever you want to call them.
Whatever, I could not make them work out. I have some new material on order that will arrive next week, and may do a complete overhaul of that design, as time allows. Meantime, I have pulled the order button from the website.
On a cheerier note, the originals that have gone out this week just happened to be out of some extra lovely wood...am thinking that some sort of rustic base and knotty gnarly whorl might be fun, once again, as time permits (that is a weird phrase, isn't it? does "time" permit my knitting? issue it a little "right to knit" token or something?

a real brown

Tommorow is Harvest Days/Fiber Festival in Cannonsburg (murfreesboro, tn) I will be there and am quiet excited to say that I am going to be picking up an Angora buck and Doe. It has been some years since I had fluffy rabbits and it will be great to have somebunny to love again (groan!)
Am going to answer the comments to the last posts in this post.

Lea-Ann, yes, I am done with the collar, and am now on a hunt for a similar fingering weight yarn to do the body of the sweater. (enter, Knitting Today, perhaps? lol) The trouble is, I am looking for a "real" brown. A rich, chocolatey cocoa brown. Not the greyed-out brown that many of the yarn companies call "cocoa". Brown is a "step color" left out, neglected...I can find a few lovely browns in worsted weight, but not in this light weight...any leads?

Hi Dianne! no the leaf edging is just a generic leaf edging..not exactly sure where it came from, but there are many variations..I just love all knitted leaf motifs..would be fun to gather several and put them all into one garment. If you are on Ravelry, and search "leaf" you will be amazed at the leaves in scarves, leaves in socks, etc. Most of the instructions originate from the early 1900's ladies publications, or from Barbara Walkers treasuries (of which I own none, now, but really lust to own all of them) or from Nicky Epsteins various embellishment books. Are you on Ravelry? my name there is Cadymay, if you are.

And in reply to the dear anonymouses (what is the plural for anonymous?)
The spindolyn shaft experiment was a dud. It was a rubber sheath (that sounds kinky) to improve handling and twirl, and although the concept worked well, gravity bit me in the butt... it made too much weight to the center and decreased spin longevity, so, back to the drawing board.
No, at this time, I only make the spindolyns in one wood and with one finish. I have to keep things kinda simple for myself at this time, because I go back and forth to Mom's, and she doesnt have internet, so when I get back, I have to scramble to catch up, and then I get mixed up easily. (ok, Lea Ann, I know you are laughing, I have always gotten mixed up easily, but you have to admit, I do sometimes have my moments of clarity! lol)

And about Mom. Thank you to all who have sent well wishes her way. She is in a lot of pain, which is hard to watch. She is not a complainer, and so kind, intelligent and gracious. I try and imagine what she is going through, and I only know one thing...I believe I would be a whiner. I just am not that strong and unselfish. Maybe they just don't make em like they used to, but she is an inspiration.

Stress knitting and self policing

A leaf a day keeps the doctor away.


This is what I told myself when I started this leaf edging; that I would sit down and knit one leaf each day and finish this neckline in a timely manner. That having set a goal, I would be forcing myself to give myself the needed "me time" that has been missing from my life lately and causing me some stress and performance reduction. The times we live in are stressful enough and focus and concentration on lifes beauty is easily elusive when we don't slow down.

Oh it worked great for the first two leaves, and then it started to feel like pressure, instead of the stress reduction that it was supposed to be.
This got me to thinking again about our motivations to knit and what aspects of knitting actually bring us the satisfaction we receive. It is a three part thing, I am realizing. The drug like satisfaction from knitting is comprised of 1) the actual act-the relaxing, repetitious meditative art itself, 2) the joy of learning and discovery when we incorporate a new technique and 3) the rush of accomplishment when we finish and hold up a three dimensional, functional object or art statement.

Having written that off the cuff, I realize there are probably more than three main aspects, its just struck me suddenly, and I like "threes"
The real point I am trying to get at is anything you do to yourself to stand in your own way of one of these aspects (like policing your progress, "cheating" on the pattern because you dont' want to have to read "complicated" directions but you really do want to learn the technique, or leaving mountains of unfinished and unsatisfying projects around, diminishes that fullness of your satisfaction in your knitting.