Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Spinning Wheel!!!

I'm now the proud owner of an Ashford Traveller, with double treadle and double drive. It's currently sitting disassembled and partially stained on my kitchen table. It's a bit of a labour of love, and yes, I've been thinking that maybe I should have paid the extra $100 and gotten it shipped to me already laquered, but this way it's the colour I want it to be, and I'm better aquainted with all the pieces. I conditioned the wood, and then applied a lovely red oak stain. the last step will be the poly and the sanding and the poly again.

Oy.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

New Project-itis

I've been working on a whole lot of other things instead of the alpaca mittens I started a while ago. Complicated Fair Isle knitting just isn't as relaxing in the evening after a draining day of work as it could be. For fun, I made the Yarn Harlot's "Unoriginal Hat," which was a nice fast knit and used up some of my stash. Yes, I didn't buy more yarn for it! I also started the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole from "Scarf Style" this week, and while the instructions were unclear enough in spots that I had to frog one section 3 times before I understood what I was doing, it's actually going really well. I'm using more of my handspun, so yay! for not buying more wool! And I've taught myself a cool new technique, so that's excellent.

On the way home form work on Thursday I was bad though, and I bought more fleece to spin. Only two hanks of alpaca merino! That's not overly bad.