My favourite time of year! Today a friend and I decorated our Christmas tree. Paul confessed he hated doing the lights on the tree...and I needed help doing them. So I commandeered a friend to help out. Once we started we had to finish! So it's done.


We also tripped up to a local restaurant for lunch today, and to a local bookstore for tickets to an upcoming Steve Bell concert. We had a great time chatting. It was her birthday celebration. Spent some time doing Bible study as well. My friend has interesting ideas about scripture and I love being able to find where she gets her ideas from. Sometimes she gets beyond what we're studying and has to backtrack her reasoning to it's source. I try to get her to stick to what we're actually reading though. But then...she's had Bible College and I haven't. So I suspect she's way out ahead of me in that department!

I've been spinning a lot. Yesterday I spent the whole day on the Victoria and the Joy spinning wheels. I like the Joy better. But I think I want to try a few others. I'm not sure I'm happy with the way the bobbin sits suspended in mid-air on one end. Seems to me it could get a bit wobbly...especially if one were spinning thick heavy yarns. I've put a call into my spinning sister-in-law for help. Looking forward to her return call.

I finished felting my bag I knit. Now I want to embroider on it a bit, line it, and attach a fastener to close it. Then it will be usable as an oversize purse.

Paul and I have a crisis in our kitchen. The tap officially spouts more water than the spout. I've taken to plugging the sink under the leaking tap to see how much water I catch in a day. It was about 1/4 to 1/3 a sink yesterday. We've been faucet shopping. One of the plumbers we called suggested a really expensive place in town...where the faucet sets I liked were $600-1000CAD!!! Needless to say we had issues with that.

I came home and did a quick Internet search. Found the same sets on-line for $300US. But Paul thought we should be able to do better locally without having to buy cheap quality. So we tripped over to Home Depot after work one night. We found a wonderful selection in the $200-400CAD range, which suits us fine. They all seem to be brass construction. At least what we can see. In fact, they seem to be the same company. However the faucet model names are different...hmmm... Still not sure the best way to handle this.

We've been thinking of doing a kitchen reno for some time. But the cost has been scaring us off. We thought we might be able to do it for $10,000CAD. But a friend across the street warned us her recent reno - same size kitchen - cost her $35,000CAD. She claimed it's not what you put in the kitchen or take out...it's what they find underneath everything in these old houses. She had to have old flooring ripped out, new electrical and plumbing done, and new drywall put over everything. She moved appliances and claims that costs money. I suggested to Paul we leave the appliances right where they are. He wants to add a dishwasher.

One of my friends basically told me how to go about the reno on our own. But I think I need to talk to someone who's actually done one. I know a young single mom at church who has done her own kitchen reno that I'd like to talk to. Big problem is getting Paul to buy into this. He wants to hire someone else to do it. Course that's been the problem...no one to do the work! We've had a terrible time lining up contractors this year for work. I've basically given up on them. Paul still wants to use them.

Today I made this...

From this...

Which originally started as Romney wool roving. I only used two of the skeins for the hat. So I have 2 skeins and the white skein left. Not sure what I'll make from them.

I have been spending a lot of time spinning this week. It derailed me from my rug hooking. I'm trying different spinning wheels to see which one I like best and whether I want to buy one or not. It would come in handy to make yarn for rug hooking at the least. I may have to get serious about knitting though.

The spinning wheels I've tried are Ashford's Joy and Kiwi, a Lendrum single treadle, and a Victoria. My favourites so far are the Ashford wheels. Picking a spinning wheel is like picking a purse. You pick the one that works for you. Different ones work for different people. I'm looking for a double treadle because I find them easier on my back. I'm also looking for something that can spin thick as well as thin yarn...meaning it has two heads as they are called. And I'm looking for something that I can fold away out of sight when company comes. Plus I'd like it to be able to go different speeds.

Today a friend gave me a huge bag of roving for free. I am always kind of nervous when people do that. I mean...some day it will be payback time! But I think this lady just honestly wanted to get rid of an abundance of wool roving. I'll be able to spin for a long time with what she's given me. And truth be told, if payback time comes, I don't mind helping her some.

Want to see what I've been working on? Check out these funky afghan squares for a charity afghan. I've already knit six of various colour greens. We church ladies are trying to use up a huge bin of yarn. It's going fast on these squares! Still...someone has to sew them all together. I am feeling sorry for the lady doing it. I may just offer to help her...


When I was in Edmonton this summer I stopped at a yarn shop and picked up a kit for a felted bag by Fleece Artist. I'm finally knitting it up. It's 100% Merino wool and is so soft on the hands and easy to knit. I love it!


I decided we needed some dishcloths. Plus I thought I'd sell some in my on-line store at Etsy. So I've been knitting these up between times...


And...just in case I have more time! I've picked up a hooked rug I started years ago to work on and finish. Here it is...my latest version of my hollyhock rug. I anticipate doing a few more changes before I'm finished. I don't like the stark lines in the petals of the flowers...come to think of it the hooking of the flowers is kind of bugging me. Love the colours...just not the way it's hooked...


I took my rug to stitch-in to show the ladies the Deanne Fitzpatrick yarns. Also to the place I take spinning classes. They just happened to have a fleece sitting there that was perfect colours for my moose! They let me grab a 'handful'...I just took a bit... Yesterday I washed it. It's not as clean as I'd like it. But it's a lot better than it was!


And today I plied a boucle yarn I think will look neat dyed foliage colours for trees in rug hooking.


So that's what's keeping me busy these days! Oh...and binding that experimental quilt. Need to make a label for it and two other quilts before continuing on. Tomorrow...

I just love days like this! I had a wonderful relaxing day. Paul was home this morning. So we took the opportunity to run some errands. My kitchen strainer finally gave up the ghost after 29 years. Well, actually it's been going for some time. The wire basket part has been slowly working it's way off the metal rim for a number of years. It was squished beyond redemption. Paul finally looked at it as he was doing dishes and asked if we had to keep it. I said no. I didn't realize a new one cost $10CAD! Wow! I didn't know they'd gone up that much in price! But 29 years is a long time. I don't think I paid $5 for that one.

We also picked up another ink cartridge for the computer, burlap to wrap a shrub in the yard for winter, and a snow shovel. To make this trip more frugal I decided to try and purchase items in one store as much as possible. And only drive to the area of town closest to us that would cover all the bases. So in one hour we had everything and were home again. The ink cartridge was $18CAD. The burlap was $10. The snow shovel was $15. Not bad. We like Canadian Tire and Office Depot!

I've been busy today watching more Dr. Grant Mullen DVDs and "Simple Living" DVDs. While watching them I knit or spin. I finished a total of 6 8" squares for a charity afghan the last few days. I'm taking a break now to do other things.

I also spent time spinning some Coopworth wool on my large drop spindle (35 gm). I decided to set up a spinning notebook to keep track of everything I do. Our spinning instructor keeps mentioning this. So I thought I'd give it a try.

At first I thought I'd have to buy a sketchbook or something. But I determined I was not going to spend money on this! So I searched the house and decided it might be time to sort through some of my household binders. Whenever I find information on anything, or take notes on a book or something, I put them in binders by subject. Well some subjects have more notes than others. I found a binder with a couple pages of notes from one book...that's it (kind of a waste of a binder!). So I took the notes out, determined they were outdated and could be tossed, then found some paper for my binder and VOILA! a spinning notebook! I spent some time making notes on all the yarns I've spun to date and putting samples in the notebook. Makes sense to keep everything organized like this.

A friend came over and we quilted this evening. I finished making all the brown potholders I had. They are the remains of a quilt border from the experimental quilt. It is a quilt-as-you-go technique that had me machine quilting the pieces before sewing them onto the quilt. It was very slow and laborious. And these borders were just one too many. So I cut them up into potholders. I tested them on a hot cast iron frypan and as a hot pad on the table. They work great! So I've kept a few for myself.

I also started sewing the final border on the sampler quilt. I will be glad to have that particular quilt top finished. I am not happy with it. But it's okay I guess. Too many people with too different ideas working on it. Next time I think I'll do all the colour planning myself.

I made some Caramel Sauce today to serve over blueberry muffins. It's a real treat here. I make whole wheat banana blueberry muffins fat-free and sugar-free. This recipe comes from my little sister in PEI, and in its original form is served over blueberry cake.

Caramel Sauce

1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. water
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla flavouring

Melt the butter and add everything else. Bring to boil and simmer till thickened. Serve over the muffin!

Enjoy!

My spinning story...

It all started long, long ago in a land far far away...Alberta to be exact...at my sister-in-law's to be precise. She has been an excellent spinner and weaver ever since I've known her. Over 29 years ago...before Paul and I married...I spent the summer with my brother and his wife. I knew I was serious about Paul, just not sure how serious. So I decided to go away for the summer and see if I could live without him. LOL! Well, what happened was we wrote letters every week or more frequently. My sister-in-law laughed at the amount of mail I received!  She chuckled at all the 'x's and 'o's on my mail.

In an effort to distract myself I landed a job at the Town Office drafting a cemetery map...which I might add, was not a very well done job. No doubt due to my being distracted by thoughts of a certain young man! However, to further distract me my sister-in-law, Sarah, decided to teach me to spin. But not just spin! Oh no! We had to go all the way back to the beginning...with the sheep.

I can't say I've shorn the sheep, but I can say the fleece we picked up was very dirty and smelly, not long off the sheep. We washed it, carded it, and then Sarah introduced me to the drop spindle. A lovely little tool known the world over in various forms.

That summer I spun enough yarn to make the longest thickest scarf I've ever made in my life...6' long and 12" wide! By the time I finished spinning the yarn, I knew who it was for. And I knew I was sunk...I loved Paul.

After my arrival back home Paul and I wasted no time coming to an agreement on a wedding date. I'd like to say he asked me to marry him...but I don't think it happened that way. We met each other after the summer apart and we were pretty desparate. One of us was talking about doing something that meant we'd obviously be a serious couple. The other said "I guess that means we should plan a wedding then." The other agreed and so we did!

I dropped spinning after leaving my sister-in-law because I did not have a spindle or the time. I was knitting that scarf for Paul and working full time. Plus planning a wedding!

That scarf lasted about 25 years before it sprung some holes in the thin spots. I let it sit for awhile, then unraveled it and reknit it, doubling up the weak spots, into a scarf for Carl. Carl's scarf was much smaller and I have oodles of yarn leftover.   I was totally amazed at how long the scarf lasted...and how resilient the wool was even after 25 years!

In the meantime...I've been visiting this yarn shop buying knitting yarn.   It also sells spinning supplies and wool roving to spin. I never paid much notice, being too busy with my other hobbies. But then one day the owner and her co-worker piped up with me being able to dye roving or yarn just like I do for rug hooking. Well, I never thought of that. I'd been buying their hand dyed wool to knit for awhile. Never occurred to me to make my own to knit!

So I decided I'd try it. But as I looked around I was lamenting the cost of yarn to dye.  Well that was it.  One of them mentioned spinning my own yarn to dye! LOL! I smell a plot! I really like the ambience of the shop. And we have an excellent spinning instructor locally. So I took the plunge.

It's cost me a bit of money. But as hobbies go, it's not bad. A spindle for $50CAD. Some roving for $5. That's it. Then there was a gizmo to help get my yarn off the spindle and into a ball. That was about $10. However since then I've picked up a smaller spindle $60. And a contraption called a niddy-noddy to measure my yarn as it is turned into skeins - $50. And lots and lots of wool roving. And then there's the spinning class - $120. Still, when you look at the cost of learning to sew and a new sewing machine (good basic ones run around $1000!) - this is cheap! If it works out, I'm bucking for a spinning wheel for Christmas. It'll be approximately $400CAD. MUCH cheaper than learning to quilt!

While I was in the Maritimes I picked up some roving to spin. I tried to pick up roving we couldn't find here. I only had one flub - the alpaca suri that was sold as "alpaca prime" by London-Wul outside Moncton, NB. I've been told I can spin it to make baskets or tote bags. It'll be too rough to knit into a garment. This is it...


It's pretty rough and coarse. I should have opened the plastic bag and checked it first.  But I fell in love with the colour...

I was in Dartmouth, NS. one day and asked the proprietor of Tangled Skeins about roving to spin. She disappeared in the back and came out with this...a lovely soy silk and merino blend. Merino is great for spinning. It's very soft and makes a nice fine yarn.


My spinning instructor tried spinning a short piece and it was gorgeous once spun!

Meghan was with us the day we visited Belfast Woolen Mills. We found the following alpaca and cashmere blend.


It is just gorgeous to the touch! Meghan pounced on this and wouldn't let it go. She kept telling me she wanted me to make her something from it. Finally she decided she wanted a headband out of it. She said she doesn't like to wear hats. She wants a knit headband. Well, there's a lot of wool there for a headband! There's easily enough for hat and mitts. I'll make her a headband and me a hat...maybe.

Then we were at The Loop in Halifax. I picked up a few packages of roving there. This first is a Bamboo/Merino blend. It feels very soft, but was so tough to pull apart the lady ended up taking scissors to it! When I told my spinning friends they let out a collective gasp. Scissors on wool roving is a 'no-no' apparently. When you get to the end of spinning the cut piece the roving all ends in one spot, making a noticable join/weak spot when you go to add another batch of roving. Well, I'll just pull apart the cut part so it's not all straight across. I was told when I had issues with the strength of the fibre to just hold my hands further apart from each other on the fibre and pull. Some fibres can be very long.


Another purchase at The Loop was this lovely Nova Scotia Shetland wool. I am looking forward to some lace knitting with it.


And then this lovely soft Coopsworth roving.


I've never heard of this sheep breed before. But then I'm new to this spinning thing.

You'll notice most of what I purchased is white. That's because I hope to dye it later as yarn. I'm not interested in dyeing it as roving. The roving felts easily and dyed roving can be harder to spin. Plus I'm used to dyeing yarn. I've been doing it for rug hooking for years.

Of course with all this fibre floating around, I just had to pick up a new spindle when I came home. Our local shop had some gorgeous spindles come from IST Crafts on the Isle of Wight, UK. I've been borrowing a lightweight one from a friend to spin my merino. But this spindle is much nicer! I'll be using it from now on.  It spins steady, fast, and forever!  Lovely spindle!

I can see myself spinning for awhile.  It is so relaxing to just drop my spindle and go.  Tonight I'm heading out to practice a special piece with the choir.  My ride is coming about an hour early to pick me up. That will give me loads of time to do some spinning while waiting for the others to arrive at the church.  Great stuff!

I finished spinning, plying, washing and skeining my first homemade yarn in 29 years! Here's the finished results...

Each skein is roughly 40 grams...which means I have enough to make a hat and possibly mitts as well! I'll use the white for the cuffs and ribbing. It's pretty wild stuff! Definitely varied in thickness. I have no idea what needles to knit it on...time to try soon enough.

I'm pretty excited about this! I am already spinning some Merino. It will make a very fine yarn. I have no idea what I'll knit with it. I don't do lace knitting...but I may have to by the time I'm through!

One of the advantages of being sick is that you have to totally clear your schedule.  Why is that an advantage?  Well then you're trapped at home with nothing to do...but finish your projects!

Today I pulled out the hollyhock rug I started several years ago.  I finally figured out how I was going to do the sky, thanks to Deanne Fitzpatrick!  I worked on finishing the hollyhocks and a bit of sky today.  I'd love to show you all a picture, but now my computer is refusing to download the new version of Java.  Sigh...  Can't upload to Photobucket without Java.  Annnnywaaay...

Aside from playing with my rug I also worked on spinning yarn.  I spun some Merino, plied more Romney, and made skeins from some previously plied Romney.  I have two skeins all ready to be soaked and blocked for knitting...80 grams of yarn.  I have a couple more skeins to go.  I'd love to show you a picture of them too...oh well...soon...

A friend was over today and we talked quilting...which is always fun.  She had a few projects underway and needed some advice/input.  She pulled them out and we puzzled over them and came to some conclusions.  We had the opportunity to go into a craft sale together, but decided it was too short notice...especially with me being sick right now.  Plus she's just getting over something. So we decided not to commit for this year.  Instead we'll build up a stock of things to sell next year and plan on going into a sale then. 

Another advantage of being sick?  Paul has been so nice and considerate.  He didn't bat an eyelash when I told him I'd ordered Chinese last night while he was at work.  In fact, he laughed and said he wasn't fond of the supper he'd taken to work, and had gone out to Arby's on his supper break!  Not at all frugal, but I am glad our previously frugal lifestyle has allowed us the financial freedom to do things like this every now and then. 

I can't stress to people enough how freeing it is to have no debt over our heads... no mortgage, no credit card debt, no loans, no line of credit...  It makes life a whole lot easier!  And a lot more enjoyable.  It wasn't always like this.  We made our share of mistakes.  And we also bought into the "keeping up appearances" scene once upon a time too.  But not anymore.  It just isn't worth it.  I'd rather have no debt, cash in hand, and be able to take a trip to visit family whenever I want, with no financial worries to come home to.