Stasia's Place Of Grace

Thursday, March 20, 2003

 

Cotton Spinnin'

I have been a cotton spinnin' fiend lately!

I tried out two charkhas, and neither clicked with me. Luckily I was able to return both of them.

In the meantime, I've become addicted to spinning with a takli! In the past two weeks, I've spun up all of these bobbin-fulls of cotton singles, using two incredibly fast support spindles:

See my handy-dandy takli de-copper? It's a little jewelry box with a hole and slot poked into it. I just unwind directly from the takli onto my weaving bobbins, quick as anything.

The bobbins in the white box are for a scarf kit. Those commercially-spun spools are the warp yarns, and my singles (spun from tri-color cotton tops) will be the weft. The kit is from New World Textiles, a dealer I really like (excellent service).

The bobbins on the right side are some natural brown cotton, along with some multicolor yarn from the Solar Flare cotton roving (also available at New World Textiles), and some plain old white cotton.

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Some Cuties

This is Kiwi Mai-Tai, who owns Kary. He is perching in front of a pile of wool roving from Treetops in their Mango Tango colorway.

Kary was reminded of Kiwi by the fiber, and it seems to be a good match, don't you think?

Treetops is also a vendor that provides great service. We received our order of roving all the way from New Zealand in less than a week, and all of the colorways were beautiful!

My brown mackerel tabby Maine Coone mix kitty, Abby (Abigail Adams Tabby Cat) would like to say hello:

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Art

Inspired by Kary, and due to finding a neat book on keeping a nature sketching journal today, I'm going to try to take a (short) hike this weekend and capture some of Spring's emergence on paper. (See Keeping A Nature Journal: Discover A Whole New Way Of Seeing The World Around You.)

I'm sure my first efforts won't be very good, but if I keep it up, hopefully my drawing will improve. At a minimum, I'll get outdoors a little more and really practice mindfulness as well.

It's so easy to go outside and take a quick look around and not really see. I want to make a concerted effort to notice and to pay attention during this remarkable season of renewal.

I'll soon be receiving inexpensive sets of sketching and colored pencils from Dick Blick, another of my favorite online shops (amazingly fast shipping). Check out their crafts section for inexpensive knitting and weaving supplies, too.

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May your week be full of creativity and color. If you are fearful or "down" these days, channel that emotion into self-expression rather than anxiety. Celebrate life by experiencing it to the fullest. It's too short to waste.

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Monday, March 17, 2003

 

Grateful For A Touch Of Springtime

Ok, so I know it isn't really here yet... but three days above sixty degrees in March is heaven for us Wisconsinites! Currently, it is 71!

The Pussywillow bush seems anxious for spring as well...

Some of the migratory birds are returning. In the last few days, robins have again taken up residence, and the males are squabbling for territory, challenging each other to duels as they fly towards each other, then straight up in the air, feet scrabbling against one another's chests.

The warm weather has made me look for any excuse to get outside. Filling up the birdfeeder? Visiting the beehives? A walk around the muddy yard? All are reasons to take a few moments and amble about aimlessly, just absorbing the sun's glorious rays and breathing in the smell of the thawing earth. It feels so fantastic to go out and walk and be able to swing one's arms (instead of shivering and hunching up one's shoulders)... I can almost feel my joints loosening, waking up after their "long winter's nap." I feel like a very stiff turtle just coming out of its shell!

In our little woodlot, I have heard the aforementioned robins' calls as well as those of cardinals, blue jays, crows, Canada geese, and red winged blackbirds. Today I went outside to try to record those sounds of Spring for you, and, as luck would have it, just as I was there with my recorder, a sandhill crane flew directly overhead, calling to another in the distance. To hear it, click here. (You will need QuickTime as it's a .mov file.)

I thought you might also like to hear how a busy beehive sounds. If so, click here. The bees are again taking advantage of the warm weather to do some hive clean-up, as well as drinking water from the puddles in the grass. I'm glad to see that both hives still seem to be healthy and active.

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Projects

I have not had the opportunity to spend much time in the wool and woodshop rooms, as Jeff was away this past week and so I had to remain upstairs to look after the "restless natives." So instead, I've been making a little progress on my candy-colored Sockatta socks, and the Rambling Rows purple and green afghan.

I haven't knit in a while, and I was surprised and how restful I found it. I've been feeling really restless this past week, with Jeff away, and with the unusual warm weather, and taking up my knitting again helped me to just settle down and be.

I've also been takli spindling some cotton for a green/tan/white scarf kit from New World Textiles. I tried two charkhas and wasn't satisfied with either, so I've resorted to takli spinning, and I'm amazed at the progress one can make with one of these fast little spindles. They're awesome! I even spun at the airport when I dropped Jeff off and we waited for his departure time (though no one asked what I was doing...)

Claudia's Lorna's Laces "Flames" socks have me wanting to get some of that yarn, as well as the new "Tuscany" colorway if I can find it. Not that I need more sock yarn... Isn't her picot edge lovely?

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Just Plain Thankful...

Yesterday I had this urgent inkling to go look at an antiques mall for a spinning wheel. I had no reason to suppose one would be there, but sure enough, one was. Once I looked at the wheel, I had no urge to buy it, despite the very nagging urge to go see it. Looking at it delayed me from a little drive I'd planned to Horicon Marsh for about an hour and a half. As it turns out, there was an awful accident on the road to Horicon Marsh just about an hour and a half before I was there - I saw the crinkled cars as I drove past, and learned about it on the TV news last night.

I think some spinner from the past, who owned that wheel, sent me a message to keep me from being in the wrong place at the wrong time!

Here's to listening to those little intuitive messages we get, even if they don't always seem to make sense!

I am off to get outside and take advantage of this lovely weather - to spin, or visit the bees, or just amble aimlessly some more... I hope you will enjoy your day, too! And remember to listen to those "little voices!"

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