My spinning wheel adventures

I wanted to let people see what I'm doing with the wheel and I think this is going to be the best avenue for that. I brought the wheel home from my mom's house this Sunday. It's beautiful and I'm so glad to have it.

There was a part broken, but luckily Darrell was able to glue it together and it is holding for now.

My grandfather made it the same year I was born. So technically it isn't an antique (right??), but it isn't a new fangled expensive one either.


But I don't know the first thing about wheels or spinning. But thankfully Tracy volunteered to help me out learning all there is to know about these things. She came today and we fiddled a bit with it.

Here's a bit of spun wool on it. But when we were spinning, me first to no great result, and Tracy second to no really fabulous result either. We decided that the wood was so dry and needed some hydration. Tracy was totally impressed with the craftsmanship, but there were a few things that just weren't working as well as she was sure worked really well when it was made. There were little things that really made her excited. Like these removeable pieces that hold the wheel in place.

So she told me all the things I needed to do to get it cleaned and shiny and hydrated.
So I'm taking it apart and washing it all down with Murphy's Oil Soap. Tomorrow I will be applying the first coat of Boiled Linseed Oil. Then I'm going to put it back together and see how well it's spinning.

I filed the inside of the spools so they fit better on the wheel thingy. And I filed and steel wooled the rust off the metal pieces. I can't wait for it all to be finished.

I'm gonna have to learn the technical terms soon. I'm still refering to things as the THINGYs all the time!

Again I'm taking a cue from Kate and linking my blog to twitter and Facebook. Hopefully this will motivate me to post more often.  The snow fell and has allowed the kids to be home for 3 days in a row. Hopefully we all survive tomorrow and they'll be allowed to return Friday. Our neighbor plowed more snow onto our hill so that allowed a bit of a deprive to our day. I didn't do any of the baking I had hoped to do. Maybe tomorrow. I did get baking done.  Now to finish up my stinking socks. I don't know why any sane person knits socks more than once. Argh!!!!

Trying this again. Thanks Kate for helping me figure this out. I wasn't sure what I was looking for or even where to look. Maybe know I will post a bit more frequently having the ability to do it from my phone. What did we do before smart phones again?? Here's how cute Maggie looks in her dress. Someone suggested I make vests with the same pattern for the boys. Now I'm rethinking the shirts and leaning more toward the vests. Hmm…

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knitting away

Wow its been a long time since I last blogged. Mostly because I'm using my phone for all my internet instead of sitting at my big computer. But also because I'm spending so much time knitting. I have totally lost myself in the wild world of wool and I don't know that I ever want to return. Its so amazing to see a picture of something, find the pattern, start knitting and then end up with the final project. I'm going to start a hat next for myself and I'm so excited about it.
I've just finished up a dress for maggie.

Next I'm going to be knitting this shirt for the boys to wear on Easter.

I hope to do a better job of posting things now. I've got to figure out an efficient way to do it on the iPhone!!