Friday, December 28, 2007

Happy Holidays

Well, my Ladybug arrived just before Xmas. I LOVE IT. It's super cute and spins perfectly. No trouble so far. The attached, tensioned lazy kate looks super awesome. I'm on my 4th bobbin of yarn being spun on it, but haven't plied anything yet. I'll let you know how it works for that, but I'm not expecting any trouble.
There are so many big flat surfaces on the frame of the wheel that it just cries out for stickers or decals or some sort of decoration. The only complaint I can muster is that it stinks. Literally. The oil they used to finish the wood is mighty smelly. I've had it out of the box for a couple of weeks now, and I can still smell it when I first sit down to spin. I'm hoping that will get all aired out soon.

The basement at the yarn store seems to be no longer leaky, so I've started setting up the dye workshop area down there, and I plan to order the first batch of undyed yarn next week. The only thing I was freaking out about was that there is no spin-cycle washer down there to help get all the excess water out of things before hanging them to dry. I wasn't looking forward to all the mopping up and dripping etc. Well, today I found this thing online:



It's a little spin-dryer! If you want one, you can get it here.
OK, I'm also freaking out a little bit over my lack of a motorized skein-winder to help on things that will need to be re-skeined. Anyone got a recomendation there?

Friday, December 07, 2007

Schacht Ladybug


Schacht Ladybug
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

I ordered one last week. No idea when it'll actually show up, but yeah. I couldn't resist the cute.

To pay for it, I'm selling my Kromski Minstrel to a girl in Dallas on Dec. 30th

I love that it took me less than 2 hours to find a buyer for the old wheel. Spinning stuff may be expensive, but it holds it's value really well if you take care of it.