What are the chances?

I am delighted with a new gift. A friend from the University Art department (the one behind the doily bombing, see this post) and some innovative yarn bombing is retiring and cleaning up her condo. I ran into her the other day and she said 'you like spinney things don't you? I have a thingy with 3 spinney thingies with whorley thingies looking for a home.'
I had no idea what she had but was happy to receive these mysterious thingies.
We met today and she presented me with the thingies saying 'I have no idea of what they are.'
But I did!

[Photo:Indian Head Spinner on
Singer sewing treadle machine]

What are the chances? They are 3 bobbins the perfect size for an Indian Head Spinner (aka Country Spinner, aka Cowichan Spinner, aka Salish Spinner, aka Squamish Head Spinner). And they are stored on a lazy kate. Not only did I recognize them, I have an Indian Head Spinner needed to use them! See my earlier post on my Indian Head Spinner. What are the chances?!



This book Working with Wool, a Coast Salish Legacy is an excellent history of the Vancouver Island Coast Salish wool industry.

Just like dinner

Stephanie from Knotty by Nature showed off her elegant silk shawl at the 25th Annual Island Weaving and Spinning Retreat in Parksville. The warp and weft are handspun silk. Stephanie was challenged when someone told her you can't use silk singles for warp. So she set out to do just that. She dyed the silk by, err, umm, mistake but the colours are subtle, harmonious and beautiful. It took her a year to spin the yarn and a week to weave it, 'just like dinner' she said. Think about it.

A lifeline

[Photo: The red yarn is a well used life line.]

frog

v.
to unravel a knitted garment. Also frog stitch v., to intentionally rip out a seam, and 
n., 
an intentionally ripped seam.

un·rav·el

v.
1. to separate or disentangle the threads of (a woven orknitted fabric, a rope, etc.)
2.to free from complication or difficulty; make plain or clear;solve: to
unravel a situation; to unravel a mystery.
3.Informal . to take apart; undo; destroy (a plan, agreement,or arrangement).
4.to become unraveled.

rav·el

 v.
1.to disentangle or unravel the threads or fibers of (a wovenor knitted fabric, rope, etc.).
2.to tangle or entangle.
3.to involve; confuse; perplex.
4.to make clear; unravel (often followed by out ).
5.to become disjoined thread by thread or fiber by fiber; fray.
6.to become tangled.
7.to become confused or perplexed.
8.(of a road surface) to lose aggregate.
Note to self: funny how there are three words used to describe ripping out (there's another one!) your knitting, and only one for knitting up.

frustration

 n.
1.the condition of being frustrated
2.something that frustrates
3. to become unraveled (okay I put this one in here, but it does fit).  See ravel, unravel and frog.

life-line

 n.
1.a. An anchored line thrown as a support to someone falling or drowning.
b. A line shot to a ship in distress.
c. A line used to raise and lower deep-sea divers.
2.a. A means or route by which necessary supplies are transported.
b. One that is or is regarded as a source of salvation in a crisis.
3.A diagonal line crossing the palm of the hand and believed to indicate the length and major events of one's life.
4.a length of smooth waste yarn which is inserted through the sts of a row or round of knitting using a darning needle, usually while working a complicated lace pattern. If you make an irreparable error and need to rip back, the lifeline provides an easy point to rip back to, and ensures that you will not lose any stitches.

re·lief

 n.
1.alleviation, ease, or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.
2.a means or thing that relieves pain, distress, anxiety, etc.
3.money, food, or other help given to those in poverty or need.
4.something affording a pleasing change, as from monotony.
5.release from a post of duty, as by the arrival of a substitute or replacement.
6. a feeling of relaxation after tenseness when you can take the life line out without having used it.  (okay, another one I added)

Too busy to post

[Photo: Crazy 8 outrigger race]

Here we are almost a month since the last post. Life has been way too busy to take time to post. It's been go, go, go, for a few weeks straight and it has worn the body down to a head cold. Which is why I have time to post while at home recovering. 

[Photo: St. Mary's Church
in Metchosin]

It started with a spin-in at a church by the ocean. A great environment for contemplative spinning, not that we contemplated, we just gabbed, but if one wanted to contemplate while spinning, then I recommend it. Try it. Take a spinning wheel to church.
Then there was two conferences, one workshop on making yarn baskets which I organized, operating a safety boat for a two day series of outrigger races, a spin-in which I organized, and the first bike trip of the year--short into the wind and driven sleet-like rain, amongst other events.  

[Photo: Some thing to do with coal
mining. Note the bike appearing
tiny next to this, thing]

Oh, and did I mention the renovations? It started harmlessly enough, buying a futon couch for the guest bedroom. That is the room also known as the stash room. The room which I suspect also houses Priscilla-the-fleece-less-sheep-that-rule-the-guest-bedroom-wool-stash. In any event, we had a guest due to arrive, so we ordered the couch, which arrived two hours after the guest left. Even with cleaning up the wool stash, the couch looked too crowded in the room. Something needed to be done. I won't get into the details, but it involved moving the bookcases (all three) out of the living room into the office; disassembling the office desk, shelves and counter; repainting the office, living room, dining room, kitchen; moving the loom from the main bedroom into the office; buying a wardrobe-in-disguise-which-will-really-hide-wool for the main bedroom; buying two upper kitchen cabinets for the office; and hauling great hoards of stuff (but not wool) out to the recycle shops. And we aren't finished yet. The office is starting to look great. The guest bedroom however is filled to the brim with paint paraphernalia, office papers, and a ton of office stuff piled 2-3 ft high on the new, unused couch! I am thinking the office is much nicer than the guest bedroom and, hey, why not put a door on the office and make it dual purpose: an office and a guest bedroom!

Get past it.

Remember my indecision of what to ply with the yarn on the bobbin (back on this post). Well I finally figured it needed a blue to both meld with the blue in the multicoloured yarn and to make the pinks pop out. I could have gone with a pink to hold everything together but that would have been, well, just too pink. It needed the blue. It called out for it. Here's the finished yarn.  
I am happy with it and it reminds me of a yarn I had 30 years ago, which raises a few, ummm, thoughts. Do you think I am trying to gain back those 30 years? Am I stuck on that yarn? Am I stuck on pinks and blues? It seems to me that whenever I dye fibre, somehow it always turns out pink and blue. My DH (dear hubby) keeps telling me to get past those pinks and blues. He's been saying that for years. Well, what if I just like pinks and blues, can't I stick with them? What if all my experimenting was to get to just this colour? What if I have arrived ...at pink and blue? Why do I have to get past it? I like it!

For Mike

This post is for Mike, who passed away on Saturday. Much loved by family, friends, community, students, and colleagues.

It's a small world - or, a funny blog story

All of a sudden my blog receives 55 hits on one post--Spin 'til you drop'. I was pleased but frankly it wasn't an outstanding post, so why the interest and where did it comes from?  
Blogger keeps some basic stats, like number of hits that day or week, what country they came from and where they were referred from, and it was this that linked back to a Ravelry group - Spin and Dye Swap. So why would they be so interested? So I checked out the Ravelry group and read that someone in England had read my blog and sent a personal message to someone else on Ravelry, someone who lives in BC, saying 'I saw this photo of a wine glass, a spinning wheel and orange socks and thought of you.' 
To which the other person replied ' and why shouldn't it? It IS ME!'.  
I wonder what it was that made the English reader think of the other woman? The orange socks or the wine glass?