I have a little bit leftover that is the rest of the brown to blue transition.

I also finished some more yarn last week… this is sort of sport-ish weight, and I’m not sure what I’ll do with it quite yet since it’s too heavy to go through the sock machine.

Then I Navajo-plied an entire bobbin I had spun some time back… it’s hand combed marsh romney and I’m rather happy with this batch compared to the rest of this wool I had carded and spun into a 2-ply yarn.  No idea what I’m doing with this yet, but it will likely become part of a weaving project in the not too distant future

And I’m nearly done with my  Kelso Cardigan!  All I really have left to do is graft the unerarms and weave in all the ends.

Here are the old bearings next to the new ones… the new ones are so pretty

I’m quite happy at the moment…. with my now quiet Hitchhiker.  I was able to track down a replacement spring hinge and get that installed Friday, which did solve the whorl against the wheel issue, but at a cost – the wheel now has a bit more resistance while treadling the smaller whorl (and I imagine that would only increase with the smallest whorl, which I don’t have), but it’s really not too bad.  I’m willing to live with that bit of extra resistance, if it means a quieter wheel.

My little renovation project will still continue with repainting some parts of my wheel that have withstood some wear over the past 2 1/2 years, but it’s spinning better now than it ever has.

1. Mother of all bearings – mine are plastic, not sealed, and they sound like roller skates unless I drench them in oil… say every 20 minutes.  That’s far from ideal, and eventually they get gummed up and even noisier (soaking in hot soapy water and washing seems to help, but the cycle repeats).  I’m replacing these with sealed metal bearings, assuming I’ve ordered the correct size.
2. Brake band.  I noticed that mine makes a specific chattering noise, that I was able to troubleshoot down to blaming on the spring itself.  The monofilament wasn’t the quietest material in the world either, but a majority of the noise was in fact due to the necessary spring.  Monofilament on it’s own doesn’t really work out so well.  So I’ve replaced my brake band with 1mm stretch bead cord.  So far it’s working out *really* well.  It’s elastic, so no spring required, and it’s smooth and slick like the monofilament.   Time will tell how well it holds up, but I’m encouraged by how well it’s performing so far.
   
3. Whorl against the wheel.  This isn’t actually noise caused by the whorl traveling along the wheel (which does make some noise, but it’s not bad) but rather by the fact that the whorl isn’t held against the wheel with enough tension, causing is to bounce a bit as I spin.  This is impart due I think to a slight imbalance with the flyer, but neither flyer I have works any better, and some extra tension on the mother of all seems to solve the problem.  I’m somewhat convinced that this is due to the single spring hinge, so my plan is to replace the non-springy hinge with a spring hinge when I can find a replacement (I’ve found them online, but shipping is more than the set of 2 hinges is).

It will be interesting to see how much of a difference the new bearings and second spring hinge will make.  I will update as soon as I have replacements and can swap those out.

I’m also working on refinishing a few rough areas of my wheel, and finishing up a few parts I feel like I sort of left half-completed.  I have only been about 90% happy with how it turned out after painting it, but never really got motivated enough to fix what I didn’t like.  Now that my HH has reached 2 1/2 years old, I think some maintenence is due

Here’s the yarn I started 7 months ago.. finally finished.  I’m thrilled with it, of course   Final stats are 110g and 568yds, I’m not sure of the WPI since I can’t find my WPI tool.

Then I’ve started on some of my Zen String fiber stash.  Since hopefully after our fundraiser she’ll be all moved, settled in, and dyeing again soon enough, I’m not nearly as afraid of using all of my stash up anymore – since I feel very secure in the thought that soon enough, there will be more.. LOTS more

This is Fern Gully, and an “action” shot

Mmmm.. fibery

Raffle winners should be announced on Saturday for the Zen String Raffles (we are waiting on Angelina to draw the #’s that will determine the winners).. the raffles did phenomenally well, and we’ll post the totals for entries as well as the final amount raised for Angelina after the last of the auctions end tomorrow.

Not sure when I’ll get around to spinning it… but I am enjoying just looking at it all

I took a wee break from knitting after hurting my finger, but I did knit a couple pairs of shorties and another pair of longies for Odin, and a goofy hat for my sister, and I’m halfway through another pair of longies for Odin in Wise from Zen String that I hope to have finished in a day or two (and I will post those when they are done – I’ve promised myself). I’ve done some spinning as well, but I am woefully behind on that at the moment… I have three months worth of my Zen String fiber club to catch up on, and on top of that I’m actually expecting some more ZS fiber in the mail… wonder how that happened

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately though.. and thinking I may set up a photo blog that I won’t update often either.. lol These things always seem like such a great idea to set up, but it’s the maintaining bit that ends up being a challenge. My mom wants a blog too, and I sort of started to set her up a wordpress blog on her domain, but never finished setting it up. I should do that too….

My kids have been keeping me busy, Seth just turned 7 last month, and the little ones continue to be quite a handful (please note that I don’t recommend the 2 year age gap – 4 1/2 years apart was SO much easier!!). Kaia (2 1/2) amazes me every day with how much she is learning, and Odin (almost 7 months) has just started fully crawling (he has been army crawling since just after Christmas) so he’s all over the place now.

My flickr API thingie doesn’t seem to be working so no pictures for this post..I don’t feel like doing it the hard way, but I think most everyone who reads my blog is in my flickr contacts anyways (and if you aren’t, don’t be afraid to add me – I’ll add you back) so you haven’t missed anything really

But it’s hard to believe it’s over halfway finished now! I know I still have quite a bit of knitting left to do, but I’d estimate that I’m actually 60-70% finished… that’s pretty good, I think, considering it’s my first sweater for me, I bought the yarn just two weeks ago, and I’ve got the “fun” part still to do (which motivates me to keep knitting)!

And, with relatively short notice.. we picked up our bunny this afternoon!

DH is quite amused by him… I don’t think he quite got why I wanted this bunny and he’s still a bit confused as to why he looks so ‘goofy’. He is so much smaller than he looks, too.. under all the fluff he’s still a tiny little baby bunny! He’s two months old today, which makes him exactly 3 weeks younger than Odin

From Zen String’s September Fiber Club – 111g, 365yds, 11WPI (it’s fluffy though, so it’s really more of a lighter DK weight).

There are more pictures in flickr

I also made another needle case, this time making a few changes.. mainly making it shorter. I’m happier with this one than the first one (I think it’s more functional), but there are still a few changes I think I will make for the next one..

The next one will have multiple colors for the interior… and it will be yet again a different size

I also put a lining into my little felted bag.. and I put a typical assortment of stuff in it so you can see how pathetically cute the thing really is [LOL]

Which brings me to the chocolate correidale that I had sort of earmarked for longies for the wee one.. it’s now most of that EZ sweater (I just have to finish the second arm now). I will have quite a lot of yarn leftover, since in addition to that first skein I ended up spinning two more (the three skeins are almost a pound, total), so I *could* do something for my little man too, but I just bought some Zen String for him (with the matching trim) so he definately won’t be missing out on any mommy-knit woolies

I also joined Zen String’s Fiber Club as a late birthday present to myself. I’m excited – all of the fiber I’ve gotten from Angelina so far has been incredible, and I’m sure it will continue!

Oh yeah, and I made playdough for the kids. After trying numerous recipes, this one worked the best..
2c flour
1c salt
4t cream of tartar
2T oil
1c water
Food coloring

Mix together until smooth (no lumps), heat on stove (on low) until “doughy”.

It’s insanely easy, and super cheap, and the results are more like the real stuff than any other I’ve made. Just don’t cook it too long, or it gets “weird”

That’s 105g and 325yds of Superwash BFL, from Zen String.

It was quite striking before it was spun too!

I’m going to make a pair of socks from it from Cat Bordhi’s new book, but the cast-on for the pair I want to make requires some needles I don’t have, so I’ve ordered them and now I get to wait impatiently. *sigh*

Oh yeah, and the big grey blob is still a WIP – it’s just too hot/heavy to work on at the moment, sorry!

135g / 235yds

101g of merino/bamboo, 435yds. Don’t know the actual WPI yet as it’s still drying No idea what I’ll do with it either, but I finished it!

“Sea Salt” was one of the colorways offered in Zen String’s fiber club back in March.

95g, 235yds, 9-10WPI This was roving from handpaintedyarn.com that I gave up spinning (I had other colors of it – none of it drafts nicely) but I figured it would be good to try as I got used to the rose.. since I didn’t care of I screwed it up. It’s spun entirely woolen, from the fold, and It didn’t come out half bad… it will probably become a pair of longies or shorties for the new babe

The only thing that the roving from HPY has going for it is that it’s really soft.. but I think they aren’t very careful with it as they are dyeing, because their roving tends to be semi-felted.

There they are.. excuse the dirty floor and all the dust on the HH – I didn’t realize either was so bad until I took the picture! Guess I should sweep the corners more often

(and yes I know I have the knob at the top of the Rose on backwards.. I’ll fix it later )

It’s going to take a little while to get used to it I think, as the spring clip in the flyer definately seems to have a bit of a learning curve (or rather, I seem to have a problem with forgetting to MOVE the thing, and estimating where to move it!) but other than that, it’s wonderful! Treadling is so smooth compared to my Ashford.. it’s amazing!

So, the final yarn is 112g, 515yards, and 17WPI. It’s pretty much spot on what I wanted, maybe a hair finer, but that’s ok – I’m happy with it

(picture is a little greener than the yarn really is)

Hopefully my wheel will be here tomorrow I’m about 2/3 done with the second bobbin of the merino/tussah, but I really can’t ply it until my rose is here since it won’t all fit on one of those teeny ashford bobbins.