Dance videos and spinning

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As Leo left to take his hike in the Virginia Kendall Park, I hit the shower and started planning the day.  Earlier I thought I would go out to the mall or something to window shop a bit.  Then I realized that I would be out all day tomorrow for dance lessons and hanging out with Connie (maybe), I should stay home and get some ongoing project wrapped up.  So I came downstairs and started the video tape conversion project for Connie.  I have two tapes left to convert and one to burn.  I brought the spinning wheel down with a hot mug of Oolong tea and Brenda Dayne’s Cast-on on my iphone.  The time passed very quickly between ripping, converting, burning and spinning.  In the end, I finished the video coversion project and the bobbin is almost full with the dark brown yarn.  Tonight, CAVs is on and I really hope they win this one.  Magic and CAVs are very compatible teams, but somehow Magic always pulls up to win in the end for the last 2 games.  It’s pretty frustrating as a CAVs fan.

Benny stayed in his little bed with me downstairs.  I bought it for the cats but somehow neither Manfred nor Tido wants to have anything to do with it but Benny jumped right in and barely fit his body in this little cat bed.  He seems to like it though.  It’s an enjoyment to listen to podcast talking about knitting while you knit or spin.  And although I think the music is a bit out of place in the beginning in a podcast, I have grown used to it and sometimes like the songs she is playing.  I downloaded all of the episodes and now I’m listening to Episode 32, still only half way through yet.  But it’s a nice in-between audible books filler for me.  I like Kelly Petkun’s podcast also.  But I”m all caught up with her now. 

It’s been an overcast day, sun barely poked through the clouds earlier and now it looks very gloomy outside.  I really enjoy having this room downstaris for computer work and as a craft room.  Time seems to past very quickly down here.  For the first whole year, it’s not organized and it’s cold so I rarely came down here.  But now all the junk is put away and it’s summer time, I don’t mind staying down here to work on the computer.  With the perfect view out to the lake when you try to think through a problem is a gift in life that I never dreamed of.

Benny got a hair cut

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In the past week or two, Benny has been exhausted after his daily walk in the sun.  So we decided to give him a short haircut.  Took him to Pets Mart this afternoon and he came back looking really cute.
From Pets

I brought the socks in progress with me and knitted in Border’s with a cup of coffee.  Leo saw a contest for a Taiwan tour and he’s been bugging me all day to enter the contest and do the video blogging for it.  I am very hesitant about these things, don’t like competition of any kind.  Hopefully, he will out grow this idea eventually. 

We grilled steaks for dinner, Elim is on call at the hospital so we saved her one for later.  The steak was medium rare but it tasted bland and tough still.  Not sure if it’s from being in the freezer for a while or the store we bought them from.  We decided to get real good steaks from now on maybe from the neighborhood butcher. 

Spinning continues and I think I have settled on the thickness of the yarn to spin for this batch.  Hopefully, it’ll be better when it’s plied.  Got to get the hang of plying the singles on the wheel.  The last try was not very good.

Another day spent at home

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Well, I had every intention to get out of the house today and do something or go somewhere by myself.  Leo went to the garden to plant more vegetables and flowers.  I took a shower and put on my jeans and was browsing the web when Leo walked in the door.  Talked to Connie for a bit and just decided to go downstairs and work on the PC a bit.  Oh yeah, and open the mail that has been accumulating for weeks.  I hate mail.  So I try to ignore them as long as I can before guilt gets the better of me and forces me to take care them.  That’s what I did this afternoon and filed those that need to be filed.  Did a big of organizing the office using the new plastic organizer we bought a few weeks ago. 

Came up around 4pm and started back on the two socks on two circular needles.  Man, I really don’t like this method.  The hands feel so confined and restricted and the yarn is constantly twisting around each other.  It doesn’t help that I am using the yarn from one ball, every row or two I have to untwist the yarn and find the right needle to use again.  I only have 2 16″ and they are a bit too short for me to deal with the socks.  Anyway, I have been struggling with this one and avoiding knitting it for a long time.   One saving factor is the cuff down method.  It’s only the second time I tried to knit socks from the cuffs down.  So learning the method makes it interesting and I quite like the construction of the socks knitted this way.  Especially the short rows done by K2tog or ssp instead of wrapping is more appealing to me.  Picking up the stitches along the heel is also much smoother than the other way.  I may start knitting socks cuffs down for a while but I’m going back to the dpns.  I love knitting socks with dpns.

The skein I plied the other day and washed and dried did not have enough twist in the first half of the skein.  So I ran it through the wheel again adding more twist to it.  It took quite a while as the skein got tangled in the middle I had to wind it up from the other side and paying extra attention in untangling the darn thing.  But eventually I conquered it and then I wound it to the swift and then to the ball winder.  I got 400 yards for this skein.  Hmm, what can I knit with it? 

From Yarns

The finaly product looks better but it is the first wheel spun yarn, there are lots of irragularities and vm and over spun or under spun spots.  But it’s my first attempt so I will give myself some slack.  Then I started on the new roving I got from the Great Lakes Fiber festival, it’s border leicester dark brown.  More crimp than the coopworth I worked with a bit more difficult to spin for some reason.  But I will stick with it and hopefully it will get easier with practice.  The drafting is still not even.

From Yarns

I have a spinning station setup behind the chairs facing the TV so I can watch some TV when I spin.  Well, hoping to watch TV when I spin.  The swift and the ball winder mounted on the portable coffee table next to me.  I’m quite happy about the setup having all the tools I need at arms reach.

From Yarns

I went back to sock knitting in order to watch the Cavs.  It’s so close it kept me on the edge the whole time.  Leo gave up to go to bed but can’t help coming back to watch the ending.  We lost.  But it was so close.  These two teams are very equal in their game but Magic got lucky again.  It’s such a disappointment to watch your team lose and you just can’t help really getting into it and feeling the stress and the anxiety as the seconds count down to zero.  Now I’m tired and finally getting ready to go to bed. 

So that’s the day.  I am pretty productive all in all and yet I stayed home  all day.  Oh and the little geeselings have grown a lot since I last saw them.  I took the second picture from inside the house so the color isn’t as vibrant.  But you can kind of tell the little babies have grown up a lot.

From Condo
From Condo

My first spinning wheel

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Yeah!!!!  I got a loaner wheel today at the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wayne County fairground.  Tido here is checking it out too.
From Yarns

And of course, I immediately sat down and started spinning.  I was so wrapped in it, I think I spun for 5 hours straight.  Only stopped briefly to put down some food that Leo heated up for me and went back to it again.  The result is this:

From Yarns
From Yarns

I finally got the hang of it and started to spin the thin yarn I am aiming for.  It’s not there yet to mke a lace yarn, but I’m pretty happy about it.  Peggy from the yarn shop I took the spindle lesson from have this great program where you can rent to own a wheel.  And She had this Louet S10 right there at the festival.  And she gave me a 5% discount for it being gently used.  🙂  I was sold at the first sight.  And I picked up 2 1/2 lb of Border Leicaster brwon roving also from her so I can spin it up and make a sweater for Leo.

My back is achy from sitting in the same position for hours but my spirit is still high and I can’t wait to spin two bobbins and ply it up to compare with my hand spun.

Podcast Test 1

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Ok, I’ve tried to record something with my Sony Vaio three times.

The first time I used Propaganda and the notebook’s built in microphone.  Bad, lots of noises.

The second test, I used Propoganda and a plug-in Pioneer DM-21A mic that I got for the old Karaoke machine.  Better but still has noise.

The third test, I downloaded RecordForAll and the same Pioneer mic.  About the same.  I thought it’s a different software but it’s basically the same software but different names.  Go figure.

test recording

Next, I tried iTalk on my iphone with the iTalk Sync on the Macbook air.  Here is the result.

Test with iTalk

Ironically, the iphone test comes out the most clear.  So, should I just record with my iphone and import it into propaganda or Record for All to make the final product?  Hmmm.

Ah, I need to try to record on the Mac, too.

Podcast

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I’ve been listening to Brenda Dayne’s Cast-On podcast lately.  Accidentally I ran across it on iTunes and liked it and downloaded all of the episodes to my iPhone and just turn it on whenever I am driving or knitting or spinning.  She has a very soothing voice and it’s like a friend sitting across the table, sipping a cup of tea and carrying on a very casual but interesting conversation with you.  I am very surprised how professional she sounds, her voice reminds me of 102.2’s Delila who plays sappy love songs and talk to people who just broke up with others or has a message for their love ones. 

In the first few episodes, she talks about the software she uses, sometimes complains about it, and the pod safe music she plays is very good too.  I don’t  know if I could find all those good songs if I were picking.  There are so many of them in so many categories, how ‘do’ you find those that would interest you.

But all this talk got me interested in trying to make my own podcast just to see how it’s done.  I don’t think I want to do a ‘podcast’, maybe just one recording to play with the software, insert some music, see how to put plain talking and music together.  And if I like it, I can make more.  So I downloaded Propaganda and installed it.  Played its tutorial.  Now I need to plan the outline and see what music I can find.  It’s going to be a fun process, I hope.  And I’ll try to document it.

My first skein

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From Knitting
From Knitting

Yea!!! My first spindle spun two ply skein of yarn from Louet’s Coopworth light brown.  It’s about 180 yard and I wasted a lot of fiber in the beginning learning how to spin.  So out of 1/2 pound of roving I got 180 yard.  But it looks pretty good for the first skein.  I’m working on the second 1/2 pound now and we’ll see how much yarn I can make out of it now that I don’t waste as much. 

I’m trying to achieve a lace weight yarn eventually but this one is more like a worsted weight even though I think I’ve spun as thin as I possibly can.  Still, I know there are lots of room for improvement still.  I’m watching wheel spinning videos on youtube trying to get as much understanding as I can right now so I can move up to a wheel some day.  I’m pretty glad that I picked the right fiber and first spindle to learn the craft.  And the lesson I had also helped tremendously.  I learned that the singles look kinky and it’s not a failure.  I got so frustrated the first few tries when I see only kinky yarn came out and I didn’t know how to control the amount of fiber going in either so it has lots of unspun fiber caught in the over-spun yarn.  It was quite a sight.  Not.

Now I can draft better and only let a small amount of fiber into the twist, I don’t waste as much.  And I learned that playing from both ends of a ball makes it a lot easier than from two separate balls.  I can check for balance for each spin and only wind on if the yarn is balanced.  Don’t know how I can adjust on a wheel.  But spinning with the Golding spindle is easier than the Greensleeves Bare Bone.  It spins longer.  The Bare Bone is still nice, it just doesn’t spin as long and stable. 

And all this improvement happened within a week after the lesson.  Before the lesson I tried on and off for a couple of weeks and finally set it down out of frustration thinking I’ll never be able to make yarn.  The lesson didn’t really teach me much technically, but it did help me to understand the process better, especially drafting the roving more.  I was slowly getting it on my own thinking I could split the roving but I didn’t do the pre-draft so the yarn was still very thick.  After predrafting, the yarn is much thinner and consistent.  Although I drop the spindle more often trying to spin as thin as I can, the yarn is much better looking.  Can’t wait to try other kinds of fiber.  This first one is supposed to be easy to spin for the beginners, but it’s not very soft.  I like to spin some very soft lace yarn and sock yarn in the future.

Golding has arrived

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From Knitting

Yea!!!  My Golding Aromatherapy Spindle arrived today.  It came very quickly, I ordered on Monday and it arrived on Thursday.  It came in a huge box with tons of peanuts surrounding it.  I couldn’t wait and dropped everything and spun for a while.  I love it!  It does spin for a long time and I put a few drops of Bath and Body Works Vanilla and Jasmine oil on a cotton ball and stuffed it in the little cup.  I was in heaven.  I really, really love it.

Yesterday, I went to a local yarn shop and took a spinning wheel lesson.   The instructor talked a lot about the whole process of spinning from fleece to roving before we actually started spinning.  I didn’t do very well.  With all my experience with spindle spinning, I could not keep the yarn going.  The twist gets into the drafting zone over and over again and I just couldn’t get the hang of it.  When I finally thought I was doing something, it was time to go.  Darn.  Anyway, we were spinning on the Louet’s S51.  I am going to try some other wheels before I decide which one to get.  I know I will eventually be spinning on the wheel to produce yarn in a timely fashion.  But I won’t give up the spindle spinning either.

My spindle spinning is getting more and more consistent.  It’s a zen like activity where you get into a zone and let the hands do the repetitive tasks and the mind wonders.  Sometimes I listen to the Cast On podcast and enjoy the yarn talk and the music that Brenda Dayne put on her show.  It almost makes me feel guilty to be doing exactly what I love to do.  Strange how we view things.  Lots of time we are brain washed by the teachings that we were rasied with.  You have to be working or doing something you don’t particularly enjoy for money’s sake and everything else is sinful because you indulge yourslef in the things you like to do.  Guilty or not, I do enjoy my life and should work on getting rid of the negative influences that do not help with your mental health anyway.

I did a bit of replanting today.  The bamboo plant we got from the oriental store has not been looking very good after the cats got into it and nibbled off a lot of the leaves.  So I took the scissors out and cut out all those bad leaves and shaped some others.  Dumped the old water out and mixed a new batch of water with miracle grow.  Hopefully, it will get some life back into the leaves.  I also combined the two Christmas cactus that have outgrown their pots.  And the poor Christmas pointsettia that have been losing leaves for a while, I repot it in a bigger pot with fresh soil.  Hopefully it will come back to life too. 

From Herbs From Herbs

 

From Herbs

Oh there is the geese vs swans battle outside the window right now.  A pair of geese with their little tiny babies are walking along the lake by our condo, two swans came swimming with the wings up trying to scare off the geese.  The parents were protective of their babies and kept a watchful eye on the swans.  Quite interesting to see.  The neighbor also got her camera out and was taking pictures of the scene.

From Pets From Pets

Herbs and Spinning

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We went to Herts in Akron and got some herb plants and seeds today. Leo planted some Saturday for me in a containter.  Hopefully, we’ll have something to cook with in a few weeks.  We also stopped by the community garden to check on the lot he signed up.  They haven’t staked it out yet, we have to wait till Memorial day weekend.  But he is going to grow some plants from seeds to get them ready by then.  I’m looking forward to see his garden this year.
From Herbs

I also ordered the Ashford Niddy Noddy the other day from Woolery.  It came today.

From Knitting

Now I’m ready to make skeins of yarn.  One step further to the final product.  Just can’t wait to knit something from my first attempt at spinning.  Oh yeah, ordered the Aromatherapy Spindle from Golding yesterday.  Really can’t wait to get that in my hands and see what the rave is about in the spinning community for them.