Spinning on a home-made wheel

First, you get the book. The Complete Spinning Book by Candace Crockett has easy instructions for making your own spinning wheel.
Then you get a cat. Are there spinners without cats? Then you get someone who likes to take on wood-working projects. In this case my husband, who happily leapt into this project. Then you wait. And life goes by, your daughter goes off to college. And then one day you have a spinning wheel! Then you need to find a spinner to try it out for you.
My friends Karen Jelenfy (of Village Books fame, who is a spinner and dyer of Maine yarn) and Debbie Bergman at Purple Fleece kindly gave the wheel its inaugural spin. Karen tried out the wheel at my house then we took it across the street to Debbie for fine tuning. The flyer had stopped turning, Debbie oiled all the joints which solved several problems.






Then, you need to learn to spin yourself.
Which I managed to sort of do!!! A miracle!!!

And now I have a spinning wheel, and can (sort of) spin.


And this is right across the street.

I will be a vendor at the Maine Spinner Registry's Newport Spin-In on Saturday, February 19th, and will bring this home-made wheel out for a test drive.
-Kathy

Snow storm, audiobook news, upcoming events

Tibbs is watching the snow.

The blizzard which is hitting New England today arrived in our part of mid-coast Maine around 8am this morning as I was driving back from the hospital with my mother who had cataract surgery at 7am.

One of the pre-op questions they asked my elderly mother was whether she had any tattoos or body piercings.

The predictions range from 4 to 12 inches. We already have 5 inches. This is perfect knitting weather. (But I have a pain at the base of my thumb. Have any of you had this? I assume it will go away soon?)

Our woodpile is in the front, covered with a green tarp. Then raspberries, forsythia and an old apple tree on the left, pear trees on the right, my flower garden is beyond.

Given to me by a friend, I am not sure but think this is a Cattleya. The orchid behind it is about to bloom too. It is lovely (well, kind of essential) to have an indoor garden during the long Maine winter.

The snow is gorgeous. It is wonderful to sit in front of the wood stove, ours has a glass front, on a snowy day.

Audiobook news!

South Wind Through the Kitchen received a great review, and is "Editor's Pick of the Month" at SoundCommentary.com this January! Retired librarian reviewer Jean Palmer says, "This audiobook will bring joy and laughter to anyone listening to it".

Wild Fibers: Five Years of Favorites was on Audible.com's Bestsellers List for the week of December 22, 2010!

Coming up:

Saturday, January 15th, 10am
"Stories of Knitting" talk
Ellsworth Public Library
Ellsworth, Maine

Saturday, February 12th, 10-3
visit our vendor booth!
Newport Spin-In (Maine Spinners Registry)
Newport Elementary School
Newport, Maine

Friday - Sunday, February 26 - 28
visit our vendor booth!
NETA Spa Knit & Spin
Freeport, Maine

Tuesday, March 8th, 7pm
"Stories of Cooking, Gardening and Knitting" talk
Belfast Free Library
Belfast, Maine

See EVENTS page on the website for more information. See you there!
- Kathy