Category Archives: books

Retrospect

Today is the last day of March, and even in the Caribbean it is going out like a lion. Tomorrow I will start the new month (fully spring!) by flying home to New England. I’ve been counting down the days for the entire month of March. I’m now at that final number: one day to departure.

Twice a year my life takes a sharp turn from living in a house surrounded by my looms, my spinning wheels, my taka dai, my dyepots, while surrounded by good friends and family, to living on a boat with very little space, no looms aside from a copper pipe loom, a newly acquired tiny e-spinner, knitting and embroidery, and a few friends that are not often in the same anchorage I am. I take stock. Each year in winter I take stock of the things that consumed my time at home, and now at the beginning of spring I take stock of what I managed to accomplished while living on a boat. It’s my semi-annual retrospective of my goals and my priorities.

Meanwhile, the first things I’ll do on my return are thrilling events I’ve been thinking about all winter. Tomorrow my guild’s biennial exhibition will open. I won’t be there, and I don’t have anything in that show, but I am looking forward to seeing all the works when I visit early in the coming week. I will meet my oldest friend there. For several years she had a sculpture studio at this location, the Farmington Valley Arts Center. It feels like a different lifetime when I used to visit her there. I would drive from NJ, where I lived at the time. She had a son, and I had two sons, so getting together was a rather complicated endeavor at that time in our lives, but it was important to both of us to spend time together. I expect we will reminisce about that other life we had decades ago while also seeing the works of many of my dear weaving friends.

The postcard for the Handweavers’ Guild of Connecticut biennial exhibition

On April 2nd, the day after I return home, I’ll drive up to Leverett, Massachusetts, to see an exhibit of tapestries by the Tapestry Weavers in New England (TWiNE) that will be on display for the month of April. I’m excited that less than 24 hours after getting home I’ll be reconnecting with good friends at this event! Due to the generosity of one of my friends, who offered to hold my pieces for the entire winter, I have three pieces in this show.

Looking back is always a bittersweet endeavor, and I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that. When I left home in December I had one more placemat to weave on my Japanese paper weft project. The biggest hurdle about that is the weft for that last placemat had to be unwoven from a previous previous placemat that was not the color I wanted. I will take that weft and re-dye in an indigo vat that I need to make. I am excited and intimidated about dyeing the re-used paper yarn to get the color of blue I want.

Neither my Caribbean tapestry or this sweater got finished this winter, but they both made progress. That’s all I can say, and I must make peace with progress instead of completion. As this sweater grew it got hotter and hotter to hold it in my lap while knitting, which is the main reason I set it aside.

When it became clear that I would not finish my Caribbean tapestry or the sweater above, I dug out an embroidery I started more than a year ago. I bought this design because of the sheep, no surprise! And that’s all I had finished when I put it away. I have enjoyed the few days that I spent embroidering the poinsettias and snowflakes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have it finished for the holidays at the end of this year? Not holding my breath.

In an effort to look on the bright side of my not-finished Caribbean tapestry, I plan to take it to the TWiNE show on April 22, to demonstrate weaving while I sit the gallery on that date. I’m glad I found a bright side to this disappointment.

The only thing I actually finished this winter was the hot water bottle cover I made from Kate Davies recent design group called “All Over,” a collection of stranded knitted designs. I think there will be some chilly nights at home ahead when I can use it! (Also I finished spinning about 100 grams of merino/silk hand dyed fiber…but I’m not counting that because finishing a spinning project is only the beginning of whatever project the yarn is meant to become!)

Along the way of making projects and fulfilling (or not fulfilling) goals, there were plenty of wonderful distractions, like knitting underway while listening to an audio book, which was only calm enough to do one time, when we sailed down the western coast of Guadeloupe.

Drying laundry while Bob writes a blogpost.

Lunch with friends overlooking one of the pitons in St. Lucia.

So many tropical flowers and animals

Months of beautiful views

And one of my favorite visuals: windows and shutters

Look at the view out the window at the back of the room with the open doors.

This is the kitchen at Fort Napolean on Terre de Haute, Les Saintes–another great room with a stunning window and the stark reality of getting water in the 19th century fort.

And speaking of kitchens, I often enjoyed making dinners onboard. I made a version of Isabella’s quiche (from La Brasserie in English Harbour, Antigua). It’s pretty close to hers–incredibly deep and creamy.

I was overjoyed to find mushrooms–all the way from France!–in Fort de France, Martinique. That called for chicken supremes in mustard/cream sauce with mushrooms. It was a good evening!

It was a winter full of lemons and limes. Everything is better with a little lemon or lime, and fresh herbs which grow in abundance here.

In the balance of things accomplished and things experienced, I guess there was a healthy dose of each. I would have loved more time to work with my hands and experiment with some ideas that are burning a hole in my brain! —but— it’s hard to give up the amazing experiences that kept me from working. The weather did not cooperate much this year. There was too much wind which made travel difficult and working at anchor very difficult. I live on motion sick meds every time we sail to a new location, and that takes a day or so to get out of my system. I am not patient waiting to feel better. On the bright side I listened to some wonderful books. At the top of that list would be Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton.

In retrospect I wish I had more work to show for my time here, and less days feeling the drag of mal de mer. But on the bright side, and thank heaven there is always a bright side, I am filled with ideas to pursue at home and some great memories of time spent with sailing friends and Bob.

Knitting to the Rescue!

It’s sad for me to report that my looms are in the same condition as when I arrived home.  Life has gotten in the way of my plans…

While I was determining the most pleasing way to thread the pattern for the JOY (Just Our Yarn) yardage project, I had my semi-annual visit to the dermatologist and discovered that a worrisome spot on my arm had become melanoma.  I noticed this spot had changed to something of concern back in January, but I could not get to a doctor then since we had already sailed away to tropical waters.

Still, the news was a bit shocking to me.  I was already beyond Stage 1, so removal of lymph nodes was mandatory on top of removal of the offending spot which ended up being much bigger than what shows on the skin.  It’s all behind me now.  I got a consultation with a surgeon at Smilow Hospital at Yale, and the surgery was only a week later.  Whew!  Two weeks later I got the news that my lymph nodes are clear and that the surgeon got clear borders around the malignant cells.

Yet I’m still not weaving…. The long cut on my arm and the smaller incision in my underarm severed quite a few nerves, and regaining use of my arm is going to take longer than I imagined.  That’s a small price to pay for getting rid of the melanoma, and I can certainly knit and also do bobbin lace.  And every day I am doing arm motions to improve my dexterity.  Very strangely, I have all kinds of odd sensations in my arm all the way down to my hand:  burning, stinging, numbness.  It’s very strange.

Meanwhile,  back to talking about weaving.  Diane and Cathy from Just Our Yarns gave a program to the Connecticut weaving guild last November, in which they demonstrated using two completely different handpainted yarns for warp and weft.  One of the slides showed a scarf woven with a warp of one of their skeins painted from the cool side of the color wheel–mostly blues and purples.  The weft was a brilliant contrast of oranges, yellows and peaches.  You cannot always purchase colorways that you see and like in JOY yarns since they do not repeat any of their handpainted designs exactly.  But I found two contrasting handpainted that should give a similar effect.

I chose a twill weave structure called “Raku” by Carol Bodin from the book Sixy Scarves for Sixty Years from the Weavers’ Guild of Greater Baltimore.  Here is a partial view of my plan.

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The long warp and weft floats should show off the color contrast of the warp and weft nicely. My warp is mostly muted greys, purples and blues, while my weft is a blend of peaches and creams. The sett will be 35 epi so those floats won’t be too long.

Now, the BIG question:  Should I flip the threading at the center of the warp and have the second half of the threading lean the opposite way?  Should I flip every other repeat of the sequence??  Should I just thread the whole thing in one direction and cut the fabric and turn it as needed for whatever I end up making?

I’ve favored each of these ideas at different times, and at the moment I’ve come full circle back to leaving the threading alone.  It would certainly help if I already knew what I will make with the finished fabric.  Typical of me, I have focused on the intrigue of working with this yarn rather than what I might do with fabric.  The warp is 17″ wide on the loom and I plan to weave 5 yards.

Meanwhile, as I ponder what to do about that threading,  I’ve been knitting and doing some Idrija lace on a bolster pillow.  I don’t even have to prop up my right arm on pillows anymore in order to knit, so I’m definitely improving.  This baby blanket is moving along nicely.  Interestingly, after looking at innumerable lace patterns, I ended up choosing a Eugen Buegler pattern.  He has designed lace patterns for many years and you can see many of his designs at the link above and on ravelry, as well as in numerous books by XRX.  He designed the first lace shawl I ever knitted, over 20 years ago.  I actually went to the local knitting store as I felt myself coming down with the flu in order to make sure that I had something to knit while I would be stuck in bed.  I still have that shawl…. in butterscotch colored, fine merino yarn from Grignasco.

But back to knitting for little baby Ozzie.  Here is the baby blanket as shown on Ravlery. It is called “Lace Plumes Baby Blanket” and is available as a downloadable pattern from Fiber Trends. Thank you, Eugen!  I’m using “Sublime Baby Cashmere” which I ordered from Jimmy Bean’s Wool.

I’m now further along than this photo shows because I work on it almost every evening, and then I realize that evening is not a good time for getting a photo.

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Next up will be this adorable sweater from Little French Knits on Etsy.  It’s a bit feminine, but, since I am so smitten with this little gem, I am clinging to the fact that, should our little bundle of joy be a boy,  they have traditionally dressed in rather delicate clothes as newborns.  This is just too lovely to pass on. Oui?

I have not yet shown a photo of the first sweater I made for our future little one.  The pattern is a design by Sephanie Pearl McPhee called Nouveau-ne.  It is delicate and fun to knit without being overly feminine.  I used Plymouth Yarns “Perlina” which is 100% merino which I bought at my LYS, Saybrook Yarns. The pattern has a matching bonnet style hat that I have finished but did not photograph yet.  There are also booties which I have not yet started.

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I have little limpet shells from the Bahamas that I will use as buttons instead of what I’ve shown here.  I lent my stash of limpets to a friend, and as soon as I get them back I’ll pick out the tiniest ones for buttons on this sweater.  I think it will be wonderful to have a little embellishment from our travels on our grandchild’s first sweater.  Aren’t I clever??

And I turned my attention back to the little Idrija lace ‘doodah’ that I started at the lace retreat back in May.  This little organic shape reminds me of a fiddle head fern or some kind of sea creature.  I’ve decided to make this two more times in a combination of blue and green.

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Second fiddlehead doodah in progress.  As you can see, the piece is woven upside down. On the next version I will make the central ‘squiggle’ in green and the side ‘squiggles’ in blue.  Then I plan to attach them to one of my summer tops.  Hopefully soon!

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So the past month has been taken up with the excitement of a first grandchild and the fears of having cancer–cancer that managed to progress past stage 1 before I got diagnosed.  It’s been an emotional roller coaster, and as usual, handwork– mostly knitting– has saved the day.  It took a full month to get diagnosed, have an initial consult with a surgeon, have the surgery, and get the pathology reports.  Waiting may not be the hardest part of being sick, but it’s certainly not easy.  Making these little projects and dreaming about future projects is what kept me sane during those long weeks.

Today I stumbled on this book of animal themed pom-poms made by a Japanese woman. She has captured the essence of each animal. After making each pom-pom with a mix of colors to imitate the animal’s fur, she adds details with needle felting.  I looked for the book online, hoping to order it, but so far I only found it on Japanese Amazon with no ability to order from the US.  I shall try harder.

And here’s a video of the author making a bear and teaching others the technique.

Just another little idea for Baby Ozzie to tuck away.  I hope I can find the book!

A Quiet Day Onboard

It’s anything but quiet outside today, which is exactly why I’m hiding down below.  We’ve had gale force winds since last night, and squalls bringing horizontal rain.  The wind in the palm trees is quite dramatic, reminiscent of Winslow Homer’s paintings of the Bahamas.  I don’t know how such tall skinny trees can withstand these winds.

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 We are anchored in a little ‘teacup’ harbor called Middle River, in Ft. Lauderdale.  It is surrounded by elegant, Florida-style mansions, and each house has a dock with a large powerboat tied up to it.  There are too many of us cruising sailboats anchored in the middle of this little teacup, and when the winds are this strong no one feels safe.  All the boats are on the verge of tangling so no one got any sleep last night—perhaps Bob and me most of all since we dragged rather dramatically in the late evening.  It was odd because we’d already been here overnight with no incident.  This anchor has surprised us twice now so we did not sleep worrying about dragging yet again.  Anyway, no loss of life, and no damage to anyone—but until this front gets through here we will not feel safe.  If any of us should drag too far we will be tangled with the large mega yachts on the docks.

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 Knowing this dramatic weather was coming, I had planned to make the warp for my next tapestry today, but it’s a bit too uncomfortable in this much wind to attempt that.  It’s better for me to sit still, so I’m trying my hand–for about the 6th time–at tatting.  Tatting is such a simple technique!  It’s just making slipknots that slide along a loop, which gets closed to make a ring, or slipknots that slide along a straight cord that gets pulled tight to make a chain.  Rings and chains are all you need to know, along with a little embellishment called a picot.  A picot is a pair of slipknots that are not pulled tightly to the previous slipknots.  By leaving a small space between sets of slipknots you get decorative little picots when you pull the foundation ring or cord at the end of each ring or chain.

Making these little elements is still so awkward to me that it feels like some kind of hand torture!  I keep dropping the shuttle, and/or I keep turning the work the wrong way as I tat.  The little picots that occur throughout the rings and chains are not consistent–but I forge ahead.  I am going to attach this little bit of frivolity to a V-neck T-shirt I own.  I think it will be quite feminine, in spite of its irregularities.

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 I have to thank my lace guru Mary for showing me the fundamentals of tatting (she’s not the first, but clearly the most successful at getting me to understand!), and I hope she will not take it as a slur against her teaching if she ever sees this pathetic little length of lace.  I just know that someday it’s going to feel natural to do this.  I have a memory of seeing my great aunts’ hands flashing back and forth as their tatting grew while I watched. Surely, it’s in my DNA somewhere.

And during the breaks I’ve been taking (to give my hands a rest and assuage my rising frustration) I’ve been reading The Paper Garden which is about an 18th c. artist who did not make her first truly original artwork until she was 72.

Today being my 60th birthday, this book is resonating with me.  Long before Mary Delany made her first unusually constructed botanical image that became known as the precursor to paper collage (she called what she made ‘mosaiks’), she had spent years painting in watercolors, drawing, and embroidering in cross stitch and other techniques.  She was also quite good at the piano.  She was no stranger to creativity.  She loved fashion and often designed her own gowns (made by others) before embellishing them herself with lavish floral embroidery.

I’m certain I’d feel quite connected to her even if I weren’t struggling with my novice attempt at tatting.  The fact that she surrounded herself and her home with beautiful things made by her own hand, and always had a garden wherever she lived, connects me to her with my own love of filling my home with handwoven and embroidered textiles, and having fresh flowers and greenery in the house from my gardens.  But since I am tatting, it’s that particular thing that makes me think of her every time I pick up the shuttle.  I’m embellishing a simple little t-shirt that I’ll wear on any given day—she embellished stunning 18th c. gowns that she wore on any given day.  What a difference three centuries makes….yet it still connects us.

Knitting and Fabric Shops in Coastal Maine

Several of our usual ports have surprised me with wonderful knitting and fabric shops!  Our ‘guest room’ is quickly filling up with my treasures!

Bath: Halcyon (the photo on their homepage is that Ecobaby sailor pattern! Ha!)  I have to admit that I’ve never been to Halcyon by

Halcyon Yarn

boat, but I have been going by car for 15 years.  You could get there by boat if you wanted to go that far up the Kennebec River and brave its challenging currents.  In all the years I’ve driven over that bridge I’ve never actually seen a sailboat moored in the river near Bath.  That’s not to say no sailboats ever go, just that I haven’t seen them on my yearly visit.  And what can I say about Halcyon, other than it is a weaver’s and knitter’s Mecca, not to mention spinners, rug hookers, crocheters, braiders, felters, etc…etc… If you do anything related to fiber, this is a great resource! Halcyon is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.  I had a wonderful shopping spree there!

Boothbay Harbor:  You need a car to get to Onboard Fabrics, but it is really worth it!  It’s a barn on Rte 127 (and their address is Edgecomb but my point of view is the harbor where a sailing seamstress might disembark), not far off Rte. 1 on the way to

On Board Fabrics, near Boothbay Harbor

Boothbay Harbor.  They have lots of nautical fabrics, inweights from upholstery to cotton lawn.  This year I bought fabrics to make aprons for gifts.  No sewing machine on board Pandora, so these projects will have to wait ’til I get home (meanwhile, my husband does have his sailrite sewing machine on board…but it will only sew heavy canvas and sail materials!).

 

Rockland: Quilt Divas.  They have fabric and yarn!  And the selections for both are great!  It is walking distance from the harbor

Quilt Divas in Rockland also has a large selection of yarn and knitting books

for us sailors!  I bought the Debbie Bliss “Ecobaby” book here as well as the yarn for the sailor sweater that is currently challenging me to re-design the collar!  I also bought more fabric for aprons here.  Now I’m going to make a lot of aprons for gifts!

 

 

 

Camden: The Cashmere Goat is new this year, in a good location right in the center of town (what used to be a shoe store).  The shop

'The Cashmere Goat in Camden

is not yet full, but they do have some wonderful yarns.  I bought Manos del Uruguay’s “Serena” (kettle dyed, 60% baby alpaca, 40% pima cotton) in a handpainted colorway (#9796) of watery blues and greens.  I’m going to knit a lace shawl from one of the free patterns at Interweave Knits

 

Belfast: Sock Heaven.  This yarn store has been in business for about 10 years now, but I haven’t been to Belfast in about 15 years,

Heavenly Socks in Belfast

so it is new to me! There is an entire wall of yarns produced in Maine, including Hope Spinnery and Done Roving. My big score here was Louet “KidLin”(49% linen, 35% kid mohair, 16% nylon) which I’ve been hoping to find during all my yarn store hunting.  It was hard to choose a color for Louet’s “Cia” Pattern, but I finally settled on “Mexican Orange,” a fun blend of gold and warm pink.

There is also a beautiful fabric store on High St. in Belfast.  I did not note the name yesterday, but I hope to go back today to spend more time there.  I will take a photo and get the name!

 

Other places.  I’ve been to the guild shop in the center of Blue Hill, as well as the yarn shop slightly out of town that has since gone out of busines (sigh…), and I’ve been to Shirley’s Yarns in Hancock (where I bought Dale microfiber years ago for a tank top I never finished because it was so unflattering on me!). Now I understand there are two shops in Blue Hill that I may not know: Blue Hill Yarn shop on Ellsworth Rd. and  String Theory on Beach Hill Rd.  I don’t know if we’ll get to Blue Hill this year, but now I hope so! And a google search shows two promising shops on Mt. Desert, one in Southwest Harbor (Lilac Lily Yarn Shop) and one in Bar Harbor (Bee’s, Inc.), so I hope to visit both of these since we are on our way there for the weekend.

I am putting aside the Debbie Bliss sailor sweater for the moment.  This is quite a disappointment to me, but I do want to give some thought to that collar.  The knitters on Ravelry did not have any solutions that appealed to me, so I will take a look in my library of knitting design books when I return home in September.

Here is my next knitting project, Louet’s “Cia.”

Louet's "Cia"

Louet's KidLin Mexican Orange

First I will finish my own design that uses Tess Designer Yarns’ micofiber ribbon.  I’ll be writing up that pattern to share here and on Ravelry.  It’s a very simple pattern, and I’m almost finished!

 

>Making a list…

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The winter holidays always bring out the list-making, goal -oriented part of my personality.  Here is this year’s list of goals, all unrealistically slated to be accomplished during the week between Christmas and New Year!

1.  Texsolv tie-ups to be applied to my 60” Toika loom

2.  Choose pattern for napkins which will be woven as test samples for future tablecloth project on the Toika . Warp the loom!

2.  Taka dai to be made by Bob according to Rodrick’s plans.  Naturally I will be turning out my first braid within hours of the taka dai’s completion.

Taka Dai Rodrick

3. Dyeing with my avocado pit brew which has been steeping for almost 3 months now. This means spinning some white wool to dye.

4.  Weave the small test tapestry for the medieval spinner with the wonderful wools that have arrived from Renaissance Dyeing in France.

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Won’t I have a busy week!  And somehow I imagine myself sharing delicious meals with my visiting family, lounging on the sofa reading all the fiber magazines that never got opened during the course of this year, continuing to knit my handspun Fair Isle sweater project, and starting a new baby sweater for the upcoming Feb. birth.  Dec. 2009 006

I need a dose of reality!…but then dreaming is so much more fun!

>The Pickwickian Quibbler

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I have just learned that William Safire has passed away. 

Today’s Telegraph describes him:
”Applauded by his peers as ‘a Pickwickian quibbler,’ he ran a gimlet eye down the solecisms, gaffes, weaselly euphemisms, jargon and sonorous drivel of political discourse and pounced with the restrained relish of a talented linguist.”

Since I am passionate about linguistics, I was a long time fan of his column ‘On Language’ in the NYTimes Magazine. Who will now fill his shoes?

Do you remember his phrase, “the nattering nabobs of negavitism?” Such creativity!

I never followed his politics, but his use and abuse of language was priceless….

This morning I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  I hope there are many others reading this at the moment, so I won’t say anything except that The Chicago Sun-Times’ review was spot-on for me: “This story, like all great tales, will break your heart, but it will also make you realize—or remember—that sometimes the pain is worth it.”

The garden is calling for attention, but I do not think I will get there today….garden fall anemones

>Homecoming

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It’s always wonderful to return home, but returning home after some hard sailing makes the pleasure even sweeter.  I may be a seasoned sailor after 35 years (well, maybe not) but I will never be a a hardened sailor. Late summer often offers some big challenges.  My husband doesn’t feel this way at all! You can check out a particularly hard day for me here by clicking on the video.

While sailing, I finished knitting (and partially sewing!) my kimono cardigan from Dovetail designs.  I just tried it on and I love it!  (I don’t say that often.)  I might not add the shawl collar since I like it so much as is!Sept. 09 009

(After wearing this sweater on two chilly days last week I have decided to knit the shawl collar, which you can see in progress)

 

 

 

While knitting I listened to my audible copy of The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, read by John Lee.  I’ve wanted to read this book for years and never got around to it.  To listen while knitting was a delightfully guilty pleasure!  It’s hard to imagine wanting to actually read anything ever again when I can listen to someone who was chosen to read for their lyrical voice while I continue to knit!Pillars of the Earth

Although I listened to four books on audible this summer,  I did manage to actually read two books:  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows, and The Elegance of Hedgehogs by Muriel Barbery (translated from French by Alison Anderson).  Both were delightful for the same reason! …a quirky look at a particular time period in a particular niche of society.  Both were so well done that  I regret finishing them! I particularly regret that Ms. Shaffer’s voice is gone from us now after such a lovely book. 

Blog The elegance of the Hedgehog blog the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society

I’ve just bought my ticket for the “Wild Fibers” annual dinner at the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, which means I will definitely go the festival!…in spite of never needing another ounce of spinnable fiber!  The weekend is October 17 and 18, and the dinner is Saturday evening.  If you will be there please let me know!  I want to meet you!

Goethe said, "One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."  I’m off to do a little of that right now….

>Summer Vacation

>So here’s some of what I did on my summer vacation while sailing through the Elizabeth Islands, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Cape.

It was a good trip for knitting and spinning. I finished one pair of socks and knit another pair, and I knit the entire front of my next Elsbeth Lavold sweater (I had finished the back before leaving). I think she is one of the most interesting designers. Her pattern writing is so terse, but the patterns themselves are a joy to knit! Like Alice Starmore, even though Lavold’s designs look complicated, they knit like a breeze. There’s something about the designs that keep me going without any tedium, so they work up more quickly than would seem possible. I don’t think I could ever be that gifted designer who could manages to balance a complicated pattern with such logic and grace that the knitting is simple, so I’ll just stick to knitting their designs!


Wouldn’t you know this sweater, called Hild, was shown in my favorite color in the Silky Wool line! Since I’d already knitted Siv in this color I had to choose something else. I hope I will enjoy this color as much:

The first pair of socks I finished were the Jaywalker socks. I’d already made one months ago and had started the second, so I just finished these up one afternoon. The yarn is Regia Color Effekt.


The second pair of socks was made with yarn bought in June, in Williamsburg. The yarn is Regia Silk Color, and though it really doesn’t show in the photo, there is a certain subtle “glow” from the silk.

I had some trouble spinning while away. I’m trying to figure out the best way to spin a worsted single that is medium weight and has very little twist. It’s easier on my Lendrum, but I wanted to get some spinning done while sailing so I took my electric spinner. On the electric spinner I could not work out the ratio between slow spinning and slow take up. I had the brilliant idea that I could use my plying head to spin a low twist single, but I didn’t take into account how the plying head has even faster take-up since it’s used for plying. Ugh. Bob helped me put on a longer piece of cord for Scotch tension so I could slow down the take-up, and he suggested monofilament since it would slip a little which would also slow down the take-up. It worked well! Now that I’m home I think I want to go back to just spinning on a regular wheel, in my case, my Lendrum. I have barely put a dent in my beautiful Romney fleece. I’ll never get to dyeing if I don’t get a lot of spinning done….and soon!

I’ll be home for the whole month of August! I’m looking forward to catching up on a lot of reading and a lot of weaving. By the way, My copy of Tapeis Gael: Weaving in rural Ireland arrived while I was away so I couldn’t resist starting to read it moments after it arrived. I’ve read the first three chapters, and it’s well written and a wonderful story of such interesting people!