Thanks Micah, my friend. You made two guys very very happy. One who received the beautiful work of art. And one who gets to wear them. 
A neighbor of ours suggested that I felt them a little to fit my hands, but my partner screamed “NO!” They fit him perfectly and the color is one of his favorites. Mine too, but there’s no getting them back from him.
Tomorrow is the Kathina ceremony at our temple. I am heading out soon to spend the night there and to make offerings tomorrow.
Archive for October 2006
And make that cotton!
Don’t laugh. But I was watching Gandhi Tuesday night and was just fascinated with the cotton spinning demonstrated on the film. Way to go Ben Kinsley. Oh, I really want a book charkha now. Anyway, I was thinking about it all day yesterday and was itching to try cotton spinning. I didn’t have a charkha wheel. But I did have some cotton, and a small support spindle purchased from Nancy at Gwen’s workshop. As soon as I stopped working I took out the tools and fiber and went at it.
I had in mind how they spin the cotton and weave it into fabric to make robes. So I tried spinning thin. The truth is that spinning thin is perfect for this small spindle. I imagine that I will have to use these cotton singles for weaving. Oh oh. Did I just discover what the next fiber lesson will be? LOL
So I lied. I took more pictures of the improved “Suzie”. (Well, hopefully it is improved.) The sun came out and I had to hurry and take the opportunity. They still don’t show what human eyes can see. Now I understand how difficult it is to photograph these holographic fiber. Click to enlarge the pictures for better sparkles.
You know, I have another 1/2 oz bag of Angelina fiber. 
More bobbins. I need more bobbins!
I woke up with very sore arms. Why? Yesterday I spent all evening carding up this pile of fiber.
I was given some holographic tencil with amazing sparkles. I couldn’t decide what to do with it because it wasn’t in the form of fine fiber. I thought maybe I could add strands of it while knitting a scarf for my niece to add pizzazz. But I soon found out that it was a pain to do, and I didn’t like how it looked. Then I thought about “Suzie“. Why not try carding it into the wool fiber? I don’t really know how tencil will behave with wool fiber when being spun. But heck, I’ll find out soon.
So I got out the hand cards and “Suzie” and practiced carding, at the same time experimenting when and how to add the tencil to best blend it together. I was just going to try with a small batch of it. But I couldn’t stop. Didn’t I say that I love carding? So I made rolag after rolag until it was all done. I got a little impatient at some point and started charging the cards with more fiber. More fiber means more force needed to pull the fiber through. That’s how I ended up with sore arms. Can this count as exercising?
I think that I will have to spin this worsted to prevent the tencil from separating and sticking out of the yarn. I hope to have enough to make a hat. More bobbins! I need more bobbins! I thought I had enough with 4. But I can see that there will never be enough bobbins!
Here’s another pic that shows more of the tencil. Enlarge the pics to see the sparkles better. I will take a better picture once the spinning is done. Hopefully with outdoor light to show the amazing sparkles.
And here’s a pic of my Lendrum. Just for Dave D. More bobbins! I need more bobbins! And Ted made me aware that I don’t have the “Very Fast Flyer”!!! 
