Whispers of knitting

Believe it or not, I still remember how to knit. I know there has been relatively little knitting on this knitting blog of late, but I have been slowly plodding at it. I finally seem to have overcome the damage done to my arm by the car door last summer. It's not fully healed and I still have to stop and rest if I do too much in one go, but it's steadily getting better.

So, when I received my Spring issue of Interweave Knits and saw the Whisper Cardigan I knew I had to knit that. It would get my knitting mojo back into full swing. Lace weight yarn knit on larger needles sounds like fun.

I didn't have any yarn on hand and since spinning yarn is more fun and less expensive than buying yarn, I bought some roving from the local Spin In: Louet Thunderstorms.

The colours look very vibrant before it's spun, but the fibre is dyed in such a way that each individual fibre has two or sometimes three colours to it and the yarn becomes a softly muted heather when it's spun.

I spun up a sample and knit a swatch. As the yarn is single (one ply they call it sometimes), I don't need to spend extra time plying it; however, it is really very thin, a fair bit thinner than I usually spin these days for my three ply sock yarn. Therefore, I shouldn't be surprised that the first time I spun it, I didn't add enough twist to keep it together and had to run it through the wheel again. I've got the hang of it now even though it means that spinning it on the fast setting of my Ashford Traditional, I still have to treadle like mad and draft impossibly slow. I should have spun it on my Quebec wheel which is especially good at spinning fast, thin yarns. Live and learn.

To set the yarn before I knit it, I wound it onto my niddy noddy (my nid) and gave it a shower. I gently squeezed the water into the yarn then left it on the nid to set. When it was dry I wound it into a ball then knit a gage swatch. Then I washed the gage swatch in some clear, warm watter and lay it flat to dry. I didn't pin it to a specific shape as I always detest that part of blocking fabric and I wanted to see how it would look if I neglected that step.

The swatch, when dry, was on the bias. Instead of being a rectangle, it was more a trapezoid. As the yarn is unplyed (single strand) it has a lot of potential energy stored in it and when it is washed, it begins to release some of that energy and it twists or untwists I should say, so that the fabric, unless properly blocked, becomes slanted.

I like the fabric it produced. It was light weight and airy with a nice drape. The yarn was almost shiny and the colours merged together well. I wondered if the cardigan pattern actually called for fabric this open so I looked at the extra photos on Interweave Knits and yes, the fabric appears to be somewhat transparent so I'm on the right track. If it ends up being too open a fabric for me, I think I might be able to full it slightly once it's all knit up. But then again, the openness would be excellent for summer as it would provide just enough warmth to cut the summer evening chill when we eat dinner on the sundeck and watch the stars come out. The stars at the farm are almost as bright as the stars I remember from my youth.

As for the colour, I'm happy with this. I had originally hoped for a semi solid green, perhaps merino blended with carbonized bamboo. But this will work well. If I like this cardigan enough, I can always knit another one.

Given the speed that the swatch knit up, this should be a quick knit. I'm almost half way finished spinning the yarn for it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wild life

I think I might have seen my first cougar last night.

It was the end of dusk and the light was fastly growing dim. The back of our property has a little over two acres (maybe more) of native, second growth forest and out of that thick undergrowth slunk a animal. I was doing something at the back of the house when I felt a sudden need to turn around and look behind me. There was a black patch on the ground that wasn't there before. The light was so dim that I wasn't certain if it was just a shadow or something alive. It moved, but perhaps it was my eyes, so I kept watching. I also started singing Stan Rogers' songs at this point just in case it was something dangerious. This tactic always seems to scare off bears, cougars and other dangerious critters.

It was as black as a black bear which was to say that it admitted no light to escape it's shadow. I've seen nothing in the world as black as the bears who live around here. Instead of lumbering along as bears do, it slunk; stopping every few moments to stand perfectly still, then continued to slink along the edge of the forest towards my neighbour's chickens. The shape was a that of a long, thin cat, only much larger. Over a yard long and perhaps three feet tall. It's hard to tell exactly.

According to my dad, the naturalist, it was probably a very old cougar. Cougars are probably the only animal around here that really frighten me. That and overly aggressive horned goats. Now I'm extra glad I'm not going to keep 100% free range chickens. They would be dead in no time and I'm fairly certain that cougars have no sense of a dignified death.

The chickens are coming

Yesterday was the most beautiful weather we have had at the farm so far.

When we got up to make some coffee, the sun was shining on the world. A rainbow glistened above the western hills. Then, as we drank the coffee, the sky clouded over and dark, dark rain descended upon us. But, by the time that coffee was drunk, the sun returned and spring arrived.

Yesterday was the day that the world woke up. It was finally warm enough to open up all the windows and doors to get some air in the house. I also cleaned the oven. It self cleans, so it was pretty stinky which is why I do it on a warm day with all the windows open.

As the stink chased us out of the house into the sunshine we pottered about the farm. We pulled up some brambles that were trying to conquer the front lawn. We examined the buds on the fruit trees that G'pa planted in February. The weather was so warm that you could swear that you could see the buds opening in front of your eyes. We tidied up here and there.

It was a day's worth of good weather that is directly responsible for what we did next.

We ordered chickens.

We ordered 50 Red Sussex Cross unsexed chickens from a local farm feed shop to be precise. This is a duel purpose bird which is good for laying eggs and for meat. They don't fatten up as quickly as your regular meat chickens which is good because those chickens tend to have a rather unhappy life with high rates of heart attacks and what with a tendency to grow so fast that their legs cannot keep up and support their weight. Not all meat breads are like this, but I'm not going to risk it because if I'm going to raise and eat an animal, I want to know that it had a good and healthy life with as little discomfort as possible and with an environment that fulfills it's essential nature. Think Michal Pollan's book the Omnivore's Dilemma. One point Pollan makes is that if you are going to choose to eat meat, and it is an active choice in this day and age, you should be aware of the standard of life of the animal you wish to consume. That's what I want to do.

We are going to build what are called chicken tractors. They are a long cage about 8 foot by 4 foot and 2 to 4 foot high with a shelter up one end and the rest of the cage with wire mesh which are more for protecting the chickens from the many predators than it is to keep the chickens in. There are a lot of hawks, eagles, vultures, mink, cougars, wild dogs, raccoons, feral cats, cougars, and other wild things that like to eat chickens around here. If I am going to be responsible for the life of a chicken, I don't want to allow it to die a slow and painful death when I can prevent this. However, I also want to give the chicken an opportunity to live according to it's chicken nature. The qua that makes chicken, chicken.

In each tractor will go about 8 or 10 chickens. It could easily fit 16 chickens according to the common practice of 1 chicken for ever 2 square foot of space, but to keep them so densely populated would put unnecessary stress on the poor birds and increase the risk of illness. These tractors are small like this because they are mobile. Instead of housing the chickens in a coup and giving them a run which tends to destroy every non-chicken living thin in that exercise yard in just a few weeks; these chickens will be moved to a fresh spot each day so that they have access to fresh grass and bugs. Chickens eating the bugs will be an essential part of our relationship because we won't be using pesticides on anything. And since chickens like eating bugs, we just put them where the bugs need eating. It's a good relationship.

The chickens are unsexed which means we will probably get a mix of girls and boys. They arrive at our home as only day old chicks which means they should be extreemly cute. After a few days we should be able to tell the girls from the boys. The girls and one rooster will live in chicken tractors with a special hut for laying eggs and the batchelors will live in the regular tractors. Or at least this is the plan so far.

The chicks should be here around Easter which is just perfect.

The only thing is, this morning it's raining so hard that I feel that I should start building a boat and gathering up two of every animal. Was it really such a wonderful spring day yesterday? Am I insane for ordering chickens? I know that Dad and G'pa have raised them before, but I have almost no idea what I've gotten myself into. To be responsible for fifty little lives... wow... that's a daunting thought.

English Doorbells?

What do you call those old style doorbells they have in England. It's a unit that sits on the center of the door and you twist it to ring the bell. Does anyone remember these?

lately

I have several photos that I have collected over the last few weeks that I would like to share with you.

G'pa digging in the garden.

Spinning on the sundeck.

Chickens invadeing the backyard.

Pretty.

Best Birthday Cake Ever

A fibre birthday cake. I couldn't ask for a better birthday. Thank you.

goat

I am actually still alive. I've learnt that being away from the internet does not equate being dead. It definitely feels disconnecting though.

Okay, the thing is, the internet lives in a part of the house which makes me feel unwell to visit. So, I've been down here maybe three times since the internet came back. In the apartment, the internet was in my bedroom, so even on the most health-poor days, I could stay in bed, reach over to the computer and check my email. Not so here.

I'm told that a wire will be run up to a part of the house that I do well in so that I can sit there and use the internet. Fingers crossed that it will be soon.

The upside is that all that time I would otherwise be spending online has been used for things like spinning and knitting. That, and being attacked by a goat. We went to this farm to look at a second hand tractor and this insane goat cornered me while everyone else walked away not noticing the situation I was in. The ground was all mud and manure so it was super-slippery and the goat just wanted to but me with his horns. Eventually he gave up but not before getting the point of his considerable horn dug into my knee. So now I'm limping about the house with a swollen knee but, you know what, I don't mind. At least I got to pet a goat. Do goats come without horns?

Spinning flax

Before I got distracted by botany and Helios' journey across the sky, I was telling you about the flax sample I spun.



I spun some water retted flax top for my first attempt as it was the most affordable flax I got from Fun Knits when she was in town last month. I believe this is what is called tow flax, in that is a combed or carded left overs from making flax sticks (which are the long fibres you traditionally see dressed on a distaff). These fibres are arranged in something like a pencil roving. The individual fibres are about two to five inches long and are all aligned the same direction ready for spinning.



In a way, it was like spinning wool because the fibres were prepared very much like how wool is. But it was also very different from spinning wool as well. Hum, how do I describe this? Wool fibres feel soft and squishy so that you can bend them to you will quite easily, but flax fibres feel very firm and unyielding. Flax feels as if it should be brittle and that if you bend them even the slightest bit they will crumble; however, the fibres behave quite the opposite.



I had two sources of reference for spinning flax, of course I referred to knitty, specifically Spinning Line Flax (even though I wasn't spinning line flax, the article proved to be very helpful) and I also found an article in an old Spin Off magazine: "Spinner's Question; On wet-spinning flax", Summer 1999.



To spin the flax I had my Quebec wheel, a towel on my lap, a little jar of water, and some fibre.



Despite first appearance, the fibre was quite flexible and very strong. It does not have the springiness that wool does, but I was more than pleased with it. Flax fibres are very forgiving and after only a few minutes I was spinning a relatively even yarn. I found that this particular fibre spun better from the fold than it did when I tried to spin it from one end. I've never spun fibre successfully from the fold before, so I was quite surprised that I had so much success with this method. But that is what the flax wanted, and who am I to argue.



I spun the single S (counter clockwise) and plied it Z (clockwise) which is opposite to how I spin wool. I don't think there was much advantage to this as it was only short bits of fibre and not the long stems (a meter or so each) which would have a definite natural twist to it. But I'm not one to argue with tradition (well, not on this point anyway), so I spun it the way it was recommended.



As you can see from the photo, I have one hand (the back hand) holding the fibre mass and one hand (the front hand) pinching and pulling the fibre towards the wheel. To make the flax into a smooth yarn, I moistened the finger and thumb of my front hand in the bowl of water every so often. This smoothed down the ends and made the yarn feel more soft. The Spin Off article I mentioned has a recipe for a concoction you can use instead of water, which creates an natural sizing agent. I think I'll try that next time I spin flax.



All in all, I love spinning flax. I think, however, I will keep this for summer spinning, as spinning wool in the summertime is not that enjoyable. This will make a great project to spin in warm weather.

Why spin flax counterclockwise?

As you may remember, I picked up some flax fibre recently. I decided to give it a whorl on my Quebec wheel as this wheel was originally used for spinning flax.







I spun up a few meters of water retted flax top counterclockwise and plied it clockwise using the Andean plying method (where you wrap it around your hand and ply from both ends).






Wool is traditionally spun clockwise, so why spin flax counterclockwise?



Have you ever seen a been plant grow up a pole? It wraps itself around the pole as it grows and it does this because it follows the sun as it makes its way across the sky. Combine the movement with the sun with all sorts of other factors that don't need exploring at this juncture, and you discover that plants are amazing.




All plants (well, land plants at least) have some tendency to follow the sun and the taller they get and the faster they grow influences how much twist this movement creates in the plant. Trees tend to have very little twist, perhaps a couple of turns for their entire length; whereas beans, have a tremendous amount of twist, almost one twist for every day they have been alive and growing above ground. The amount of twist (and it's direction) is also influenced by how far north or south the plant lives. If the plant grows near the equator (where the sun stays for the most part directly above the land - I'm being loose with the details here, but you don't want me to get too technical do you?) then there is relatively little distance for the plant to travel each day and therefore very little twist enters the plants. If the plant grows closer to the north or south pole (say at about 50 degrees latitude - for example in Canada or southern Chile). In the summers (aka. growing season), the sun remains in the sky longer and travels along a longer route (technically not true, but appearance is what counts here). What this means for the plant is that it follows the sun further as it travels from east to west (because the sun does not travel directly above the ground like it does at the equator, rather, depending on where you are, it travels slightly to the north or to the south). Because of this, the plant develops more twist.




That's not all. If you are in the northern hemisphere, the plant will twist one way, but if you are in the southern hemisphere, the plant twists the other way. How cool is that? Very cool. In the northern hemisphere the top of the plant moves clockwise. Think of a sunflower flower that twists around on the stock throughout the day so that the flower's face is always pointed towards the sun. It faces east-north-east when the sun gets up in the morning, twists and follows the sun as it moves more south at midday, then continues to twist to the west-north-west as the sun sets in the evening. The next day, as dawn begins on the eastern horizon, the sunflower flower twists along the shortest path (north) to greet the sun as it rises in the east-north-east thus completing the circle and starting it all over again. From our point of view, looking down on the sunflower it moves clockwise, but if you are the sunflower stalk looking up at the flower, it actually moves counterclockwise as you will see in a moment.


(image from: http://www.eso-garden.com/)




If you look at a plant grown north of the tropics the same way you would look at yarn, it has an S (counterclockwise) twist to it and in a plant grown south of the tropics will have a Z (clockwise) twist to it. But what does this have to do with spinning flax?




(image from: http://www.botanical.com/)

Flax is a plant that is usually grown in the temperate zones. It is fairly fast growing and somewhat tall, so it too develops a twist as it grows. The further from the equator it grows, the more twist it develops. As we all know, twist is a vital component when it comes to making yarn. So when spinning flax, or any other natural plant fibre one should work with the twist that is already inherent in the fibre. (I'm suspect about the chemically extracted plant fibres such as soy silk or bamboo silk as they are not fibres derived from the plant itself, rather they are fibres created from the plant's proteins through a chemical method and any twist in the unspun fibres would not be from the way the plant grows; but rather, from the way the fibres were drawn from the protein bath and the molecular structure of how the proteins are combined)





(image from: http://www.botanical.com/)



Traditionally, in the northern hemisphere, flax is spun counterclockwise (with an S twist). I'm not certain how this takes advantage of the S twist already in the fibre, but I haven't found any books or sources that specify how exactly it works.






ETA: I took some liberties with the technical aspects here. I just wanted to give a basic explanation of how plants grow and what that has to do with spinning flax. My aim was not to give an in-depth overview of astrophysics or botany, &c.. Please keep in mind that the prevailing theory of how the solar-system works (don't even think about arguing on whether or not it should be called a theory; remember, I'm a philosophy major and I will whip the floor with you on this one) does not have the sun moving across the sky, but if you are a plant stuck in one place, it certainly appears as if that is what the sun does all day. Also the sun's apparent trajectory in the sky is dependent on the time of year and your latitude &c.. There are several details I didn't go into. If you know (or care) what they are, please don't hold my omissions against me. I just wanted to keep things simple so that everyone could enjoy this post.

Flax for spinning

I really enjoyed the show this weekend. I had an amazing time playing with Shelley and all of her yarn. Somehow I managed not to buy too, too much. I did bring home a bunch of goodies though. How can I resist? It IS yarn (and potential yarn) after all.



I'm just sort of resting this morning, drinking coffee, playing on Ravelry, and just treating myself to a calm, restful morning before I dive back into my Kant homework. (note to self: paralogisms, although fun, are not as easy as they first appear)





I'm hugely excited about the flax that Shelley brought down at my request.



Ever since I first realized that human hands can make yarn, I have wanted to spin flax. Don't ask me why this is. I simply feel drawn to it. The flax fibre has a smell to it. Most of the people I've talked to tell me it smells horrid, but I love it (as if you needed more proof that I'm not quite normal). It smells like fresh honey. I'm talking about the smell of a honeycomb that has just been harvested from the hive on a sunny day in late summer. It still smells of wheat and wind and clover, and long summer walks across corn fields. It smells like the summers of my youth. It smells like that beautiful moment when you are out for a walk in the country, munching on fruit, corn or grasses that you have gleaned along your way, you wonder into the middle of a flax field and the world is boundless. For that brief moment you forget that school will start soon, you forget that there are dishes in the sink, you forget everything except that one, beautiful moment when the wind ripples across the grain. That's what this flax smells like to me.



I bought three different types, all unbleached and all produced by Louet.



Euroflax long line stricts:



This stuff is quite course compared to the other two I brought home. I think it must be a hard working fibre as it feels strong and dense. I wonder if I could make a belt out of it.



Water retted flax top:



This is softer and delightful. I think that this is the middle quality flax. It's easy to draft and I think it will turn into quite a happy little yarn.



Softest of all is the super fine flax top:



The fibres are thinner and longer than the water retted top. They are also softer. I think this must have been harvested at a younger age and planted closer together. A sign that it was grown strictly for the fibre and not for the seeds. I think that this will finish up as a very soft but durable fabric.

ETA: Knitty has a great article about spinning flax.

Happy Home Maker

Over the last few weeks, I have had a similar kind of conversation with several different people. It's about what can I do with my life; how can I take my new chemical sensitivities and make something positive from them? I tell you, it's a pretty difficult topic. There is a reoccurring theme and it has come up over, and over, and over again. It is Domesticity.

I'm not talking about your 19th Century ideal of an angel in the house, nor even the 50's ideal of a stay at home mom who spends every hour of the day preparing the house for when her husband comes home from work. I'm talking about reclaiming the word homemaking so that it becomes a non-gender-specific term to describe the process of simple every day living.

Look. If you have a roof over your head, by my standards, you have a home. Quite often, the people you love most share this place with you. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, single or married, a single parent taking care of a child, or a single child trying to take care of your parents. How you care for them, how you care for yourself and how you care for your home, speak volumes about your life. Your choice of food, how you cook it, how you clean up afterwards, &c.. All these things and more are a statement of who you are. It's about taking pride in where you live. It's about empowering the individual with the knowledge of how to live well. This is homemaking.

About a year ago I read an article in the local paper. It said that in our city, the average four person household requires over 60 hours of labour at just under double minimum wage (so that would be 100 hours at minimum wage) to provide the basic necessities of life. These necessities are things like rent, clothing, and food, but didn't include such luxuries as TV or bus-fare. That's a lot of work for such a small return. I thought certainly they must have got their numbers wrong, so I read on. Apparently, most of the money went into food, then rent, then clothing, cleaning supplies, and so on down the line. But, what really astounded me was how much these people (as it was an actual survey of people living just above the poverty line) were spending on all these items. They were spending more than three times the amount of money it actually costs to eat and up to ten times the actual cost of cleaning supplies. Were they exaggerating what they spent? I don't think so. What they were doing was wasting money by buying the wrong things. They were doing things such as buying ready made meals at, say, $6 a plate instead of cooking a nice oven roast at $2 a plate. For four people, that's a waste of $16 for just one meal. Multiply that by three meals (one day) and you get a waste of almost $50 a day. Not only that, but by buying prefabricated food, they are hurting both their health and the environment.

I wondered, do people do this because they are working too hard to prepare a proper meal? Maybe they just don't have enough time? Then again it takes as much effort to make an oven roast or a slow cooker meal as it does to make a prefab meal. Even less effort with the slow cooker as it is ready to eat as soon as you get home from work. So why then would the average working class Jo or Joanne waste that much money on something so damaging to their health?

Then, someone mentioned to me, maybe people don't know how to make food. Maybe their mothers (or fathers, or uncles, or aunts, or grandparents, neighbours, &c.) never taught them how to roughly chop some vegetables to make a soup in a slow cooker or how make leftovers yummy instead of depressing. Maybe they never learnt to buy vegetables when they were in season so as to get the best value and the highest nutrient content. Maybe they don't know what the best cut of meat is or how to cook it.

Just think what a family of four could do with 50 extra dollars a day. They could buy some of those little luxuries like bus-fare. Or perhaps, even better, they could work less. And that's just food. Imagine what could be accomplished by saving money on all other aspects of homemaking.

Perhaps, a person would say, that it takes too much time to live this way. It doesn't. If you can afford the time to eat at a restaurant or to open a packet of food and stick in the oven, then you have enough time to keep a good home. Not to mention, with the money you save by proper homemaking, you can work less and thus have more time for yourself.

Perhaps you think that helping the environment and saving money just don't go together. That's just not true. You can save money, help your health and help the environment. This is the trifecto. These three things go hand in hand. And they can be customized for vegetarians, vegans, omnivores, meat eaters, raw fooders, anything. Homemaking is just learning how to live the way you want to, only to do it smart.

Homemaking is old fashioned. No! And yes, people have been homemaking since the first shelter was built. This is not something that goes out of fashion. It is not something that is restricted to the middle-class stay-at-home-soccer-mom. Homemaking is empowering. It is taking back your life from the clutches of big businesses. It is "sticking it to da man". It is a powerful way to do your part for the environment and for yourself, and in my book, that never goes out of style.



So, why the big long rant? Well, if you are still with me after such a long blog post, maybe it was interesting.

The idea is that I would love to write a book about this. A book that would take what I have learned from 19th Century domestic manuals and make it applicable for people who live in the world today. I want to write something that would empower individuals to take back their lives by learning about good homemaking. I want to abolish the stereotype that a homemaker is chained to the stove, barefoot and pregnant.

When I think about the books that have changed my life more than anything else, I think of Frugal Indulgence and The Fabulous Girls Guide to Decorum. I want to write something like these, and when it comes to what I know best, it's homemaking.

Now, do I pitch this to a publisher first, or do I just start writing it? I've already made an outline.

How to use a drum carder

I just had to laugh. These have to be some of the most enthusiastic instructional videos I have ever seen, and it tell you how to use a drum carder. Even if you don't spin, have a look, I think it will make you smile and give you a new appreciation of how enthusiastic fibre people can be.

How to use a drum carder

Oh, and to that poor person I scared at work today by saying "I know you on Ravelry" at you, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you like that, I was just so excited to see a real live Ravelry person, I didn't think before I spoke. I do really like your blog by the way, I think it's off to a great start and I hope you get a new footman for your wheel soon (if not, message me on Ravelry and I can set you up with a couple of people here in town that can help with that).

ETA: here is the link for the second part of the video.

ETA again: here is the third part.

Quebec Wheel Cont.

A bit more about the Quebec Wheel for you today.

I was wrong about what the label said.

There was a second label at one time but it's gone now. I wonder if this label is added considerably after construction or if it something placed there by the maker. It already has that "J8" on it, so this may be an addition. After taking photographs of the label in different light and playing around with different contrast and huge saturation, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot quite make out what it says.

The signature dose show up the clearest. It's written with a fountain pen, a well worn one if I am not gravely mistaken, which is in keeping with the information I have on it. Anyone want to have a guess at what this says?

I have a Kant essay that's been neglected lately, so I had best put the spinning aside for a day or so while I finish it up.

Quebec wheel

I saw an advert in the Guild newsletter for a very adorable, small, and portable wheel known as the peacock for sale at an exceptional price. The problem is that although my Ashford Traditional wheel works marvelously well, it is rather large for taking from one place to another. I thought that perhaps one additional, but considerably smaller wheel would fit nicely in the apartment and would easily satisfy all my spinning needs. It's funny how life doesn't work out according to plan.

Instead, the peacock wheel was sold, but there were some lovely other items available at a 'considerable discount'. I received three items from her, and each one of them will receive a different post as they are all special and delightful in their own way.

First, the Quebec Wheel

Isn't she gorgeous? When I saw this wheel I thought to myself, I simply have to try it out. What do you know, not only was it in working order, it spins exactly like I love to: thin and fast. I knew immediately that this was the wheel for me. Even though I still love my Ashford dearly, I feel that as time goes on, I'll use my Quebec more and more as it really is a perfect match.

I know the ownership pedigree back to the 1940 or 1930s, but I suspect her of being considerably older. One of the previous owners spun exclusively flax and linen on it. It may be that I failed to achieve my aim of buying a smaller, more portable wheel, as you can see from this next photo that my new Quebec wheel is considerably larger than my Ashford.

The Quebec wheel has had a lot of life and it shows. It's a double drive single treadle wheel, but the little details like the addition to the treadle (both the rubber no-slip bits and the extension where the heal sets to make for a more rocking action) and the previous applications of wood filler here and there are all monuments to different owners and different stages of its life so far. The drive wheel shows gaps where the sections are held together. Despite all the rain we get, the air is surprisingly dry around here. It doesn't effect the operation of the wheel in any way that I can discern. Someone has tried in the past to fill in the gaps with wood filler, to no avail.

There is a small bit of paper glued to the wheel, I cannot quite make out what it says, but I think the signature is "S Jensons" and there is a "J8" carved into one end of the wheel. There isn't enough information on the Internet at the moment to do any in depth research, so I'll subscribe to the Spinning Wheel Sleuth. If I enjoy their publication, I'll order some back issues that might prove helpful in learning more.

Even though it works, the wheel still needs a bit of love and attention. For one thing it has been sitting around for months if not years without being used and gathering dust. So I take a gentle cleanser like Murphy's Oil soap (made of natural ingredients specifically designed to GENTLY clean wood) and following the directions on the bottle, take a soft cloth and wipe down all the wooden parts of the wheel.

Then, once that's completely dry, I take a natural oil, in this instance lemon oil as it cleanses even more as it conditions the wood, a different soft cloth, and some gloves and rub in the oil.

This is almost all the wheel really needs. I could of course remove all the additional modifications, but that would be only if I wanted to display it as a work of art. I would much rather leave on the wheel all the additions that previous owners lavished on this wheel as it makes me feel humble and honoured to spin on it.

I am having trouble removing the flyer assembly for cleaning. I want to get the gunk and dust out of there and to give it some fresh lubricant but the maidens are seized up. It also only has one bobbin so I will want to get more in the near future. I'll deal with that later on as it spins delightfully at the moment and I have other toys to play with.

in preparation

To get you in the mood for what I'll talk about over the next few days, have a look at this video. I can't make out what they are saying, but there are some wonderful images of traditional spinning methods and fibre prep.

Seven years are over

I think that my seven years of bad luck might have finally come to an end. On my outing today I received four very special things. Two I bought...

...one I was given...

...and one that was bought for me...

(no photos yet, sorry)

Care to guess what they are?

I'll blog about it tomorrow; but you know, I've had nothing but bad timing and worse luck since January 2000. I shouldn't have broken that mirror, even if it was an accident. Thank goodness these things don't last forever.

poppadoms

Y came around for dinner last night. We had a simple curry and poppadoms.

I think that poppadoms have to be on of my all time most favorite foods ever! Have you ever made poppadoms? It only takes a few minutes to make an entire batch. It's like magic, you have these flat boring discs that you put into hot oil and within two to three seconds they are all curly and ready to eat. They take a fair bit of oil to make, so we don't have them all that often. If I had my way I would have them four or five times a week. They are just that yummy.

Y had a go at translating the Japanese knitting pattern for me. It's funny, she has good Japanese-to-English skills, but knitting patterns have a totally different lexicon. We ended up getting out my Japanese knitting book for help (it has photos). It was a bit of a struggle (especially with my brain fogging up like it has been lately) but I now feel far more confident about making the vest.

Speaking about knitting patterns, isn't this just the cutest pig ever? This book is going on my wish list for the next time one of my friends journeys to Japan. Oh and this book as well. It makes me want to learn Japanese.

Faces of Oxford

We found all sorts of little faces hidden about Oxford. This one in particular caught our eye; it looked as if he was smiling at our sharp eyes and knack at discovering hidden treasure.

More Oxford

Oxford is filled with some of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It is a shame to see some of the most vulgar shops situated in these masterpieces. Take Lush for example, (have I told you how much I dislike that shop?) they are everywhere, their odour spewing out into the street, triggering a sharp allergy attack. If it was sound or litter that covered the massive area around the shop, then the bylaw enforcement would be all over it. Why not encourage a sent patrol. Shops like Lush not only encourage people to wear scented products of offensive magnitude, but it makes some parts of the street inaccessible to individuals with allergies.

Willows in Oxford

Perhaps it's foolish, but when I think of what I want to do after my education, I realize that I want to be a farmer. It's not the most obvious choice for a philosophy major, and with a pile of student debt, it's a considerably unobtainable. The thing is, there are very few people I enjoy spending time with. First impressions are deceiving; once you get to know me, you realize that I am not a people person - I'm far to honest and out-spoken for that. I'm far better with plants than with people, and even better with yarn. My fingers fly among yarn and needles while my mind spins new patterns for me to create. I love my alone time. I think a big old house in the country with a couple of sheep grazing on the front yard would be just perfect for me.

The mound

The sky in England is considerably different than what we have at home. Our sky is monotonous. Weather moves in from the West and stays for weeks or sometimes months. When summer arrives, it is preceded by two weeks of heavy rain, then it is sunny. It stays sunny for five months. There are very few clouds, and it becomes boring to look out the window. Likewise, winter comes with a bustle of confusion, then it sits. Wet and rain and cold and dark - that's winter here.

England's sky is always in motion. The clouds move to and fro, always busy, always with somewhere else to be. Heavy rain is followed by sunlight in quick succession. It is always enjoyable to me to rest on a hillside, watching the English sky change.

Still In Oxford

At the back of the photo, almost hidden behind the building on the left, is an artificial mound. We passed it each day on our walk from the hostel to the city center. On the last day, we thought of climbing the spiral walkway to the top, but found a toll gate barred the way.

I enjoyed Oxford very much, and I wonder sometimes, what it would be like to study there for a year or two. Perhaps I will apply to take my MA. there, just to see if I could get in.

Posting Box

The Royal Mail never ceases to amaze me. Next day delivery with over 95% accuracy; how incredible is that?

In Oxford

An everyday street in Oxford. It may look usual if you live there, but from a foreigner's eye, it is filled with exotic details.

The Old Tom

After the first pub refused to serve us (not enough staff to man the kitchen or so she said), we had lunch at The Old Tom. It felt just like coming home. The food was the best we had in England, before or since. The staff were friendly and intellectual discussions permeated the air. We returned the next day for lunch roast. The beer was fresh, the staff friendly, and most importantly, the kitchen open.

My companion had finally found minutes to top up her phone. Eager to get in touch with friends in Scotland, she texed her greetings while leaving the pub. She stumbled on the steps in front of a group of people going in. Mild laughter ensued and someone commented that the quality of the beer must be good here. In my usual unthinking way, I blurted out that she wasn't drunk, just texting. Embarrassed but amused, we continued on; my companion didn't stop texting until we were at the end of the block; even when she tripped on a bit of uneven pavement.

Oxford in the setting sun

It was a much longer journey to Oxford than we expected. The sun was well on its way westward, and the air had a bite to it. From the train station, we misunderstood the traffic patterns and ended on the wrong side of the street on the wrong side of the block. Eventually we discovered the hostel. The people were friendly, and we savored our first Internet access since we left home.

At the Beach

Peter's Ice Cream has been at the beach since 1897. Even on a cold, wind swept day, it's open for business.

They say the coastline is washing away. There are towns that have completely succumb to the sea, their runes accessible only at spring tide. One legend has it that you can still hear the bells ringing from the cathedral of one submerged city.

Felixstowe

The high street in Felixstowe, looking back towards the water. It's a great climb up from the beach; the locals use to call it 'bent hill', but I don't know that it has a name any more.

When we returned from our walk.

When we returned from our walk to the beach we found the milk man had been. Two fresh glass bottles awaited us on the front porch. It was a refreshing sight to our tired eyes.

We walked to the beach

As we left on a walk for the beach, we saw the empty milk jug. The white surface of the milk-stand deliciously worn away in places, revealing a vibrant red lacquer. The beach was round stones at the bottom of a steep hill. Family legend tells me that once one could find amber among the stones, washed from Norway's cliffs.

The weather was damp, and the beach cold. Our first full day in England after almost 28 hours journey from our home, it felt good to walk. Tired and jetlaged, it was glorious to be alive.

Suffolk Milk

I was delighted to see there is still milk delivery in England. There is something so delightful having fresh milk delivered to your door in glass bottles. In some ways, England is more like heaven than any where else I've seen.