A PEEK AT WHAT I'M WORKING ON

A recent discovery is Lindsey and her site at 

www.artifactsofappreciation

up in Canada.

She is an avid spinner/knitter who sells the most luscious batts to spin up.

So yummy they include wool, alpaca, silk and kid mohair all carded together.

Above I separated the 5 batts she sent me into smaller segments.

Each batt was a bit different but they all flow beautifully together

as you can see.

The top half are separated into 8ths and then staggered,

the bottom half are separated into 4ths and lined up into rows.

Then I experimented spinning and plying them different ways.

I also wanted to add a bit more color into some of the yarns.

I had a braid of Blue Faced Leister wool and Tussah silk

that seemed to look good combined with Linsey's batts,

bought from Cowgirls Yarn in Laramie, Wyoming.

Below a much thinner length of the braid being auditioned & ready to spin up.

You can really see above the shine of the Tussah silk peeking out in all the batts.

So from left to right below,

the first skein is one of the experiments plied on itself,

same with the second skein.

I liked the second one better because more of the darker fibers showed up.

The 3rd skein is the braid spun up and plied on itself

Btw, 

I also experimented with how to spin up these batts,

woolen or worsted,

long or short draw or off the fold.

I ended up spinning long draw woolen off the fold for the most softness and shine.

My favorite skein is the 4th one,

 a singles of the braid plied with a singles of Lindsey's batts.

A close-up below.

I haven't used my spinning wheel in at least 3 years now,

and it just feels so good to get back at it.

Because spinning is a global skill,

like riding a bicycle,

it comes right back to you.

Super relaxing while I binge on Netflix's Longmire,

a modern Western murder mystery series about a Wyoming sheriff,

his Deputies & town,

and the Cheyanne people that live on the reservation nearby.

Starring the older but still very handsome Australian actor,

Robert Taylor,

as well as Lou Diamond Philips and A. Martinez. 

The scenery is gorgeous so I looked to see where it was filmed.

Several locations in New Mexico were used

including Santa Fe, Eagles Nest, Espanola, Red River, Los Alamos and Las Vegas.

And the most iconic location in the series is Longmire's log cabin 

filmed in the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

So what to make out of these delicious yarns?

Stay turned for my next post,

or ha ha,

maybe my next one after that. 

CRAZY LUCKY

Usually I kill orchids,

they are one of the plants I've never had too much luck with.

Over the years I can sort of keep them alive,

but rarely get them to bloom.

These two beauties were at my daughter's home in her kitchen window where they were thriving,

but alas,

she felt like they were taking up too much counter space,

so basically I rescued them from an untimely death.

And after about 2 weeks I saw  flower stems emerge from both plants.

I was shocked, thrilled and over-joyed,

but sadly knowing I could not take credit for it.

They were in the perfect storm at her house,

a bright kitchen sink window.

But now there was no way I was giving them back

Ha!!

Then another stem formed as an off shoot of the first one.

Oh boy!!

But then came disaster.

In my zeal to water this baby I accidently broke off the second flower stem.

I was devastated and so mad at myself.

So I tired reaffixing it with a band aide,

but I'm sure you can imagine how that went.

A big fail.

Big lesson I've learned,

 that with older age comes great clumsiness.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Can't keep count of how many times recently that I've tripped and fallen,

and just keep stumbling over things because I forget to look down when I'm in a hurry.

I fell like it started when I turned 60.

And now for the real irony,

I went over to garden with my daughter yesterday and what do I see on her kitchen sink?

You guessed it,

a lovely, brand new blooming orchid.

Crazy woman!