Thursday, April 28, 2016

Another rainy day--a great time to work on the magazine article

Rain predicted any minute now and I'm excited. I snuck out early this morning and got the French fingerling potatoes in the ground. And I'm wondering why I didn't think to put in more kohlrabi and spinach seed. But I digress....

Rainy day means that I can catch up on several things inside. Like updating my Etsy shop with several new yarns. I've gotten the photos done, just need to tune them up in PaintShop, print out labels, write the descriptions and list the yarns. Some of the yarns need to re-skeined because I spun them at my southern studio and only had my small sample niddy noddy to wind them off and wash them. They look quite scrunched as little skeins!






I also need to finish spinning the Poppies yarns and another lavendar/purple/variegated top that's in the middle of the living room. A good time to binge-watch The 4400.

Then there's the work for the magazine article. There's sampling to complete, a prototype project to finish, and yarn to spin. This is the main focus for today, with the other chores scattered throughout the day to break up the work on the article. I find I can only keep my attention sharp for an hour or so at a time, so having a few projects to circulate keeps me on my toes for each of them. Well, that and a pot of coffee......

Be well and enjoy having today to play with.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Cotton spinning Down South

Here I am at the 'southern studio' again. On Monday I plied up the two charka spindles of cotton singles that I'd spun over the last week. Love this yarn and need to finish it up this week.






















Yesterday morning I removed the tied-on scarf warps from the loom--what a shame to waste all those thrums but I just never get around to using them. Decided that I had time to put on the shawl warp before I had to leave for lunch with my cousin. This is what happens when you're away from all your tools and need to add 28 warp threads to a design:



And I almost jumped out of my skin while threading up the warp! It seems they're power-washing the entire complex. I had no idea they were working on my building until someone jumped onto my balcony! And I'm on the top floor so how the heck did he get up here? For a second I thought I was about to be burglarized until I saw his company shirt. The balcony is now sparkling clean and thank goodness he had the intelligence to not power-wash the balcony floor, as our half dozen planters are out there.

Somehow, on the way home from lunch yesterday, I accidentally stopped at the local yarn shop (Cottage Yarns) . Some very nice cotton yarn followed me back to the car and begged to be adopted. Except I have to go back for more as the summer top I want to make will require 2 more balls. 😀

Somewhere in between working on the cotton spinning, the shawl warp and the prototype for the next magazine article, I also managed to spin up two bobbins of wool singles. This is how I relax my brain from doing the must-do projects--I just spin some colorful wool to relax. I have an idea for plying these with other colors but haven't gotten there yet. Perhaps there will be photos later this week.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

What to do when a cold lays you low

Some time before the holidays I was rummaging around in my stash (which is extensive BTW) for something and came across six skeins of the old Aracuana Ranco Multi yarn. Matched up two colors and proceeded to knit a shawlette. Except I didn't like the colors in a shawlette so threw it in the Time Out Corner so it could decide what it wanted to be and would behave itself.

Earlier this week I decided it would be a Little Person's Cardigan, and so the designing commenced. This is the shawlette half unraveled:



And here's the beginning of the Cardigan:


Somehow that raspberry pink just wasn't working with all those colors in the shawlette, but the burgundy and pine green complement it nicely. I'm actually done with both sleeves--thanks to the snuffles and coughing and the reluctance to anything that requires braining--and am on to the body this afternoon.

I will now return to my binge-watching of MASH and knitting on the body and trim. Have a great day!

Monday, March 21, 2016

Quote of The Day

“When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will feel unfair, but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth, just like you did”.
Jill Blakeway

This describes a lot of people who have been in--and then been pushed out of--my life. Several of them do not eventually see the truth, but that's not my circus nor my monkeys. And that's all I have to say for today.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

The true cost of participating in a sheep-to-shawl competition

In a conversation recently, the question was asked about how much it costs to participate in a sheep-to-shawl competition. I thought it was an interesting puzzle as I’d never really written anything down.

A team is usually 5 people—weaver, 3 spinners, and a shearer/carder. Our team does not own sheep nor is anyone a shearer, so we have to find a shepherd and pay their vet fees to certify that the animal is disease-free. Shearers run in the neighborhood of $150 for the 10-15 minutes it takes to denude a sheep PLUS the time they spend driving to/from the event, the hour before the event and a few hours afterwards so that, if their team wins, they are present for the photos and the auction of the shawl.

The entry fee for the competition $10-30. Most of the above fees/costs are covered by our guild. The auction proceeds also go to the guild to offset the vet/entry/shearer fees, and the auction price can range from $600-$3,000 depending on the event venue and design of the shawl. So our guild can reasonably expect to receive at least $300. From that, they pay each team member $35 to help defray our travel/hotel costs, leaving the guild with at least $125 in profit. However, this does not take into account the costs incurred by the individual team members. This year’s breakdown for the team in which I was a member was roughly:

Days Inn, 4 rooms for 2 nights, $125 each (some family came
                to assist with hauling equipment)                                                 $   500
Gas for 4 vehicles to/from the event, $50 each                                                 200
Costumes, 5 members (we purchased the shearer’s
                costume for her), $37 each                                                               185
Practice fleeces (we went through 3 in 6 months), ~$60 each                          240
Food at the event, 4 people for 3 meals, about $40/person                              160
Display (required by the venues)--historic photos, graphics, yarn                    120

Total spent by the team to participate                                                           $1,405


That comes to an average of $351 per person (weaver & 3 spinners)! So our guild receives a profit of at least $125 and each team member spends roughly $350 out-of-pocket to participate in the competition. Wow! I never realized until I wrote it all out just now. And most of those costs are not negotiable. You must have lodging/food/gasoline and a display. A team could possibly cut down on the cost of practice fleeces if they know someone with appropriate fleece that they'd contribute free of charge, but that would only save the team $240.

I often wonder if people realize that, in addition to the work involved in designing a shawl around an appropriate theme and making the 2 shawls (a sample shawl is always required by the venue), there is SO MUCH MORE that team members do to make it a successful trip.