Feast or famine.

So.....yeah....it's definitely feast or famine around here.  I've been given a short lunch break by the Construction-Master in the midst of hanging these:

,
along with painting and installing quarter-round along the living room floor, stripping some of the woodwork in the hallway, running all new wiring for the floor outlets (ha!  you thought the great wiring adventure would be LONG finished by now, didn't you?) on the first floor, washing a month's worth of laundry, and cleaning a month's worth of neglect in the house.  These last two seem especially important to me because we have company coming next weekend, and while I am not what one might call 'anal retentive' regarding housekeeping (thanks to 3 years of living with 6 graduate student males in one house, before that I was a nightmare), I do still feel the need to scrape the Spaghetti-O's off the stove and vaccum the cat hair off the floor from time to time.  Figuratively speaking, of course.  We would never eat Spaghetti-O's in this house, much less leave bits to dry on the stove for days/weeks.  Ahem.   Also, there's been some weeding of the garden, which is settling in nicely for the most part.  I think we're going to lose one of our transplants, a 'Multi-Blue' Clematis, but everyone else seems pretty happy.  Like this Echinacea:

Echinacea 'Sunset' loving this sunshine.

Since my disappearance, some stuff has happened, there's been some traveling (updates to come), and there's even been a teeny bit of actual knitting/spinning/blog-type activity(ditto).  Not much, but some.  We'll start with the newest family member and her adventures with an old friend, Nadine .

Lucy and Nadine.

Oh yeah, she says her name is Lucy.  I'll admit that I tried to talk her into Lucretia, but she's having none of that sort of frilly name stuff, so I guess Lucy it is.   

The three of us have spent some time getting to know one another, because me?  Completely unfamiliar with the world of double-drive spinning, not to mention the speed with which a wheel this size will spin up fiber.  Folks, they don't call this a 'production wheel' for nothing. Fast drafting and good fiber control are key, apparently.  By the end of the bobbin nadine looked like this:

I think Lucy and I have come to a basic understanding of one another.  Next we'll try plying some of this, but before we did that, I decided that I needed a wrist distaff, so I ran a little bit back through to increase the twist even more and made this:

I used the examples in 'A Handspindle Treasury' (thanks again Santa), and oh my, my, how I love this thing!  Lookit!

Stunningly beautiful Hello Yarn hand painted roving from the Maine Fiber Frolic (what? I said there was travelling.) and the newest drop spindle in the stable, a Bosworth in Tulipwood from New Hampshire S&W. 

Can I say? SO MUCH BETTER to have a distaff for the handspindling.  Call me uncoordinated (and I am), but my enjoyment level of the drop spindle, which has always been mitigated by the fiber control issues, has just skyrocketed.  If you think you don't like handspindling, I'd like to suggest trying this before you completely dismiss this particular outlet for your spinning addiction habit hobby.  It bears mentioning here that plenty of folks have said the distaff was important equipment in the past, but I sort of always thought that just wrapping the fiber around my wrist was good enough, especially given that one of the joys of handspindling is the distinct lack of necessary equipment to tote around.  Who me?  'I don't need no stinking crutch'.  Foot?  Meet mouth.  Mouth? Meet foot.  Yeah.  So.Wrong.

Here are some links to other wrist distaff photos, but Urbanspinner's site with instructions for these seems to be down (temporarily?  permanently?):
Woolflowers
Notsoswift
Tessa
Fibernut

Spinoff Summer 2005 also had instructions for making a wrist distaff using an interesting technique.

Ooops...breaktime's over. Hear that whip crackin'?  Gotta go!  More stuff to show you!  Dang! I'll try to sneak away later.....

Comments

[Kelly]

I'm a daily reader, but rarely comment... I just had to tell you that I'm impressed with your handspun. I've been trying to use my new drop spindle, & it's not going too well so far. Seeing our pictures gave me a little inspiration to haul it out & try some more.
Thanks!

[Laurie]

Distaff, huh? But but but what about my WHEEL? Looking for more details on Fiber Frolics....

[melanie]

Distaffs are cool, and yer wrist looks so pretty with fiber wrapped around it.

also? spaghetti-os are gooooooood.

[Beth S.]

Funny, I was just thinking about making a wrist distaff--even bought some fun beads for the Urbanspinner one. Thanks for the links--I will go read up!

I'm so glad you're having a good time getting to know your wheel, producing lovely yarns, etc, but still haven't forgotten about your spindles. :-) Playing with a wheel recently really helped me appreciate the spindle in a whole new way--portable, no assembly required, no parts to oil, weighs nothing at all, can ply as well as spin with making adjustments, etc.

[Chris]

There's a definite color theme in all your pictures today - lovely!

[elisa]

Um, if you haven't had enough fun assembling furniture today, y'know, you should feel free to come to my house. I've got an Ikea desk and bookcase that need some attention.

Oh, btw - we went to dim sum at the new Chau Chow City today and it was GOOD. :)

[Juno]

MMMmmmmm. spagetti-Os. You're going to make me make a wrist distaff, aren't you?

[Martha]

I made my distaff from fabric, which I know is wrong, but I needed one rightnow. Still works, even though it's not wool. I thought there might be a problem because fabric's not clingy, but there doesn't seem to be. So if anyone's in a screaming, tearing hurry to have a distaff, like I was, braided cotton fabric strips work well in a pinch!