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Category: Spinning

  • New Wheel!

    Leslie came over last night to give me my first really intensive spinning lesson. The wheel is a thing of beauty. It’s a Baynes, single drive, scotch tension, double treadle wheel. One day I’ll know what all that means. Leslie gave me a number of exercises that, all together, helped me be spinning something that…

  • Alvin Ramer

    Last spring, Leslie, Rayna and I went to Colbourne Ontario, to meet Mr. Alvin Ramer. Mr. Ramer is, among many things, a spinning wheel guru, precious piece of Canadian history and, along with his wife Barbara Ann, a very wonderful person. Sadly, Mr. Ramer is retiring from the wheel business. Last weekend the three of…

  • The Black Lamb and a New Adventure

    Last Saturday, myself and my very favourite enablers partners in crime (Rayna, Leslie & Tito) went for a road trip out to Colbourne to see the Sensei of All Things Spinning Related. Alas, I cannot share photos for a while, but I will tell you that my antique wheel is being repaired, and that I…

  • I don’t want to dye alone….

    Last Sunday, myself and my favourite likeminded nerdy girls held the much-anticipated ‘dying party’ at our (subsequently trashed) condo. Rayna and Leslie came over bearing bearing armfuls of fibre and edibles, (Tito retreated to the bedroom with the computer and headphones), and we did our best to make the apartment look like a herd of…

  • The Aurora Roving, A Novel.

    The incredibly talented Leslie has finished spinning up my aurora batt, and what a beauty! I had this idea, that I would knit this into a scarf and wear it to the arctic the day I fulfill my bucket list of shooting the aurora from somewhere north of 55 degrees. But then I thought about the…

  • Aurora Roving in Progress

    Remember this lovely thing? It’s finally being spun, and by someone who knows what they’re about no less. That person is not Mouffette, though she is clearly instrumental in the process. It’s being worked up by the immensely talented Leslie Ordal, with an eye to keeping the different colour sections intact. It’s already looking pretty delicious…

  • Aurora Roving

    Inglenook Fibers is a hand dyed fiber studio located just outside of Boston, and it’s one of the many ways that the Sisters of the Holy Nativity Convent are totally self supporting through craft. A few weeks ago one of my pen pals there, Mother Macrina, wrote to me and asked if she could use…

  • Treasure Hunting

    On Sunday, our awesome friends Johnathan and Bev took us treasure hunting at an antique market out in Milton. Places like this are fascinating… …filled with old books, old toys, furniture, art…. …even things that are creepy… …and then, SHAZAM! Here’s what I was able to find out about it – circa 1860 (we researched…

  • Another great spinning quote

    Just a photo of my gorgeous new drop spindle, and the work I’ve started, and a quote from Elizabeth Zimmerman :) Feel free to click for a larger copy and save it!

  • White on White; photographing fluff

    Leslie Ordal came over last night for some last minute photography of her spinning work for a piece she’s writing in Interweave Magazine. We didn’t have a lot of time to plan the shoot, and the material was all white. White fluff, spun into white yarn. With the challenge of coming up with something artistic…