The Beer Garden

For those of you not familiar with open  threads, this is a place to discuss anything and everything I haven’t covered elsewhere.

Thanks  to a nudge on a different blog from SwampWoman, I’m going back to my pre-quilting love, hand-spinning.  Thanks a million, Swampie! 

I kinda burned out on quilting after about 4 or 5 quilts, then shortly before my cancer diagnosis, got started on tatting for some reason I can’t remember any longer.  The tatting will probably continue, as it’s a lot more portable than even drop-spindle spinning (and I’m in the process of making trim for the necklines and sleeves of my plain T-shirts).

I’ve still got everything I had when I was spinning regularly, and even have some decent wool left, so getting back into it just means dusting off and oiling my spinning wheel (Ashford Traveller, for anyone who’s curious).  It’s got a puppy-chewed treadle, and  the nylon piece from treadle to footman (the rod that transmits the treadle power to the  wheel) broke and had to be replaced with a piece of aircraft cable, but everything works.

Now I just have to get back on some spinning mailing lists!

UPDATE:

Well, that was a pleasant surprise!  After this long (probably close to 6 years), I was afraid I’d at least lost some coordination, but once I got my spinning wheel cleaned and re-oiled, I discovered I can use it as  well as I ever could.  I do need to find something less stretchy than commercial knitting yarn to use as a drive band, but that shouldn’t be a major problem.

::happy dancing::

Let’s try this again … I tried last night, and got the Dread Blue Screen of Death as I was getting ready to hit "Post". 

This is a place for general talk among friends, some of whom may also be family.    It’s not intended for anything specific, since there are plenty of, for example, political and religious boards around.  That doesn’t mean any  specific subjects are verboten, either, as long as sensitive ones are handled reasonably.

I’m not currently planning to establish any formal rules, at least as long as things remain relatively polite and non-profane/obscene.  So have fun.

Prosit!