The results of the morning dye vats. Decided to try dyeing the Wensleydale in the grease. Results were good. It just took some Orvus paste and several hot rinses to clean it all up. The fun part was watching the colors brighten up and start to shine as all the lanolin washed away.

Tencel and linen spun around a wool core. Very fuzzy soft. Quick Technique: hand card tencel down with bleached Irish linen. Pull the fiber sheet from the cards (do not roll off). While spinning the wool roving, continuously peel off airy clumps of the tencel linen blend from the carded sheets and allow to loosely wrap around the spinning wool.

I think this was love at first sight. New for 2010 from Kromski. I’ve never spun on a Kromski. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one up close, but this one is lovely. The walnut accent on the wheel is the real eye catcher. The bobbins are interchangable with their other wheels, so I think it would look even better with a walnut bobbin.

Can I justify another wheel? No. I only have two hands and two feet, and I already have two wheels…but it’s so p-r-e-t-t-y…

http://www.newvoyager.com/fantasia.html

The results from today’s dye pot. I’m really liking the fuzzy brown/black/grey in the front. It was a new spinning technique I used to wrap teased Wensleydale around a black Shetland wool core then plied with mohair. Very plump and fuzzy. Basketball sized skein. Might have to name that one ‘Monster’!

Saturday

• Scrubbed and sealed the brick sunroom floor
• Picked up the new kitchen cabinets in Louisville
• Assembled the new kitchen table and four chairs

Sunday

• Laundry day!
• Assembled all the new kitchen cabinets
• Moved the old kitchen table and chairs into the newly finished sunroom

Monday

• Spent 3 hours online looking for a new kitchen faucet and sink online
• Ordered faucet (Delta)
• Picked out sink (Kohler)
• Went to Home Depot and ordered the Silestone countertop and sink
• Ran errands – groceries, school art supplies, sushi for lunch
• Jim baked a cake (no occasion, just a craving)

Today

• Paid bills (yuck)
• Posted new yarn on Etsy
• Loaded up the trailer and made a run to the county dump to get rid of cabinet boxes and other junk that had collected during the renovation
• Nailed the metal siding back down on the barn that the wind at torn loose over the year
• Installed the new 24 x 22 x 2 cutting board in the cabinet slot beneath the stove
• Installed trim over the front door where we put in a new storm door last month
• Got out the dreaded white paint (I hate painting white!) and painted the trim around the garage doors and the front door
• Burned the 3 brush piles that had collected from last month’s landscaping chores

Tomorrow

• Not sure what’s on the agenda for tomorrow but if the weather continues to hold out (in the 70’s) there may be more painting outside or landscaping
• Jim also wants to start dem0-ing the old kitchen island, although as soon as he does I’m without a kitchen sink for the next 2 months (waiting for the countertop to be custom made for the new island)…and yes, that means I’m sink-less through the holidays. Oh well.

Thursday

• Back to work. We’ll need to go back just to get some rest!!!

My craft room is overflowing with wool. I really need to spin more!

This morning I finally hung the hand forged dinner triangle we bought at an art fair about 5 years ago. The sunroom was finally worthy of it.

Now we can call the cats to dinner in style. Of course, it’ll probably scare the bejeezus out of the them the first few times!

Finally finished the renovation of our sunroom (aka. the cat porch).

This was a year in the making. Our roofing contractor offered to cover the old porch siding with vinyl while he was doing the aluminum fascia and gutters last year. We took him up on the offer and rushed to replace all the old aluminum storm windows with double hung Pella vinyl windows before he hung the siding. We didn’t touch the room again until last week.  The old ceiling texture was peeling off, so I scraped the entire ceiling and painted. Then installed the wood trim around the windows. Painted walls, trim and doors. Then spent today on my hands and knees scrubbing the brick floor. I just finished sealing it with some masonry waterproofing (after this picture was taken). Tonight the cats are sleeping in the garage. They’ll get to move back in tomorrow with all new beds and new food bowls. Their new beds are wicker baskets filled with straw. They’ve already used them a few times and they look like Easter bunnies when they’re all curled up asleep. So cute. I switched them to straw bedding because the cat hair from six cats was impossible to get out of their old blankets and rugs, so now I can just throw the straw out in the compost pile when it’s ready to be changed. Problem solved.

The postman was my favorite person today. Four back issues of Selvedge arrived. Hours and hours of inspiration ahead!

The sink is full of yarn this morning.