This event was at the historic National City depot, 1885, on Sunday, October 9. Who says San Diego does not have history? In this picture, the Blacksmith is holding forth with Opinions. The ladies listen politely.
Monday, October 10, 2011
San Diego Electric Railway Association
This event was in National City. SD Fiber Artist and other members of the crew attended.
This event was at the historic National City depot, 1885, on Sunday, October 9. Who says San Diego does not have history? In this picture, the Blacksmith is holding forth with Opinions. The ladies listen politely.
This event was at the historic National City depot, 1885, on Sunday, October 9. Who says San Diego does not have history? In this picture, the Blacksmith is holding forth with Opinions. The ladies listen politely.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Vacation Time
We just returned from a wonderful vacation. Actually, we have been back for a week but I had to attend a work-related conference last week so I am just posting about the vacation now. Here's the vacation summary:
Sunday - Drove up to Solvang, visited Village Spinning and Weaving. Did I buy anything? Hmmm, what do you think??? We drove up to Los Alamos, and attended the Olden Days event. I purchased an old spinning wheel (more later). That night, we walked out of Solvang a bit and saw the Milky Way on a moonless night.
Monday - Up to Sonora, we made it in time to stop off at Columbia State Historic Park. Spouse got some Period Attire for our Old Town volunteer activities.
Tuesday - Most of the day at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, where we got a behind the scenes tour of the roundhouse, turn table, mechanic's shop, and other rail features. On to Murphys and music at Alchemie.
Wednesday - visited Stephenie Gaustad and Alden Amos. Stephenie generously let me try out a Great Wheel. Alden customized a hand spindle for my spouse, who is learning to spin. These two people are so wonderful and kind, I can't thank them enough for hosting us that morning. Then on Indian Grinding Rocks State Park.
Thursday - Hiked Indian Grinding Rocks trails, drove up to El Dorado County, bought apples and winter squash, and met Lexi Boeger at her workshop. What a wonderful and talented artist! We ate dinner at Taste, which is a wonderful restaurant not only because they have a vegetarian menu.
Friday - Hiked Calaveras Big Trees trails, and visited Murphys. Drove to Modesto via Knights Ferry covered bridge and historic buildings. Ate a fabulous Italian meal at our favorite restaurant in Modesto and danced to street music. I love Modesto!
Saturday - Drove home, made it through LA with few traffic problems but hit a big jam up around Camp Pendleton. Took forever to get through San Diego County. Oh, and Caltrans has every rest stop in California closed. So plan ahead.
So...here is photo of the old spinning wheel I bought in Los Alamos.
Sunday - Drove up to Solvang, visited Village Spinning and Weaving. Did I buy anything? Hmmm, what do you think??? We drove up to Los Alamos, and attended the Olden Days event. I purchased an old spinning wheel (more later). That night, we walked out of Solvang a bit and saw the Milky Way on a moonless night.
Monday - Up to Sonora, we made it in time to stop off at Columbia State Historic Park. Spouse got some Period Attire for our Old Town volunteer activities.
Tuesday - Most of the day at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, where we got a behind the scenes tour of the roundhouse, turn table, mechanic's shop, and other rail features. On to Murphys and music at Alchemie.
Wednesday - visited Stephenie Gaustad and Alden Amos. Stephenie generously let me try out a Great Wheel. Alden customized a hand spindle for my spouse, who is learning to spin. These two people are so wonderful and kind, I can't thank them enough for hosting us that morning. Then on Indian Grinding Rocks State Park.
Thursday - Hiked Indian Grinding Rocks trails, drove up to El Dorado County, bought apples and winter squash, and met Lexi Boeger at her workshop. What a wonderful and talented artist! We ate dinner at Taste, which is a wonderful restaurant not only because they have a vegetarian menu.
Friday - Hiked Calaveras Big Trees trails, and visited Murphys. Drove to Modesto via Knights Ferry covered bridge and historic buildings. Ate a fabulous Italian meal at our favorite restaurant in Modesto and danced to street music. I love Modesto!
Saturday - Drove home, made it through LA with few traffic problems but hit a big jam up around Camp Pendleton. Took forever to get through San Diego County. Oh, and Caltrans has every rest stop in California closed. So plan ahead.
So...here is photo of the old spinning wheel I bought in Los Alamos.
I cleaned it up and then put some oil finish on it. When I bought it, it was very dirty but all the pieces were there. When we visited Stephenie and Alden, my spouse hauled it out of the car for Alden to look at. He identified it as a c. 1880s Germanic or Swiss wheel. It uses wooden pegs (which Alden made for me) instead of hooks on the flyer. The drive band and tension band are flax, as is the string holding the footman to the treadle.
You can see where her heel and foot rested on the frame and treadle. The legs are sticks. Alden identified the wood as beech. There is some beetle damage to the wood. I have it in quarantine to make sure the beetles are no longer active.
OK, then I spent last week in Palm Springs at a conference. I knitted a bit but was really too busy at the conference to do any serious fiber art. Tomorrow, spinning at National City Rail Depot.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Fiestas Patrias - Old Town
Last Saturday was Fiestas Patrias in Old Town - or Mexican Independence Day. Complete with a parade, dancers, activities, food, plays, and of course - Fiber Arts.
Nothing says festive like a parade with horses. And beautiful ladies on horses is just about perfection. We greatly admired their dresses. One of these ladies had her little boy riding with her; what a memory he will have. Best comment of the day: After watching me on my driven-spindle wheel for a while, a man looked at me in amazement and said, "You're really doing that, aren't you?". I said, yes I am. So many people have never seen someone spinning on a wheel, what a great learning opportunity. SD Fiber was well represented on the porch at the Robinson Rose house, even providing a hand spindle lesson to our dear interpreter.
A star is born.
Nothing says festive like a parade with horses. And beautiful ladies on horses is just about perfection. We greatly admired their dresses. One of these ladies had her little boy riding with her; what a memory he will have. Best comment of the day: After watching me on my driven-spindle wheel for a while, a man looked at me in amazement and said, "You're really doing that, aren't you?". I said, yes I am. So many people have never seen someone spinning on a wheel, what a great learning opportunity. SD Fiber was well represented on the porch at the Robinson Rose house, even providing a hand spindle lesson to our dear interpreter.
A star is born.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The Birds
Inspired by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (check out their video on Acorn Woodpeckers), I took a break from plying yesterday and photographed some birds at our back yard feeders. I heard unusual calls over the past couple of days, so I wanted to see if the same birds would come back. Turns out I caught two adult and one juvenile Nutmeg Mannikins in our yard. The two adults are at middle level on the red feeder, and the juvenile is at the seed tray of the green feeder. Thanks to Marty for identifying these!
Check out the Cornell program and videos. Their journal, Living Bird, is full of beautiful and inspiring photographs and articles. I support them because (1) I am interested in birds and wildlife; and (2) my father attended Cornell University on the GI Bill after WWII and received a degree in Electrical Engineering. This led to his career in the U.S. space program in the 1960s and 1970s - which led to an abiding interest in science in our family. Go Cornell!
Check out the Cornell program and videos. Their journal, Living Bird, is full of beautiful and inspiring photographs and articles. I support them because (1) I am interested in birds and wildlife; and (2) my father attended Cornell University on the GI Bill after WWII and received a degree in Electrical Engineering. This led to his career in the U.S. space program in the 1960s and 1970s - which led to an abiding interest in science in our family. Go Cornell!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Rainy Day in San Diego
We have had the most peculiar weather here today. It has been cloudy (no, real clouds not "overcast"), with some sprinkles before dawn, one moderate rain with thunder, and additional large drops. Completely not predicted by the weather forecast. This is one thing that puzzles me about San Diego weather - the forecast is so frequently wrong. How complicated could it be? Maybe I am missing something that makes our weather so very difficult to predict reliably.
Well, I spent a good part of the morning spinning alpaca roving from Specialty Yarn and Llamas (www.specialtyyarnandllamas.com). We were up in Wynola on Saturday and I bought some black, tan, and creamy white roving. This is all for hubby's fingerless gloves, which will be knitted from the different colors of alpaca plus the seafoam green I spun on the quill spindle.
I draped the black and tan unfinished, plied skeins over the distaff for the photo. The creamy white is on the distaff and I have some on the bobbin. Nice! My only bungle was to ply the singles on the Joy using the bulky flyer set-up. This was a struggle and quite unnecessary. I should have plied it on the Elizabeth; even plied, the yarn is DK weight at the most. The skeins came out fine, but I had to fight with the Joy and risked breaking the singles yarn. I was lucky that none broke. I washed the skeins in warm to hot soapy water, and have set them out to drip. Uh oh, now it really is starting to rain here!
Well, I spent a good part of the morning spinning alpaca roving from Specialty Yarn and Llamas (www.specialtyyarnandllamas.com). We were up in Wynola on Saturday and I bought some black, tan, and creamy white roving. This is all for hubby's fingerless gloves, which will be knitted from the different colors of alpaca plus the seafoam green I spun on the quill spindle.
I draped the black and tan unfinished, plied skeins over the distaff for the photo. The creamy white is on the distaff and I have some on the bobbin. Nice! My only bungle was to ply the singles on the Joy using the bulky flyer set-up. This was a struggle and quite unnecessary. I should have plied it on the Elizabeth; even plied, the yarn is DK weight at the most. The skeins came out fine, but I had to fight with the Joy and risked breaking the singles yarn. I was lucky that none broke. I washed the skeins in warm to hot soapy water, and have set them out to drip. Uh oh, now it really is starting to rain here!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Quill Spindle
My old Traveller wheel does not get much use these days, unless I have a "guest" spinner over to visit. I fitted it with a double treadle a few years ago but otherwise it's the same as when I purchased it in the mid-1980s. After using the Alden Amos T frame wheel to spin cotton for a few weeks, I got curious about driven spindle wheels. So I purchased the Ashford quill spindle attachment and put it on the Traveller. Wow, what fun I am having!
This attachment has three pulley speeds and they are really fast. I've got it on the middle one. The brake band tension is completely released. The instruction sheet says that, with practice, you can keep spinning and winding on without stopping. After almost a week, I can do it although I have to use my hand to get the wheel going in the right direction again - but I don't stop spinning. I think I have more control of the wheel direction with the double treadle set up. I am practicing with this nice wool roving, which drafts quite easily in long draw. I use my right hand to control the movement of the twist while drafting with my left hand.
This attachment has three pulley speeds and they are really fast. I've got it on the middle one. The brake band tension is completely released. The instruction sheet says that, with practice, you can keep spinning and winding on without stopping. After almost a week, I can do it although I have to use my hand to get the wheel going in the right direction again - but I don't stop spinning. I think I have more control of the wheel direction with the double treadle set up. I am practicing with this nice wool roving, which drafts quite easily in long draw. I use my right hand to control the movement of the twist while drafting with my left hand.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
TwainFest 2011
Yesterday was TwainFest in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. A very long day for spinning - we got to the park by 10:30 and worked consistently until a little after 4:00. Instead of spinning inside the Estudillo House, we sat on the porch of the Robinson-Rose building, which is the Visitors Center for the park. As you can imagine, I got a lot of spinning done and answered a lot of questions.
TwainFest featured a performance of Hamlet by two actors. They played all the parts.
There was banjo and guitar music all day, featuring folk and popular songs from Mark Twain's era. And drinks and snacks afterwards at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. What fun! Today I am winding off my full bobbins and the niddy noddy because I have much to ply.
TwainFest featured a performance of Hamlet by two actors. They played all the parts.
There was banjo and guitar music all day, featuring folk and popular songs from Mark Twain's era. And drinks and snacks afterwards at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. What fun! Today I am winding off my full bobbins and the niddy noddy because I have much to ply.
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