My Forays into Fiber and other Geeky Things

Hi folks, while Harriet is playing with henna at Tina's I was tasked with going to the bank, and then a trip east to the super secret road side spring. Well, it's an open secret, as I first heard of this spring when I was living in Schenectady. In fact one winter we saw it briefly, when Harriet and I were out driving. It took us an additional 7 years to find it again. We KNEW it was east of Troy some where but could not find it until earlier this spring (pardon the pun). Since then, to save money on bottled water we will refill our own bottles. All I will say is that the spring is roadside on a north-south road between NY 2 and US 20 There are your clues, go forth and find it. Meanwhile, those socks are progressing. Socks at work. Socks outdoors Get ready for your close-up I am digging these socks.

Over the weekend, My wife Harriet and I hit an estate sale because we saw "LARGE ESTATE SALE (GLENMONT)" in the local edition of Craigslist. What really intrigued us was this snippet from the ad "NEW SMALL SPINNING WHEEL" To us, small means an Ashford not a great wheel What we found was Marked at $125.00 This made me want to pass.. Except this was day TWO of the sale and everything was...... HALF-PRICE...... This was worth $62.50 even if it did not work just for parts... I does not have a makers mark however BTW it does spin... See this image .. I added that purple leader and I spun that last night. Oh yeah it's a double drive that seems to have leather bearings and a solid flyer / whorl combo. Detail here.... Maddening I say, he who is used to the Ashford set up. I think it's from the mid-sixties as a kit-decorative wheel as the mains are affixed to the platen via square head 1/4" 20's nuts. And the legs have thread heads for screwing into the p

No URLs to get off track on, just a quick one before I go away. For Tina I have a clearer pic of what I spun up AND the project in the making.... I am so gonna like these, I like the feel of the yarn along with the way it's knitting up quickly. I am going south this weekend to do the Pesach thing with Harriet's sister Susan and the whole family. Happy whatever spring celebration seems appropriate. ComputerMechanic

Dobby has a new pair of them... Finally I have been working on these since January. Above is the first part of the toe up construction. I used the "forward" wrap method which requires you to make the cast on by knitting it... It only makes sense when you do it. Trust me it's brain bleeding.. The toes had an increase of a two stitches every row until I had 44 sts a round. Later on, when I had progressed beyond that point I truly felt as if I had a real sock in the making. Then I hit the heal.... and the "rip and repeat" learning curve. It was NOT a fun time.. when you had to really learn short row heal and screw it up time and again. But last night, finally, after 3 months of these living in my knitting bag, they are done. I so am stoked that I actually did these. BTW, That FUGLY blue yarn mentioned here has gone to stash camp in the basement along with a few of the other "not stash" yarns. On a geeky note, I got to play with a toy ACER has a better o