spinning my life away

كامل

2008-05-08T09:41:00.008-04:00

woot! my bluemoon laci socks are complete!

i wish you could feel how soft they are.

the perfect weight for warmer weather

but not this bloody florida hot and sticky weather

lace detail-

anne is going to write a nice lightweight sock yarn pattern, how that for cajoling?

finally blocked, the knitting was finished well over a year ago...

it's "a triangular warm shawl to knit" by galina khmeleva, piecework magazine sept/oct 2002.

the kit is still available from galina, but i am not sure if it is still the quivit yarn called for in the magazine.

i was lucky enough to get the original kit from knitswap.

as soon as i had finished knitting it, rebecca told me i could never wear it since it is the red hat colors, ah well.

look at this gorgeous color! it is the sweet sheep's lace in cranapple.
it's going to be anne's snowflakes in cedar , a sample for the sweet sheep. i test knit the original one for anne, it's the one in the photos.

raja is the only one who uses the cardioglider for exercize.

he grabs his tail from underneath. hyseterical when he flips himself over to get a good grip on it, and falls off.

مجنون

2008-05-04T14:10:00.010-04:00

or how i lost my mind last night.

i love my irtfa'a so much that i wanted to knit a pair of socks to match. at madrona i bought a skein of str lightweight in rooky. unfortunately, i have skinny feet and str is a slightly thick sock yarn. couldn't figure out how to knit the lace patterns up in a small enough sock for me.

believe me i tried.

late last night i got the brilliant idea to use the leftover blue moon laci from irtfa'a!

1.5mm dpns, 80 sts, 11 st per inch. i'm in heaven.

is this extreme knitting?

last weekend i got to visit my gingersnap. it was my son's 29th birthday.

how the hell did i get old enough to have a 29 year old son?

we spent saturday morning fishing on bart's new boat.

matthew mconaughey ain't got nothing on my son ;-)

no fish :-(

i hope i see my little family again soon! maybe i'll get to babysit gingersnap overnight in july :-)

are you ready?

2008-04-22T21:33:00.012-04:00

for the cutest baby on earth?

not that i'm prejudiced or anything ;-)

the creepy crawly baby knee pads fit perfectly!

and are being put to use.

must knit more.

if i can figure out how to link to a word document, i'll post the pattern, i think it took more time to weave in the ends of each color band, next time one yarn.

whoohoo, i get to see gingersnap this weekend!

seeing spots

2008-04-11T21:32:00.006-04:00

sunspots! what a lovely test knit-

susan lawrence designed the pattern, named heat wave, and anne of wooly wonka fibers dyed the yarn.

unfortunately the kit is part of anne's soldout kit club.

fortunately i think it will be rereleased with a different yarn in a similar color.

this yarn is a gorgeous peachy corally silk. my only problem with the knit was using the wrong needle. i love lantern moon circs, but the points are too blunt for lace.

gingersnap's creepy crawly baby knee pads are in the mail. if they fit her i'll post a link to the pattern.

can you guess

2008-04-09T09:49:00.007-04:00

what this is?

golf club cover?

tiny sock close

is it a bird?

is it a plane?

no- it a tiny creeping crawling knee pad!

bart and natalie asked me to knit some crawling leg warmers for gingersnap.

luckily i had some leftover cascade 220 in their school colors, garnet and gold.

i hope they fit!

gingersnap at easter-

i miss my sweet angel, maybe someday we will live closer.

thanks for all the kind chair words! now i can't wait for it to get here. then i can sand and paint it...

almost heaven

2008-03-31T21:39:00.006-04:00

west virginia

this year's nantucket windsor chair class started off in terri's workshop-

charles was kind enough to drop off the maple turning stock for our legs.

this allowed us to have a lot more time to turn the legs, no chunking out this year!

aren't my legs purty?

much better than last year. i really took my time with the turning, plus i got a new curved skew chisel that me helped tremendously.

next stop, springfield, west virginia and storybook joinery.

first step in class was marking and carving the ears on the crest.

the crest is red oak.

we carved volutes on the front, and rounded over the backs.

the crests went into the steamer, then we bent and clamped them over a jig.

spindle splitting- charles is a trusting fellow, isn't he? the oak spindles are split with an axe and a mallet.

nine spindles for this nantucket windsor chair.

first the spindles are shaped with a drawknife, then my favorite job not shaping the spindles with a forkstaff.

what i do best, sweep up the shavings.

now we plane our seat blanks, i enjoyed this much more this year then last, i finally got the feel of the plane.

the nantucket windsor has a much larger seat than the bowback i made last year.

on the nantucket, the wood grain runs side to side on the seat, so the coffin, or tail, must be made as a separate piece, or it might crack off from the pressure.

the bowback's seat has the wood grain running front to back on the seat. the tail and seat are one piece.

we carefully measure, then cut the mortise into the back of the seat. first we used a brace and bit to drill 2 holes, then we squared up the hole with chisels.

the tail gets a matching tenon cut with a saw and finished off with a chisel.

glue the tail into the seat and clamp.

the seat and tail shape are cut on the bandsaw.

the seat is marked with pencil lines to show you where to cut off the underside.

finish the back of the seat shaping with a spokeshave.

next we mark off the part of the seat that will be chopped out.

and we get to use the gutter adze, fun!

we clean up the seat with a scorp (my friend), the compass plane, and the travisher (not my friends).

shaping the pommel.

the underside of the seat front.

our seats get marked for the legs and spindles. we drill the leg holes, and stile and stump holes.

drilling the holes in the hard maple legs was much easier this year.

we begged charles to let us use auger bits instead of spoon bits. it's the little things in life that make us happy.

the stretcher holes are drilled after we make sure all the leg angles are correct.

every hole is a compound angle, the legs have a rake (front to back) and splay (side to side). the stiles and stumps have a slope (front to back) and flare (side to side). 2 bevel gauges are used for each hole drilled.

once the legs and stretchers are assembled, they are jammed into the seat, and the legs are wedged.

dryfitting the spindles and stumps. starting to look like a chair!

the arms are made of poplar, an extra block of wood is glued to the bottom for carving the knuckles.

we carved the paws-

then marked the volutes-

and carved them with carving chisels.

the volutes on the arms were much harder to carve than the ears. especially ones on the inner curve.

but i think they are beautiful!

measure the distance of the arm to the stump.

then we assembled the whole arm, drilling the holes for the stumps and short spindles, and fitting the arm into the stiles (the turned uprights that run from the seat to the crest).

almost finished!

we steam the 2 spindles that run from the tail i like to call it the coffin, that's what it looks like to me to the crest.

and bend them into place.

very last job is drilling a small hole into the stiles, coffin spindles and the center spindle, and driving a small wedge into each hole.

charles and sherry treated us to a lovely dinner- starting with charles' world famous margarita.

the mantle glowed with candlelight.

as did the credenza. sherry really knows how to set the mood :-)

seafood stew with fennel and orange peel- fabulous!!!

our chairs are finished- terri and i each made a nantucket rocker, and charles made a nantucket armchair.

what can i say? the picture says it all!

charles, thanks from the bottom of my heart for all your patience.

terri, you are the very best and equally obsessed friend!

rocky mountain high

2007-09-24T10:39:00.001-04:00

don't you love it when your knitting blends in with the landscape?

tom and i are in durango colorado for two wonderful weeks.

on the needles is anne's twinings stole, fearless fibers merino laceweight in golden olive , the yarn is simply delicious.

we are renting half of a straw bale house just outside of durango in hesperus.

look at the view from our window!

mesa verde is only 20 miles from our house. the drive in and out of mesa verde is very very scary. funny but i don't remember it being scary 3o years ago...

this is the cliff palace. my extreme fear of heights kept me from taking the tour, tom did, and loved it.

i spent the hour knitting :-)
nice spot, eh?

and as i was knitting i met another knitter from outside pittsburg, hi pam!
pam was wearing a lovely sweater from knitter's stash in a gorgeous rust rowan summer tweed.

i did manage to make it down the semi-petrifying walk into the spruce tree house.

definitely worth it! wow! wow! wow!

here is a photo of the trees in mesa verde,

and a photo of the dessimated areas, in 2002 mesa verde had huge forest fires.

on the left of this photo is the cliff where butch cassidy and the sundance kid jumped in the film. it's about 10 miles north of durango on the way to silverton, where i lived 30 years ago.

sheep!

i couldn't leave you without a few gingersnap photos!

wrapped in her bee blanket,

i love her so much, and can't wait to see her again! thanks for all the baby comments, i couldn't email a few of you, thanks mary heather, vicki, linda and karen!

cloud nine

2007-09-11T07:34:00.000-04:00

last time you saw wooly wonka anne's tupelo gold , it was an eeeny weeny square on dpns.

now it is a baby bee blanket.

all squinched up.

having a nice relaxing bath and conditioning.

blocked glamor shot.

next time you see the baby bee blanket, it will be wrapped around my brand new granddaughter!

the call came yesterday around 11:30, and baby was born at 12:22 p.m.i threw some clothes (and baby blankets) in a bag and jumped in the car.

ten and a half hours later i made it to pensacola and got to see my baby for the first time! she weighs 6 lb 8 oz, has a full head of curly blonde hair and a cleft in her tiny chin just like her mom :-)

my happy new family, son bart, ddil natalie and the new baby girl, i'll call her gingersnap on the blog.

isn't she a doll? and so pink!

my wrist is much better! i have been wearing my brace like a good girl, on the drive i noticed, no pins and needles at all in my fingertips.

the sounds of silence

2007-08-27T07:53:00.000-04:00

photo worth a thousand words-

while making the chair, i hurt my carpal tunnel. the chair came in the brown truck, and of course i couldn't wait to sand it, so rehurt the wrist. not the brightest move i've ever made.

now i am being a very good girl.

just a tiny bit of knitting. so far, knitting doesn't seem to be hurting, maybe cause i knit continental and only use my right hand to hold the needle.

can anyone guess what's on these needles?

then we took my baby to college.

think she has enough stuff?

rebecca and her new room-mate! i hope my baby girl has the best time ever!

but i miss her terribly

warning- looooonng chair class post ahead!

2007-08-10T06:57:00.000-04:00

are you ready for a windsor class primer?

then step inside the storybook joinery workshop-

first up, planing the red oak stock for our bows. i have one long back bow,

while terri has 2 bows, one rounded back bow, and one arm bow. terri's arm bow will have mittens attached, which i covet.

after we planed our bows, they go into the steam box.

the steam box is made of a long pvc pipe, the water is heated by a propane tank.

charles has asbestos fingers.

the bows are bent around a mold,

very much like we bend nantucket basket handles.

we used metal bending straps with wooden handles to pull the bows over the molds.

next we used an axe, a wedge and a large wooden mallet to split green oak for the spindles.

charles is very trusting ;-)

the raw spindle blanks. it must be green (not dried out) oak for the spindles so the spindles will be able to bend later on in the chair.

we used a drawknife, spokeshave and compass plane to shape the spindles. mine have a plain long taper.

terri got to sit at the shavehorse (i had to stand, wheh).

terri's spindles have a fatter bottom, and a narrow taper at the top. her arm bow will rest on top of the fat part of the taper.

then we turned hard maple blanks into legs on the lathe.

i thought i'd be a lot better at this than i was. the skew and i are not friends.

had much better luck with the bowl and roughing gouge and scraper.

you can't see in the photos, but there is a master leg to copy resting behind the lathe in the orange clamps. we made pencil lines to mark off the different parts of the leg turnings, and calipers to measure how much wood to take off.

here are the tools we will use to chop and carve the seats. from top left going clockwise, travisher, scorp, spokeshave and drawknife. i also used a compass plane, but it's not in the photo.

the seats are made of 2 pine blanks glued together.

terri, refining her seat. terri's sackback windsor has an oblong seat.

my bowback rocker has a shield seat.
first we used the drawknife to taper the back of the seat.

charles is giving me the "what are you doing, girl?" look.

then we used a curved adze to chop out the butt part of the seat.

watch your toes!

see the seat template behind my seat? all the reference points you will need for the leg and spindle holes are marked on the template, plus the degree of each angle.

since i want to use my chair for spinning, i shaped my seat a little different.

most windsor seats have an angle from the pommel to the sides. for me, this angle hits the back of your thighs and bothers the sciatic nerve.

my seat is shaped with a wide groove where your thighs hit the seat, for smooth spinning action :-)

i am one with the scorp.

terri is drilling her first leg hole with a bit brace and an auger bit.

drilling my first leg hole. we used bevel gauges to measure the splay, which is the angle of the legs from side to side, and rake, which is the angle of the legs from front to back. each of the holes we drilled is a compound angle.

then we used a reamer in the bit brace to refine the angle. so the legs go into the seat at just the right angles.

the reamer on terri's seat.

my seat wth the 4 leg holes drilled.

we put the 2 front legs in and check for symetry.

all 4 legs in and we place the 2 metal winding sticks from front to back and check the angle with a bevel gauge. now is when you pray the angles match!

one of the hardest parts was drilling into the 2 side stretchers and the medial stretcher with the bit brace and spoon bit. no photos cause we were working too hard.

terri went first, and when terri, aka amazon woman, was having a hard time, i knew i was in deep doodoo.

success!

first the stretchers are glued together in an angled H shape, the stretchers are glued into the legs, then the whole leg assembly is glued into the seat.

next we took a chisel and split the top of the leg where they poke out of the seat, make a wedge, glue and hammer the wedge into the legs to make the joint extra strong.

the wedges look like this- they are walnut and i love them. too bad they will be painted over.

refining the spindles with a compass plane.

see how terri's armbow is setting on top of the fat part of her spindles?

terri is seating her spindles. she used a piece of pvc pipe held over her spindles so they wouldn't

split.

my spindles only poke out of the backbow a little bit, so i didn't need the pipe.

after my middle spindle is in, we check the backbow to make sure it isn't torqued one way or the other.

turning the spindles to look as straight as they can.

seating the spindles with a 1 1/2 lb. brass hammer. tap wait tap, til it sounds hollow.

the 2 back spindles on my chair and the 2 smallest side spindles are steam bent and shoved into blind holes.

i love the little coffin back brace that the 2 back spindles fit into.

the master.

we measure the legs and mark for the rockers.

the bottom of my legs and the rockers are put together with a with a bridle joint.

a true stroke of serendipity. charles bought plain maple for the rockers, but when he was sawing it, the flames of figured maple appeared!

figured maple is one of my favorite woods!

so the body of my chair will be painted, and the rockers will have an oil finish letting the figuring in the wood show.

one rocker fitting perfectly!

the rocker is more than i ever dreamed it would be :-)

terri and i are already planning a class next march so the weather won't be as beastly hot.

terri will make a nantucket windsor rocker (what else)?

i am torn between the nantucket, or this boston armchair with rockers.

the boston is easier, plus it can be shipped disassembled and i can glue it together at home.

at least i have a while to chew on it!

terri and i were so lucky to meet charles at the waterford fair, and ask him if he would consider teaching us to make a windsor chair.

charles is the very best kind of teacher; unfailingly patient, willing to share his knowledge and a fabulous craftsman.

where to begin?

2007-08-09T08:42:00.001-04:00

wow! neither terri or i expected storybook joinery to have a storybook setting,

but it does.

sir charles boland greets us with a smile.

little does he know what's in store for him, heh heh.

i've decided to write about the class tomorrow, today i'll show you some of the extracurricular highlights.

friday evening, charles lovely wife sherri fixed us margaritas for happy hour mine is a virgin.

sherri makes nantucket baskets too.

then we strolled through their gorgeous lush garden

over the bridge

for a crab and corn feast under the hidden grape arbor.

terri and maggie admiring the crabs

yum!

sherri took our photo, celebrating a class well done!

a peek at my bowback with the rockers on.

charles made a sackback like terri's, and a bowback rocker like mine. all 4 chairs together.

look at those smiles :-)

the hampshire house, fantastic breakfasts, the high protein pancakes kept our tummies full!

an inpromptu bluegrass jam at the music store in romney.

mario's restuarant in romney, we ate here almost every night. homemade pasta and sauce, delish! everyone who works at mario's is super friendly.

evan's dairy dip in fort ashby. the BEST softserve ice cream in the world, so creamy.

terri is a twist kind of gal, and i am chocolate all the way. i miss you already my friend!

big blue all packed up for the drive home.
tomorrow the class info i promise!

i'm still pooped!

2007-08-08T21:55:00.000-04:00

but terri isn't, so go read her post!

i can say that evan's dairy dip has THE best soft-serve in the world :-)

and i have the extra pounds to prove it ;-)

pleased as punch!

2007-08-06T16:23:00.000-04:00

too exhausted to post.

see you in 10 days!

2007-07-28T08:23:00.000-04:00

my friend terri and i are going to west virginia-

to take a windsor chair making class with charles boland of storybook joinery.

terri has a woodworking shop that would make norm abrams pee his pants.
i am so so over my head, wish me luck that i return with all my fingers ;-)

print o' the wave blocked. it was so muggy out this morning, when we took the first photos, they were blurry cause the lens was fogged!

rebecca was not here to model, so you are stuck with me.

print o' the wave, designed by eunny jang, knit with 4 skeins of alchemy haiku in copper. size 8 metallic seed beads. size 4 lantern moon needles.

this wasn't knit at the speed of light. it was started last spring, i ran out of yarn with 2/3 of the last long border. found last skein in closet last week.

the first skein of haiku is lighter than the rest, the border skeins both match thank the fsm!

i'm ignoring the color differences and happy the print is finis.

blogging from the fort lauderdale airport, how cool is that? i cannot wait til the whole world is wireless :-)

it's all over

2007-07-26T20:59:00.000-04:00

except for the grafting.

i ran a little short on the zephyr while testing anne's rectangular bee shawl.

while waiting impatiently for more yarn to come in the mail, print o' the wave was beckoning.

as luck would have it i found an extra skein of the alchemy haiku for the shawl in the closet.

now the print just needs a good blocking.

raja thinks the black bee makes an excellent kitty blankie.

rebecca and the honey bee.

ok, so i lied

2007-07-20T10:16:00.001-04:00

the ebony laceweight zephyr was ordered with all good intentions of knitting the ms3.

but when anne told me she was writing up the pattern for a rectangular bee shawl, i pleaded for a test-knitting spot.

here's the bee resting on the back of my fabulous new knitting chair. the ottoman's tone is slightly different than the chair, but not as drastic as the photo. 75% off, who could resist?

waiting for the rectangular bee to be written up, i got out wooly wonka anne's ceilidh sock kit. anne has captured the colors of a nantucket sunset in her nantucket colorway.

no photo yet of the finished socks as i've been feverishly working on the new bee.

lily of the valley smoke ring is done also, just needs a good steaming.

doggie kitty snooze fest.

the bee has spread her wings

2007-07-13T11:11:00.000-04:00

the bee having a spa treatment shampoo and conditioning.

the bee pinned out in all her glory. be prepared with plenty of pins on hand.

the art shot.

thanks anne, for giving me the pure pleasure of test knitting the bee. thanks anne, for dyeing such a lovely honey bee yarn :-)

now on the needles, wooly wonka fibers lily of the valley smoke ring. this will go in the christmas prezzie box for my basket teacher karol. starting the bottom edge. next will be the global encompassing ms3.