New Fiber Pics
Hello and happy Friday. Finally!
Let's see....todays news? Oh, I finished Ravens fibers.
Here is that fabulous Blue merino. Both this and the Maroon are from Smoky Mountain Spinnery in Gatlinburg TN. Really nice stuff. Too bad they aren't in my neck of the woods!
Click hereto check out their site. Lots of ooohs and aaaahs from me.
Not bad for an ugly pvc wheel. I am still getting a wheel from kathy at woolworld. That will have to wait until tomorrow once I've been to the bank. Did I tell you I won a scratch off lottery ticket yesturday? Well I did! I don't buy the things, they are a waste of cash and I never win. I average maybe buying 2 a year. I'm serious. I saw a ticket at a convenience store that was the same color as Ravens maroon roving. I won 150.00! Yeah, "found" money that I can spend guilt free. Until the box comes and hubby sees it. I didn't tell him about the win....shhhhh. Don't tell anybody.
Look at how nice this is on the Noddy! Am putting the finishing touches on it to hold the twist forever!
Hey Rae!!!! Will be mailing it out Monday!!
AND of course, todays picture of Dizzy. For all of you that are interested, he grew alot overnight. Suddenly his toes are super long and his body is longer. birds are something else. Here he is taking a nap.
Look at those feet.
Spindolyn and Patience
Okay, I'm not the most patient of people. A zap of graphite where the Spindolyn's shaft meets the quill and it spins like crazy. What do they say about gift horses?? Needless to say, it spins faster than I can draft the fiber. Is "Ask and ye shall recieve" or "Careful what you wish for the better phrase to insert here? All of the above I think!! So the Spindolyn works wonderfully. I'm still a bit awkward with the pulling straight up to draft. It's different! I'm going to shoot some video of it... it's really nice. Now I need to figure out how to put the video here on the blog.
I finished spinning Raven's Maroon merino and have started on the Blue. There is less of the Blue than the Maroon. I think she's going to make socks with it. Yummy!
Here is the maroon wrapped on my homemade Niddy Noddy. It isn't pretty, but it works! I need to finish it out so the twist is locked in and then ball it up! It is truely wonderful feeling, and a great color!
This is a close up of the maroon merino. The picture above shows the true color.
Here is the Blue, before any pre drafting or work was done to it.
On to the daily Dizzy report...
He's growing!! He actually is gaining weight. These pictures were taken Wednesday (today). I took a picture of the nestmates for comparision too.
Here are chicks 1-4 as of today. They all have their eyes open and can stand. You can see that #1 is starting to feather alot. He even has a cool little spike on top of his head. It looks like a yellow horn. The others are starting to feather a tiny bit, but not like Spike.
This is Dizzy this morning at 8 days old. He has made it through the first crucial week. Look and you can see his little eye. It isn't opened ye
t, but it's there. He just lays around, holding his head up enough to eat.
Here he is this afternoon. He's standing!!!! Lookie, he's STANDING ON HIS OWN!!! What a trooper.
Dizzy getting his dinner. OMG!!!
His eye is opening!! How cool! What a differnce from 3pm (pic above left) and 6pm
Two milestones in one day. I have high hopes for him.
Fiber news
On the fiber end of things....
I got my new Spindolyn. It's very pretty, but I can't get it to work. Frustrating. I think it's not right. It makes scraping grinding noises while it tries to spin around. It ticks me off when I spend money for something and can't get it to do what it's meant to. More on that later.
I've started to spin Raven's Marroon merino. Very nice stuff. Here is is looking all bunched up before being predrafted.
This is it on the wheel getting loaded o
nto the bobbin. Once I finish the Marroon, there is a nice blue merino of Ravens I have to work on. Still no word from her as to what weight or ply she wants the yarn, so I am just doing a single. It won't be long today before I wet and hang the single to lock in the twist. I don't want to do anything else to it until I find out what she wants exactly. The single is beautiful so far and I know she'll be pleased.
I truely love spinning. It's fun, relaxing and I can listen to my ipod with out loosing count or being distracted. It sets a rithym for me to treadle by. It's funny how the beat of music can make your hands and feet work together faster or slower. I find that spinning to music makes the work flow smoothly because I don't "think" about what I am doing....it seems to just happen. Wouldn't it be nice if the Spindolyn worked that well with me?
Birdies and Spinning and my teacup
Hey!!! Look what is in my Teacup!
The tiny chick that I had to pull from the nest is doing well. No objections whatsoever to a syringe and formula. It is way too tiny to sit in anything else in the brooder, so he now resides in a teacup. I dream of the day he will need to upgrade to a bowl. I took a couple of pictures of #4 and #5 together so you can see how tiny and pathetic "he" is. They are 2 days apart in age. It will be painfully obvious why I had to pull him! Take a look! Sorry the picture isn't great, but #4's eyes opened a bit today and I don't want to mess him up with a flash. It's been snowing all
day so it's cloudy out, and not great photo taking time inside.....I'll fix it later with photoshop. Notice that #5 is wicked tilted? He can't stand on his own yet. At the time of the photo, #4 was rocking and hissing at me. There are only 2 days difference here!!!
I have decided to name him Dizzy. He can't walk or stand on his own so he just scoots around and around in circles......
Since I love spinning and so does Dizzy, he is here to stay. I will not sell this baby.
Here is Dizzy and #3 early this evening...better light and no flash. I moved my hand just a tiny bit, and he fell over right as I took the picture! Cute little bird.
I have started spinning the Maroon merino that Raven needed done. Beautiful stuff.
Okay, glitch in the road
Well, it's Saturday. The addition we are putting on the house actually looks like it may be a room soon. I have rafters up top and walls framed. Just waiting for hubby to close it in.
I have hit a small snag with the cockatiels. The chicks are doing well....all except for the youngest. He is so small that all the others get all the parents attention. He doesn't get much to eat, and is so tiny that everyone steps all over him and poops on him. He really isn't growing or gaining weight like he should. In the wild I am sure that he would succumb to what we know as survival of the fittest or mother natures natural selection. I won't stand for it. I can't watch the little sweetie starve and freeze. I handfeed babies all the time, but I have never fed one this young. He is only 5 days old now.
My birds have always waited until there were a few eggs laid before they start sitting. Did you know that a fertile egg can survive almost a month if it isn't sat on? Birds will lay and not sit on the eggs until they have a full or mostly full clutch laid. That way, the chicks develope at roughly the same pace. My pair, being first time parents, started to brood immediately (not uncommon) so that the oldest chick is over a week older than the last one hatched. I worried about this very thing when Ivan started to brood that first egg. If this chick survives, and I am pretty confident that it will, we'll end up keeping it. He's like the runt puppy of the litter....smallest, cutest and usually the sweetest. Dear to me because of the situation.
The brooder is set up. It's actually a tank with a heating pad underneath. According to my thermometer it's just about ready. I'll be feeding every 3 hours 24/7 for a couple of days. Once it's about 8 days old it will sleep through the night. This is gonna be fun.
On a Crafting note..........I am waiting for lots of stuff in the mail. I ordered more handpainted roving(pictured below) from
Maiysha I am waiting for a box of roving and fleece from a friend in SC....hi Raven! Waiting for my Spindolyn from Catherine at
Knitting Anyway, and Carders from
Webs. I can't wait for Maiyshas fiber. I have plans for it!
Here is that fabulous Blue merino. Both this and the Maroon are from Smoky Mountain Spinnery in Gatlinburg TN. Really nice stuff. Too bad they aren't in my neck of the woods! Click here
