John Ball Zoo Field Trip

I am finally getting to posting about the field trip I went on with Sarah's class last Friday.  We had 200 pictures from the day to go through and label and resize and etc!  So this is only a "small" representation of the pictures we took!



Sarah's class in their tie-dyed shirts ☺




Sarah and me





Take time to smell the roses!





He's kind of hard to see, but to the left of Sarah, next to the rock is a huge frog!  I had her stand there for reference on how big he really was.



Here he is!



I like the look on Sarah's face

Loom Knitting

Emily and William had been bugging me to teach them to loom knit since I got the rectangle looms at the Fiber Fiesta.  So two weeks ago, I sat down and showed them.  Emily picked it up really fast and can do all the parts herself.  Will can't quite keep the yarn from unwrapping while trying to wrap the loops, but he's only 3½, so he has time to perfect his skill!

Andy wished he could do it, too

Tie-Dyed Shirts

Sarah's class is going on a field trip to the zoo on Friday, so her teacher decided it would be nice to have them all wear matching shirts.  So she decided to have them do tie-dyed shirts.  I went in to help along with another mom. We did shirts for 26 students as well as about a dozen adults.  The kids did the rubber bands, but most needed to be tightened.

Sarah working at her desk until her turn to do her shirt

v

Sarah doing her rubber bands

½ the pile of shirts to dye

The pots of dye with the shirts in (my job)

rinsing the shirts (the other mom's job)

the finished shirts in bags waiting for teacher to take home and wash them (and remove rubber bands)

Sarah and my shirts all finished.  My heart turned out a little off center.

Winding a Center Pull Ball Tutorial

I have been meaning to post this ever since I posted about my hand dyed yarn and haven't gotten to it, but since I posted yesterday about my first ball of handspun yarn, I decided to finally do it!



gather supplies: laundry basket, sit and spin, chunky book, hank of yarn



Put laundry basket upside down on sit and spin (I had wrapped it on it in preparation to dye it, also) so that it spins when you pull on it



wind yarn around book, leaving the end stickiing out




Close up view




wrap around core to secure




Once you have enough thickness, start "criss cross" wrap around ball




All done!  I didn't quite get the  core covered




my 2 balls of hand dyed yarn.  The one on the left isn't as neat as the one on the right, but it will still work!





Let son play with sit and spin when you are finished with it!







My Very First Handspun Yarn!

While I am working on figuring out the settings on my spinning wheel to get it to wind onto the bobbin, I continued to spin on my drop spindle.  I had separated my Coopworth roving and was using about ¼ of it, so when I got to the end of that, I decided to quit and ply it.

my spindle full of singles yarn

I used this to unwind the spindle so I could ply it back onto the spindle

my spindle full of plied yarn

Rolled into a center pull ball

Yarn stats:

• spun on a bottom whorl drop spindle out of Coopworth roving
• Andean plied on 5/30/11
• ~26 yds
• ~1.75 oz
• ~9 wpi

Decoration Day

Getting the vase out

Sarah decorating the gravestone with flowers (her idea)

Putting flowers in the vase

more flowers

The decorated grave

Dan and the kids at the gravesite.  We were glad to see that Bill had a flag this year.

The kids in their patriotic clothes

The kids in a little pool for them to cool off

At first, Andy wouldn't get in, but would just play in the water at the edge

Andy checking out his siblings playing.  I love how curly his hair is!

Andrew finally decided to venture into the pool

I Got a SPINNING WHEEL!!

I looked on Craigslist and found a listing for a "Great Antique Large Wood Spinning Wheel".  I tried e-mailing them and calling them all weekend and didn't get a response.  I called again this morning and they answered!  It turns out it was at a business (estate buyers) so they were gone on the weekend!  



I paid $150 for it!  It seems to be a double drive wheel (missing the drive band!)




The treadle isn't attached to the footman, but that is an easy fix (they had it wired together)




The flyer is held to the maidens with leather pieces. I can't get the bobbin off the flyer (I'm assuming it should come off!) and the bobbin spins "gummy"




The bobbin has a notch in the whorl and I'm not sure if that will affect the drve band postitioning 




There is a crack along the underside which doesn't seem to affect the stability/soundness of the wheel




The crack runs up the front to the Mother-of-all



There is one minor crack on the wheel



and part of the decoration is missing on the drive wheel support



There is a slight crack in the drive wheel support.  There is also a plugged hole.



another plugged hole in the base




This is what was in the hole to keep the wheel from coming off.   I don't think it is what was used originally and there is only one.




Andy saw me trying out the treadle and he went over, gave the wheel a spin and put his little foot on the treadle! 

 Can any spinners out there give me any more information about my wheel or how to figure the bobbin/flyer disassembly?   UPDATE:  I found out that the whorl screws on opposite of how we're used to, so I was able to get it off ☺