Now on to Knitting And Spinning...
Betzi had big plans. Huge plans, in fact. However, Betzi might have bitten off more than she can chew. Spinning wheel restoration is at a standstill. Lace knitting went ok until...well, more on that in a minute. Betzi has instead taken many walks out here in the country and contemplated the meaning of life.
Or something.
Anyway, lets start with the spinning wheels: after doing a little research(ok "research" is an overstatement, I googled.) I quickly discovered how far out of my league I truly am. At this point I have all but given up on the other wheels, and am trying to stick with the one that I used the last time I was here, the one I spun a whole skein of yarn on. I don't know if there was more moisture than usual in the attic in my absence and the wood swelled, or maybe I used the wrong bobbins, but the wheel does not want to work for me again.
The biggest problem is the drive band. It would go for a while then pop off unexpectedly. It didn't take long to discover that the pegs holding the spokes to the wheel are poking out here and there. I didn't quite feel right about just hammering away on them or yanking them out. After a quick consult (thanks Brendan!) I was told that getting them back in was the best way to go, and that if they splinter they they need to be replaced anyway. Solid advice, so I scrounged up a teeny hammer (some of them were located just along the edge and really hard to get without dinging up the rim of the drive band groove) and went a-pounding. It was kind of fun, and I was surprisingly successful, so I brazenly decided to pound in the pegs on the rest of the wheel. Yup, fun. Until I got to one with a ivory tip, which all but disintigrated on the slightest tap. Not the ivory of course, but the peg it was pushed into. Bah. Needless to say it will stay like that until I figure out what to do.
Sooo...drive band problems solved, right? Not so. It still unfortunately pops off randomly. I have poked and prodded at this darn wheel for longer than I care to admit, and have come up with absolutely zilch. Is it the weird flyer? The strange, screw-on whorl? The tilt of the wheel? I have no idea. And why on earth did it work once for me quite well and never again? What could I possibly be doing differently? I am using the same band (hemp, not my first choice but it will do), the same flyer (I think), and the same footman (there are 2). I'm not sure about the bobbin, but if it isn't the same one, its awfully close in size and shape to the one I'm currently using.
Looks like this will take a little more experimentation before things get going. wish me luck, I'm pretty sure I'll need it. At the very least I will need a healthy dose of patience.
As the kiddos and hubby were poking around the barns, they stumbled across this huge stash of wool. The people who rent the pasture on part of the farm have sheep. Our best guess (in the absence of the shepherdess) is that the breed is Scottish Blackface. I love their funky speckled legs and faces:
...and of course the huge stash:
Insane, eh? The wool is unfortunately not suitable for handspinning, but a mountain of wool is certainly an impressive sight.
Knitting is also at a bit of a standstill. I was chugging along nicely on Madli, though I will admit that nupps tend to slow things down a bit. Yes, they take some time, but that isn't what is really holding up progress. I found *gulp* moths on the second skein needed to complete the shawl. Thats right folks, moths. The M Word. The second I decided to not freak out about The Moth Issue, here comes one. And it was very clearly a Clothes Moth. Undeniably. Of course the yarn and surrounding wool was tossed immediately into the freezer, hoping beyond hope that any eggs and larvae will be killed. I don't think that I can risk bringing the yarn home with me. How sad! I had some handspun on a spindle that will have to stay, as well as a pound or so of roving. Yummy roving too, a gorgeous merino/silk blend. Clearly this puts a damper on delicate lace knitting. Oh well, here is the progress on Madli up to The Incident (pardon the shoddy pinning job):
It doesn't seem like much, but there it is.
In Other News
As much as I enjoy life on the farm, it is undeniably slow. I get a little anxious being in one place for too long, particularly when the weather is bad. As you may have read in my last post I took to walking the fields and surrounding forests. I covered a lot of ground and snapped as many pictures as I could before they all started looking the same. As a gal who grew up in the mountains, I always find flat land a bit...I don't know...creepy? Its very easy to get yourself lost when every field looks the same. Not to say that it is completely void of interest. Going through the wooded areas a person can stumble on some pretty crazy stuff. A good example? I turned the corner and came across the following sight.
I spy a creepy backhoe, do you?:
I think they were working on the reforestation project(pics in last post). Once the trees reach a certain age they are culled so the trees aren't on top of each other, but spaced out at a reasonable distance. At least I'm assuming--no, hoping--this is its purpose. I couldn't help but be reminded of Christine, lurking there in the trees, waiting for a helpless foreigner to enter its malicious path.
Yes, I have a pretty vivid imagination. It makes things interesting.
Hubby has been spending a lot of time in the archives in Bremen, in part to justify funding he recieved from the GHI, in part because he is a work junkie. We decided to ditch work and the country for a couple of days and head to Berlin. We hung out with friends, enjoyed the bars, and of course soaked up the city. It was great to be back and see how things have changed (or not). When we lived there (must have been 10 years ago or so?) we lived in a trendy, student-dominated neighborhood known as Prenzlauer Berg (do yourself a favor and read the wiki article. Its interesting!). Now all of those students are grown up and the neighbord has changed. Where there aren't kids and babies strolling around, there are pregnant women. Where there was once "impermanent art exhibits" there are now playgrounds. Which is totally fine, and of course reflects our own personal growth. Let me just add this: it was so fun to be around the people who know me as Betzi and nothing else. They all call me that and its just fun to hear it again. I respond to it more readily than my given name anyway, which has all the luster and spunk of a rock.
We stayed in a pretty decent hotel with a fantastic view of Alexanderplatz and the Brotfabrik, a really amazing building complex.
Brotfabrik, from our room:
We also had a nice view of the TV tower on Alexanderplatz, but here is a more interesting one, this time much later, taken by a not-entirely-sober Betzi:
As always, there are more pics on my flickr page. I'm diggin the geotagging tool, so you will be able to see exactly where they were taken on the flickr map.
Thats all I have for now. Next time I'll be reporting from the Blue Bungalow. Leave comments or email me, I love to hear from you!
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Yay! Glad to hear the mom and babies are doing well!
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that you're knitting? It looks really pretty!