Copy/pasted from an email I sent to my mother:
"
I did end up fighting off the press that day. And the day after. Alla was dead before the fire, officially. Everything... just seems that much more surreal because I knew them. I remember them. It's... impossible to describe this feeling.
Just once, just once, I want things to go my way. Or at least not go horrifically wrong.
I'm "home", in Redmond, sleeping on an air mattress in my brother's room. I have never lived here, in this apartment, and it shows. My presence has been erased. I spent as much of last night online as I could, staving off the almost-forgotten feeling of overwhelming homesickness.
I miss my bed and my food and my friends.
Arashi is familiar. I watch old episodes of their TV shows on youtube because it still SOUNDS like home, that way.
This entire blog is very emo. I seem to only remember it's here when I have things I don't want to say anywhere else. How strange.
Someone on craftster asked how to get a "roving" from handcards. Well, it just so happens that I chronicled this very adventure with pictures! And they're already up here on my vox! Eerie, I know. So, without further adieu, I give you:
:::::::::::::Cigar Roving::::::::::::
Start with your hand carded batt. You can either doff the batt completely from the carders or you can proceed to step 2 with the fiber still on the cards.
Step #2:::::
Step #3:::::
Here lies your blunt. Savor it. Pet it. Just don't feed it any cookies or it will grow and grow and never stop.
Step #4:::::
Start to pull your
Step #5:::::
You're effectively pre-drafting this little phatty into submission. Go ahead, make it your bitch.
Just be careful and tug gently or it will break and make you sad.
Step #6:::::
Wrap up your little roving bundle of joy and resist the urge to smoke it down. Instead, spin that bad boy into a gorgeous yarn. You may smoke while spinnnig if you have that many arms and a better attention span than I.
VOILA! roving from your hand carding adventures. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary to produce your skein. Yes, it takes for frigging ever but you're not BITTER that you have to hand card instead of being one of those Beeoches who was either gifted or has the nerve to go out and buy herself a drum carder. No. You're not bitter.
;0P
This place was OUT THERE. I mean, down a 2 lane road at 55 mph where all you can see are barns, fields, and horses and cows. It was beautiful! =0) I can't wait to go back! I get their catalog in the mail because I ordered my wheel from them a couple months ago. They sell all kinds of fiber, wheels, other spinning equipment, weaving equipment, and TONS of yarn! It was like heaven in a barn. And the staff were welcoming of me regardless of my looks. (large piercings and jewelery everywhere, tattoos, etc.)
I was determined to buy a pair of handcards when I went, and luckily for me they had a lot of choices when I got there. They had Strauch, Howard, Louet, and I think maybe one more. I'm pretty sure they have the Ashfords although I didn't see any out. There were cotton cards, half-size cards, full size, regular, fine, and one pair that does your spinning for you (just kidding!). I was favoring the Louet cotton cards. I liked the amount of teeth per inch, and the fact that the teeth were more flexible and longer than the others I saw. Then I talked to a very nice girl who worked there and she said no matter how long the teeth are you definitely don't want to overload the cards. Slow is good here. So, ok. Then I know I've heard of the more flexible teeth bending out of alignment. She said you can put an empty mechanical pencil over the offender and straighten him out. Sounds like trouble to me. Plus the Louet cards were more expensive. Alas, I bought the Strauch regular wool cards. Which have more teeth per inch than most "regular" cards. I think it was 120 tpi. So I'll be able to card finer fibers like silk and whatnot. Sounds good to me!
Then I went downstairs to the yarn/fiber room. It was fun! I saw and felt lots of stuff I'd never seen or felt before. Alpaca, silk hankies, black diamond carbon fiber (I LOVE THIS STUFF!), angora ROVING!, bamboo, tencel, the list goes on. I wish I could have bought everything there that I'd touched. It was all so gorgeous and tempting.
I did make a couple purchases other than the cards. I got some undyed nylon firestar to dye and use in my new blending adventures. I got some BLEACHED and SUPER CLEAN silk noil. I've bought silk noil before and it was uber ridden with VM. such a pain. but this stuff was GORGEOUS and clean and white and cheap! I also got some fake cashmere nylon. I've heard of this stuff before and seen it online, sounded cool so I got some! also cheap and $1/oz. The noil was $10/8oz. I also got some more corriedale X light fawn roving. I've got this at my lys before, but they charge $20/lb for it. I got a pound today for $12. I do realize that I had to drive quite a ways for it, but I wanted those carders N-O-W! You know how it is...
So I came home, did a little research, and found a few places online that have hand carding instructions.
The Joy of Handspinning
Mielkes Farm
Spinning Jenny (blogger)
Knitty Spin Article
Seems that everyone has their own way of doing things and I'm sure I'll be no different. But I'm trying these methods out and I have a lot to show for it already! I carded a TON of rolags/batts tonight! =0) I bled a little, but it was worth it!
This blend is probably my favorite of the night. It's silk noil, faux cashmere, some black/white millends, and some brown and minty green millends I dyed a little while ago. YuMMMMMEEEEE. Boy. This could get ugly.
Stay tuned...
So that's what I'm working on, but this is what I was eating today:
There's a Japanese food/gifts/all sorts of awesome stuff store near us called Uwajimaya. Anyone else who has one of these stores (Seattle people!) knows exactly what I'm talking about. They have the most cutest and awesomest stuff ever in the whole world! =0)
And yummy treats, too! Don't be scared of all the foreign language lables, either. Take a chance, if you ever happen to be there, and buy something that you think looks good. I bet you'll love it!
PS- I especially suggest the ice cream that comes in a nifty and very tidy wafer container thingie. Chocolate on the Inside and vanilla ice cream all contained within. Pure heaven.
Wow. So it's been a while, but if I tell you I've been really busy would you believe me? I knew you would! =0)
So the biggest event was definitely the bf's big art show. He just had his Senior Art Show since he's a fine art major and that's what they do for their big finale instead of writing a thesis. Lucky little bugger. But he worked really really hard and did a great job and it was totally his night.
If I told you his stuff was the best in the whole gallery would you believe me then? I know I'm the girlfriend and all that, so I have to think these kinds of things, but I think everyone else would definitely agree. Bond's drawings were the best work in that place. Yes his name is bond. And if you make the "James Bond" joke I'll rip your face off. Seriously. Please resist the urge, people. Thank you. =0)
Anyway, his drawings were the first thing you saw when you walked in. Right across from the door. That's the best spot in the place, obviously, so he was really lucky to get it. I think the gallery person really liked them. "They" were two HUGE drawings. They were probably like 7' x 5'. Yeah, that's big! =0) And they were beautiful and the had the best names, too. The first one was called "Ontogeny" and the second was called "Phylogeny." An homage to my single most favorite theory in biology. You can read more about it here. Seriously, it's some heavy shit. And it'll remain my favorite theory even though they say it's been disproven. Bah!
Well, the senior show would have been a big deal anyway, but it was even bigger since both of his parents came into town to attend. I say both because they've been divorced since he was pretty young, so yeah. It's kinduva big deal for them to both be in the same room together. But I have to say that they were both on their best behavior and were very civil to each other and no catastrophies ensued. But we did have to spend a lot of time cleaning up the house. You know how it is. Fiber and yarn everywhere. I had to make sure my yarn p0rn was sufficiently shoved under the bed. You know, so in case they ever wanted to buy me some more yarn and fiber they won't know I already have more than a lifetime supply. =0)
The next biggest thing to come out of this senior show was the offer of a solo gallery show in February! I'm so proud of that boy. Bond had invited one of his art teachers from PCC (Portland community college- one of the schools he went to before transferring to Louis & Clark). Gene Flores. He's the greatest guy. A very no BS kind of guy- if you're doing lazy work he'll tell you. If you could be doing more, he'll tell you. He's great, and you can check his work out here. My favorite is "La Pera." Anyway, Gene teaches at PCC but he's also the gallery director for the gallery over there. Didn't used to be, but I guess he is now. When he saw Bond's work at the Hoffman Gallery during the show, he offered to give Bond his own show over at PCC! Seriously. I didnt' believe him when Bond told me later that night. "Are you sure that's what he said?" Sure enough, he was right!
So, the show was a great success. It was a great night for Bond. It was also great to see both of his parents. We went to dinner with his mom. She's super nice and you can tell every second that she loves her son and she's really proud of him. We also got to hang with his dad who I love. He's just the greatest guy ever. Super mellow and easy to get along with. He's great. He also brought along his daughters, Bond's half-sisters Addie and Molly. They were so much fun! I had only met them briefly once before, and it was so fun to spend more time with them and get to know them better. They're beautiful girls! Good times. =0)
Uh-oh. Did I ramble on? I did, didn't I? Oh well. I tend to do that sometimes. Doesn't leave much room for yarn, huh? Well, just so I don't get any hate mail, I'll leave you with some pix of a new member of the Sarah's yarn family. I call her "Storm Cloud." She's made of sheepshed mill ends that I dyed myself then spun. I plied it with a black shiny embroidery thread which has sequins strung on it. They're black and blue sequins and then some lengths of sequin trim I got from work on clearance. Those are matte silver color. Very pretty. Just because there's always a silver lining. =0)
Enjoy
Look at my pretty coils! I had some left overs of both of these rovings/silgles so I decided to try my hand at coils. They look cool, and it sounded easy enough...it was! I was so happy when it started working! I felt like, woohoo! I figured it out and I'm doing it! All by myself. *singing* I'mmm a Big Kid Noooowwwwww!*singing*
=0)
I can't wait to do more with these...mowahahahhahaahha.......
Hi again! I wanted to give y'all a looksie at my first navojo plying experience. Here it is! It's bfl that I dyed pink and green, and I think things went pretty well for my first time around, don't you? =0)
The biggest thing that happened around here in the last couple days was my TheSheepShedStudio.com order arrived! It's my first order with them, and WOW am I impressed! I got 3 pounds of white, one pound of grey and one pound of white/black mix. Awesome. They look gorgeous! The only thing I'm not totally excited about is the grey roving is all in smaller strips. Which kinda sucks, but I'll work with it. Luckily I wasn't planning on dyeing any for sale, so that's good.
here's the pix of that:
Quite a nice haul, no? And of course I've already started spinning it! I couldn't even wait to dye some up, so here's my first skein of mill ends. Plyed with pearl beads and clear thread.
So. Much. Fun! =0) TA!
Hot damn I found something online that's going to blow you away fiber people! It's Horst couture, and it looks like a LOT of work! Check out what I found:
Now, how awesome is THAT?! Go check out dude's Gallery! Or check out the page that referred me to this awesome artist Here.
Just had to share, cause I'm generous like that, so enjoi! (yes, yes, that's just the way I spell it! cause I'm hip and young and cool and just forget it, OK! sheesh...)
Ok, hi. Here's a new place for me to share all my crafty fiber-ie spinning yarn goodness. Call it bragging. Call it vain. Call it I just need a place to keep track of all this stuff and actually plan on using this think like a journal. Call it a blog. You can even call it my blog. Whatever you call it, whatever it is, it's mine and I'm not gunna let go.
