Woolybuns

Hot Dayum!

I did it.  I rode CC today.  First time ever.  Yes,there is a big grin on my face.  I put her new saddle on her, outfitted it with my stirrup leathers and a new girth, made sure the bridle still fit, decked myself out in my own riding gear (paddock boots, half chaps, riding helmet), longed her and then fetched  someone to hold CC's head while I mounted.  The assistant was a good idea but ultimately unnecessary.  CC and I walked the round pen a couple times, stopped a few times, then I turned her into the center of the pen and dismounted.  All good.  Damn good!  No pictures cause ya know - my hands were on the reins.   But this is probably what I looked like. 

Knittin's Happening

Yes, for the first time in about 2 months, I actually picked up knitting needles yesterday, not only cast on,  but knit for a while.  Which means there is also frogging. But at least not all the way back to cast on.   

I haven't heard anything about the barn buddy's baby arriving so I decided it's time to knit through the wait.   Booties seem appropriate, especially with a handspun skein of one ounce of merino angora sitting beside me, tempting with it's seductive softness and warm fuzzy attitude.  I'm likin' this knit!  I'm thinking it's time for me to spin up enough of that combo, perhaps in red, for me to wear.  A bigger pair of booties, perhaps, because I've been keeping my feet warm by wearing a pair of merino angora socks I got as a very thoughtful, sweet gift last spring.  Seems kinda ridiculous that I should have to get such socks as a gift, don't you think?  I only wear these socks like slippers for sitting around the house because merino angora isn't quite as strong as sock yarn.  I really need to felt myself a pair of merino angora slippers.  Those will hold up much longer. 

CC is really why I haven't been knitting or felting much lately.  I've been spending just about every afternoon at the barn, first undoing the damage that happened at the lousy barn, and lately working on the ground work to prepare us for our first ride.   I almost got on her a few days ago, but sanity prevailed.  As part of her ground work, I've progressed to leaning my full weight across her back and  from there, moving my hands around her sides so she doesn't freak out when my legs are there.   I was at the barn alone, CC all tacked up in the saddle that doesn't fit, leaning across her back.  She was behaving beautifully.  The day was warm and inviting.  All I had to do was swing my leg over and we'd be horse and rider.  But.  I want the first ride to be safe and not scary for either of us.  That means a proper fitting saddle and someone holding on to CC from the ground.  I exercised self control.  Today, I go get the reflocked saddle.  Tomorrow....  I'll let ya know.

How About A Group "Awwwww"

Six days old now and doing quite well.  I've been leaving them with their mother until last night's raw chill.  The doe has been fairly comfortable with my checking on the babies but I guess seeing the baby box show up again triggered maternal instincts.  She hopped onto the nest and grumpily uttered disapproving grunts.  With those sounds, I can never be sure I won't be bitten, though that rarely happens.  I gently lifted her off the nest and scritched her forehead while scooping up nest bowl and babies.  This morning when I return the babies, the doe will not be grateful.  She'll be pissed.  I'll bring her a little treat and hope for forgiveness. 

No Sweeter Song

It's cold, it's damp, I'm gimpy from yet another tumble off a step, but

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

My Girl is of course the sexy Saxony I now shack up with.  As beautiful in function as in form.  I just finished my first skein with her.  I spun up a lace weight 250 yards of cinnamon shimmer. Right off the niddy noddy, this skein even hangs pretty balanced.  This is without question my Dream Wheel.  Everything just felt right with this spin.  I even plied with double drive, something I've never accomplished before.  With every other double drive wheel I've tried, the minute I make any adjustment, pffft... the relationship disappears like a guy who's gotten what he wants.  This wheel is a keeper. 

Head Em Up and Move Em Out

That's what you do with a herd, right?  No, no, the bunnies are not leaving.  But yesterday, 6 of my spinning wheels ended up in the living room and someone took a photo of us.  She laughed and called it my herd.  The wheel in front, 24" Rick Reeves Saxony, is what brought Risa to my house.  Seems she can scent out a wheel for sale faster than the rest of you can.  Yes, that wheel now lives at her house.  The next wheel I'm selling is my Canadian Production Wheel.  It's an original and is in great shape.  And it spins wonderfully!  I need to dig it out to get a good photo but I'm not at home at the moment.  My youngest child is 20 and I'm still doing the chauffeur/sit around and wait bit.  At least I have computer access.  Until I can post a photo, you can search images for Canadian Production Wheel and find photos of wheels just like mine.   If you're interested in the wheel, clickie on the email link over in the side bar or, oh heck, I'll even make it easier.  Click here to contact me.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog.  So here's a photo of my Canadian Production Wheel.  She's fully functional, amazingly fast, and a true pleasure.  It took a brand new Norm Hall to make me part with her.  

Spinning on the Norm Hall?  Yeah.  Possibly in the better than sex category.  That's cinnamon shimmer I'm spinning and it just zips onto the bobbin so sweetly fast and fine.  The NH Saxony is truly worth parting with some other treasured wheels. 

It Always Makes Me Go "Awwwwww"

Brand new baby bunnies.  Ok, so maybe they aren't all that cute as newborns, what with that nekkid scrawny look going.  But still... baby anythings are cute.  There are only three in the litter, which puts them at higher risk in the cold.  I brought them in the house overnight because the temperature was plummeting, but I didn't bring the mother in because the warmth would be too much for her.  I don't like to separate mothers from their babies.  My does usually act like they hate me messing with their new babies and it reminds me too much of how I felt when my youngest child was born.  I had a tougher time with that birth so by the time he was born, I was happy for him to be whisked off to the nursery so I could rest.  But he didn't come back to me by the time I thought he should.  I started getting a bit edgy, and then the nurses started giving me vague put me off type responses to my questions (that's just really rude and down right sucky).  I started getting cranky, and finally let them know if they didn't bring that baby to me right then, I was going to start taking the place apart until I found him.  Someone finally told me he wasn't warming up properly.  I think probably everyone on the floor heard me "explain" that if they just wrapped him up and put him in bed with his mother to nurse, he'd warm up just fine.  I don't know that the logic worked, but I'm pretty sure the tone and volume got my point across.  The does act just like that when I try to take the babies for the night, substituting grunts and teeth for tone and volume.  So I only remove the babies when the risk is pretty high.  And in this case, I won't be breeding the doe again because she has such big babies, it puts her life at risk.  These babies were due a few days ago, and the doe seemed to be in labor off and on for about 3 days.  Not a good thing, so I won't put the doe through that again.  I'll be bringing the babies in at night for at least a few days.  And in a couple weeks, they'll be totally cute.

Such a Flirt

CC obviously likes her new farrier.  She skanked her way through the whole manicure today, nuzzling, nudging, and doing everything I'd like to putting on quite a show with the handsome young man who does wonders with horse feet.  CC was over due for her trim.  The farrier I've been using seems to have forgotten me or lost my phone number or something, so when I found out this fella would be in today for the latest treatment on another horse, I latched on to the opportunity to test out a new farrier.  I'm quite pleased. 

The other palomino at the barn, Marbles, turned up with a tumor in his hoof last January.  The tumor pressed on his coffin bone (one of the primary internal hoof structures), causing it to rotate.  That's a bad thing, and is technically referred to as founder or laminitis.  He's been undergoing some intensive and expensive treatments, current total is in the $17,000.00 range.  He's got a pair of very loyal, loving owners.  They have no horse insurance, so this is coming out of their pockets.  "You get attached, " the woman said.  "What else are you going to do?"  Scary thing is, I understand that.  Today, Marbles got another set of x-rays, and another hoof trim with a new set of custom shoes.  The news is all good. 

The one person I hoped wouldn't show up at the barn today is my barn buddy, Crystal.  She and her horse, Reba, suffered the bad barn with me, and when I found this new barn, the two of them came with me.  I hoped she wouldn't be there today because her baby's due date was last Friday.  But there she was, not only at the barn, still very pregnant, but tacking up Reba and climbing on.  Trotting.  And the thing is, even greatly gravid, she rides better than most of us.  That's amazingly good news for me.  I get her as my trainer.  She gave me a lesson today, on Reba. Reba is a wonderful ride.  She works almost completely on leg and seat rather than rein.  But she's not a push button ride.  She makes me work for results, which is good for me.  Crystal's teaching technique is even better: soft, clear, efficient and effective.  This training CC is going to be a grand adventure.  Guess I should go pick up my saddle.

Ker Acckk

That sound boomed out of my neck yesterday, so loud I know you all heard it.  Not once but about a gazillion times, I think.  Ouch.  Yeah.  I went to the chiropractor first thing in the morning. Checking out all the goodies at Rhinebeck leads to whiplash apparently.  But in the skilled hands of genius, I instantly felt so much better. Then last night I went to tae kwon do class.  So much more freedom to move.  I'm starting to see things come together there.  And the uniform pants fit a bit more freely, too, so I think the exercise is starting to firm up my muscles.  At least in my thighs.  My lower back - well, she protests at the indignity of the stretching positions.  I gotta tell ya, class leader puts us in some - ahem - revealing poses.  Pre-class chat last night centered on tips for protecting our modesty (white underwear and no thongs!).  But, since we're all in the same boat on that score, seems like men and women alike choose not to gawk at each other.  Part of the whole tae kwon do experience is respect and self-control.  Good thing.  Standing legs apart, hands on ankles, head down, butt up is not my best look (hey, Ewe, quit snickering!).  But I can actually bend over and put my hands flat on the floor now, and still walk in the morning.  That feels as good as my neck does.

Rhinebeck

You want pictures of the wonder that is Rhinebeck/NY state sheep and wool festival?  You'll have to look elsewhere.  I took absolutely none.  Wake up Friday morning set the tone for my Rhinebeck experience: I woke up to the smell of something scorching.  It turned out to be my pillow, with part of it sitting directly on the light bulb left on as I dozed off. The pillow was ready to burst into flames.  With my head still on it.   Then my laptop crashed and I spent much of the morning finding a re-install disk to try to bring it back to life.  Didn't work.  I left without the laptop, which complicated a couple things.  Then something noneofyerbusiness personal turned out to be kind of a kick in the ass.   And finally, my opal ring decided to dump the beautiful stone someplace.  I bought the ring last February, as a sort of healing symbol.  Given that kick in the ass, the loss of the stone seems sort of ... I dunno.  The goddess telling me to readjust, I guess.  I'm hoping the opal will still turn up in my car someplace.  So when you see what I scored at Rhinebeck, don't hate me for being greedy, k?  It's my take care of me cause nobody else is going to present.

First, how it unfolded.  I wanted to get my Norm Hall production wheel fully refurbished.  It was built in 1983 and I bought it third hand last January, knowing the scotch tension was broken, but you buy a wheel like that for the double drive, not the scotch tension, so that wasn't a big deal. Then another tiny piece got broken a few weeks ago (I showed remarkable restraint - the person who broke it is not only still alive, but uninjured).  Plus, I needed someone to teach me more fully how to adjust the wheel.  Who better than the wheel maker himself, who would conveniently be at Rhinebeck.  So I brought the wheel with me, and arrived at the fairgrounds quite early Saturday morning to get a close parking spot so the lugging wouldn't be so bad.  I got there before Norm did.  That means I was one of the first people in his booth after he set up.  And while he checked out my wheel like a proud grandpa, he invited me to play with the beautiful brand new 30" cherry Saxony wheel on display.  The only one still for sale.  At half the price I thought they were.  Yeah.  You know what happened.  With other hopefuls standing in wait, I had like 30 seconds to make a decision, knowing the money was in the bank and ignoring the fact that it should stay there.  Here she is, in all her glorious beauty.

I'll be deciding which couple of wheels I need to sell to replenish the bank account at some point and will be sure to let you know.   Saxony will not be one of them. 

I didn't intend to buy another wheel and had not only the production wheel in the car, but my Rose as well, also (still) in need of a fix.  The sexy Saxony was coming home with me, no matter that she might be too big to fit in the car, and that I had no blankets to carefully wrap her in.  Someone very nicely got Saxony in the car for me, though I did have to make some adjustments when I actually tried to put the car key in the ignition.  What do you do when you need to protect that beautiful finish?  Anything you have to.  Yes, that is a leather coat, 2 pounds of silk, 2 pounds of alpaca fleece, a Mystery Bump, a new wool sweater, and 4 skeins of sock yarn protecting my wheels for the drive home.

These two cuties also came home with me.  They are not mother and daughter.  They are strangers finding comfort in each other as their worlds went topsy turvy.  And the alpaca fleece.  That was another unintended purchase but I had met the woman selling the fleece earlier in the day at morning tea in the hotel lobby.  She's kind of a newby, the fleece was nice and worth buying.  I like to support new people and cultivate potential source of fleece.  I think I'll spin some of this as is for me, and some will probably end up in a roving blend for sale.   For some whimsy, I fell for these two mugs.  And now, I'm going to take the advice of that mug on the right. 

Spinning My Wheels All Weekend

Sunday was another country fair.  Another spinning bee.    Another ribbon. Yes, I sported a very big smiley face.  The task: longest spun single.  The purpose of these spinning bees is more to demonstrate the art and craft to the public rather than entertain those of us participating, but of course you gather a group of spinners for an afternoon of fiber and chat, and we all get silly have a great time.  The folks at  Twist of Fate Spinnery again donated the roving for the contest, a really nicely prepared lincoln in natural silver grey.  I've never spun lincoln before and it's a very different fiber for me.  Turns out it was a very nice spin.

And look at this adorable spinning wheel.  No,  it belongs to someone else (blogless) who participated in the spinning bee - she earned second place.  Lucky for my bank account, the wheel isn't for sale, but it was too cute not to take a photo to share with you.  I think she said it's Norwegian.  

Saturday's fiber event was the regular meeting of another spinning guild.  The folks at this guild are the ones who organized the spinning and weaving events at the fair I went to in mid August.  Very nice buncha folks, with an active guild and lots of learning opportunities, so I joined the guild and will make the monthly trek for fun.  Which makes my favorite tack shop so much more accessible.  Yeah.  Life has a way about it.