The WoolWytch

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Get it? Got it? Good.

So on Saturday while the family was out, the mailman left me a lovely box on our front porch. I thought the mail had already run when we left for our afternoon out, so you can imagine my surprise to find my husband bringing in a box from Heavenly Handspinning late that night… “Honey, would you run down stairs if I brought in a box from Georgia?” Of course I would!!!

Gingerly removing it from the box, I examined each part of my new electric spinning wheel and admired the craftsmanship.  It was raw red oak, just waiting for me to choose something to finish it with, and my mind immediately leapt to the the idea of giving it a nice coating of it when the humidity died back down and it was warm and dry out.

• All three bobbins?  Check.
• Motor attached to base unit? Check.
• Drive Band? Check.
• Pedal to operate it with? Check.
• Orifice hook?  Check.
• Other doodads and supplies that were with it?  Check.

and with it also came some roving that I really should have used to break it in with.

I gently put everything back in the box and then went to bed, as it had been a long day and I was tired.

Sunday morning came along and I was awoken by a pair of Moppets. “MOM! There’s a big box in the living room!”

Yep – it was the spinner they discovered.  So I took it to the back of the room, set it up on a craft table and asked the Diva to grab me a bag of Roving.

She of course brought the white as snow and fluffy white Ramboullet.  Beautiful stuff.  Don’t know that I’d recommend it for use for breaking in a new spinner… not when I tend to spin as finely as I do.

I spun on it for a little but with two little helpers who were just as excited as I was to have the new wheel here, I didn’t get much done.  Fortunately little hands know to stay away from the mechanism, but they do like to try to scale Mommy to see what’s going on or help get the roving out of the bag.

I waited until Sunday night, and after bed time and the cherubs were out like a light I came back down stairs and for two hours got to spin in peace, just the pleasant company of my husband as he watched TV and we talked a little.  I had a hardtime at first as I think the drive band is a bit loose, but once I got the hang of it, I was whirring along, sitting in front of the air conditioner and just enjoying the lovely little electric spinner in front of me.

I have decided I will be selling my Hitchhiker Roadbug, it’s been converted to dual treadle, with Jumbo Flyer assembly and is a sweet little wheel, just it and I never really meshed.  I will clean it up, give it a fresh coat of Watco and then post it here or on Ravelry, as I am sure someone will want to buy it.  I would not reccomend it for a short round person with knees that might knock the orifice assembly while spinning.  That’s been mostly my problem – my own body dimensions, but it really has been a lovely little wheel.

But now – back to the electric spinner.   It’s taken a little getting used to but it’s been well worth it.  I have a few pics to share:

Spinning 40 WPI

After two hours of learning what to do and what not to do

After a couple more hours of spinning this afternoon, and mastering my spit joins LOL!

I have to say that so far, I love my little Vespera.  It’s a sweet little spinner, and for the money spent I think I have gotten a decent value.  I will revisit with a review after owning it a bit longer, but for now I have to say we are thumbs up!

Much to my husband’s amusement last night I looked at him straight in the face and said “I think that with this I will need to pick up more fleece to go to the processors by the New York Fiber Festival…  ” That’s in October… but if I keep on top of things, I might just need more before then.

My poor husband.

G doesn’t take as well to spur of the moment trips as I do and as such shocked me today when after lunch I suggested a trip to Webs and he thought it was a great idea.

My drive band for my Ashford Kiwi is AWOL, I needed to pick up some Cushings Dyes for a project I have to have completed by early August, and I knew he was in need of felting needles.

So we hopped in the van, and headed north with the kids happily reading and singing.

Somehow ‘Row Your Boat’ got turned into the Nine Lives Chorus – with all Meow’s, but they were well behaved for the trip and at Webs.

Of course the Diva headed straight back to the Schacht Ladybug and tried to set herself up to spin on it immediately, but she gave one of the salespeople a heart attack as they don’t want small children touching spinning wheels, never mind that she’s shown a degree of proficiency and was being ever so respectful to the wheel. This is the wheel she truly desires, and after I finally got a chance to spin it myself, I can see why.  The wheel spins smoothly, quietly, and in no time flat I had a laceweight yarn that was soft, strong, and pretty.

I want one now like you wouldn’t believe.

Calvin was bored, wanted to spin and then discovered the toys.  G sat with them while I tried out the Ladybug my self, and then looked for the dyes.  Much to my chagrin, they did not have a replacement drive band.

We then drove around Northampton Mass, and fell in love with the community.  I foresee trips back there later in the summer, especially as I have to replace my swift (you wind yarn on it) and I will undoubtedly need more dyes.  I am getting in my e-spinner this coming week, a Vespera (see right) by Heavenly Handspinners, and I promise to have a review on it as soon as I can.  I need to get my Etsy shop re-stocked and with breaking and rebreaking my ankle I’ve not gotten through a couple of custom orders that I need to… so I am hoping that the Vespera will fit the bill and that I don’t burn out the motor from use.

It’s a lovely July Fourth weekend, and we’re taking a little time off homeschooling this week – I need to do a reinstall of the kids ASUS Netbook Operating System and figure out what’s wrong with their Dell, all while I’m supposed to be taking it easy from Diverticulitis.  While Mama recovers the kids get a break from Time4Learning, but the Diva still has dance school as she’s signed up for a Solo in August, hence the need to pick up the dye as I am making her costume for the recital.  I’m finding that the drive today was a bit much on me and I am now going to head off to bed, listening to fireworks outside the window, and enjoying the lovely summer night.

Grace, dignity, and a fashion plate all at once.

My picture of the day…

So I’ve been asked some questions and I thought instead of answering them in notes I’d write them in an entry, anyone else wanting to ask questions, I suppose I could answer more.

• First – A Tag Sale is a Yard Sale, just New England Terminology. I had never heard of it before moving east, but that’s what they are called here.

• Yes, I do still miss my Dad and as I got a picture of him as a child recently I am amazed how my little boy has his eyes.

• Do I still spin and does the Diva spin with me. She hasn’t really gotten the hang of her little wheel, but she does like to spin. Dance has kinda swallowed her up though so it’s her passion where working with fibers and learning about being a Doula is mine.  I am having some health problems and have decided to get an electric spinner so my shop doesn’t go bare for too much longer; spinning is therapeutic, and

• Now the Diva’s Dancing… How did I get her into it, how did I know it was the right thing for her? When did I get her involved, how long has she been doing it, did I decide for her or did she decide…

She’s a really strong minded, independant child. She used to drag my mother in law and sister in laws into my mother in law’s bathroom and then make them dance to music on the boom box in there. This expanded to me showing her dancers on YouTube and her demanding “MORE!” and so she discovered ballet, tap, irish step dance, modern dance, and when we clicked on a bunch of small girls dancing in a recital she told me she wanted to do that.

So at two and a half she was very demanding about it but we let her dance at home and didn’t put her in a school. She needed to be potty trained and able to follow directions and hold an attention span more than thirty seconds – as smart as she was, she was still a toddler, and hardwired as a toddler is to have much energy in small bursts and then go to the next attention focus. At three and a half I went looking for a dance school locally, and made several calls, talked to the staff at the schools and had a couple of them send me brochures. I found one I really liked and we went to talk to the Director at the open house in August of 2008. Tess was nearly four and had that ability to listen better than she had a year and a half earlier when she first started telling me she wanted to dance like the big girls in “Lord of the Dance.”

She took to dancing like a duck to water, and it rapidly became her whole world. Not much else exists for her outside the dancing. She found out about the dance teacher wanting solo and duo’s for the recital and at first asked me to ask her teacher. I told her that I wouldn’t, and that a solo was her alone dancing on the stage and if she wanted to do that I’d help her practice but that she had to tell the teacher herself she wanted it, as she had to decide for herself how much a dancer she was going to be and how much she really wanted to do this. She marched up to her teacher and told her she wanted to be in the summer recital with a Solo, and that she even had music she wanted to do – a Ballet number to Soul II Soul.

I got a chuckle out of it. but was also very proud. It’s her call do do it. I’m just the taxi driver and dresser and music getter for her – oh and provider of costuming and dance shoes that she just grew out of this week and will need to buy new ones before the next week and a half is up.

• My Son – he wants to dance too – some of you picked that up from the last post. Like her we’ll leave his level of involvement up to him. It could be he decides he really doesn’t want to do it after all and if that’s so, then we’ll find him another activity to do.

This week has been a busy one for the kids.   The Diva started her new dance class schedule, with classes held by the Parks and Recreation Dept in our town.

Which was at a lovely building at the local park…

that has a stocked pond in front of it with fish and populated with lots of water fowl.

That my children gladly feed.

and while the diva dances

her brother waits patiently…

or tries until he can no longer wait as he truly wants wants to dance himself…

Also this week I’ve dabbled back in portraiture… I studied photography long ago and hope eventually to have a decent digital SLR again one of these days.

and in the middle of everything, while trying to get a picture of Calvin…

I was able to get one of the both of them that I am going to treasure forever…

I think I managed to capture some cute ones of them both though…

There has been much summer fun too however…

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And of course my daughter decided to get into sales and advertising for a family tag sale…

We have no plans for tomorrow but rest… as you can see by the big dark circles under the Diva’s eyes, it’s been a very busy week, and they need the down time.

Their Mama and Daddy need it too as they’ve been revved up beyond belief this week.

…and if you have made it this far – wow, and do please leave a note that you were here.

I am so totally “that Mom” right now – and you are going to get innundated with pics of my Diva in dance attire.  Yes, I do have another child and I am just as wild about him, but at age three, he’s not started any programs yet, so you will have to wait for pics of him until September but there will be tap and ballet pix of him too…  Although I might post pics of the two of them fighting over the computer to get time on Time4Learning – Homeschooling means school doesn’t end, and education is made loads of fun for Calvin and the Diva.

In our Back yard before Class

At the duck pond in front of where her class is being held.

In class with all the other girls – there are 14 enrolled in the class right now, and about 5-6 have had some ballet classes already.

This is a beginner class, and she’s ahead of some of the girls because of it, but it is good for her to brush up on her foundations as she’s only had a watered down version of Ballet so far.  Not super watered down – but she hasn’t as extensive experience with hand positions for Ballet as much as she’s going to get here.  She had fun though – and that’s the first rule.

Rule 1.  Have Fun

Rule 2.  Be nice to the teachers and other girls

Rule 3.  Be helpful to the teachers and other girls
Not a bad set of rules to live by when you are a dancing Diva…

and then she came home and beat her brother to the computer to log in to homeschool, after spending time playing at the park and feeding the ducks.

It is simply physically impossible to be more proud of my daughter today than I am.

The Diva had her second recital today, and the performance was far superior to the performance in this video that I did get to record at the dress rehearsal.

;

She walked out on stage with the music, and as she and I have discussed it, let the music move her and she moved with the music.  She had the epiphany last night that the beats of the music can tell your body where to move and when if you just listen… and trust me she’s listening, and dancing everywhere… not just on stage but in the ice cream shop, in the theatre aisle while listening to the overhead music during intermission after the main show was over and it was just the senior students in their solo’s…

I don’t have their Tap dress rehearsal recorded – I wish I had gotten it but I had a malfunction with the video camera, and we did order the video this year so I’ll be getting that and sharing it with family.

I kept getting told by everyone who saw she and I together, post finale, how she was amazing and that they didn’t expect a five year old to do so well, and that she had such presence and visible fun with it and just knows her stuff… it was awesome to hear other people compliment my child – as a Mom of course I think that G and I have the most talented little girl on the planet – as proud parents it’s part of the package, but to get just how talented she is at just age 5 reaffirmed by so many other people.

These girls have grown so much – and have really had so much fun over the course of this year.

Right now it looks as if the Diva and one other girl – E are the only ones from these classes carrying on with this school.  Both girls have a better frame for the actual dancing – lean muscular legs, long torsos, and a bit of grace on stage… E doesn’t have the numbers down as well but she has a blast dancing, and she’s got a mom that I adore as she feels the same as I regarding manners and expected behavior out of your children.

Her next ballet class starts Monday and runs three days a week, Tap is Tuesday and runs two days a week.  She is already getting excited for those classes, and is hoping that she scores as many bouquets at her August recital as she got today (we came home with four of them – more than any other girl in her class brought home and again a sign she’s got support left and right – as the whole family recognizes her talent and drive.) We have them in a vase already and she’s just in heaven over having so many flowers all for her.

All told however it was a spectacular day and Tess was in heaven.  She loves dancing with a passion and I’m not going to stand in her way – I might get run over if I did.

We all slept in today, and went out to our favorite diner for a late brunch. We’ve started ordering one order to split between the kids when we do go out with them – as otherwise the food goes to waste because they only eat a small part of the meal.

Afterwards we dropped off the hubby and then went out to a new park to us – “Rockwell Park” and while it was lightly raining the kids still got time to play while Dad rested at home.

Rockwell Park is a historical fixture in our town and they have several different playscapes, a skate park, water park, town pool, and a lagoon that has been drained that used to be the place where everyone went to and hung out all summer – until evidently they all started getting some sort of a rash.

hrm.  Yeah – probably a good idea they drained the lagoon and are plowing out etc…

it is a beautiful park however, and someplace I really enjoy going to.  I’ve driven through the back roads there but we’ve not checked out the playground before.  I have to say and the kids really had a blast.

This will be a place I see us spending many a day at this summer.  it’s so peaceful and I look forward to getting my own pictures of there.

While there I sat in the center of the two larger playscapes and as I had brought my Hitchhiker spinning wheel.  I’ve been feeling better so I figured I’d give it a try and see how lugging the wheel (not a huge wheel) and worked on some yarn that is a special order for a lovely Canadian woman.

I have to say, spinning is certainly theraputic.

My big task this week is to excavate the work room and organize it so we can get it set up for production work again.  I have a local shop that has been interested in my work.  After I get this custom order finished I will start working on restocking so I can bring something into the local shop, as well as get my Etsy shop stocked again.

Hope all reading me are in a good place and have had a good weekend.

Night!

There is an advantage to homeschooling when it comes to a child who truly wants little more in life than to dance. We use Time4Learning and she plows through her assignments like they were games, and then she practices her dancing. She loves her dance and I love the ease of homeschooling using Time4Learning.

It’s a win/win for both of us.