Anyone know E. H. Jacobson?

When I started spinning I went out and tried a bunch if different spinning wheels before settling on my Louet wheel, a Julia.  I've been very happy with her.  I never really had much desire for what I call a Rumpelstiltskin type wheel.  Until recently that is.  May I introduce you to my new old beautiful wheel. 

Isn't she beautiful.  She is signed underneath the table with this inscription.  Made of Mt. Ash by E. H. Jacobson. Little Marais Minnesota.  I love her.  I'm trying to find out any info I can on Mr. Jacobson.  Little Marais is a very small town along the  North Shore of Lake Superior so maybe I will be able to learn more...like what year he made her in.   But for now I'm happy just to have her!

Mother's Day

My two girls are the joy of my life.  I waited a long time for children.  Wondering if I even would have them.  With international adoption, my life was forever changed.  I remember sitting in church for years on Mother's Day.  Painfully listening and watching mom's being lifted up.  Longing to be someones mom.  Who knew my children would be thousands of miles away from me.  Longing to be someones child.  smile...Now Anna and I have been together for almost 17 years.  Emily joined us 10 years ago.  And we are a family.  And every Mother's Day I sit in church and feel joy but also remembering the pain I felt before my girls.  To anyone reading this who is longing for children and feels the pain of seeing others have something that you so desperately want, there is hope.  You too may find your way to the child that has been made just for you, who is also waiting and hoping for a family.  I will never forget those years and realize how truly special my family is.  I'm blessed.

Yarnover Aftermath

I've come down from my yearly Yarnover hangover.  smile...One long day surrounded by yarn fumes will give anyone a fibery high!  I had the pleasure of sitting next to Annie Modesitt and her partner Kathleen Pascuzzi who were there selling their new hand dyed yarn, which was amazing.  And I also discovered today while reading the Yarn Harlot's blog post that she took a picture during the day and you can see a bit of my booth as well as me talking to someone behind my rack of fiber and bags.  smile...now I don't think anyone will recognize my stuff or me, but I got a silly thrill from it!

My weekend was not just filled with Yarnover, nope, we had my whole family staying at our house over the weekend.  That meant we had 6 adults and 2 little girls under two tucked in with the four of us.  It was a house filled to the brim with love.  While it isn't something I would want to do on a regular basis, it was fabulous to have all of us under one roof.  We had not all been together in several years.  It was amazing.

Now I have some breathing room.  I've pushed so hard for 4 months, getting ready for DFW Fiber Fest, Yarnover 3 weeks after that, one sale to my local yarn shop in between and having my family here that I'm beyond exhausted.  I've spun over 60 skeins of yarn in those 4 months.  That is a lot.  I have time now before my next scheduled events in late summer/early fall.  I finally have a chance to knit again.  I have a chance to possibly teach a couple classes in knitting and I'm working up what I think will work.  Stay tuned, it is a new adventure for me.

Finally knitting

For months I've been madly spinning.  I spun over 60 skeins of yarn in just over three months.  With work, the girls activities and life in general, something had to go.  It was knitting.  Well we've been home from DFW Fiber fest for a week.  And after a brief respite I'm back to spinning.  And knitting!  
This is my Quaker Yarn stretcher.   Out of a single I spun called Lollipop.  I love the bright colors and it makes me smile every time I pick it up.

Welcome to the new home for Knitting My Way Home

Today is the grand unveiling of the new look to my blog, etsy, facebook and every part of my yarn world.  I have a niece who helps small businesses work on branding and creating a true cohesive look to all their sites on social networks.  She took my rather plain and boring blog and with hard work, amazing creativity, and a laughing spirit, she created this.  And I'm so happy!  (look at her site, it is amazing, Serendipity Designs)

It is perfect timing with my new adventures coming up in Dallas.  So look what is currently in my basket....it is an amazing blend of BFL roving and Bamboo.  It is called Grotto and it is spinning up thin and luscious.  This is the first bobbin but I should be plying it this weekend.  

While I was spinning, Emily came in my room, plunked herself down, took out my handcards, grabbed a bunch of hodge podge bits and pieces of roving and started making rolags.  Before long she had a small basket filled.  As you can see she used reds/yellows/blues/whites.  I quickly and roughly spun the rolags into a thick and thin rustic yarn.  It is soaking, but for our first efforts using the handcards?  We are both thrilled.  I'm thinking we just might have a fun basket of small yardage bulky yarn at Dallas.  Perfect to add to brims of hats or cuffs on mittens. 

It is late, I have work in the morning, so will leave for now.  But please, take a look around the blog, there are links now to my facebook page, if you like what you see, please click the like button!  It is so much fun!

Change is coming

Things are under way here at Knitting My Way Home.  I've been writing the blog for about 5 years.  I've been spinning yarn for about 5 years.  Hmmmmm could that be a theme?  It seems it is time to shake things up.  I've been selling my yarn for a few years now....toss that into the mix and who knows what will happen.  Watch here...things should be ready for the unveiling in about a week.  Whoo Hoo!

Endurance

OK, I'm ready to give.  I'm exhausted from dealing with the snow and cold.  I'm a native Minnesotan.  We take great (and sometimes silly) pride in not letting the winter stop us from doing our daily lives.  Well my pride is gone.  We got hit again on Thursday/Friday with a ton of snow, strong wind that drove that new 10+ inches of snow on top of the already 35+ snow base to epic snow drifts.  Our sidewalk after it was shoveled is close to my shoulders.  Not in one spot, but the entire length of our sidewalk.  We are safe.  We have power and all the necessities of life.  But Lord, it is enough.  This is a common site....

Seriously, this happens a lot, you fight your way home on the snow covered freeways, wearily park your car safely in front of your house, go in for the night.  the next day dawns bright and sunny yet cold.  Go out to start your day and discover this.  That is YOUR car buried under a mammoth snow drift thanks to Mother Nature with a helping hand from your friendly neighborhood snow plow driver.  And you begin the arduous task of digging your car out.  Lovely.

Of course there are pretty views of winter too.  I love them as much as the next person...see?

But really, I'm done.  I don't want to take any more vacation days because I can't safely drive the 17 miles to work in less than 2 hours (EACH way).  I don't want to scrape and shovel my sidewalk and driveway for another two months.  I can barely throw it high enough now to make it over the mounds.  I love wearing my hand knits.  I'm warm.  I feel stylish.  But my toes are screaming to be let free and escape their wool socks and snow boots.  So I keep my eyes on the calendar.  In one month, my girls and I will be scurry into the car at 5:30 am and happily sit in that car for 15+ hours.  Because when we get out?  We will again be in our second home, Texas.  Ready for a week of fun.  And Lord please let it be warm.  Of course to us, that would be anything above 40 degrees.  I'm crossing my fingers...my cold, numb fingers. 

Cryogenically Preserved

Yes, we are again in the crazy depths of the freezing tundra.  They shut down the schools again, both today and tomorrow.  Anymore closings and they start tacking on days at the end of the school year.  At this rate the girls will be going to school until July!  And I'm not exaggerating (well not much anyway).  The thing that is amazing or as my friend in Dallas says, "not natural" is we continue on with our daily lives.  It can be -15 with a wind chill of -40 and while they close the schools down, the rest of us continue to find our way to and from work, go to the stores, and the really crazy few?  They are jogging (I think running to try and keep their feet from freezing to the pavement) or cross country skiing.  We live here, we don't hibernate (I keep lobbying for that at work, so far no takers), we go in and out of buildings and cars.

For those in the Texas area, who are popping in because they found my blog through the DFW Fiber Fest list of vendors, HELLO!  I'm so excited about heading back to Dallas for a visit and adding in yarn and 3 days of fiber fumes?  Can't get better than that.  My girls and I are counting down the days until we get back home.  I'm spinning every day as much as I can, between running around through the frozen air, shuttling the girls to and fro with their activities, and working my day job.  Each skein I add to my basket makes me smile and hope it brings as much joy to you.  We leave in 54 days....but who is really counting....ummmm that would be me!

Returning to our regularly scheduled broadcast

Well we survived the deep freeze of last week.  Today was a balmy 39 degrees ABOVE zero.  This does a couple things in MN.  You will see LOOOONNNNGGGG lines at car washes, where we try and wash away the salt and chemicals from our cars before said salt and chemicals eat away at the outside of your vehicle.  The days you can do this are limited in winter, they need to be warm enough that your doors and locks won't freeze solid after rinsing off all the yuck on the outside of the car, so when you are lucky enough to have it 20 degrees or warmer, the lines begin at the car wash places.  And the second fun event is taking the time to chisel off the icy dregs on your sidewalk and driveways.  So all in all just a fun time in the city!

The girls will have a full week of school for the first time in 3 weeks.  I'm sure you can imagine their joy at that thought!  However, you also can imagine the joy of my mom who is home with them during the days they are off school.  smile...

I have 11 weeks until the DFW fiber fest.  That means my spinning must be constant and I can't falter.  This last week was a good week.  I got 6 skeins in total done.  Here are the last two.

This is Just Dance - a riot of colors that make you smile to look at.  I think it would be great fun to use for a kids sweater or just a bright and cheerful scarf, no matter who the age.

I also spun a long gradient, Little Mermaid.  I ended up putting it up as 2 skeins, I think it will be sold either as a pair to get the full effect starting with a soft buttery cream, moving to a golden bronze, to a light green before it completes its color journey to a deep spruce green.  But it will also work as two separate skeins, still a gradient, just not as extreme.



This is the roving for Little Mermaid, I think Ginny does such amazing work in her colors and layout.  I'm always so happy with her work (Fat Cat Knits).

I've already completed spinning the next two bobbins, called Snow Angel.  Tomorrow night I will ply it.  It is soft greys, yellows and creams. 

This week will be more of a challenge to keep up the spinning time.  Emily has a concert on Thursday night.  smile...she is so excited!  So to the regular schedule of cheer practice, dance practice, church youth groups and confirmation, we will toss in a choir concert.  Too bad I can't bring my wheel!

Baby Its Cold Outside!

Living in the Midwest can sometimes seem like a test of endurance.  These last few days have been an endurance due to extreme cold.  Everything is so much harder when it is -20!  Toss in wind chills of -50 and you really wonder just how crazy your ancestors must have been.  Because really, who in their right minds would stop on a windswept prairie where temps can range from 100+ in the summer (ok, so not so often but still it does happen almost yearly) to lows of -30?  I can't imagine living in log cabins or sod homes trying to keep warm and/or cool during these times.

I was one of the few people who pushed on today and went to work.  I don't do anything "urgent" or "critical" in nature.  I work for a medical device company in the legal department.  But if I'm not there, I have to take PTO and I really try so hard to save as much of that as I can, between my mom's appointments and the girls appointments it can take a lot of time away from work.  Toss in the desire to actually have a vacation every once in a while, every PTO hour becomes precious and so valuable.  I did leave early though.  Even though my car is only a few years old, even those can have a tough time starting in temps as cold as this!

I happily got home by mid afternoon and spun away.  I working away on filling the basket for DFW Fiber Fest.  So far this last week I finished four more skeins.  These are true and sturdy skeins.  Not in your face skeins, but the sturdy work horses I use to really make those in your face skeins shine.

Meet Stella, I bought Stella's beautiful gray fleece at Shepherd's Harvest 2 years ago.  It was already cleaned and processed into a lovely bag of pin drafted fiber.  Stella is a bit of a conundrum, initially you feel her and you think Oooo, just a bit scratchy, but then, wait a minute, there is underlying softness to her as well.  I think she is a sturdy yarn, with gentle luster but quite a bit of strength to her as well.

Then there is this, I named them Hidden Gems.  Because while muted in tone, there are so many beguiling colors hidden in the background grayish purple.  Remember a couple posts ago I showed the roving I dyed myself with great help from Angela of All For Love of Yarn?  This was the roving that I felt was so me and initially I wasn't sure when I was spinning it, but in the end, I'm really quite pleased with the results. 

 

Both Stella and Hidden Gems have joined the other finished skeins in my basket.  I've upped my daily spinning to about 3+ hours on most week nights, the weekends?  I'm trying for 6+ hours.  I'm determined to have a great selection of yarns in 11 weeks.  Holy cow!  11 weeks until  DFW Fiber Fest.  Must sign off, must go spin.