My new Freedom Flyer for Ma's spinning wheel.

chunky with blobs!

 Now you have seen quite a bit of home improvements, and it was all done by my love. So what have I been doing in the meantime?
 Apart from earning the money to do it all with, and keeping normal things going like washing and cooking nice dinners, I have got a new project.
I have been spinning up a storm. A whirlwind of fibres.
There's a new yarn shop in town, which also does knitting and crochet workshops. A month ago I was sniffing around in there ( lovely yarns, nice books, pots full of indigo, madder, roots and bark for dyeing with) and saw some homespun merino from the South Island, and mentioned to the lady shop keeper, that even though I don't like knitting, I do like making yarn.
She showed me some art-yarn she had bought from a lady in Australia, and asked if I was capable of that?
The next visit to the shop I took along all my examples of yarn and she liked my crazy stuff the best!
So I left with an order for 20 balls in all colours, and she'd leave the art part up to me!

Sanding the floor.

Here was my love sanding the floors, getting rid of all that darkness. It took him most of last weekend. We saved quite a bit of money by not getting someone in to do it.
There is another tick on his Can-Do-That-Too-List.
He is so clever!

All smooth & without dark varnish.

But the floor does need protecting with a layer of something. He experimented with several sealers and stains under that bit of carpet where the ugly floor is, and his own concoction of white sealer and danish oil will be the choice. That way the floor won't go dark again, but will look like a blond glaze has gone over it.
I want to keep it light and bright.
Maybe next weekend we can put the furniture back in!

"Joy" wheel with new freedom flyer.

This is the spinning wheel I inherited from my Mother-in-law. It is an Ashford "Joy", and I remember she was really happy when she managed to get it for a good price. These had only just come out then, and a lot of people didn't even recognize it as a spinning wheel. You can fold it up and carry it by its' handle, it fits behind the seats in the car.

For my art yarn I needed a new gadget. Because the yarn was going to be fat and chunky, it would be difficult to get through the hole and around the hooks (snagging!) . Ashford has made a new flyer ( the 2 bars that zoom around the bobbin of yarn-in-the-making, and hold the bobbin in place ).
This flyer has a jumbo sized bobbin, and more importantly no hole or hooks, but open ended loops, which you can move around to where you want to fill up the bobbin.
You can also by-pass the loop, so that any extra fat bits can be wound on by hand.

Blues, white and a little purple.

Our first port of call these days is TradeMe.com to see if anyone is selling one. Nothing. And nothing in past auctions. But within a week someone was!
The universe provides!
 And now it is mine, all mine (my preciousss), for half the price of a new one, plus spare parts and instructions.
 Away I spun...

My new art-yarns.

I am carefully choosing colours so things don't get out of hand. I use my colour knowledge from a 4 month course I did through the National Creative Fibre Society, many years ago.

Ofcourse when I spin I need to have the fibres ready before hand. So I needed to card all my bits of thread and fabric and sparkly stuff into the coloured wool.
I needed a drumcarder. Ouch! because they are not cheap... $515.00 as a matter of fact.
 But wait , my local weavers club has one.

It was time I became social again after 2 years of not being a member of any club or society. Revisit my old friends and catch up on the gossip.
And it was quite nice, they signed me back up on the spot, although they pretended to have to check my character first, while winking to each other.

4 hand carded bats ready for spinning.

I have used that little wild carding machine lots already. Here is the new lot (about 200 grams) in shades of pink, red and white. Just like lollies.