I am so far behind in blogging it is hard to know where to start. Part of it is laziness, part of it is lack of picture-taking. I don’t know! Anyway, since we last met in early December, we have been to Seattle for a week for the holidays, and then settled back in over here in early January.
I have a new spinning wheel! It is a Jensen Tina II and belonged to a friend of mine in Seattle, who bought it in 2002 but hardly used it. The finish was rather dry, so Rick put 2 coats of Profin on it and now it looks wonderful. It spins like a dream.
On January 7th, my friend Sara organized a “Roc Day” spinning day at Twispworks. About 20 people came and we had a fabulous potluck lunch, in addition to the general cameraderie. From Wikipedia:
Distaff Day, also called Roc Day, is 7 January, the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is also known as Saint Distaff’s Day, one of the many unofficial holidays in Catholic nations. Many St. Distaff’s Day gatherings are held, large and small, throughout local fiber communities. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women’s work.
In many European cultural traditions, women resumed their household work after the twelve days of Christmas. Women of all classes would spend their evenings spinning on the wheel. During the day, they would carry a drop spindle with them. Spinning was the only means of turning raw wool, cotton or flax into thread, which could then be woven into cloth.
We have lots of snow this year. It is going to be the best ski season, maybe ever! The folks at Methow Trails are keeping it well-groomed as always. We have one of the top Nordic ski trail systems (120 miles or 200+ kilometers) in the country right here in our little valley. It is divided into four areas, all connected by the Methow Community Trail.
We had more fresh snow yesterday and last night, and here was the scene this morning from our back deck:
Piling up on the deck:
Curling off the roof of the shop building:
I have been knitting more Mosaic Mojo hats. Still haven’t gotten tired of these yet, as long as I have nice yarn to work with.
And I finished a sequence knitting project, another cowl:
A week or so ago I put a scarf warp on my 32″ Macomber loom, using some Missoni “Bombay” novelty yarn that I picked up at a stash reduction sale, and some rayon rik-rak on cones. I put 21 yds on the sectional beam, enough for 10 scarves about 70″ long plus fringe. Finished the last one yesterday, washed them and cut them apart, and they are hanging to dry. Pictures to follow!
This past Saturday, we had our annual community association progressive dinner, which is always held on the ML King holiday weekend. I was the organizer, and we hosted the main course at our house this year (appetizers at one house, main course at a second house, desserts at a third). There were 41 of us and it was a challenge to fit it into our dining and living room! We moved most of the living room furniture out to the shop or upstairs, set up 5 tables, and borrowed a bunch of folding chairs from the Winthrop Gallery. Lots of fun!
This seems to be a social time of year – we have had many get-togethers with friends and neighbors since returning home at the end of December.
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Twisp of Fate 