Remember
Putney, Vermont 10/15/21. Covid. Passing through. Colleen got a tour. We were there. She remembers. I don’t. Dementia? I worry. Ah! The pictures!
Yes. We were there. Colleen was right. But then again, the wife is always right… if you wanna live to be older. Wiser? Not me. I said I did not remember. I still don’t. Wrong again. Husbands are never right. I got that one down.
Demonstrate
In this election year the title could be construed in different ways….
However, Colleen volunteered us to demonstrate at a Fiber Festival in the convention center. Cousins and friends came to visit and support the cause. We demonstrated spinning and weaving. Fun?!
Yes! There were lots of smiles and laughs.
Hand spinning and weaving on a loom are becoming lost arts. Few enough people do it that it is considered an oddity to most folks. At the fiber fairs, I am wrong. Throngs of people flock to them and it is quite vigorously attended. But here and today there were few folks who stopped by to inquire about the process. Nonetheless a good time was had by all. I spin under the moniker of “spin doctor.” Some people get it and others don’t. I don’t much look like a former surgeon in a flannel shirt.
An aside: Sally wove (precisely!!) a tartan that measured about thirty feet in length! Quite a feat!!
Spin doctor
In my former life I was a neurosurgeon. It tickles Colleen. So she immediately called “spin doctor” when I donned a scrub shirt to demonstrate spinning at a fiber fest. Jen came to see us. She shot the pics.
Not bad for iPhone! Interesting?! She naturally held her phone vertically and only once turned it horizontal. I naturally hold my camera horizontally… so not only a different photographer, but, a different perspective! Not bad shots with an iPhone, eh?
It was an inside joke. I explained the shirt to a few passersby. Mostly we just had a good time spinning without the usual distractions. I was in one spot for hours. Tomorrow I’m bringing lunch. Doc’s gotta eat!
Grieve
Beloved Nutley. Family… pet. Loved?! Remembrance? The other of our cats missed him?! For sure! Colleen was sure…
Get out of the house… do something… anything. The day was somber… bright blue cloudless sky. We finished Xmas cards and mailed them. Off to the beach… Nutley never did see the beach. We reflected. We drove north for dinner. There was no celebration… reflection. The little guy was a big part of our family. Overcompensated? …all the kids are out of the house? Philosophical? …hug your cats, and, your wife, close!
Grief. Can you capture the essence in a picture?
Sheep
We spin. Colleen weaves. We have lots of fiber related accoutrements. We would have sheep but he homeowners association forbids real sheep grazing on our lawn. Oh well! Alas!
It does not mean we don’t collect things sheep related.
We are not obsessive. Really! Not! But we do find little sheep as we travel. … for the right price. And so, the studio is dotted with sheep. And yes, we have sheep xmas ornaments. To be sure, there is very little maintenance involved. Imagine taking my sheep out for a walk in the neighborhood?
Which sheep do you like best? Ha ha… like asking which child is your favorite, or which spinning wheel you prefer?
Spinning
Aside from photography my other hobby is spinning. …yes, as in spinning wheel. I spin because we have so much fiber waiting to be spun that it is overwhelming and I am officially helping to get some fiber spun. Insidiously, Colleen had me use one wheel, two wheel…. Now I spin on four wheels. Really!? Yup. Nuts. I did not get up one morning and say, “Today would be a good day to learn to spin.”
Meanwhile, today’s photo project was to post about spinning wheels. Comment? Question? Observation? And, as always, I ask, how many wheels does one need? We have one car. But Colleen loves spinning wheels. I like cameras. I guess it is a parallel observation. However, I have different cameras for different situations and needs. A spinning wheel only does one thing?! Do you need to look good while spinning?
If you peer, you can see at least eight wheels in the great room. Some are in use. Others were collected for display. They could be made to work. I have not gotten to that task. Wheel after spinning wheel, spinning fiber, making yarn – what will it all be woven into? Ha! Avocation? Hobby? Obsession? Crazy? Nuts?!!!$#* I only ask one more question. Is it contagious?
Not much
Average day? Sunrise or sunset. Waves. Beach. Pigeons?! Cats. Family.
Somehow everyday seems to have its own blend of photo ops. I strive to get the cats – eyes in focus, composed… We have spinning wheel overload. Ha ha! Waves. Lately we are walking the beach. It’s good exercise. I go for the photo ops. Waves. The bird feeder is always a source of interest. Pigeons?? Yup, they were there on the beach. Lost? Flying south? Groups shot. The family gathers infrequently enough that it is worth a group shot. How much longer are we here? Sunrise, sunset. Which? But always the color is worth a second look.
Is there a day average or ordinary? Photo ops are all around me. I try to take advantage. And yes, there are plenty of selfies… just not enough room to be posted today.
Every room
It is no wonder that I dream of fiber. If not fiber, then sewing machines and typewriters. What’s in your bathroom?
I just laugh at the realization that some form of fiber, spinning, or weaving is represented in every room of our house. Laugh? Cry? What is in front of your fireplace?
There is a term “work expands to fill the time allotted” – Parkinson’s law. Did you know? Ha! Fiber expands to fill the available space. Indeed! I collected typewriters late. No more room. Colleen beat me to the space. I did not think it possible. But a fiber store is going out of business. We got two more spinning wheels. There is the adage: happy wife, happy life. It was never so true in my house.
Do you knit?
Knitters have a term: “stash.” It is the yarn on hand for projects: to be determined.
Weavers, spinners have stash too. Bins upon bins stacked high in many places: of fiber waiting to be washed, carded, spun, and woven.
Don’t laugh. It is just so. You need stash for that project – still to be determined. Is there too much – ever?! Colleen has more than one loom, than one spinning wheel… I now have at least four spinning wheels in motion. Can you do with one? Of course!! I have one camera… two camera… everywhere you look. We have a lot of fiber! Mostly is has been washed. Carding takes a while. Spinning takes longer. Weaving? When is there time? Bins! I am chagrined. They just snuck up upon us. Skeins of yarn stare at us from collected baskets. We vow to not go into a fiber store or to a fiber festival. Guilty! Me! Our most recent trip – we returned with seven bags of fleece to process. There is no more room!!
Process
It all begins with “raw” fleece – sheared straight from the sheep. Clean it of grass and hay. Wash it. Be careful not to “felt” it. Card it – comb the fiber in the same direction. Make it into bats or roving. Spin it – spinning wheel! Ply it – combine two or more spun yarns together. Weave it!
For me, the process ends at spinning. I go that far. Collen has taken over plying. She weaves. But the sheer volume of fiber to card and spin has overwhelmed us. I’m the guilty party. I indulge her in buying more fleece. They all spin up differently and feel different and go into different products and… So, I started (learned) to spin. This led to more spinning wheels (bought). I admit that retirement is more interesting. There is some skill involved. The “stash” never seems to diminish. Yes, those bins (holding fiber) keep growing in number – multiple rooms, floor to ceiling. (sheepishly, not shown here –) Yup!
Another?! … !?
I have told you that I spin because we have so much “stash” (Stash – what you have in the closet awaiting spinning) that it would not be spun up in one lifetime. And, we have more coming… from each (‘next’) wool festival we attend.
So, you need spinning wheels. It started innocently enough. One, two, three…. Then I won a spinning wheel at auction at the Maryland Sheep and Wool fest…. We got antique wheels… and big wheels. Yes, that is a roll of toilet paper in our ‘little’ bathroom. Yes, you may laugh… we are Schact brand loyalists. And we completed the line – we have one of each that they make – yesterday. A fiber store was going out of business…. And, well, you know the story…it was on sale! Yes, sale. It denotes the act of selling. Or, it is a bargain – at reduced price…
Well, it came home with us. We hardly need it? Or, Colleen has a specific intended purpose for this new wheel in our collection. Me? Ha ha! I have often posted about my cameras. In fact the shots for this post were taken with my latest camera acquisition.
Great wheels? No one uses them. They sold at auction at Rhinebeck fair for less than $50 a piece. A steal! A shame. It’s history all wrapped up. Big wheels were the mainstay of spinning a long time ago.
My point? How many spinning wheels do you need? How many cats? How many cameras? The answer is murky for sure and I am not certain I can answer. I love my cameras, Colleen loves her wheels, and we both love our cats.
We were there
…long enough to shoot >800 images. Strawberry Bank museum. Oh boy! I’m losin’ it. I did not remember. Colleen remembered. Me? Faulty memory. She says it’s residual from my concussion….
She remembered well enough to recall we argued with the guide over what a weasel was and how it was used in spinning. It’s called weasel because is goes “pop” when the winding is complete.
Remember? I got a photographic memory… ha ha. Nope. I do remember the basket. I insisted we get it. Different. We don’t have another like it. What? Me worry?
Living in the past
As I scroll randomly thru the catalog it is easy to land on flowers. These past few years have given me a lot of container garden flowers to photograph. And then I got a macro lens… It’s pretty nice. I got a lot of flower pictures. I can hear folks ask, “How many?” And you photograph them again and again. Same flowers, they don’t change much. Well, it’s never the same. And I would be pressed to say I can tell the same flower in my pics from day to day. Boring. Not really. After all, I have a different life now. No phone call is answered as though it were life and death on the other end. There is relief that I answer the phone if I want to answer the phone. There are no consequences for not responding. That all works out fine with me. Boring it is, for a good long time to come.
The flowers in Colleen’s background… are fake artificial. I went thru a stage of fake flowers too. Ha ha.
One more…camera
If you follow me, then you will know I am camera crazy. Colleen has looms and spinning wheels… I just have lots of cameras. They sort of accumulate. I am poor at discarding things.
Nikon Z5, mirrorless. It follows the Canon M6 II. A real DSLR, sort of. And the first images. No selfie!? Oh no! But the usual suspects… flowers and cats.
Who knew? It was a pretty inauspicious start. It was pretty much an average day – 4/23/21. But anytime you break in a new camera… let the fun begin. Are there other cameras? Sure. There is always camera lust. But I am content. No need for me to get the high-end Leica or to enter the Canon system. A lens is a lens… well, not quite. But it is the image not the camera. I simply want my equipment to work and to get the image I seek. Right tool for the right job? If you aren’t good then no amount of equipment will make up for your lack of skill.
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.
I do believe in real cameras. 148k images and counting….
From here to there
I’m obsessing over my spinning. From here to there – fleece, to roving, to yarn. We do make a varied product from fine to rough, coarse to fine. Impressive! I never in my wildest dream thought I would spin yarn. Colleen does. Did. And she introduced me to the art. Am I good? Who knows? It’s all relative. I am not a machine and cannot produce fine yarn all even and uniform. It is the imperfection that make it handmade and special. No two skeins are the same. And who would buy it? Would I ever sell it? Ha ha! Currently, I have four spinning wheels in production with various fiber rovings we have washed and carded. Unless you spin the terms mean nothing to you. It is like the language of photography with f-stops and ISO. No matter. It is the photo and the yarn – the end product – which garners the attention and interest.
Since I met Colleen it has been a very interesting journey…
Stash
The term “stash’ refers to the accumulation of yarn and fiber a spinner, weaver, or knitter accrues in anticipation of a project as yet undetermined. You might get where this thought process is going. It is like a proverbial savings account… the bigger the better.
I idly spoke with Colleen… guilty! We have fiber related things in every room of the house including but not limited to – the bedroom (looms); the bathroom (spinning wheel); basement ( fiber, loom, etc); elevator (yes, an elevator, full of fiber); studio (looms, fiber); office (spinning wheels, fiber); living room (assorted everything); dining room (spinning wheels); kitchen … do I need to go on?
Oh gee! It all snuck up upon us with our realizing we are pretty much overrun by fiber related things. I did not label the rooms for you. Suffice to say we have an embarrassment of materials and equipment. It’s not my fault. I am simply the “getaway driver.” Yeah yeah, no one would believe that I do not aid and abet Colleen’s obsession. Ummm… did I mention (did you notice) the bathroom? The foyer?
There was the old saying: “He who has the most toys when he dies, wins.”
Origin
Zen. I could go on for a long time. I won’t because I favor brevity.
The “…” you put on this morning…. Take wool. It starts as a sheep. The sheep is sheared which becomes fleece, which is washed, which is carded, which is spun, then dyed, then woven…. Socks!?
It’s a “zen” thing to spin. Repetitive, sameness, it gives you plenty of time to ponder. Wonderful! I am not patient! I am type A personality – go, go, go. No sitting and pondering please! Sorry, it’s just my nature.
I seek the “zen” of spinning, that rhythm, the rhythmic movement, repetitive moment, the constant peace one achieves as the yarn spins out ….endlessly between my fingers.
You may skip to the end and just don the socks to your feet. Or, you may shear the sheep and process the fleece through the many multi step process – fleece, to roving, to yarn, plying, and then weaving.
I am party to the process, partially, and wholly in the presence because Colleen has taken this as an avocation in her retirement.
I spin. I seek the “zen” of spinning, the conversion of a “mess” into a spun yarn which is then woven into “product.” Product? None to illustrate, we use it or Colleen gifts it. Ha ha.
As I have said in a few words… it is a process. Mastery? … a lifetime. Ommmm….
Out of the blue
Colleen is my “laundry fairy.” All my clothes disappear and return to my drawer clean about once a week…. She makes me go to her guild meetings. She has me demonstrate spinning at her fiber festivals. I get to wear the product of her weaving skills. She let me have another cat (eight). …loves to eat out.
Ginny called Colleen. Ginny, too, is reading my blog. She called – out of the blue – to thank Colleen for taking care of me. Did I mention Ginny is the “little sister” who gets kicked to the side and ignored by Don and myself? Don? Don’t ask. Big girl panties. He once got Ginny a pair – size 99 extra large – as a joke(cheap, at Walmart). We do love her dearly, but we would never ever tell her. (Shhhhh…)
So, out of the blue, Ginny called Colleen to thank her. Touching. Sweet. Touching. Have I, did I, mention that all love is appreciated. Thanks kid.
Inside
I’ve never been inside. Guild meeting, John Dickinson plantation. Colleen cajoled and put my true love to the test demanding I attend and spin with her. So, she did not demand… but it was the same as a command! Ha! A coven! Tour groups come through and are fascinated with the process. Ho hum? To me, yes. They were fascinated. Colleen was thrilled… I was there, too. Donna brought an E-spinner, battery operated spinning wheel. It almost seems heretical in an old historic plantation….
Spin doctor II
Lazy. I got someone to shoot us together spinning away. And the local newspaper did not send anyone to cover the event. We were back for another round of demonstration at the fiber expo. A gal came by, whipped out her drop spindle and began to spin away beside us. All, welcome! Yeah, it was fun. No one asked about the scrub shirt. They sure asked a lot about spinning. Fun!? You bet!
Tune up/Repair
Ashford Joy spinning wheel
One of my training professors told me that it was hard to make a new mistake. Ha ha. I do not know. I made plenty. They were all original to me. But…
So, we got an Ashford Joy spinning wheel. I won it at an auction. We paid $$. It is compact and folds up. It travels. Coleen’s! I got it for her so that when we travel by car she could take it along and spin as we go. Neat idea.
The wheel would not spin. There was a problem at the hub. The wheel wobbled. The drive band kept coming off. Wobble is not good. So??? I replaced the drive band. Obvious answer. No! This did not work. The drive band is plastic and you have melt cut ends in a flame and then put them together. The tension has to be just right. (That’s a whole ‘nother story.)
It was the wobble. How do you fix that. The metal connector at the hub wobbled. I tried different ways to tighten it up to no avail. Finally, hammer in hand, I pounded the hub into the wheel once more. Voila!! The wheel was tight once again and the wobble gone. It was not at all obvious what to do. And we did not find anything on the internet search to help.
So, here it is. This is a fix for a wobbly wheel. You might try it. It might work. Where to post the solution? I don’t know. But the internet knows everything. So this post will probably live on forever.
To illustrate
Opposite minimal – maximal
Clutter, hoarder… there is a fine line? Or, is it obvious which group we fall in with? Taking pictures? I shoot many, that is to say more than one, redundancy is the word. …just in case, I don’t want to miss the important shot. My mantra? Digital is free.
We realize that most of our kids are minimalist and neat. It gives us shivers. We laugh. We are not. And, happily so, and happy to admit it – more shudders. Our counters and tables have nary a bare spot. In fact we see the table top about twice a year, when company is coming. No matter, I know where everything is. We have never lost a kitty amongst the stack. I am not apologetic. Do you need two mantle clocks and so many spinning wheels? The answer is obvious… umm, do we? It could go either way. We are weak. We do not play by any rule. It’s just fine. No harm, it’s just a little bit crowded. Let the kids shudder and laugh. I have one kid living out of a back pack. Yup, all his worldly goods in a back pack – the ultimate minimalist, except for the stuff stuffed in my closet that belongs to him too. … kidding. On this occasion – it’s a neat mess!
Longing
Flowers, they cheer us all summer long. Peas and Tillie came last summer. Who knew? Characters! Lovable? They have a way of getting under your skin… It was pretty idyllic all last summer. Ray and Nutley came in July, 2018, not so very long ago. This woulda been his birthday. He was a little cat with such a big personality. I am glad I took so many pictures. Flowers and cats are easy subjects all summer long. Colleen spins. I long for peace and serenity to return. I remember as a kid when summer vacation stretched endlessly without a care….
Here to there
How’d I get here? In the absence of anything else, I shoot cat portraits. Simple. They pose?!? Nope. I put the camera in their face and point the lens straight at their eyes. It works.
Finally, a new oven! The old one – dead. Built-in obsolescence. Better one? It had to fit the hole of the old one. Pain!!! Major pain, supply chain issues, we snagged a clearance model at less than half price from retail. Lucky! You bet!! It clearly said on the box – in big black and white letters – the oven was too large for the hole – ¾ inches too large. Really!! So, it fit right into the hole of the old oven. Go figure.
And, within moments – carrot cake. I add (my mom did it) a cup of grated carrots; the cake rises…. And, a few days later… a sour cream apple walnut pie. We wasted no time in making up for lost time.
Pizza? Well, I gotta say, “Who doesn’t like pizza?” Gluten free crust. ??? Oh! Well, Colleen is also vegetarian (off and on), so, two pies – mine had sausage. It was a good pie! Yeah, it’s good to have an oven again.
One more step – to product. I spin – wool. We process. … ‘cause I don’t wash. The one and only time I washed, I felted. (If you don’t spin, the joke went right over your head.) Straight off the sheep, the fleece is polluted – grass, dirt, poop, etc. The fleece is opened up – picked. Then, it is washed, carded and prepared into bats, ready to spin. Spin, spun, it looks rather fine and refined, ready to go – cloth, shawl, scarf, and so forth. This would be here to there. Yarn!
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