A few things I never really talked much about in recent podcasts or blogs...
I bought a couple of new 3M containers for my quilt studio/home office. Really. It's an addiction.
I have drugstore readers all over the house at this point. This pair was designated for my cutting table/sewing machine area. As you may guess, they often end up under piles of fabric scraps, buried under the quilt project at the machine, on the floor....
When I saw this little container, the perfect solution hit me. Now my readers live on the wall within easy reach of my cutting table. I'm pretty good about putting them back in there when I'm done with them, too!
Another problem that has arisen for me of late is spools of thread. I have good storage for thread that's not in use, but when I'm switching back and forth between projects, or switching threads mid-project and thinking I might go back to a previous one, the spools in circulation get in my way. I don't want to put them back on the rack or in the drawer because I don't want to lose track of which I'm using, but I get tired of moving them around or having them roll off surfaces while I'm working.
Bingo.
This container is for toiletries or some such--I think it had nail polish in it in the display. But it's exactly the right size to hold a few spools of thread and bobbins that are in a holding pattern. Immediately to my right, I can quickly drop a spool in or pull one back out. It's been extremely useful!
So those are my organizational tips for the month. I love these things.
The other catch-up item is my hand-spinning. I mentioned in my podcast that I had a two-part class this month: The first week we worked with drop spindles, and the second on a spinning wheel. I won't go into detail here since I did talk about it on my podcast. But here are some before-and-after-and-during pics.
First, here's a progression of my spindling. The ones at the top are earlier attempts, the ones at the bottom are more recent. I tossed a couple of very early ones because they got all tangled when I pulled them off the spindle. Still n' all, you can see my improvement in evenness and thinness in these samples. They don't all have to be thin, and they don't all have to be strictly even, but I'd like to learn the control so I can be thin and even when I want to be!
This picture is a two-ply yarn spun and plied completely on my drop spindle the first week of class. I believe it's alpaca, but don't quote me on that. It was called "cookies and cream" because the roving had brown and white together. Delicious. I'll buy more of this when I go to the fiber festival again in a couple of months. I'd like to treat it the way it deserves to be treated.
This picture is the two single yarns (another two-tone roving on the right--so much fun!) and then the ply of them together done on the spinning wheel the second week of class.
I struggled with the plying on that one because there was no lazy kate so the yarn balls were just flying around at my feet. Hard to get into a rhythm. But it was fun to try.
And last, here's what's on my spindle now. Still need to get a little more even but this is a different fiber and I'm just getting used to it. I think it's Louen wool...does that sound right?
Anyway...just some sundry stuff keeping my hands busy and out of trouble!