A week dedicated to warm hands and nice surpises

This week, the rural mail delivery folks, actually came into the drive way to deliver a package.   I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting it, because I knew it was on it's way.   However, it was a lovely surprise to receive this beautiful, handmade, Walnut cone thread stand in the mail.  It will look so nice beside the 15-30 treadle, however I know it will also get used by Lady Pfaff, my electric embroiderer.    The skilled turner offered it as a prize for a quiz on the TreadleOn  email group. Treadle On is a an amazing community of people who use people powered, both treadles and handcranked sewing machines.  They trouble shoot, diagnose, give repair information, identification information, where to find parts and support others who use treadle machines.   It's quite amazing really, to have a group which so easily shares and gives freely, their knowledge and information.

I did some more spinning and then realized that if I didn't start on mittens, friends and family would have cold hands.   First off was a pair of fingerless mitts from the Jessie's fleece .  My friend had donated the fleece and asked for a pair of fingerless mitts in return.   I wasn't sure how they'd turn out because there are a lot of inconsistencies in the yarn.   It was a bit on the hard to spin side.   It took a while to figure out the right gauge because although I did swatch, that information didn't actually prove useful when  I started knitting.  In the end, it was a bit of trial end error. I ripped back twice, trying new needles each time until I found a formula that worked.  They were supposed to be fancy with cables, but they didn't look right.  That was another start.   When I wet finished them, they took on a lovely halo effect, which was very unexpected.  Pretty though :)

Next on the list was mitts for the hubby.   While I've bunches of yarn waiting for a project, most are in amounts large enough for something more than mitts.   The Clun Forest would have been perfect, but it was white and not really a man mitten colour.  I know he's going to be using the snow blower, carrying in wood and doing other chose in them.   I found this rather nicely spun single skein of Shetland, which is working perfectly.  

Finally, I popped out to the fabric store and the sewing machine shop and picked up a few things, including a dozen new bobbins for the treadle, a quarter inch foot for the treadle and these fabrics.    The project should have been started yesterday but I managed to drag my feet about pressing  when I had the time.   I haven't pieced a quilt in a good few years.   I'd started making a comforter for each of my kids, which half-way through the project, changed to making them quilts instead.  So some have quilts and the others wore their comforters out as children.  Now I think it's time to start finishing that project, especially since I have the perfect machines to do the quilting with.

Finally, remember those pretty yellow berries.   I was walking by to collect eggs as a couple of the girls lay just under those particular vines and this is what I saw.  I think they are gorgeous.   I ran in to grab the camera.   It's a good thing too, because the next day, I saw one of the chooks balancing on the lattice, eating those little red berries.