Liz Wallis

A hot water bottle is the most comforting thing to take to your bed, and a hand-knit cover is luscious. Mine has disappeared, but I'm going to buy a new one and make a new cover for it with scraps of handspun left over from other things. Yours is lovely!

Omigosh, they're like little pygmy goats, with wool! I saw some recently at a local event, but there were only three or four, and they were in a confined space, not free to run around and be themselves.

Well…you have to be able to take advantage of sales in all three areas, ya know.

You made art yarn!

You’ll get there. You didn’t become a skilled crocheter overnight either. Have fun with it and enjoy your yarn as your skills increase. One thing about handspinning is that you can spin your singles S and ply Z, to make yarn customized for crochet.

That is gorgeous! It looks like a John Gardner spindle, yes? I have one also.

A ‘doffer’ is also the tool that enables one to remove a carded batt of fiber from a carding machine (or drum carder).

From an Australian friend who knits the absolutely most stunning lace shawls, and sells them to make money for animal rescue groups. Look for She Sells Shawls Australia on Facebook to see her work. She had a concussion earlier this year (2024) and stopped knitting. I pushed her to take it up again, and this shawl is the first thing she made. She sent it to me, along with the handmade shawl pin, and with much gratitude, I am wearing it on this very cold December morning. Thank you, Susan!

I glanced down at the lovely shawl my friend made for me, and its equally stunning shawl pin. Some of you will know what popped into my head, lol. Sadly, it doesn’t have enough mass to spin, or I’d have fiber on it already.
#spinning

It’s not either/or. No matter how good the hygiene, pathogens will still infect us. Poor hygiene just makes it easier for them. Vaccines provide an additional layer of protection.

The Person of the Year award isn’t meant to imply anything good about someone, only that they have had a significant effect on the world during that year. Horrible as he is, Trump certainly qualifies in that regard.

In 1966, I had been programming computers for several years. Sci fi writers had more imagination than we programmers about how computers could be used, lol. And most of their seemingly crazy ideas have come to fruition in far less time than anyone expected.

Sounds like another generation’s version of slash fanfic.

Early sails appear to have been made from animal skins. But of course fabric is far lighter. Wool was used before flax or cotton.

Twisting fiber strands together seems to be instinctive in humans. I've watched children pull fibrous weeds, strip them down and twist strands together. They went n further than that, but clearly in our distant past, someone else did!

Looking for sources on #EarlyCivilizations and #SocialStratification, especially any recent research.

#History #Sociology

As recently as 1967, a Florida ob/gyn resident performed a hysterectomy on a 12-year-old black girl after she bore twins. He had told her grandmother that he was 'just keeping her from getting pregnant again.'

And here we go again.

All I remember about 2016 is saying to myself "I knew America wouldn't elect a woman" and thinking the world was about to come to an end. Never thought I'd see almost exactly the same scenario eight years on. I'll start Jan. 20 with a bottle of something and hope we still have a country on the 21st.

This weekend's reading--back to Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. Despite some dated terminology, a very abstruse writing style and some Victorian vocabulary (written in 1899), no one beats his knife-edge sarcasm on the subject of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption.
#History

Lol, I think "Ooh, pretty!" is how a lot of us plan. You can always weigh it afterward, right?

Thank you, this is useful for something I'm writing.

Yes, I have a box of things right now to send off to them, as soon as I finish the current pair of socks.

Super book, available in audio form on Audible also.

Cheviot on a small supported spindle, with a hair clip keeping it from unwinding. In the background, a bobbin from a boat shuttle (used in weaving) that's holding the cop (spun yarn) from the last spindle-full.

It means to spin animal or vegetable fibers into yarn. Wool from sheep, silk from silkworms, cotton, flax, nettles, etc. I use two different types of spinning wheels and also spindles.

I'd love to be added. I spin, weave, knit, crochet, sew, etc, lol.

And is large enough to accommodate the whorl on your spindle. What spindle will you be getting?

You can find bowls online separate from spindles. But there are other kinds of bowls. My favorite is a quartz trinket dish that I was given. It’s quite heavy and very stable in my lap. You can also use any small bowl or cup that you already have, that has a very smooth interior…

Yes, but I will say that I don't care for the Kravelli spinning bowl that I have. I don't use it because it's too small to be stable on my lap. I have a larger quartz bowl and a wooden one that came with another spindle. The quartz bowl is my favorite, because it's so heavy.

That is indeed a great gift, and I’m glad my mother lived long enough for me to tell her how much I appreciated being ‘forced to learn’ as a child. I was not very appreciative at the time, I’m afraid, but I sure am now.

lol, I started out with a floor loom but then moved and the loom had to go into storage. So then I bought a rigid heddle loom, and another one, and an espinner because my wheel was also in storage, and now three supported spindles and two drop spindles. Sewing machine is still in storage 😢

I learned to sew and knit as a small child, but all the rest came later. I’d have had fiber animals too if circumstances had permitted.

I knit continental, mostly, but purl English-style. It is just so much easier and more intuitive. And if you’re doing single rib, it is far faster.