Down time...

Down time is inevitable and important when traveling. Here on the flight to Philadelphia, I'm working on a pair of socks. Those that know me well, know that I only wear hand knit socks. It's one of life's simple pleasures to go into the sock drawer in the morning and choose that day's hand knit socks.

This yarn was given to me as a "Bon voyage" gift from my good friend, Joan. Later in my trip I hope to be wearing these.

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D-day

Today has been referred to as the Ides of March. In our house my husband has called it D-day (Debbie day). I am at the Bangor International Airport awaiting my flight to Philadelphia to visit with family as I start my grand adventure. This is just the first of many flights.

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Packing it all in....

What could be worse than having an airline lose your luggage at the beginning of an 8 week journey? With that in mind, I'm bringing only carry on luggage; the stuff never leaves my sight. I've written my list and checked it twice, thrice, and whatever comes after that. My rolling duffel bag will fit into the overhead compartment and weighs in fully packed at 18 lbs. Temperatures will vary from 30* to 110* in all the different countries we'll be visiting. The secret is layers.
In a small day pack I'll have the important stuff: socks started on double point needles, drop spindle and hand painted roving, necessary papers and itinerary, and snacks. I'm set!
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Where's Waldo?

Click on the map to enlarge and see our route!

 
When we started planning this trip, our list of destinations included a lot of exotic and hard to get to places. At some point we realized that unless we wanted to spend the majority of our time in airports we had to narrow things down. There are a number of "round the world" tickets and we chose the one that seemed the most flexible and wide reaching. It allows us 39,000 miles and 16 legs.

So where are we going? After meeting up in San Francisco, Janet and I zip off to Australia, halfway round the world. Once we're on the road you'll see posts from Australia, New Zealand, China, Thailand, India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malta, and Spain.

Temperatures will range from 30*F to 110*F. You might be curious as to how one packs for a trip like this...stay tuned. I'm calling the next installment, "Packing it all in".

Round the world....

Perhaps you can guess by the photo that travel is in my future. Fifteen years ago this was just a germ of an idea. Since that time, I have carefully squirreled away money hoping it would someday happen. Now it is going to happen and my close friend, Janet (another weaving and spinning addict), and I will be making our way literally "around the world" during 8 weeks of travel. As you can imagine, a lot of detailed planning has gone into this trip. There will be small frequent blog posts as I find wi-fi spots in all the corners of the earth. Follow our adventures by subscribing to this blog or sign up with your email address to get post notifications. Either way, stay tuned. My next post will share where we're going, otherwise known as "Where's Waldo?"

The Gift

I just presented my SIL with a gift. This is a special birthday for her and I wanted to create something special for her. First I hand painted the silk fiber.

Then I spun the yarn and plied it.

Next I warped the loom and wove the scarf.

The pattern is called Swedish Lace.

Happy Birthday!

Fiber Kiln...

I have been dyeing ever increasing amounts of spinning fiber and yarns. Between stocking the shop, providing for the monthly fiber clubs, and selling to other shops around the country, wet yarns and fibers can be seen drying on any given day everywhere! This was behind the inspiration for the fiber kiln. In my experience, a lot of good ideas begin with a glass of wine. A lot of bad ideas begin with too much wine; but that's for another blog episode. This idea occurred over a meal and a glass at 3 Tides in Belfast with my husband Chris, brother-in-law Phil, and sister-in-law Karna.

What I needed was a way to decrease the amount of time it took for the dyed fiber to dry. If it was a warm, sunny, slightly breezy day here in Maine, great! If not, I could plan on 3 days from dyeing to packaging. How could I shorten that time frame? The Swedes use a drying cabinet in the Tvättstuga  (laundry room). Those Swedes are so smart.

First Karna found 9 doors at an auction for $5. Phil picked them up and delivered them to Purple Fleece. A few days later, tools in hand, assembly began. After measuring, cutting, and removing old hardware, one door became the floor, 2 for the back, 2 for the front, one for either side, and a piece of plywood for the top. An exhaust fan was mounted through the plywood top ($11 at Lowe's, thank you friend Richard), a socket for a 200 watt light bulb for heat with dimmer switch was mounted on the floor, some exterior painting to jazz up the doors, weather stripping pasted on the front 2 doors where they meet and voila! The Fiber Kiln was born.

Here are the first hand painted rovings hanging in the Fiber Kiln. The light bulb elevated the temperature in the enclosure by almost 10 degrees. The exhaust fan kept the air circulating and the moisture was expelled into the room air.

 

 

Less than 24 hours later, I'm packaging up "Purple Reign". It's a huge success. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this a reality.

The Common Ground Country Fair...

All of Maine awaits the 4th weekend of September. That's when the Common Ground Country Fair takes place each year in Unity, Maine. Unlike any other fair in the country, it is host to an amazing display of vendors, demonstrations, classes, performers, and fair goers from all walks of life.

Katie Jarius displays her knitted shawl from her new wool/mohair yarn.

Carriages pulled by horses, oxen, and tractors abound here at the fair...

 

Water whirligigs across the road from my booth.

The Morris dancers preparing for their performance...

The bicycle brigade...

Walking on stilts is a great way to get around.

Put it on your calendar for next year and perhaps I'll see you there...

Back to weaving...

Some days are more frantic than others. Every now and then, I have a day where I feel like I've almost caught up. Today is one of those days so I headed to the loom for a bit of weaving. I'm down to a grand total of 5 sets of cotton hand towels for sale in the shop so guess what I'm working on?

More techie stuff...

I'm planning some travel in the spring. More about that in a future post. I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row and want to be able to blog on the fly. So here's my first attempt from my smart phone.

I've been feverishly weaving hand towels. There's been a run on them lately. I've wound my longest warp ever this time; 25 yards. That should keep me out of trouble for a while!

Back to weaving...

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