More Wheel Trauma

You guys are going to think I'm out to get my spinning wheel, but really I'm not. Today I spent most of my at home time cleaning. We were supposed to have company over for dinner, but they ended up being sick. Anyway, as it so happens, vacuuming the carpet is on the list of things to do.

There I am, moving rugs and furniture, vacuuming up rabbit fluff and crumbs. I'm on a roll and quickly getting it done. I've already dusted, mopped, plumped the pillows on the couch and even re-potted the houseplants. This was the very last thing that needed done, even the very last room, the very last square foot of carpeting. Somehow, and don't ask me exactly how this happened, but I didn't see the clear drive band for my spinning wheel laying on the carpeting. I pop it off the bobbin but still leave it attached to the wheel so that it doesn't stretch out when I'm not using it. Somehow it had fallen down and I sucked it up in the roller brush of the vacuum cleaner. Before I could turn it off, both the band for my wheel and the drive band for the vacuum brush snapped. Great jumping Jehoshaphat, I am talented.

As you can well imagine, right after dinner I was on the Babe site to order another (2 at hubby insistence) drive bands for the wheel. We have a spare band for the vacuum, bummer I can't give THAT up for a week too. Well, you win some and lose some. Hopefully it doesn't try to retaliate as well for my unwitting abuse.

Maybe I should give up "power" tools altogether and go with the more primitive drop spindle and broom. (Although I have managed to snap a broom handle this winter as well, but that was cleaning snow off the car.) Good thing my new Turkish spindle came in the mail today from Linda at Sunset Fibers. Maybe the title to this blog should be Destructo-Sarah instead of Bunnies.

Spinning Wheel Trauma

Since September I have been busy peddling away on my little Babe Double Treadle spinning wheel. Many happy hours have been spent abusing the poor thing with my too fast treadling and stinky sweaty feet. Well...today it had it's revenge.

So there I was, belting out another ply of wonderful soft Merino and all of a sudden, plink! It was like it happened in slow motion. I felt something wasn't quite right and looked down in time to see both rodmen separate from the bracket that held them on to the middle of the wheel. What!? At first I thought the bolt had just come undone as sometimes it does and I just have to tighten it up again and be on my way. Unfortunately what had happened was the bolt sheared off and part of it is now stuck in the bracket hole with no way to get hold of it and back it out. It's not like it will just push out because the bolt has threads on it and if I force it out I'll strip out the opening. Grr. I am majorly frustrated.

I did get hold of Nels, who is the inventor of the Babe Wheels and was told what to go get from the hardware store and how to fix it. They have great customer service there and I heartily recommend them to anyone who wants a quality wheel on a shoestring budget. I just have to figure out how to deal with getting that little bit of bolt out first. Does anyone have any suggestions about how it could be done?

I'd put a picture on, but I have handily misplaced the ginormous pack of batteries I got specifically for use in my camera. Twice. Just not a smooth day for me all around. Tomorrow I promise I'll be the happy blogger you have all come to know and love.

Sweet Dreams all you wonderful crafters.

Etsy, Ravelry, Twitter and Me

For months now my dear hubby has suggested I start one of these blog things about my fiber projects. More specifically, my spinning of yarn, which I am currently obsessed with. These suggestions were normally put off with, "I'm too busy right now, what would I write about anyway?" Hmm. Apparently the "powers that be" were listening and I find myself with quite a bit of time lately due to losing my job. Sigh...no really, it's OK. Here's why.

Since September I've been spinning yarn on a Babe Double Treadle Spinning Wheel I picked up secondhand at a fiber festival. It's great, and I'm "in love" with it, but now there is a small mountain of fiber and fiber projects in my minuscule living room with nowhere to go. So what is a hot young fiber-holic to do? Why turn some of that effort into cash of course! Not to support the family you see, but to fund the addiction. Off to find some fiber-challenged enablers!

A friend suggested that I check out Etsy.com, which I did and subsequently spent two full weeks submerged in "research" of other people's shops. Several hundred dollars later and in danger of having to go without clean clothes, I finally opened my own little shop called Handmade Sunshine. So far in a month I've managed to have 2 sales and about 300 views. Not too bad for a first month.


I joined a few fiber-related teams on Etsy that keep blogs as well. A new fledgling team is Create Crochet! and is headed by a real sweetheart named Kristen. She is always looking for new ideas by people who are passionate about crochet and crochet supplies. She also makes some pretty amazing greeting cards which you should really check out.

Etsy FAST which stands for Fiber Arts Street Team, is a more established group interested in the promotion of fiber arts of all kinds from paper to yarn and everything in between. They have monthly challenges where fiber artists compete to create an item that best embodies the current theme. For instance, February the topic is "emotions" and several people have already listed their item in their shops. One example is the "That Warm and Fuzzy Feeling Scarflette"

Etsy has some amazing articles on how to promote a shop and that's how I found out about Twitter.com and got addicted to a brand new thing. Well, at least for me micro-blogging is new. So far I've been on for almost a week and have 39 followers. Not that I ever say much on there that is enlightening, but the voyeurism is rather fun. Usually the background is set to show off a new yarn listed in my shop. My hubby now teases me about being "such a geek" which I take in stride since he's an even bigger one. It's the whole, "it takes one to know one" kind of mentality that we have come to expect in our relationship. (Contented sigh, giggle, "I love him")

Earlier this year one of my friends had told me about Ravelry.com which is an wonderful reference tool for knitters and crocheters and unfortunately requires an invitation to log on. It's still in the Beta testing phase and so you submit a request for an invite and the moderator sends one out easy-peasy in about 4 days. Hey, they're young, they're hip, and extremely cool so it's totally worth the wait. Even bunny-loving spinners like me can find a niche on there. They have places to keep track of yarns, projects and books that you have pileing up around the house, forums where you can find the answere to every fiber question imagineable, and a nifty message center to keep track of new friends. Sweet!

So where does that leave little ole yours truely? Glued to the computer between spinning up batches of yarn and trying to maintain basic physical hygine requirements, that's where. I think I'm busier now than I ever was when employed. Every-once-in-a-while the bunnies come by and sit on my feet to remind me to feed them; either that or they're busy plotting the demise of my computer again. I should have never passed up that stock with the electrical tape company.

Here's to wishing all of you a happy and productive weekend! I've got some yarn to spin.