What I did on my winter vacation.

Many schools in this area have had a winter break this last week. That means that I got a week off and other than the not-paid part, yippee!

Lest you think I was a complete slacker, I did spend quite a bit of time with my spinning wheel, a bit of organizing and other stuff.

Let's start with my little Hitchhiker. Other than deciding what do to with the knobs for the orifice hook and tensioner, he is done. OK, I actually finished up last week, but no pictures til now. As far as the knobs, there are many options...leave them as finished wood, paint them, cover them with beads or, my personal favorite (at the moment) is to find someone who likes to mess with glass and have 2 knobs made.

The living room got dusted (or more accurately, undusted). There was a really good coat on everything. My excuse(s): my DH, the furniture maker, has his shop in the basement, we heat with wood and, lastly, I am an easily distracted housekeeper.

Along the way, I consolidated the angora stash. I keep most of it in 3-lb coffee cans. Yep, I'm pretty sure that I have enough angora to last me a lifetime. I also found temporary homes for the bins that I previously filled with stash overflow. Who am I kidding? Those bins will be in their temporary homes for quite some time.

I finished up the CVM (at least what I think is CVM) and dyed it a nice cranberry red. The small skein is the original color. It's slated to become a lace vest.

The small, bluish skein is Cotswold that I got at our spinning guild's Christmas fiber exchange this last year. It's very easy to spin quite fine and, hopefully, I got it fine enough. The intent is to knit up one of the "Ice Queens" from Knitty.

Also on their way to becoming something else are various fleece samples. One of our guild members has organized a fleece study for us. For minimal expense, we get approx. 2 oz. bags of various sheep breeds to wash, process & spin. This particular batch includes Ramboullet, Romey, Corriedale, Karakul, Polworth, and Leicester Longwool.

In my stash, there has been this nifty net storage unit from Ikea. I originally picked it up for my daughter to use, but she said she didn't have room for it. I'm glad she didn't have room, as it makes a dandy drying space for fleece and would likely make wonderful yarn storage, too. Yet another reason for a road trip as the nearest Ikea is in Missasauga, Ont.