Huh? What happened?

I try to update the blog every week. Or two weeks. I think I'm over that by several days now. I don't know where the time went.

Since I've been gone, spring has arrived in Vermont (if you can ignore today's flurries). The trout in our pond are jumping. We heard the peepers one evening last week. The daffodils are up, if not in bloom. Things will turn green soon enough.

I've been a little down lately, what with looming poverty and all, so I was especially flattered that Pepper Stitches, who blogs from Australia, gave my blog a Lemonade Award, for showing a positive attitude or gratitude. (This just shows the power of the blog and editing, because I'm running low on both lately!)

Pepper Stitches has a lovely blog and she gets her points across a lot more efficiently than I do, which is always refreshing. I am supposed to nominate 10 other bloggers but I might not have time today.

However, the making-lemonade-from-lemons theme is a perfect segue into my newest adventure: recycling yarn. I wanted enough cotton yarn for a spring cardigan, and I just can't justify the purchase of new yarn at the moment. So I found this for $3 at the thrift shop:

And with a pair of tiny scissors and a ball winder, I turned it into 1,000 yards of this:

Then I realized it was too fine for anything I'd want to knit right now, so I went to a different thrift shop and found this for $8:

Not a bad sweater in its own right, but too big and not quite my style. Unfortunately, this one, from GAP, was very well made, the pieces were backstitched together by hand, and each cable crossing was secured with a small string. Not easy to undo. It took me three or four nights to unravel, all the while enduring the comments from my husband who suggested I might have been better off just to spring for some decent yarn. But I ended up with about seven balls of this:

I started Zephyrstyle's Juliet sweater (top down, one piece, yeah) but didn't get gauge the first time. So I started over:

Working with unraveled cotton yarn is a bit challenging, as the plies are not really twisted. You have to watch for splitting. But I like to do things the hard way and it's quite satisfying to feel like you got a deal and gave an old sweater new life.

If you are interested in giving this a try, there are a few tricks, mainly making sure that your sweater is "fully fashioned"  so you can unravel each section in pretty much one long strand of yarn. Some sweaters are cut out of large pieces of knit fabric and serged together at the seams, meaning each row is a separate piece of yarn. Not good. My Virtual Sanity has a good tutorial and there are many others online.

I haven't been doing much spinning this week or last, but I will get back to that. I think I'm on my sixth (seventh?) skein, bringing me up over 700 yards. Getting close to sweater quantity....

My darling husband, though not so supportive about recycling sweaters, has been working for me in his wood shop. He took some apple wood pruned from our very own trees

and turned this:

into this:

For you non-spinners, this is a nostepinne (or nostepinde), used to wind center-pull balls of yarn by hand.

At my request, he included a yarn gauge, used to determine wraps per inch, a handy measure for handspun yarn:

The prototype I had him design was too long for my preference, however. The length of the shaft got in the way of the ball winding. And the handle, it turns out, doesn't really get used because you need your gripping hand closer to the yarn as you are winding it. So I sent him back out to the shop and he returned with a few of these:

Much shorter, but still with the yarn gauge. These are only just over six inches, which seems short for a nostepinne. But I like the way they tuck right into the palm:

These are turned down on his lathe, are made of real Vermont apple wood from 100 yards away, and are hand-rubbed with beeswax. And they will be for sale...

He's working on a spindle now.

No overdue blog post would be complete without some Milo, right? The other night my daughter and I were sitting at the table doing homework and spinning, respectively, when out of nowhere Milo ran in, jumped from either a chair or the table right up to the top of the half-assed bookcase in the dining room. Here he is, batting at the ever-present cobwebs:

Smug:

He quickly grew bored and decided to look for trouble.

To test gravity, he knocked three paperbacks to the floor and looked on with satisfaction.

He confirmed the quality of his work:

And then disappeared as quickly as he had come, to wreak destruction on some other part of the house:

So, that's about all there is around here. I leave you with a snapshot of a typical evening for three members of this family (that's Sophie the poodle in the middle there):

And a typical daytime shot of our front porch.

I hope the next time I post a picture looking outside, it contains greenery. Cross your fingers.

Comments

[Carole]

Great stop action shot of Milo! Thanks for checking in. I miss you when you don't post for a while.

[Panhandle Jane]

I always enjoy your posts. Hold on, spring is on the way!

[donna lee]

Isn't it nice to have a husband who is a woodworker? My husband made me new bobbins for my wheel and a swift. He wants to make a wheel (he likes a challenge and who am I to discourage that?). Of course, the easier he makes my craft, the more he benefits. Win-win situation.

Spring is coming. I know it even though there was frost on the car this morning.

[Joansie]

Very interesting post! I love the
nostepinne and will have to buy when when it becomes available. I'm trying to figure out if you belong to "Twist O Wool" in Middlebury. I occasionally attend the group (weather permitting) as I'm in the Burlington area. Spinning at Fletcher Free Library on the 18th?

[Heather]

Does hubby want some lovely NH maple? Our dear maple tree -- which my children dubbed Sid -- lost many beautiful tree-sized branches in the ice storm. I have a forest behind me, but this tree -- we love this tree! I hate to see "his" wood end up in the campfire. Maybe I'll need to take up woodworking, too. :)

[margene]

There you are! Impending poverty can suck the energy right out of you. Sending good thought!

[Helen]

You would think that a woodworker would understand the charms of unravelling a sweater, woudn't you? Interesting.

I'll have to buy one of his nostepinnes; it will make a change from the inside of a toilet roll which I currently use.

I remember a friend of my mother's who would unravel a sweater and knit a new one without soaking the kinks out first, and when the new one was finished and washed, her husband and two sons waited expectantly to see which of them it woud fit. Happy days.

[Manise]

I missed you. Great Milo action on the fly! Noste's for sale soon? Very nice.

[Carrie]

Impending poverty is a huge bummer, is it not? Your husband does nice work, as do you.
I guess if you find that cotton too splitty, you can always run it through your wheel and reply it.

[AnnaMarie]

Spindles, yay! I want a spindle. I only have three and two are *very* specialized so really do need more. I love it when you post but understand how busy you get. Sometimes I feel like a hamster on a wheel lately and things just slide but spring is here, even up in Northern Vermont so with longer days hopefully that will help.

[Marcia]

Love the nostepinne! You know they make plying from a center-pull ball MUCH easier, don't you?!

[valerie]

Love the nostepinne...when might they be for sale? and price?

Cats...yeah, mine likes to point out the cobwebs and dust motes too. She makes a point of doing it when we're watching, do drive it on home. As if she doesn't make most of the mess with the fur that flies off her!

[CindyCindy]

Hang on there!! I'm so glad you posted. I've missed you. Impending poverty sucks. I'm fending it off right now. Hope you will do the same. And, hubby woodworking? I'm not a bit surprised. Love the nostepinne.

[Emily]

I've been reading your blog for a while, but never commented. I love the nostepinne, but don't think I would ever use it. I would like a WPI measure thingie and if he ever decides on making a niddy noddy, preferable one that can travel (you know, one you can take apart) I would be super interested and prefer supporting someone like you (and your family) then buy it from a huge company. As I live in a non-spinning, non-knitting country (well, not really "non", but still) I have a hard time getting the stuff I need at decent prices.

Looking forward to see the sweater!

Greetings from Belgium

[Cynthia]

I wish my husband was a woodworker! I guess he's still a keeper, though.

That second nostepinne looks just right. Sign me up for one when they are available!

[Helen]

What wonderful shots of Milo! That one leaping from the bookcase is one that cat photographers wait YEARS to get!
Meanwhile... way to go on the nostepinne's! I agree with Cynthia, the second one looks perfect.

[Kristen]

I was just reading somewhere (VK?) about recycling thrift shop sweaters and liked the idea. I'm also thinking about recycling yarn from some of my handknits that I don't wear that often for one reason or other.
I don't spin, but the nostepinnes sure make pretty objets d'art.
Great Milo photo journalism!

[Cynthia]

Jess, I've missed you too! The nosteprinnes are beautiful, especially V.2. Clever that yarn gauge you slipped in there!!! Spindles? Did somebody say spindles?? Can't wait.

As for impending poverty, that sucks. These times are certainly depressing and can suck the joy out of a person in nothing flat. I'm grateful I still have a job, food to eat, roof over my head and family that love me. I'm richer than I know. Hang in there, Jess. There are a lot of people out here who love you.

[janna]

I think Milo was trying to find a book to read! ;-) One of my former cats, Charlotte, was quite a jumper, but neither of the current two is.

[Michelle]

So you'll be selling those tools hubs made in your shop soon??? : )

[Angie]

Thank you for posting the link about recycling sweaters. I've bought a couple of sweaters from Goodwill and gave up unraveling in frustration. I may give it another since I'm 1) frugal and 2) like the recycling idea.

Happy Easter to you and your family!

[kathy b]

how much will you ask for the nostes? Im interested

[DK]

Add me to the list for a nostepinne when they become available. Thanks for the info about recycling sweaters. I may have to give that a try.

[Diane]

Hang in there, things will get better. Like you, I'm practicing austerity these days while job hunting. It's a long haul but I refuse to give up. It sounds like your husband could do a brisk business in spinning tools.

[Susan]

Looks to me like there's a lot of talent in your family! And that's not even counting Milo. :-)

[Leila]

I love that your husband is so crafty...that he can make things. I also love the picture of Milo in mid-flight..what a great shot !

I'm sorry your distressed/depressed these days. It will get better because it always does.

Chin up ! Love you

[delia]

Hi Jess, I too read you faithfully but not so much of a commentor!!! I love the nostepinne and would definitely buy one when they are available. I hope better days are ahead for all of us.

[Rippedoffknitter]

Would love to see more of that woodwork, never tried a nøstepinne and a spindle sounds very tempting...
Enjoy spring, no signs of that around here!

[Robin]

Hubby did a wonderful job on the nostepinne. Very nice. Gotta love Milo!! He's a hoot!