The Lincoln Spinning Members met at La Placita on May 9th for our regular monthly meeting. Elaine Brennan had volunteered to help each of us make a beaded amulet bag (from her pattern published in Spinoff Dec. 2000). We brought either a finely spun thread we had made or something we thought we would like to have our bag made out of. We all settled down around the table with our fine yarns, beads and knitting needles or crochet hooks and got to work. Several hours later, after much giggling and great conversation, each of us had made a beautiful amulet bag. They are wonderful for many things. You can put small presents in them, put potpourri in a net bag inside them or for the spinners it is a beautiful way to hang your oil bottle from your spinning wheel. Thank you Elaine for showing all of us how to make a unique and beautiful item. What wonderful gifts they will make.
Ralph and Rosalie are settled in their new home in Las Cruces. The address is 2166 Frontier Drive, Las Cruces NM 88011. I am sure they would all like to hear from all of you. Their e-mail addresses remain the same or you can use the ones on the contact list on the website. I have the shop open everyday except Wednesdays. I generally open about 10am and am open until about 4:30pm. The not so exact hours are because sometimes I am out back washing or dyeing wool with the help of my husband Gene. So if you don’t find me in the shop, look out back and see if I am busy washing wool.
The love of my life and I just finished washing our first wool on our own without Ralph the expert there to supervise. When we made the last trip to Colorado, Gene brought the burner to his turkey cooker back with us. Wow!!! did that make a difference in how much wool we could wash in very little time. I had about 60 skeins of wool (in the grease) that needed to be washed – Ralph and I had been doing a lot of spinning. The propane burner on the turkey cooker worked very well in heating the water to the correct temperature in a hurry. I must admit – had we been dressed in black with pointed hats – we would have looked very suspicious circling the pot in the back yard. But, I have to say, doing the washing outside is much better than doing it inside. No mess and no smell!!!! Anyway, a few hours later and all the wool was washed and hanging on the dog’s pen. Bruno thought we were decorating his pen just for him.
My next major job in the shop is to sort all the beautiful wool Ralph has spun and get it ready to sell. I have boxes and boxes of balls of wool. They are either natural colors or they are dyed with all natural plant dyes made from local plants or woods. If you are in the area please drop by and I will let you go through the boxes. If your aren’t, either e-mail me or call and I will be happy to take digital photos of the wools and send them to you. The price on these beautiful wools is $1.50 per ounce and most balls weigh in at between 3 and 5 ounces. For some of the speciality yarns, llama, alpaca etc, the prices are slightly higher. Contact me for information.
Lincoln Spinning Bee members (visitors are always welcome) will be meeting again on June 13th. We have been talking about getting together on a Sunday afternoon so look for more information as it is available.
Happy spinning and weaving to all!!!