Spinning wheel transaction complete

As I write this, the Ashford wheel is in my car. I'm completely thrilled. It's smaller and more portable than I imagined it would be, which is a good thing.

It's obvious this is an older model Ashford that although it hasn't spun much wool, it may have spent its life as a decorative piece and probably has been through a few moves. The treadle is missing a bit of veneer, for example. But overall it looks in great condition. I didn't look it over that closely because even if it's missing a part, and I don't believe it is, it's still a bargain at $50. The woman told me it had a few hours on it and that she bought it as a student (and she's older than me, so unless she went to school recently...). She's very happy it's going to a good home and so am I! She even gave me the wool she never finished spinning so I have something to start with.

On the sewing front, I got cracking on a few Christmas presents last night by tracing off the patterns and cutting out one of them. My top secret list of handmade Christmas presents is:

• ______ _____ and ___ for knitting meetup gift exchange - done


• _____ ____ and ___ for sewing guild neighborhood group gift exchange - partially complete


• _____ for ______ - done


• ______ for ___ - partially done


• _____ for _____ - pattern traced


• ______ for ___ - fabric cut out

And I'm still knitting a baby gift, but it doesn't have to be done for Christmas and wouldn't be anyway. I work on it while watching TV or during the knitting meetups.

December is going to be very busy.

Oh my

This was offered today on our workplace "flea market" for $50. Ashford spinning wheel. With accessories. Never used.

Yes...$50.



Like I need another hobby. But how could I pass it up? And it wasn't me who saw the ad, it was my husband. He remembered the brand of wheel from the lamb and wool festival we went to. He IM'd me about it.

[14:15] DH: (sends URL to look at ad)
[14:17] me: wow - super price!
[14:17] DH: that's what I thought
[14:17] DH: if you're interested in one...
[14:17] me: hmmmm
[14:17] me: would be kinda cool
[14:18] me: not sure where I'd put it
[14:18] DH: just thought I'd let you know. There's lots of other stuff on the Flea Market today
[14:21] me: I think I want it...

Took me all of 4 minutes to think about it!

I called and it was still available. I left a message with his wife. Perhaps I'll be trying my hand at spinning tomorrow night.

Nov 29 update: After a voicemail message that apparently went nowhere (or to someone else's phone) and an email to the wife, she called me back. She'll bring the wheel tomorrow. I can't believe she's selling this wheel so cheaply. I almost feel like I should offer more money. Almost. She was pleased that I'm excited about it and plan to use it. I am excited about it. What an early Christmas present!!

It's about time

LED Christmas lights! Hooray! I can decorate the house with lights for less energy and for much cheaper than before.



They're made by Phillips. They're on sale right now at Target for about $10 for a 20ft strand of 60 lights. Yes, they're more expensive than the regular energy guzzling kind, but I'll feel better about lighting up the house every night.

Now if they'd just come out with an affordable fiber optic-lit Christmas tree that was larger, had sturdy branches for ornaments and was not so gaudy looking, I could replace my 20 year old 4ft artificial tree.

It's a secret

I can't show what I've been making because I'm working on gifts. I'll have to remember to take pictures before I wrap them up so that I can show pictures after Christmas. I always enjoy making gifts and I hope the recipients like handmade items as well. Unfortunately it drives me batty at this time of year because I try to do too much. And every year I vow to start those Christmas presents early but it never happens.

Well I'm still not buying the yarn...

I just saw that Joanns changed back to 10% off of 8 skeins or more. But the free shipping coupon expired yesterday. And why was I even looking at Joanns after my last, ranting post? Well, they just emailed me coupons for 50% off of one item and I was curious if it would mean 50% off of all 15 skeins or one skein. It's off only one. Ok, I still don't need to buy that yarn and I must stop thinking about it.

Joanns - you lose!

Yesterday I was very close to buying the yarn to make that coat, despite my list of of why I don't need to buy it. In a moment of weakness, I put the yarn in my online shopping cart and entered my free shipping coupon and...wait a minute. The total came up $3.00 more than the day before when I put the yarn in the shopping cart. What??? Then I realized that Joanns changed their offer! Earlier in the week they offered an additional 10% off for orders of more than 8 skeins. Yesterday they changed it to 5% off. My email from them, which announced the sale, also said 10% off for more than 8 skeins. I realize it's only a $3.00 difference but it's because they changed their offer that I will not buy the yarn. I suppose if I really, really wanted this yarn, I would call them to complain and insist they give me the 10% deal, but I took this as a sign to not buy the yarn.

It's also another reason why I dislike Joanns. Thankfully they're not the only fabric store in town and certainly not the only one on the internet. Thank goodness. Why do I dislike Joanns? Oh, let me count the ways:

• They don't carry much, if any, quality fashion or quilting fabric. If you want cheap, garishly printed fleece, Joanns is the place.
• Their stores are almost always a mess and fabric gets trampled on and dirty
• The manager at my local store is a awful - I've witnessed her chew out employees and she complains about stuff to customers
• They hire employees who don't sew and can't help customers
• They measure and cut fabric poorly, sometimes resulting in pieces that are short of what you asked for and paid for
• Their store policies prevent employees from doing anything nice that will ensure repeat business. I recently bought some end-of-the-bolt sale fabric which was in two pieces. One piece was 2 7/8 yards and the other piece was just about a yard. I was charged full price for the 1 yard AND the additional 4 inches on the piece. A good fabric store might give me an additional discount for that remnant, not charge me for 1.11 yards. Sheesh.
• They stock a lot of cheap, holiday decorating crap
• They've started to carry their own line of notions, which look to be inferior in quality
• It takes forever for them to put out the new patterns
• Their trim selection is pathetic
• They discriminate based on location - depending on where you live, you get either a 40% or 50% coupon in your mailer. I get 40%.

The only good thing about them are their pattern sales and the coupon. I've used those coupons to buy most of my Gingher scissors, well at least the scissors they have in stock, which aren't many. I wait for pattern sales to buy Vogue, Simplicity, McCalls and Butterick patterns. They also carry Burda for 50% off. But if I need thread or zippers or binding tape, I'd rather go to Hancock's.

So you lose, Joanns and another store will win because the $54 (and not $57) I was going to spend at your store will be spent on yarn somewhere else.

To knit or not to knit

When the Vogue Knitting Fall 2005 issue came out this coat caught my eye:



I think it caught my eye because it's white and reminds me a bit of this jacket that I sewed because they both have the same "nubbiness":



I didn't seriously think about making the coat for a number of reasons:

• I have lots of yarn projects already
• I don't want my yarn stash to approach my ridiculously huge fabric stash
• I have lots of wool fabric from the above mentioned fabric stash suitable for any number of coats, why should I knit one?
• I have a long gray sweater "coat" I bought and don't wear all that often
• It will take a long time to knit
• A size large takes 15 100 gram balls of Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick, so $6 x 15 = 90 - I could make a nice sweater out of better yarn for that money
• I'm not sure I need another coat

And then Joanns had to go and put the yarn on sale, with free shipping. $3.60 a ball is much more enticing. I was thinking about making it in this reddish brown color that has bits of other colors in it:

What to do. What to do...