Kindle Case

With temperatures around 100, I've been forced into my house cave, i.e., the basement. Ooh, can we start that? Let's call basements "house caves" from now on. Anyway, as you know in my house cave is a craft bunker, where it is a lovely 70 degrees. I've been wanting to make a cover for my kindle for a long time, because the one it came with was totally ineffectual. It had no mechanism for actually holding the kindle in the cover. Dur.

I used this tutorial, which is intended for an iPad, so I did change the measurements. I also added a third layer of batting.

It is actually quite sturdy, and I would totally put it in a bag and not worry about anything happening to the kindle.

And yes, I have a Kindle 1, which I got only 3 years ago, but makes it practically ancient in technology years. It works fine though, so screw you planned obsolescence!

From Sheep to Yarn

Every week I think to myself, "I should really take a break from the library and read some of the books I actually own." And then I go check out 12 books, again. Recently I stopped worrying about this, because reading is fun for me, and it's dumb to make arbitrary rules about hobbies. So what does this have to do with spinning? Well, for about two years I put off spinning because "I didn't need another hobby." Then this May, I finally decided that that was a dumb arbitrary rule, and bought a spindle and some fiber at Maryland Sheep & Wool. I already have enough dumb rules in my life, like "show up for work on time."

I bought 4 oz. of cheap-o fiber as practice, to get a feel for the spindle before moving on to the good stuff. It's "wool", the scratchiest, bumpiest wool imaginable. I'm glad I started with it though, because I got a lot of practice pulling out slubs and making joins.

I wound my singles onto a single bobbin at first, one I also got at Sheep and Wool (for $1.50!). It is from Cedar Throwing Mills in Scranton, PA.

I split the singles onto 3 bobbins, by weight, which turned out not to be a great decision because my single got progressively thinner as I spun. The majority of the yarn is 3-ply, and the leftovers were navajo plied, resulting in about 220 yards of yarn.

About halfway through the process I got a new spindle: a 1.9 oz. Golding Tsunami. I LOVE it and would highly recommend Golding. (Take a look at their spinning wheels - one of these actually costs more than my car did.)

Now I am on to my second project, some BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester, which unfortunately does not actually have a blue face) from Misty Mountain Farm.