Slater Mill

Last week I was in Rhode Island to attend my daughter's gallery show at the Rhode Island School of Design.  I had always wanted to check out Slater Mill, the birthplace of the textile Industrial Revolution in the USA.  http://www.slatermill.org/My husband agreed to the outing and off we went to Pawtucket.  We took the tour of the 3 buildings that comprise the mill site and  really enjoyed learning about this piece of American history.  We started off in the house, amazed that over 2 people had lived here at one time.  Of course my favorite parts were the loom from the 1880's and the spinning area in the basement.

hackles used for flax that was grown on site

The spinning wheel was used to spin the flax grown on site and used to clothe the family.  The loom was also used to make the fabric used for the family's clothing.  The basement room contained the "kitchen" as well as a Great Wheel, another wheel from the 1800's as well as a skein winder.  The machinery shop was powered by a water wheel.  The textile mill was used to produce cotton fabric. Moses Brown was an abolitionist and did not use slave labor, instead child labor was used in the mill.  Here are some photos taken during my visit.  If you are interested in learning more about Slater Mill, I suggest you go to their website, or if you are in the area, take a tour of the mill

The machine shop was powered by a water wheel and was used to produce and repair machinery as well as to create wood bobbins

a cording machine

A cotton gin

Shuttle had a brass tip and was known to have impaled workers if it became loose from the loom.

Spinning again

 I am walking again, well sort of... I have a big cam walker boot on my left foot and I need a walker or crutches, but I am walking.  I still have minimal to a lot of pain from the Achilles tendon surgery.  I was a little over-zealous with my physical therapy exercises and I think that I pulled something.  I go back to the Doc tomorrow eve for them to check it out.  It is just a long and slow recovery and patience is not one of my greatest attributes.

I had tried spinning one footed on my Lendrum upright DT and was not very successful.  I became frustrated and decided to give myself additional time to heal.  This weekend I decided to give it a go on my Schacht Reeves Saxony wheel.  I love this wheel. I have the 30 inch cherry and it spins much better than I do!  It practically goes by itself although it does like to be oiled.

I pulled out some Twisted Sunshine Designs 50/50 Merino Silk, one of my favorite things to spin.  This wonderful top, combined with the Schacht's ease of spinning was just what I needed.  One footed spinning is just fine on this well balanced wheel and this fiber basically spins itself.  As I was waiting for my dh to finish in the kitchen I sat in the dining room spinning.  Here is a photo of the wheet and the fiber, to the right and a close up below.

fiber on the bobbin

Looks like I am back in business!  There is no better way to relax than to spin.  I can only do it for a limited time as I still have to keep my left let elevated but it is a start. 

Now I am also ready to add some more stock to twistedsun.etsy.com if you want you can check out photos of items that are not in the shop at the twistedsunshinedesigns flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/twistedsunshinedesigns/

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down time

Stitches is now a memory, it was a lot of fun.  Now it is time to regroup.  Right after Stitches I had to travel to a meeting ( for my day job) in the mid west, then it was on to Providence to visit number 2 daughter who is in college there.  She is studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and also taking language at Brown University.  I visited her from Friday until Sunday, which is the perfect amount of time.  We were still enjoying each other's company when I left.  As my mom used to say: "Fish and family both go bad after 3 days!"  It was fun going to her studio for the Senior Studio open house, shopping, and having a real casual dinner party for her friends on Saturday night.  They are a great bunch of creative young adults and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.  No photos though, my daughter hates when I take photos.  Shortly after I returned home, I had to have foot and ankle surgery so now I am off of work and taking it easy with my foot elevated and scooting around on my knee scooter, shown in the photo.
Presently, I am suffering though spinning and dyeing withdrawl.  I miss my wheels, but I have taken out one of the spindles and started working on some beautiful yak and silk natural dyed roving that I have had in my stash for ages.  I am also finishing up some projects,  I finished the seed stitch cowl done in super chunky Twisted Sunshine merino/alpaca/silk, the baby kimono made of handspun and a crazy cowl made out of art yarns.  Photos to follow....

News flash.....I have joined the Phat Fiber crew and will soon be announcing the reopening of my etsy shop and a giveaway contest.  I will also be announcing the winner of the Stitches give away, once I am nimble enough to access the contest info.  Unfortunately, I placed it where I can not access in my present condition. 

.;"*";. Please sign up to be a follower of this blog and you will receive an entry in the yet to be announced contest which will be a fiber give away.  Always feel free to leave comments .;"*";.

STITCHES!!!

Just got back from Stitches and had a blast!  It was fun meeting up with old friends and making new friends.  Speaking of friends, Twisted Sunshine has the best friends ever!  Almost all of the Twisted Sunshine Rays were there.  Tanglebella was at Stitches and in the booth every day.  Karen, Maylene, Brenda, Kristina, Cindy, Maughra, Barbara, Virginia and Gabrielle all helped out.  It was tremendous.  I have a busy week ahead, traveling for my "day" job and then visiting my daughter who is in school in New England.  When I get back I will be reopening and updating my shop and making plans for the spring and summer shows.  In the meantime, here are some photos from the booth:

new logo

business card front 2 email
Originally uploaded by twisted sunshine designs

Check it out, our new logo created by my younger daughter.

Stitches 2011

I have been meaning to post photos of our beautiful fibers that will be featured in our Stitches booth, but time sneaked up on me once again.  Most of our spinning fibers contain silk, this gives the fibers extra sheen, depth of color and just feels real nice. We will have Kundert and Louet spindles, yarns and more.  I hope you can come by and say HI.  We will be in booth 1146 and will have specials running throughout the show.  We will be offering discounts on Thursday nights and drawings that you can enter.  I will bring one of my wheels but probably will not get much spinning time in. In the booth we will have drop spindle demos.  I am excited and a bit nervous, this is one of the biggest yarns shows and is guaranteed to be fun for all.  Ravelry will be there. 

2011 is here!

I have been neglecting the blog, seems to be a theme with me and the blog.  Waiting for something great to write about and then never get around to it.  The holidays were fun, had both of my girls with me and that is always (well maybe not always!) great.  Younger one is back at school to finish her senior year.  Where did the time go?

 On the knitting/ spinning front... Both the Monday and Thursday night groups are back in full swing. A few of us are thinking of starting a Saturday coffee, treat and knit group.  We usually end up talking more than anything else.  I made a shawl that I call my mistake shawl during our talkative knitting time.  I kept on loosing count and then just let the shawl take over.  Every mistake represents a fun conversation and the shawl looks nice, no one notices the mistakes unless they look real close and they don't belong that close to me!

 Last weekend we had a fun outing to a A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland.  They had a book signing with Ysolda and Cookie A.  Ysolda opened up the knitting with a discussion about her patterns.  Her patterns come in a wide variety of sizes, and there is something for everyone.  Cookie A is, of course, known for her sock books.  Here is a picture of my friends with Cookie A and Ysolda------------->

                                                                 And this is me with Ysolda:

Right now I am up to my eyeballs in fiber and dye, getting ready for Stitches West in February.  My passion is silk and silk blends.  Come visit for some of the shiny stuff.  Twisted Sunshine will be in Booth 1146.  Special treats for blog followers and repeat customers.  We have a wonderful selection of hand dyed spinning fibers, yarns and handspun.  We will also have spindles, stitch markers, earrings and project bags.  My friend Karen has challenged me to come up with the perfect red and I have been working on it.  If you see an abundance of red in the booth you know why.  Did have a bit of an accident today, dropped a container of dye powder on the floor of my utility room - what a mess.  Powder everywhere, just missed it getting in the hamper.  I was able to salvage a bit, then I swept up with a scoop I made our of a card, then vacuumed, then mopped, then used rags.  I hope never to do that again.
In addition to the reds I have been experimenting with overdyeing and using black.  I hope to post some pictures this weekend.  Now off to measure out fiber for tomorrow's dying extravaganza