Fiber Frenzy and winners!

In honor of the switch to Daylight Saving Time, I have a new verse to my feeding song:

I’m feeding in the dark.

I’m feeding in the dark.

What a gloomy old feeling,

Where’s Noah and his ark?

It’s hardly a lark

Not a walk in the park,

I’m feeding, I’m feeding in the dark!

I’m in the count-down-to-Fiber Market day frenzy. I’ve started winding off yarn into smaller skeins for dyeing. As they come from the supplier, they are in 8 oz. +/- skeins, and are too fat for all the dye to penetrate. I was trying to figure out a way to somewhat accurately measure ounces or yards, and remembered someone’s tip about using a fishing line counter ($12.99 at Bi-Mart). I put the swift onto the loom so that the skein was vertical, hooked the line counter to the distaff of my spinning wheel (click for big) and then wound it onto an antique clock reel. Linda says I Macgyvered it. (man, I thought I'd cleaned up...)

Now I just need to figure out a way to use the spinning wheel to power the clock reel and I’ll be in business!! Next time, I think I’ll just order the yarn on cones, and wind them off in ounces instead.

In my twitterpated state when I realized that I had been blogging for a year, I didn’t take time to reflect on what’s happened in my life in that time, and there’s been a lot:

• Probably the biggest thing is that I had both knees replaced. Even though it was difficult, and not pleasant, I’m very, very glad that I was able to do it. I am no longer in constant pain. It’s funny – you never realize how pain rules your life until you don’t have it any more.
• I’ve made a number of decisions about the farm, such as no keeping turkeys or pigs over the winter. I’ve also decided that someone’s brain must have left the building when I decided where to put the barn. It’s at the bottom of the hill, so guess where all the water goes? I will be putting up a new barn, on higher ground this year. The old barn will become hay storage, initially, and then repurposed as an equipment shed, or dye house (depending on electricity and water access). Needless to say, there will be French drains installed around it.
• I’ve made some new acquaintances through my blog, all of whom I value and enjoy. I’ve also been able to keep up with old friends through blogging. Everyone has such different lives, and yet we all have at least one thing in common with one another. It’s a form of technology that I’m glad that I embraced, luddite that I am. 

Drum roll please! The two winners of my anniversary contest are: Sharon and Mim! While I know that neither of them really need any more fiber, I’m glad they are getting some of mine!

Thanks to everyone who responded, and thanks to all who follow my perambulations, however erratic!