More construction projects

A couple of weeks ago I stopped at the local home design store to ask if they knew anyone who could do small construction projects on a house.  They gave me 2 names and I got a hold of one of the guys.

 So far, going to the design center was the best thing to do.  We got a guy who has a great work ethic, cleans up after himself, shows up on time, and knows how to do what I need him to do.  I am pretty pleased.  It isn't cheap, but he is $25 an hour cheaper than the guys who work for the design center. 

We now have a

1.front entry walk- in closet framed in

2. bathroom to be framed in with a hall linen closet 

3. the entire North West wall of the first floor has another wall right next to the old wall (now we have 7.5" thick walls) 

4. the back wall of the living room is closed up better

5.  He took out and covered a window in the kitchen, 2 windows in the front entry, and a window that was in where the bathroom is going to be. 

All of that was done this week.  I will call him back when our doors and windows come in (should be 2 weeks). 
Total, (including materials) the bill is $1,200.  We are paying cash for these projects, so it takes a little while to get it all done.  We start and stop for a bit and then start again.  Maybe I will have sheet rock before next year.   

Old quilts

Dear's mother gave me the quilt of Dear's paternal grandmother.  It appears it was made from worn men's clothing, mostly suits.  It was in pretty rough shape. 
1. I took off all of the ties and the backing. 
2. I removed the wool batting and tossed everything but the top. 
3. I don't think it had been washed in 100 years.  I washed the top by hand in the kitchen sink a few times and rinse a bunch more, until the water was clear (did I say it was dirty). 
4. It is now hanging on the clothesline to dry and for the sun to kill what washing did not. 
5.On the clothesline, I inspected it for holes and found 4 very small ones that will need some kind of creative patching. 
6.Once it is dry it will get new wool guts and a new backing.

Wool

Recently I purchased some wool from etsy.  It was a 10 pack of 1 ounce each from different breeds of sheep.  There was a discussion on ravelry about how much you can spin from 800 grams of wool and I weighed in on the different masses of wool and that it would be impossible for anyone to estimate how much a perfect stranger who is not an experienced spinner would be able to spin from 800 grams and it would be impossible to judge for even me (I tend to know how much yardage I get from merino) because the person in question did not know the breed of sheep.  Some people did not think the breed would make any difference, so here is a photo of 4 of the tops I received to illustrate this fact.

From left to right we have one ounce each of: Shetland, Merino, Falkland, and Gotland.
There are other properties of these wools that will determine how much yardage you can obtain.  The most yardage will be from the merino because it will spin up the finest and next would be the Falkland.  The Shetland is very airy but also coarse, so it would be third and make a nice woolen yarn.  It too can be spun pretty fine.  Now the Gotland is very dense.  Trust me, it has the same mass as the Shetland.  The gotland can be spun fine if you have patience, but it will want to be spun thicker than any of the others and because of the density, there just is not enough fiber, no matter how fine, to come close to the merino.  I also doubt it would be even 2/3 of the Shetland yardage.
Having never worked with the Gotland, I would guess that it would make a great carpet yarn.  It appears to have a very long staple (length of the individual fibers) and very little crimp.

New Wheel

I stopped off at a semi local spinnery this weekend to pick up a used Schacht-Reeves 30" wheel in Ash.  I had been looking for one and since this one was barley used, less than a year old, it was perfect. 

I am amazed at how nice the singles are turning out.  The extra twist this wheel adds makes a much nicer lace than my Joy.

I still have my Joy, though.  It is a great wheel for travelling and it really does make a nice yarn, but this is so much nicer.

Sammy Six Toes

Sammy Six Toes showed up at our house last week.  She is a polydactyl cat (6 toes on each of her front feet).  She also has 5 toes on each of her back feet.