What's going on!!!

Pardon our dust! LOL!
Dale and I took the weekend off to work on getting my little spinning shop re-organized. My little shop is in our converted garage......we weren't using it for anything but storage anyway! :)

 Dale,  made me a few storage bins to tidy the place up a bit.......we still need to make two more to replace the plastic drawer organizer's I am currently using. I actually have more room! YEAH!

It has taken him away from making spindles .............sorry! :(  That is why we have been a little slow this last week getting them out and listed. We are working on more spindles and will hold off making the last two storage bins for a little while.....not too long though.

 I have been spending the last few days finding new places to put things. I even re-organize my personal book shelf...(not shown in photos). While getting the books taken down I fell off  my two step ladder and hurt my arm. How do you fall off a two step ladder? I had been using the first step and must have absentmindedly stepped up on the 2nd step, which I rarely do anymore. I stepped down as though I was on the first step with a heavy shelf in my hands and stumbled backwards into my drumcarder table. I am just glad the 2 cats and my Yorkshire Terrier which had been under foot all day, were no where to be seen when I fell or the shelf would have hurt one of them. I have a lump on my arm just below my elbow on the bony part of my arm......which rest on the table when you type on a keyboard........making it uncomfortable to type.  :(

Here are pictures so you can see what we have been doing lately........I did just post a few tiny spindles and will be posting some orifice hooks and more fiber as soon as I get pictures taken. Click on photos to see bigger and more detail if interested.......


Storage bins below.....skeins above ...........














Wire store rack for more fiber and finished items and the dye cabinet and place for small parts. .                                                                           



We move around the corner past the dye cabinet to the drumcarder table..............



                                                            
Drumcarder table and drumcarder.......more drawers and .......oops! That wasn't supposed to be in the photo. Ignore the Zuca cart......




Moving past the drumcarder table we have one of those nasty little plastic drawer things that needs to be replaced. It is in front of the spinning stool ....and more storage bins along with books  for sale.

Another photo of the small storage bins, book shelf........and the second ugly plastic drawer organizer that needs to be replaced......
So there you have it the newly re-modeled Threads thru Time store display....... LOL!

What's new in the shop!!

We have had several request for Russian support spindles.....Dale has no time so I asked Joshua (our son) if he would be interested in making some. Joshua makes the 3 in 1 tool and some of the orifice hooks. Joshua was about 13 years old when I began spinning......I began going to a group spin - in to learn how to spin. Joshua was bored and some of the other ladies were bringing there kids about the same age and younger so I brought Josh along. While I was learning how to use a wool picker one of the ladies asked Josh if he would like to learn how to spin, his comment was, I already know how! Now this peeked my curiosity so I went up behind to watch what he would do........he sat down at my wheel and began spinning....the little stink had been practicing on my wheel when I wasn't looking. I wondered why my spinning sometimes looked pretty good and other times when I was spinning it looked horrible. He was spinning better then me!!! He took to the drop spindle pretty fast also.......his favorite thing to spin was frog hair! He quit spinning for awhile but is once again working on mastering the support spindle. So if you have any advise for him ...please send it my way and I will pass it on to him........    Here is one of his new Support spindles and bowl he recently made and sold........

He  will be working in the barn tonight to make more........

Spindles.....

I just posted 7 tiny spindles and 3 medium spindles will have more mediums and large spindles to post in a day or two. I will also be posting more fibers and finished yarns......also some more stick shuttles in dymondwood and some tapestry bobbins.

We have a large yard 1-1/2 acres....so we took the time to mow this weekend and then it rained......looks like it was never mowed at all and we didn't even get to weed eat..... Argh!

Also, my printer went kapoot and we had to replace it along with the software to make the printer and computer talk to each other ....so now the computer is acting funny......good grief!!

The cats want feed, the dog wants attention, and I'm pooped!

Life happens sometimes and it can't be helped

Life just happens sometimes........

If you have been following this blog, then you will know back in February we all three came down with a bad virus at the same time. You may not know that that was the same time Oklahoma was socked with a record breaking snow fall. The temps stayed below freezing for over a week..... Now here we were all three sick, the animals still needed feed, ice had to be broken and water carried.....we muddled through some how. We did however forget all about the 2 Koi  fish ponds........

The pipes broke on the biggest pond and unknown to us the water emptied out of the pond. This is a big pond Dale and Josh dug it by hand, it is 4 foot deep in some places by 20 foot wide and 12 foot across. All but about a foot of water drained out of this pond during the worst part of winter and we were all too sick to notice. Then of course I had my hernia surgery and Mom came to stay for several months while she had surgery. The Koi in this pond were huge and about 16 years old..........we lost them all...it still makes me sick to think about it. The little pond was a smaller pond and the first one we dug by hand also. It is about 2-1/2 foot deep and 7 foot across one way and 5 foot the other way. We cemented it when we made it so we wouldn't have to line the pond, well it froze and developed a few cracks. Then a 5 foot tall crane decided to have lunch on my goldfish that had survived the winter, while the water level was low in the big pond.

Where is all this leading too you are wondering!? Well Dale has a full time job working days at Holly refinery in Tulsa, he is a draftsman only they don't call them that anymore.....he's a pipe designer. He comes home we have dinner and then he goes out to the barn to work on spindles for 2 hours. He comes in the house and then we work on packing and shipping for another 2 hours before he takes a showers and goes to bed. I give spinning lessons, answer the phone, take care of critters, take photos, answer a bazillion emails, and take care of the general work associated with a home business, as well as housework, LOL! Sometimes on the weekend we work on stuff in the yard like mowing, gardening, weeding, and now repairing the fish ponds. All of this adds up over time and we are WAY behind on making spindles and getting them listed for this we apologize but ...life just sometimes happens. We did finally get the little pond lined and rescued 10 surviving goldfish. You can see the finished product here-------------->



We would also like to Thank all of you for being so patient and for all the wonderful comments I have seen on various blogs, chat groups and especially Ravelry. We also want to Thank all of the stores that have asked to carry our spindles both here in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia. We wish we could accommodate all of you but there just isn't enough of us to go around and as I mentioned ....Life happens sometimes. We are both in our mid 50's and there are no plans in the works to retire or change our ways.....so life will just have to happen and we will continue to muddle through as we always have.......

I have and will be listing spindles mostly on the weekends and I sometimes just don't/can't find the time to let you know in advance so watch for new listings on the weekends for wood items. I have been adding Ashland Bay fibers to etsy as I get the photos taken and will continue to do so.... I also carry Louet spinning wheels and drumcarders, Majacraft wheels and Kromski wheels... I don't always have a full inventory but can drop ship to anywhere in the USA if your in the market drop me a email and we can talk.

More, More and More

I just listed 20 medium and tiny dymondwood spindles.....go check them out when you get a chance. I also listed more of the fat tailed inkle pick up sticks as well as some mini inkle shuttles. There is one new stick shuttle in a very interesting coloway...one side is pink the other side is turquoise. I doubt that will be repeated but who knows Dale is always surprising me. I am getting ready to photograph and list 11 out of 22 pickup stick or shed sticks.

 One of our customers wrote in  saying;
Beautiful! The large eye on this stick makes it easy to do "bows" and other rigid heddle patterns with large supplementary wefts such as in the Jane Patrick and Betty Lynn Davenport books. ....that they were perfect for making bows and other pick up patterns in the Betty Davenport and other ridged heddle books.

Here is a preview of the shuttles......

I hope you get a chance to have a look at some of the new items being listed.....

Happy Spinning and Weaving.......

New spindles up tonight!

Finally things are getting back to normal, we took a few days off from making spindles to just rest and work a little in the yard.....it needs more work. More on that later..........

I will be listing several dymondwood spindles later tonight in the medium and tiny sizes. I just have to email everyone that they are coming, finish getting them weighed and labeled, photograped and and then I can list them. I think there are 11 of each size.........
Thanks!

Whew!!! What a year!!

Well if you have been keeping up with the blogs then you know how our year has been so far. To try to give you the short version......we all three, at the same time, came down with a virus of some kind the first of February, it knocked us down for 2 weeks. Then my doctor decided I had a hernia after all and sent me to another doctor who promptly removed it for me. So now I can't lift, push, move, cough, drive, etc. for several months according to the doctor in charge.
 Then the first part of March, my mom who still lives in that tiny town I grew up in, had to come to Tulsa (12 miles from Sapulpa) to see her thyroid doctor. The doctor decided the thing was growing and it needed to be removed. (That little town I grew up in is a 2 hour drive from our house), so it was decided she would stay at our house for a couple of weeks while she has surgery.
So we had Dale drive us to the thyroid doctor (I couldn't drive yet so Dale had to take off work)  test were set up and the surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks out. During one of the test a gurgle was detected in a neck vein......thyroid surgery was cancelled. We then had to go to a heart doctor which meant multiple labs, stress testing, angiograms (where they run a tube up your leg to look at your veins). Most of this time I couldn't/shouldn't be driving, Dale was having to take off work from his day job to take us to all these appointments both hers and mine. He was also having to do most of the work around the house.....Mom did what she could until the doctor finally told me I could drive and do a little light work around the house. When all the heart doctor found was a small shrinkage in one of her veins the thyroid surgery was re-scheduled for the end of April. (Remember she came here in early March) More lab work, pre-op testing, my sisters came down, mom had her surgery and all went well. My sisters went home, mom is on the mend and has decided its time to go home she has things she needs to do and get settled back in before she returns to work on the 16th of this month.......Mom is 79 years young, she will be 80 in September.  (That was the short version!!)

Sooooo all of this has put us behind on spindle making, listing items on etsy, and stuff in general. Life is slowly beginning to get back to 'normal' and we are making spindles again......slowly but we are getting there.
 At least we were until Dale's saw broke and we had to wait for a replacement part. Dale decided to just go buy a small saw and use it for back up in case his monster saw broke again. So the part arrived the saw is fixed. I had just listed some "regular' exotic wood spindles before the saw broke. I did not have time to blog about them at the time,  there are a few left in various weights. Dale says he should have several medium and tiny dymodwood (the colorful ones) for me to list in a day or two so watch for those. I have tons of fiber I need to get photographed and listed, some books, and much more....stay tuned folks.
Whew! What a year it has been and it ain't over yet!!