Sticks and spindles

After I finished spindling what I think is the final color needed for my future Fair Isle tam, I made myself face the fact that knitting must resume if Christmas gifts are to be finished. On Sabbath we drove into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington to spend the afternoon with some friends of ours who were horse camping there for the holiday weekend, so I grabbed my pre-measured and wound balls of Plymouth Encore Sock, my new Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson, and knitted on the way. After a couple of false starts to get my mind wrapped back around the method of doing two-at-a-time on Magic Loop, I made satisfying progress before the winding road overcame my motion-challenged inner ear:This should make a good travel project for our trip to Kansas for my grandmother's 100th birthday. But of course, one must always have a back-up project - and it doesn't have to be knitting.

That's where this wee wonder will fill in:
It's a tiny Turkish spindle with an osage orange shaft and lignium vitae whorls from Threadsthrutime, and it really is tiny! Here it is with my medium Turkish "Paisley" and a Boulderneigh business card, to give you another idea of its size:
My spalted tamarin/ebony medium Turkish spindle broke because of a weakness in the spalted wood. Barbara was absolutely wonderful about it, and I decided to get a tiny Turkish as a replacement. It arrived while we were gone on Saturday. I'm "test driving" it with some of Braveheart's roving; it will be interesting to see just how much fiber it can hold.
Oh, and this beautiful "Purple Passion" dymondwood orifice hook with WPI gauge might just have accompanied the wee spindle . . . wouldn't have wanted it to get lonely on the long trip from Oklahoma, after all!

On Sunday we drove to Sisters, OR to pick up a trailer-load of second cutting orchard grass.

Although there really wasn't anything I could do to help, Rick wanted my company, so the socks got some more attention:

Today he and Brian headed back for one more load, while I stayed home to prepare the house and guest bed for company. My mom arrives tomorrow, and Brian's favorite person follows on Thursday.

That's it for now from . . .