As one who lives in a house full of antiques, my wheel is also an old one....non-mass produced, but made, by a husband, perhaps, for his wife...many different kinds of wood are used, and it is put gotether with wooden pegs rather than nails. It's a small castle wheel, and when I bought it, it was painted turquoise blue....YIKES! But, because I had spun on a castle I knew that all the parts were there. So, I bought it, stripped it and was lucky enough to find a fella in New Market, VA who worked on wheels, and gave it a 'fine tuning'.....it spins easily, and I love the feeling it gives me, of continuity with the all women who went before me ...spinning is a soporific thing to do, anyway, one of the things I love about it, and my mind can wander to all those other women who may have used this wheel. What I wouldn't give to know it's history. As a city dweller, I don't own sheep, but I get our state's agricultural bulletin, and there are always farmers who advertise fleece for sale....and they are really reasonable....maybe S15.00 for the whole fleece. Some are unwashed, some, the sheep wears a protective coat and this keeps the fleece clean, some are washed and carded by machine,etc. However you buy them, they are a great savings. Also, you might want to spin other fibers. We had a poodle and I carded the soft underhair with a little wool (for I didn't know the stability of dog hair), and knit my husband a pair of socks from his doggy! I've used other dogs, too.....think about the dogs of friends....could their pooch yield some soft underhair that you could use? If so, ask if you can go over and 'brush' their dog!!! They'll think you're nuts, but who cares? I really recommend THE SWEATER WORKSHOP......I just bought my second copy, slightly used, at Amazon for about $13.00, which was great..... Here's my wheel....I always take the cord off when I'm not in the spinning 'mode'...just relieve the 'tension' on those old parts!

Annie, looks good. I don't crochet, so want to knit mine but I have not decided the stitches. You are on the ball more than I am. Barb

Yesterday my husband and I drove around a little bit after work and found a street with sidewalks!! it is on the other side of the road, three houses over. I never saw them before because the sidewalks don't start untill a couple houses in (dugh! how stupid is that?) So we all went for a nice walk yesterday on the sidewalks and although it was dark I really enjoyed it! It just so happens that this street is in the next town over that does have sidewalks! Our town doesn't :( I was playing fetch (or trying to show Charley to fetch) and our other dog was on the other side of the yard playing fetch with my husband. When I picked up Charley's ball our other dog came running and Charley started a fight :( I was so upset. We looked our other dog over and he had a little scratch on his paw but seemed fine. I think Charley was afraid that Bud, our other boy, would take the ball when I threw it. We separated them in different portions of the house for the evening, because I was so upset. :( I hope that training helps Charley with this. I don't know his history very well (he is adopted) so I think he is nervous everything will be taken from him or he never got things before. He is dominant, but he listens to me and thinks I am alpha but he still sometimes picks fights with our other boy who is very submissive. So my plan is to sign up for training and then maybe move up to agility, if we can! Also we will be using the newly found sidewalk street as much as we can. We will be walking in the dark, but what can we do? I am going to call the training place today! I am pretty excited!

I went to the gym and did a step class. Towards the end of the routine, we add a second riser and I missed the step. My foot caught the step and I caught myself with my arms on the other side of the step. Quite embarrassing! At least I got over 10,000 steps. I felt my fitbit celebrate, but I forgot to look.