Cheryl Katz

It’s here, it’s here, it’s here! My shiny-new (to me, anyway) Louet S-10 spinning wheel arrived today while I was at home gathering up salad fixings for lunch back at the office. I could probably sleep comfortably in the box – the seller (it’s second owner) shipped it fully assembled just out of consideration for my convenience.

I am fully stoked, and pictures will most certainly ensue.

Never fear, I still have plans afoot to spin that mile of yarn on the Cantankerous Ol’ Dude. I’ll just… have bigger and better things to ply on.

My kid can make all of the following sounds: Oh, ba, and ma. It is my goal to try to get her to make those sounds in sequence. I told her if she did it I might even vote for Obama, but no promises.

Sami’s been sleeping through the night. More or less. Spending the weekend at my in-laws’ place did not go well in terms of sleep (for me, and hence, for everyone in the house.) Sami at best woke up several times in the night to be settled back down in her pack ‘n’ play, and at worst, cried for hours on end, every ten minutes until she completely exhausted herself.

I guess she was just so goshdarned happy to see her own bed when we returned home on Monday evening, because it’s been relatively smooth sailing since then (knock wood.) We’ve got her set up with a humidifier to counteract the horrid dryness that’s been interrupting her sleep for the past few weeks, and a space heater to heat up the air after the humidifier cools it a little too much. Husband has also been handling the night wakings, which I feel are waning because waking and stirring at night are not achieving her desired goals of getting Mom to be a sucker and give her mid-night nursing. I wonder when it will be safe for me to do the night-time parenting again.

It’s all progress, and she wakes up so happy and goes on to have such productive days.

This morning we had a series of temper tantrums of proportions loud enough to wake our (deaf) dog. Did you know that putting pants on is tantamount to torture? Also, did you know that sweatshirts are evil, and riding in the car is beyond consideration? Well, they are. And if those things should happen to you, Sami says you should scream bloody murder, just like she did.

I watched the video on YouTube entitled “Hillary Clinton Crying”.

Before seeing it, I was irritated, thinking that JUST what we needed was for the Female Candidate to pull the Female Card and start acting like a stereotype.

That said, when I watched the video, and heard what she said, I felt angry that it’s being billed as crying. It would be fair to say that she was choked up, but not to say that she was crying. Also, if every candidate doesn’t feel so strongly about change in this country as to get choked up at the idea of not accomplishing anything, then what are they running for?

In completely other news, I received a spam trackback to my last post. It was caught by Wordpress’s spam filters and I eliminated it this morning, but it’s curious that spammers would find value in the effort required in setting up a blog just for the purposes of search engine advertising in a trackback post. There must be some trick to it; I just don’t see spammers sitting in dark rooms writing posts and linking them to other people’s blogs by hand.

And I breathed a sigh of relief. Also, a sigh of belief.

I have known that I wanted to vote for Hillary before I really knew it. Despite all the people who have talked around me about how grating she can be, how they frowned on the idea of abdicating her seat for New York in the US Senate, and all the nay-saying about her ability to really compete in the ‘08 election, I have known all along that I wanted to vote for her. New Hampshire doesn’t change that, but it does strengthen my expectation that she will be on the ballot in California so that I can vote for her.

Here’s why. I may not align 100% with her on issues, but I want a woman in the White House. I think she stands head and shoulders above all the other Democratic candidates in political experience and in fundamental practical knowledge of how Washington operates. Anything she doesn’t know right now, she will learn, and she has Bill to teach her. (Sorry, some may think that sounds like I’m giving her a pass for her husband’s expertise, but I think every new officeholder, no matter the office, has a learning curve. Hers will just be steeper.) For better or worse, she HAS made changes already. Finally, she’s a mother.

I took an online political quiz the other day and found that I align with Obama and Edwards more than with Hillary. On paper, anyway. However, I do not believe that most people vote issues, when it’s down to the wire. Election ‘04 was about feeling safe, not any number of intellectual issues on the table. Election ‘08 won’t be such a one-issue election. But I can say with certainty that the differences between the Democratic candidates on issues are negligible, and that being so, I want a woman in the White House who’s politically able, who has raised a child in this country, and who isn’t the white male status quo.

I’ve had a lot on my mind since Sami was born on September 11, ‘06. It’s interesting that she was born on such a polarizing date. I witnessed the Twin Towers collapsing in person, and I moved out of New York City just a few months after that. That experience, and everything I saw that day, will be with me for the rest of my life. But so will my daughter. I want to protect her the way any mother wants to protect her baby. But her birthday every year reminds me of things I want to protect her from – things I cannot personally control. I’m lucky to have something to celebrate on 9/11 that takes the place of all the national weeping and tragedy, but that doesn’t mean I ever forget what happened. So I want a leader who understands not just national defense, but the primal need to protect one’s child. Only one candidate this year has that.

Yes, I’m waxing a little melodramatic here. Also: Yes, I’m a voting stereotype this election. Being a mom has more or less eaten up the time and brain power I might have used for scrutinizing all the candidates with a magnifying glass and fine toothed comb, comparing the nuances of their generally similar spiels. Frankly, I don’t have the time or energy for that right now. I’m voting for the only candidate I can identify with, because I’ve never had one before, and because I do believe she’s best for the job.

This year I knit my first sock in under a month. I crocheted a Roman helmet baby hat, a handful of scarves, a dishcloth or two, and crocheted a baby diaper soaker that was too small by the time I finished it. I knit baby legwarmers that… didn’t work out. And my fair share of hats. None of which I documented, alas.

I also made sure to complete my first sewn objects last night – started and finished in 2007 – curtains for our front windows. I cannot say much for the craftsmanship. Sewing washed, dried and hopelessly wrinkled muslin is beyond my beginner’s skill set, I think. Next project I’ll be sure to make something that will never need to be washed, and I’ll do it with crisp, flat, virgin fabric.

Nonetheless, they are DONE. Next up, get curtain rods and hang them. But that will be short work, I believe, and then on to the next project.

My spinning wheel, whom I have dubbed the Cantankerous Ol’ Dude, is as the name would suggest a crotchety fellow. The flyer and bobbin are made of some rough, dry wood, and the sheave along the bobbin that determines the ratio of the bobbin’s spin to the drive wheel’s spin is chipped. There is only one sheave, meaning that the wheel and bobbin can essentially have only one spin ratio, making it not a very versatile machine, and the bobbin is actually quite small. (I’d be surprised if it holds much more than a spun ounce of fiber.)

I only have one bobbin, and no lazy kate, so no plying together of my singles, though if I found something suitable onto which I could wind off, I could Navajo ply them (chaining a la crochet base chain, then twisted in a second spinning process.)

The two legs from which the treadle levers slide apart every now and then, allowing the whole treadle pedal to fall off. The footman is held on to the wheel by a binder clip at the moment, as I don’t have the appropriately sized nut. I am using cotton yarn for a drive band, and the wheel itself is coming apart slightly where the separate pieces of wood that compose it meet.

Oh! And the part that should keep the bobbin/flyer from popping right out, broken and/or missing, replaced with, you guessed it, cotton cord for a barely functional solution.

It is functional, but frankly a complete pain in the ass to spin on.

That said, there are fixes for some things. I’ve tied cord around the legs supporting the treadle to stop them from sliding apart. I’m sure I could have someone make new bobbins, hopefully at least a little higher capacity. I could even possibly replace the entire mother of all, and if I chose a major manufacturer, then I’d have my pick of replacement bobbins. I don’t know what’s to be done about the legs releasing the treadle pedal, or the wheel joints, and frankly just thinking about all this gives me a headache.

But this post isn’t about complaining about the things my wheel wants and needs. I’ve set myself a goal. I’ll retire the Cantankerous Ol’ Dude when I have spun a mile of yarn. That’s 1,760 yards.

Tonight, I’ve spun about 146 wraps around my Macbook screen, otherwise known as 113 yards of an approximately fingering weight yarn (laceweight in some places). I’ve previously spun some yardage, but I haven’t counted it up yet. This may be slow going, but I think it’s a worthy challenge and will probably make a better spinner out of me.

1,647 yards to go, and counting.