Happy Palm Sunday

Today, SyFy is showing a lot of the Merlin series.

If you're looking for the authentic story of Arthur, this is not the place to find it! The costumes are only vaguely Medieval, the castle is from about 900 years after Arthur's time, and there are characters in the series with the names of people in the Arthur saga, but they're not anything like the originals. Examples include Guenivere, who became queen, and was not a servant; Merlin, who was enough older than Arthur that he saved Arthur right after he was born, and was not younger than Arthur, and so on.

Some of the stories are very good and do embrace Medieval ideas and principles, but some of the stories are squarely based on 20th and 21st century ideals and viewpoints.

I won't even mention the clothing, some of which seems authentic, but some comes from eras more like 1500 years in Arthur's future.

He's called "The Once and Future King," so maybe this is someone's idea of what might have happened if he came back 900 years later than his time.

Some of the stories are entertaining, though.

*****************************

My copy of Spin-Off Magazine appeared in my mailbox today!

You can see a preview of it here.

There was information about spinning heavy singles that are soft and (reasonably) balanced.

There was also an article about a spinning wheel maker with a company name of Spinolution. I've seen at least one of their wheels at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but haven't really sat down and tried one. They actually treadle well, even though the treadle mechanism looks so odd. They have a new wheel out called the Hopper Travel Wheel, and it is small! Even if you don't watch the video at that link, you can see the woman's arms in the photo and get an idea of how small it is. It was intended not only to be small and a travel wheel, but also to be used to create art yarns, hence, the very slow speeds available, although it can spin pretty fast, too. I haven't tried it yet (it's just out), but it seems a little pricy.

There will be another wheel that was created just for spinning art yarns that will be unveiled at the Sheep and Wool Festival, too, and it's by Majacraft. They're not telling, or showing anybody anything about it before then, though. Somebody there is a Firefly fan, and they've named it Serenity, too! They have talked about some of the yarns you can spin on it, though, and showed them on their blog. I can't wait to see it!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

New Majacraft Wheel!

There's a new Majacraft wheel that's been under development for a while. They've been sending me emails and dropping hints about it, but they won't let me see a photo or tell me what's actually different about it.

Here's what I know:

• It's called Serenity. The person who named it is a Firefly fan! That may be a temporary name.
• It can spin very, very fine lace yarn
• It can spin thick, bumpy "art" yarns
• The currently available bobbins won't work on it
• It can do things that no other spinning wheel can do!

The best news of all is that it's going to be available to see and buy at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! If you go to the listing of vendors, you'll see that they aren't listed. They said that they will announce their location later.

Here's what they said about the new wheel in their latest email to me:

New Wheel Release - Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival - May 2010
Glynis and Owen will be attending this years Sheep & Wool Festival at Maryland, USA; and will be publicly releasing the much awaited "New Wheel."
The wheel is a collaboration of Majacraft and Lexi Boeger (Pluckyfluff) design, and is specifically focused at art yarns, however it can also be a general purpose wheel, as it is compatible with most of the Majacraft accessories.
The Poad's intend to be at our vendors stalls at different times, with plenty of saleable "new wheels" available (program of time and place to come), and as a special bonus Lexi will also be demonstrating the "new wheel's" special concept and design features.

There is other news from Majacraft, too. They have out new flyers that reduce air resistance when they turn. I don't see them on their website yet, but they announced them

This is what one of the new flyers looks like from the side view.

This isn't exactly really new news, but they also have a new skeiner out. If you click the link, you'll see that you can put a bobbin on the skeiner and thread it through a guide, fasten it to one of the pegs on the skeiner, and then just wind it up! Very easy to use. And it can be placed directly on the wheel to wind your skeins if you want to take it traveling!

You can probably tell that I really love my Majacraft Rose wheel, and Majacraft in general! If you're on Ravelry, you can find a discussion of the new wheel here.

************************

We have a new telescope, and it has detected a new, previously unsuspected ring around Saturn!

*************************

Tonight, we have new episodes of Chuck, The Big Bang Theory and Castle! There will also be reruns of Ghost Whisperer on SyFy.

Have a great day!