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.

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

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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!

The Start of the Tour de Fleece

Here it is on the first day of the Tour de Fleece (check button in the sidebar) and I haven't spun yet.

I did, however, take a photo of the progress I'd made before starting, so all I have to do is spin a bit this evening and I'm OK.

I finished two mitts, and plan to make a third, but I've revised my opinion of what to do with the other two balls of Risata in Marionberry. I plan to make socks. Actually, it's more than a plan, since I've finished turning the heel and the gusset of the first one. I'm now on the straight-away to the toe. These socks will be plain old 2x2 rib for the leg and the top of the foot. Expect photos tomorrow and a pattern soon.

I hope you've been getting a chance to watch the Star Wars movies on Spike and the Harry Potter movies on Family this weekend.

In about an hour, Eli Stone will be on. If all goes well, that is. The pilot was scheduled for last Saturday, and it never showed. Instead, we got a documentary on NASCAR racing. What a disappointment!

I watched for the planetary alignment last night, but we've had a heavy cloud cover for the last two nights. Early this evening, the clouds started breaking up, but they still cover most of the sky, so it'll be possible that I might see it tonight, but more likely I won't.

Happy Independence Day!

Well, I checked last night for the big, exciting planetary alignment. Ok, so I know that it isn't supposed to start happening until tonight, but I though they'd probably be close to aligned.

I couldn't see anything. It was overcast last night. And I'm worried that it will be overcast tonight, too. The sky is a uniform color, but it's not the bright blue of a clear sky. Objects are barely casting gentle shadows, so it's overcast.

I still have high hopes for tomorrow evening.

In the meantime, Family is showing some of the Harry Potter movies this weekend, starting early this evening. They'll be starting with Sorcerers Stone and going all the way through Goblet of Fire, and some of them will be repeating throughout the weekend. You can start tomorrow afternoon if you miss tonight. Check your schedules.

Have a great Fourth, and don't miss the fireworks!