Looms, Thread, Hats, and Socks

(Oconto, WI) Hi 70 Lo 61 --  It rained off and on today and stayed cloudy. I visited with Karen while Jim got ready for his new satellite TV receiver today. He put up the dish and tripod and got it aligned with his meter, then waited for the UPS guy to show up. He came around 2pm and Jim spent about an hour exchanging the old receiver with the new one and getting it all set up and activated. We now have our satellite TV back, and Jim spent another hour or so setting up all our favorite shows to be recorded.

Karen spins her own thread on a spinning wheel our of hair and furs from various animals. She then weaves all kinds of stuff on several looms in her basement. She plans to take the spinning wheel and a loom with her in her motorhome when she and Steve go full time in a couple of years.

She makes hats by wrapping yarn around this Knifty Knitter. It looks so easy I think even I could do it. I love the hats, they're real thick for those cold winters around here.

This is a circular sock knitting machine (CSM). 

Some of her looms. 

Karen standing by her largest loom.  The llama is so cute.  She gets llama fur from a local source and weaves it into thread. 

Steve made this swift. He calls it the "swiftest swift" because it turns on ball bearings. It's used to wind yarn into skeins, which Karen sells on eBay. Her blog has more information if you're interested. 

While Karen was describing what she does, there was a squirrel stealing food out of a bird feeder. It knew exactly how hard to push on the bar to get the food. If it put too much weight on the bar, it would close the feeder.  Smart squirrel. 

While Jim set up our new sat receiver we went grocery shopping for some fruits and veggies that were on sale. Then later for dinner we had pasties, an upper Michigan specialty. Pasties are pastry shells filled with beef, small chunks of potatoes, and onions. And some are filled with rutabagas. They're sort of like pot pies, but without the gravy. It's great to be able to try out different local foods in our travels. 

Steve and Jim are studying out how to work on something in the RV.  

Karen loaned us a couple of DVDs of a Canadian TV show called "The Red and Green Show." She came over to watch a few episodes with us. The show reminded us of the old show "Hee Haw." Canadian rural humor, and pretty funny. 

We sometimes get questions about some of the parks that we've stayed. There's a link to the right that says "parks." It may help anyone with questions.