Spinning

Last night/early this morning – had trouble sleeping b/c of a  tooth ache – I spun woolen for the first time.  I’ve always been afraid of the long draw; something about letting the twist get into the drafting triangle freaked me out.  I guess I just never thought I was good enough to do it.  I was planning to work on the Spirogyra spinning (btw…the name of the fiber is Teddy Bear Trio and it’s a 50/50 blend tencel/merino from dkknits, who makes gorgeous roving/top.) but the little bit of merino/bamboo that came with my newest spindle, a gorgeous creation from Yorkieslave called Monet’s Lily, a beautiful combination of colors that were just like the colors painted on the spindle, with a bit of color-coordinated firestar to go mixed in just called to me.  It was a much smaller project and it wasn’t for a specific project, so I could experiment a bit.

I’ve always gone out of my way to buy combed preparations of fiber b/c, as I said, I was terrified of the long draw, and it just seemed more orderly.  This mini-batt, or mini-batts as the case may be, they seem to be hand carded in small little batts were totally different than anything I’ve worked with before.  I did work with a batt awhile ago, but I did that on the wheel and I spun it worsted with the short draw and a very tight grip on the fiber in front of the drafting triangle preventing any twist from getting past me.  Like I said, this time I was more willing to play, and I loved the effect.  I also learned that firestar really wants to get everywhere and you must have a towel under it if you are going to spin in bed while watching General Hospital (which is great right now, isn’t it?).  I spun about half of it last night and plan to spin the rest into one cop that I will then turn into a plying bracelet and ply on itself – another new technique for me.  I’m thinking/hoping that the finished result will be about a fingering weight two ply; the singles are fairly thin.  I haven’t checked the wpi, which I should, but I’m just having fun.  I just ordered six ounces of the fiber from Sally at Yorkie Slave and I’ll be a little more careful with that since I want to make a shawl with it.

Does anyone have any experience with shawls that have firestar in them?  As I’m spinning the singles, I’m noticing that the firestar has a tendency to stick out all over the place and I’m hoping it will tame down to some degree after plying.  My big question before I plan a shawl and how to spin the big batt is will it be itchy?  Am I better off making something else with it?  What projects lend themselves well to firestar in the prep?  Thanks.   It doesn’t seem to be blended in well, more like it’s sort of sitting on top of the prep just barely carded in…I don’t know much about carding, though, so maybe it’s just the top layer…

Home again, Home again…

So we’re back at our house now, the blue house if officially a thing of the past.  I ended up sleeping there last night as well; we figured out that there was a day or so more than we thought and I wasn’t going to watch TJ work himself to death going back and forth after midnight with the snow blowing and him being awake since 4 am.  So he came back here, Jake went to his Unkie and Katiebugs house and I stayed at the blue house so that if we were wrong, they wouldn’t be able to lock us out.  Needless to say, things went smoothly, no one came to change locks etc. and we’re all moved out.  It took some doing and a lot more time than we thought, but we also have a TON more stuff than I thought.  We have over 80 boxes in this house of different sizes.  There is almost nowhere to walk in the living room, we have to kind of manuever around things, pretty funny.  We have a plan to open and get through at least 2 boxes a day.  It will still take awhile that way, but we won’t feel overwhelmed and there is no rule saying we can’t open MORE boxes in a day.

On the knitting front:  Not much.  I’ve finished the thumb gusset on the Twist Wrist warmers.  Not much knitting last night, I watched the rest of season 2 of Dr. Who in bed and, I have to admit, reveled in the alone-ness and quietness of it all.  Even with the stress of having to move, it was nice to be all alone for one final night.  So I’m planning to finish that up in the next day or so.  Total side note:  I’m really LOVING this project on the DPN’s.  I think I’ll have to rethink my Magic Loop only policy for small things over a size U.S. 4 (I have all harmony or options interchangable needles right now, so anything under a size US 4 is not a possibility for me, unless I dig into the addis, so I guess I really could do M.L. with any size needle.  There is no point to this thought, but I’m not going to delete it…LOL).  I really do prefer the 5 needle method that I’m using with the Monkey socks over the 4 needle method that I’m using for the wirst warmers.  I know I could have easily added the extra needle and worked out the number of stitches for each, but I really wanted to be kind of mindless while I did this, so I didn’t bother.  The Malabrigo color is so pretty…I can’t remember the exact name of it, but Amore is in the name and it’s shades of red, mostly deep.  I think it might be possible to get two pairs of mitts out of the one skein, but it may be deceptive.  The ball still seems pretty big, but I think I’m going to have to rewind it through my fishing line measuring thing to find out how many yards I have left.  I’ll bet it’s a lot less than I think.

On the spinning front:  I haven’t done any.  LOL  The Girl Insane yarn is done, though (link to a picture in Ravelry to follow).  It’s been hanging in the bathroom since Sat. night, so it’s obviously dry.  Tomorrow I’ll measure the wpi and photograph skeins.  I’m excited to have my first spinning project of the year done!!  I have the feeling that it’s going to be a heavy sport or light worsted yearn.  I was hoping for something a bit finer, but it seems that I can only acheive seriously fine singles, or plied yarn for that matter, with my spindles.  Speaking of which, I really need to get a plying spindle sometime soon.  My next project is to navajo ply the singles for spirogyra and hope that I get the 13wpi I’m looking for.  The singles are about 28-30 wpi and I think I read that you should plan for twice or a little more wpi for the final wpi you’re looking for in a Navajo ply.  I hope I’m right.  Once that’s done, I still have the other half to pre-draft (as called for in the pattern instructions for the spinning portion), spin and ply before I start the mitts.  It will be my first planned fiber to finish project.  I have the camel/merino mitts that I’ve started knitting, but I didn’t have a plan for the fiber when I spun it.  Come to think of it, I need to take care of that as well…finishing the second mitt.  LOL

A Barrel….er Pair…of Monkeys

Happy 2009 everyone.  I hope New Year’s Eve and the beginning of this year have been great for everyone.  Both have been pretty good for me so far.

We went down to Farmington Hills to visit with TJ’s dad and mom (separately, of course) for New Years since we didn’t spend Christmas with them this year.  It was the first year in our new house and we wanted to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Pictures to follow soon, I promise) in it.  So we left Tuesday evening and drove down to Dad’s.  We spent an uneventful but very enjoyable night there; Jake opened Christmas gifts from his Papa and Grandma Fran and so did TJ and I.  As always they were generous to a fault.  Jake is now the proud owner of the game Operation which he’s been coveting from TV commercials for months now.  It’s much more high tech then the version that was out when I was a child.  Instead of just making that horrible buzzing sound for the parts, there are individual sounds for each different part.  Wicked.  He was very happy.  My favorite gift was the incredibly warm pair of pink suede moccasins that I swear have hardly left my feet since I got them.  I love having warm feet!  I’m not sure what TJ’s favorite gift was, probably the lined, puffy lumberjack type jacket – he likes being warm too.  Why do we live in Michigan again?  Not to mention right on the edge of a lake effect snow band?  Hmmm…  After presents we got the Wii (by far our favorite gift of the holiday season) out so Jake could show Papa how good he is at boxing (stay out of the kid’s way, I tell you, he just kind of punches and kicks wildly, but does very well) and tennis.  He ended up playing baseball, too, and now that’s his obsession.  I see Little League in my future this summer and possibly tennis lessons as well since that’s his other favorite thing.  After finding out how much we love the Wii, my mother very generously offered to buy me a Wii Fit as an extension of my gift (an already ridiculously generous Sony Alpha 300 DSLR camera).  I can’t help but wonder if this is her not so subtle way of reminding me that I need to lose weight.  Either way, I’m thrilled to be getting it and I can’t wait to start getting in better shape (one my resolutions for this year).

Wednesday afternoon we went to TJ’s mother’s house to spend the afternoon and eat an early dinner.  We were surprised, pleasantly of course, to find Aunt Nancy at the house when we arrived.  It made for a great afternoon filled with Christmas gifts, Wii bowling and pizza and ribs.  So much fun.  Mom knows Jake so well and got him a Michigan CAT train set which he went crazy for.  After the afternoon at Mom’s we left Jake with Dad and Fran and we went to a party with friends that we haven’t seen in a few years.  It was a great night and it was so much fun to see friends that we haven’t been able to spend time with.  I’m usually not much for parties and I actually thought about not going for a bit, but I didn’t want to disappoint TJ so I went and had a better time than I can remember having in a long time.  I should really do things like that more often.  Depression sometimes makes you forget how much you like your friends…:)

So now we’re back home and the Christmas knitting is done.  It was a relief to finish in time (just barely) but also a bit of a letdown at the end.  For a few months now I’ve been working to get these gifts done in time and once they were done I had nothing on the needles so to speak…I actually have quite a few WIPs in the not finished basket.  I decided that this would be a perfect time to actually knit that pair of socks that I’ve been wanting to make since I taught myself to knit a few years ago.  I grabbed the Socks that Rock in Hot Flash ( a color which I thought was atrocious when I bought it as a gift for Andrea, but when I balled it I discovered that it was absolutely gorgeous) and swatched and grabbed a set of dpns to cast on.  This time I’m going to finish these socks.  I picked the Monkey Socks because it’s a pretty pattern that seems like it’s not too complicated.  I’ve started multiple pairs of socks with a plain 2×2 pattern or a simple 4 st. repeat from Sensational Socks but have always gotten bored and stopped by the end of sock one.  Not so much Second Sock Syndrome as bored out of my mind with the boring pattern syndrome.  This time, though, I’m determined to finish these socks so I’m not allowing myself to cast on anything new until I’m done with these…and I have some really great yarn in my stash and some more on the way.  I may not be able to force myself to work on only the socks until they’re done; I’ve never been able to be quite that monogamous with my knitting, but if I get bored with the socks I will pick up a WIP rather than starting something new.

On the spinning front I’ve got two things currently in the works.  I just finished the first half of the roving for the Spirogyra Mitts which has great spinning instructions in the same issue’s Knitty Spin.  I’ve spun it on my Spinsanity Spindle to 28 wpi and am planning to chain ply it to get 13 wpi (I hope).  If I did all my math correctly, I should have plenty of yardage for this pattern (I’m using 4.2 oz. of merino/tencel in a 50/50 blend).  Tomorrow I’m planning to get the first half on the wheel for plying (I’m still not really clear on chain plying on the spindle).   Once I’m sure I’m getting the right wpi and correct yardage, I’ll get to spinning the 2nd half.  I also just finished the second bobbin of singles from the Girl Insane roving (80/20 Merino/Tussah Silk roving in shades of light to bright pink with accents of purple and a darker black shade).  I split the roving by colors (light and dark) and spun them on separate bobbins.  I’m going to ply them together in a simple two ply and hope to see the colors blend together in a really pretty way.  We shall see.

That’s about all for now…back to the monkeys for a few more rounds before bed.  Next time…my 101 in 1oo1 or at least the first part of it.  I’ve decided I want to try this resolution thing with a little extra time.  I’m excited to do it and see how much of it I actually accomplish.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to come up with 101 things, though…

Spinning from the fold

…is a lot easier than it seems like it would be.  I just got four gorgeous bumps of Abby F.’s silk from Beth at The Spinning Loft to use for making Abby from this issue of Knitty, and even though I have other patterns that I need to finish before I’m supposed to start new things, I just couldn’t resist getting started.  The problem:  There aren’t very exacting spinning directions, just spin a heavy laceweight single from the fold.  From The Fold?!?!  ARGH!!!  So I got out the spinning books and read what I could, but while I got the concept, it just wasn’t clicking with my hands.  Next came the computer and Ravelry which led me to You Tube and Abby’s video on spinning from the fold.  That was helpful, but I wanted to find more information.  What really did the trick for me, clarified the concept was this video.  Again it was Beth helping me…LOL  First she and Shannon Too helped me pick out my wonderful wheel and now her video is helping me with spinning from the fold.

After reading and watching videos I decided to just bite the bullet and give it a try.  I figured I wouldn’t be “wasting” more than a few staple lengths worth if the effort didn’t pan out.  Guess what?!?!  It worked.  LOL  I know I shouldn’t be so amazed, but I am.  I’m also very proud of myself.  So I’m going to spin the first ounce of silk up on my very first spindle (still my favorite, although I love my square spindle as well) and hope that I get the yardage I need to try my hand at Abby.  I’m also anxious to try spinning from the fold on Penelope, but I think I’ll perfect it with the spindle first. 

On a health note, I’m finally starting to feel a little better.  I actually got dressed and went out to eat with TJ and my brother in law and his girlfriend the other morning.  I ended up with a major headache, but it still felt good to get out.  I’ve always been more than happy to stay and home and forego most outings, right Shannon?  LOL, but now that I’ve been told I have to stay home and rest, I hate it.  I’m so anxious to go out and do something.  If you’re reading this, Shannon, email or call me…I want to go out to lunch this week or something fun like that.  Yes, I actually want to leave the house…LOL  I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow and hoping to get the all clear from her.  I’m still having some pain in my kidney area but I think I’m getting better.  Hopefully no more hospitalizations.  Fingers crossed.  Okay, I’m off to rest and spin some more of Abby’s amazing silk.  Here’s hoping lunch works out this week…ugh…I’m so ready to see friends and do something fun!!!

Camel is THE new fiber….

Quick update:  I just finished spinning up the 4 oz. of camel/merino that I bought at the fiber festival (I really wish I purchased a LOT more of it) and I’m in love with both the fiber itself and the yarn it produced.  The fiber was so fine and so easy to spin and the resulting yarn is soft, fluffy and just plain yummy!!!  I ended up leaving it as singles to get the most yardage out of it.  I got just over 210 yards and plan to make a pair of fingerless mitts for myself.

On the personal front:  Things have been a little bit stressed here at Casa Dwire.  I’m still cutting down the Methadone a little at a time and that makes me feel good (warning: if you ever have back/pain issues, DON’T let your doctor talk you into methadone for pain unless it’s the very last resort…I mean after trying surgery and any/all other options) to be getting back to myself, but the withdrawl is still sucking ass in a big way.  I wanted to get so much more involved in life right after finishing the Zoloft (another one I strongly warn against) but the withdrawl from the Methadone makes that difficult to say the least.  I’m getting there, though.  I have an appointment with Dr. M on Thursday and TJ and I are going to talk to her about my options for making this process easier without making it drag on for months.  I know I can’t go cold turkey, but I want this over, ASAP.  I’m focusing on wanting another baby when it gets tough and I want to give up and I have to admit that since I’ve cut down the dose, my sex drive is up a bit.  I keep reading that it will continue to rise as the methadone gets out of system.  I’m certainly hoping so and I KNOW TJ is praying for it. LOL  See, I still have my sense of humor in this difficult time.  Both knitting and spinning are helping me through this time (spinning especially b/c it doesn’t require as much concentration).  I’m working on the two scarf projects for X-mas gifts and the cross stitch pattern that I’m finishing for Uncle Dave’s family (it was started by Dave’s wife Charlotte, who passed away from cancer last February.  What an absolute honor it was that they asked me to finish it).   I’m also doing more spindle spinning and trying out new fibers on the wheel whenever I can.  All in all, I’m surviving if not quite “living” yet.  I’ll get there, though, I know I will!!!

An actual knitting post

This post is actually going to be about knitting and only knitting.  It won’t be super long, as I’m in the midst of WIP’s and have no real FO’s at the moment.

Having finished my Christmas knitting, sort of (I still have the shawl to finish, but am working on it rather slowly b/c I got so sick of it in those last months of trying to finish it in time), I’m not really in the middle of anything, rather at the beginning of several things.  I’ve gotten one of a pair of Fetching mitts done in Alpine Pearl Malabrigo (there should be a law about wool singles that butter soft) and I’ve been totally slacking about finishing number 2.  It’s the knitting ADD I tell you.  I know it would only take a day at most to finish, but I’m all caught up in trying to pick patterns, yarns etc. for new projects.

First up I have Secret of the Stole ii.  (BTW, Emily, it is still open for sign ups, in case you didn’t already check for yourself)  I’ve chosen my yarn:  a rayon/silk blend from Over the Rainbow yarns.  It’s listed as sport weight, but feels a bit lighter than that to me.  The colorway is Vanilla Parfait and it’s gorgeous.  The instructions say we shouldn’t use varigated yarn for this shawl, but the varigation is so subtle that I think it will be okay.  Even if it’s not, so what?!?!  It’s my shawl and I can do whatever I want with it, so there!!  LOL  It’s a blend of cream and some very pale taupe and tan.  I really love this colorway and plan to snap up more of it if/when it’s offered.  I’m thinking about socks with this yarn, but I don’t think that rayon/silk is a great combination for socks; not enough elasticity and I think they would sag terribly.  We’ll see.  I’m in the process of swatching it right now, from written directions that I copied by hand b/c the printer is being a butt.  LOL  I like the pattern thus far and I think that I’m going to like the number 4 Harmony needles for this, although I have to finish the swatch before I’m sure.  It may not be lacy enough.  This will be my first mystery knit-along.  I’m going to be gone for 3 weeks of it and I’m not sure if I’ll have my laptop with me as it has some “issues” (like it’s falling apart and I need a new one, but won’t be getting one before I go) and I’m worried about getting behind, so I’m going to make sure that I’m up to date before I go and hope that I’ll be able to borrow an aunt or cousin’s computer a few times a week to check in on stuff.  My email alone will get completely out of control with me not checking it for 3 weeks.

Next project in my mind:  The Silken Cowl from Sensual Knits.  This is a pattern and a garment that I REALLY love.  I used to have a silk tank top just like that.  I loved that thing and have no clue what happened to it.  I’m guessing one of the roommates from hell has it in her collection of clothing at this point.  I started swatching with the same rayon/silk yarn that I’m using for SotS ii but in a different colorway, but the gauge is off.  The weight called for in the pattern is worsted/aran and the rayon/silk is more like a heavy fingering to light sport weight, so I’m having trouble getting to where I need to be gauge-wise.  I don’t want to spend all this time and yarn on something that isn’t going to look right.  I have a fingering weight 100% silk that I might use, doubled in two different, but similar colorways.  I would just double one colorway, but I don’t have enough of it and I bought it at least 2 years ago from Ebay and doubt I could get an exact match for it, or even a close one.  It kind of sucks, b/c I really had my heart set on the colorway in the rayon/silk blend.  Any suggestions on using a much different weight yarn for a project like this?  My only real concern, other than weight, is that the pattern states that the yarn is un-elastic, which seems to be true of the pure silk yarn that I have as well.  The rayon/silk combo, however, does have some stretch to it.  Will that be a problem in the wearing of the tank top?  Any suggestions/opinions are appreciated.  Thanks.

Other things I’ve been playing with:  I’ve got yarn and needles chosen for a pair of Jaywalkers (my very first pair of socks).  The yarn is also from Over The Rainbow Yarns (do we have a pattern here or what?  LOL) and it’s rainbow colored. In the skein it transitioned from red to violet ala ROYGBIV and wound into a yarn cake it’s just as spectacular in a different way.  I’ve been holding onto it for about 2 1/2 years or so.  I wanted to make sure my knitting skills were up to par for sock knitting and not end up wasting the yarn on a non wearable effort.  I bought the Giselle pattern from Stitch Diva; I’ve been stalking the site waiting for this to come out for a LONG time.  It’s also one of the Sexy Knitter’s Club KAL’s this time around.  I’m going to do it.  In fact, I might put my thoughts of the Silken Cowl aside for now and concentrate on Giselle or Belle Paquita (the other SKC KAL choice for Jan-March).  I figure three weeks in CA without a computer to speak of will allow me to get a lot of knitting done – I hope.  At least I’ll have 5 hours of plane ride each way, if Jake cooperates.  I’ve also got the pattern for Fiber Trends Felted Clogs and lots of Cascade 220 and Philosopher’s Wool also, as well as the first SotS pattern, Guenivere.  It’s an unusual stole in that it’s got a forked end, like a renaissance  banner or flag.  Very pretty.

I guess that’s it for now.  Oh, I also got two spin your own sock kits from Fiber Fiend that I can’t wait to work on.  I have two of my three Spinsanity spindles (She does AMAZING spindle work, btw, go get a spindle from her right now, you won’t be sorry) full of singles right now waiting to be plied.  I also want to be a little more proficient at sock knitting before tackling them.  Any advice for spinning yarn for sock making (I have one braid of superwash Merino and one of Angora to spin) would be much appreciated.

That it for me.  I hope all of you are doing well, and 2008 has been full of joy thus far.

AHA

I’ve had it. That “Aha” moment in spinning that everyone talks about; the one where your brain and your hands start communicating about what needs to be done without any extra effort on your part; happened to me yesterday afternoon. Of course I’m no master spinner and won’t be for a long time to come, but it’s no longer a struggle for me, nor does it require the amount of preparation it did just a week ago. The night before last I ripped off a chunk of roving to pre-draft it so I could spin it. The only way I’ve been able to spin any sort of consistent yarn to this point has been to pre-draft to the point of being even narrower than pencil roving so that there was very little drafting required during the spinning process. That wasn’t a bad way to spin; anything that makes yarn at the end is “right”, but it certainly was a very time consuming way of doing it. I watch Shannon or Em spinning at knit nights or here or wherever and for them it has always seemed to effortless and I’ve been so jealous of that ability, thinking I was never going to get there. So I had the chunk of roving in my hand and I thought “what the hell, I’ll give it a shot the “real” way, at least what I think of as the “real” way. I held the roving in my right hand, used the hook to grab some fiber (rather than using a leader) and pulled a little fiber out and started to spin. It just happened. There I was holding a fat ol’ chunk of gorgeous bright blue and pink roving and drafting it pretty well. The singles are fairly consistent. There are some fat and thin places, but not as many as I expected and it’s really renewed my passion for spindling. I’ve been so anxious to get my wheel ASAP b/c I thought it would be so much easier to deal with the drafting issue with two hands free from having to spin the spindle by hand etc.. I’m still very anxious to get it, but not to get me away from spindles now, rather to add to my knowledge. I’m going to visit my mother for three weeks in Feb. and I had told TJ that I didn’t want to go without my wheel, but now I don’t care. I’ll be perfectly content to bring my spindles and lazy kate and to keep working on the skills I’ve developed. AHA!!

I’m having another really cool spinning/knitting experience today as well. I’m knitting a swatch with my own handspun for the first time ever. There’s not enough singles here to do anything else with, not even ply, but it’s been in a ball for about a month now; I took it off the spindle and balled it quickly one day when I needed the spindle and didn’t have a free one. It’s silk and it’s really pretty and it’s REALLY slubby. When I picked up the ball yesterday, I realized that it was perfectly balanced now, no twist at all when I pulled a length out and let the tension off of it. I will post a picture when I’m done playing with it. I thought that I spun really thin, but I guess I’m not a great judge. I started swatching with my Harmony needles using a US 5 and that was way to small, right now I’m up to a size 7 and I’m still not loving it. I’m just going to keep swatching with bigger needles until I’m out of yarn or until I love the result.

Exciting stuff, huh?!?!

No longer a virgin…spinning wheel virgin, that is…

LOL I can’t imagine how many people will inadvertently  end up here after searching. I have the feeling some people are going to be disappointed.  Boy my number of page views is going to go through the roof, though…LOL

So I got to spin on a wheel for the first time last night.  How fun was that?!?!  I’m obviously not great at it, but it was great. I love to spin on a spindle, but I think I like the wheel even better.  Shannon and Em came over last night and Nan and I had such a good time!  I can’t wait to go to the next knit night…I’m really hoping that Nan and I can make it to the spinning guild meeting next week.  I’ve found that knitting with a group is so much more fun that knitting alone.

I reconnected with an old friend this week.  I love when that happens.  Nan needs a guy who is a real person, someone who isn’t there just for sex.  She saw Bubba’s picture on MySpace, said he was cute and I dropped him an email.  He called, they talked and we’re going down to Detroit in a few weeks so she can meet him.  How fun.  I’ll get to see some old friends and she’ll meet a new guy.  I really hope they hit it off.  He’s a great guy, she’s a great girl and they both deserve to meet someone great!!!  I hope this doesn’t end up being a hot mess.  I just love that turn of phrase, although I’m not sure what it means…LOL

First Knit Night

Hello all my little pretties…LOL  I attended my first knit night tonight at Barnes and Noble in Battle Creek.  What a blast it was!!!  I’d been planning to go for a few months now and for one reason or another I’ve always missed the night.  Tonight, TJ watched Jake so Nan and I could go together.  It was enlightening; I learned things, I met people and I had a really good time.  It’s been so long since I’ve gone out and done something social and I’m proud of myself!!

The best part of the night, other than the camaraderie, was actually learning to spin.  YAY!!!   Shannon, how odd is it that my spinning mentor/new friend also has my name (I guess I have hers since she’s older…LOL), taught me to spin with a spindle that she made (check out her selection in her etsy shop, she does amazing work.) after telling me that a part of the problem I’ve been having is that the spindle that I’ve been using is made with a toy wheel for the whorl which is generally not a good choice for a useful spindle.  This spindle is not only gorgeous (picture to come once we find the digital camera.  Who loses their digital camera in their house?!?!) but it spins like a dream.  Huge difference between it and my old one.  The old ones are pretty, though, so they will become display pieces; I don’t like to waste pretty things.  I immediately fell in love with the spindle and asked her how much for it.  What did she say?  “Keep it.”  Can I tell you I love this chick?!  It was such a sweet gesture to someone she just met and it’s a most useful gift.  Her spindles are so light that they spin beautifully.  Tonight I spun both the wool that I brought as well as some very soft, very light merino/silk that she was working on and I was amazed with the ease that I picked the skills up with after struggling so long.  Don’t get me wrong, I still have a LONG way to go:  I tend to spin in different directions and I have a problem with letting the twist go up into the roving as well as matting it as I draft, but I’ll get the hang of it.  Really, you should check out her store if you’re in the market for a spindle, they rock.

I’m thinking very strongly about joining the South Central Knitting Guild now as well.  Most of the people there tonight were from the guild, so it was an easy choice.  I liked everyone and had a great time, why not get together with them twice a month instead of just once?  I also think that Nan might have been talked into trying to learn to knit, maybe.  She also seems to be interested in learning to spin.  I knew I’d “get” her sooner or later.  Crochet was just the gateway drug; knitting is the hard stuff.

Night y’all, I’m off to spin me some purple and green yarn!!!