Saturday, October 13, 2007

so, about that rabbit hole . . .

I have this evil little voice that lives in the back of my head. Do you have one of those? Mine is constantly devising ways to make me insane.


And I was being so good, too, you know? I planned most of Christmas knitting during the summer. I decided I was going to knit my last "selfish projects" in August and then the gift knitting would begin. And I actually did it. There was going to be no late-night knitting marathons in December for me, not this time. I was all set.

Then the little voice said, "Let's do a craft fair!" Okay, no big deal. I can knit a bunch of hats and headbands. The boredom might get to me a little bit, but if I'm creative, I can stave that off.

Then it got really devious. It began speaking through other people. First it was Kelly Petkun, through the Knit Picks podcast. It told me all about this fabulous book, Teach Yourself Visually: Handspinning, which was full of fibery goodness for the low low price of $14.50. Okay, maybe she didn't sound like a used car salesman, but still. I bought the book, and it is indeed full of fibery goodness. I started actually trying to spin with the drop spindle and roving I had bought earlier, instead of just dyeing the roving with Kool-aid and making felted beads out of it. Next the voice revealed the true depths of its evil and spoke through my husband. J said to me, "You know, if you really want one, I'll get you a spinning wheel as an anniversary/birthday/Christmas present." Um, if I really want one?

So at this point, I am deeply into the rabbit hole. I joined all the spinning groups on Ravelry (well, except the one called "Spin Tech," it sounds like that's for people who really know what they're talking about) and I've spun a couple mini-skeins of yarn. Using the word "yarn" loosely, of course. Want to see?

Here's my first handspun:



Shut up, everybody's first handspun looks like that. It got better:


The next leap will be plying, and of course ignoring friends, family, and housework when the spinning wheel gets here in a couple of weeks.