Thursday, January 10, 2008

mostly spinning

Well, phew. That was a false alarm. The computer is fine; if you want more details J left a rant at his own foolishness in the comments. I think all the around-the-house projects are wearing on him, poor guy.


I'm totally going to write about spinning to day, because I haven't posted any spinning since November, but first I want to show you this:



That came in the mail last week; it's the medications I'll be using to get ready for the egg donation. Scary-looking, right? I was overwhelmed when I first saw how much stuff was there, but on closer examination it seems the pharmacy just sends a lot of extras. Not extra medication, but extra needles, alcohol wipes, gauze pads (which I don't need), ginormous terrifying mixing needles (which I also don't need), etc. I've actually already done three injections so far. They're all subcutaneous as opposed to intramuscular, so it's not bad at all. The needles are very short and very fine, and it really doesn't even feel like anything. Up until last night, I had not noticed any side effects, either, but I woke up about 4:00 this morning feeling very crampy and uncomfortable. I don't even know for sure that it was related to the medication, although I don't know what else it would be, but it was not particularly fun. After getting up, eating, and moving around a bit I feel a lot better, though.

So that's where the egg donation process stands so far. The nurse says the actual retrieval will probably be at the end of this month, but they won't know exactly when until it is much closer. I'm a little nervous about that part, I confess. I find that comparing it to childbirth in my head makes it seem a lot less daunting. But enough about all that - how about some spinning?

I haven't been spinning all that much lately, unfortunately, but it doesn't really matter for the purposes of this post. It's been so long since I talked about spinning I've still got a bunch of stuff to show you. Remember this wool? It was from a cormo/rambouillet/corriedale cross sheep named Ray. I bought it from artclub.etsy.com, and I overdyed the natural brown color with a little bit of orange. Here's the final result:


I think that's about a dk weight, and let me take a moment to say woo-hoo that my spinning has gotten consistent enough that I can say what weight it is without laughing out loud. Woo-hoo! I'll enjoy it while it lasts, because I found that spinning a whole new fiber is something akin to starting all over again. Here's a skein of that wonderful soft squishy birthday alpaca:




It's much more uneven than the wool, but I'd call it maybe a heavy worsted or chunky weight. It was a completely different experience to spin, much more slippery and it shed like crazy. The slipperiness made it go really fast, though, which was cool. And the skein itself? Just incredibly soft. I've still got a bunch of the alpaca left, so I'm hoping when it's all spun up it will be enough for a sweater. Maybe this one, but I'm not sure yet.


The last yarn I've got to show you is perhaps not the prettiest, certainly not the softest, but I am nonetheless rather proud of it.

Do you know what that is? It's part of the fleece! That's yarn Jess and I washed, dyed, carded, and spun! We're totally Little Red Hen over here! (I washed the wool, I dyed the wool, I carded the wool, I spun the wool . . .) I was a bad blogger and I did not really document the process at all, but fear not! There is still a buttload (wool is measured in buttloads, did you know?) of raw fleece in my basement, plus about three-quarters of a buttload that's been washed but nothing else, so I will take lots of pictures and post about it next time. I pinky-swear, which apparently works, because the last thing I pinky-swore about on the blog got done. See?



Well, that's about all the spinning. I did start some of my Christmas wool, too, but there's not enough done to show. At the rate I'm going, I guess I'll post about spinning again some time in March!
But before I go, is there anything cuter than a stuffed alpaca, made from alpaca?


Perhaps not. :)