Spinning and Knitting

Last night, after I finally finished the previous project and my eyes were simply exhausted trying to fix those nasty little weft floats, I dragged my Jensen spinning wheel over to my computer, stoked up a movie on netflix and sat down with a basket of alpaca, silk and mohair roving.  I kind of mushed it all together with my hands before heading over to the drum carder (couldn’t watch netflix at this point, however) and carding it all a couple of times, not very neatly.  I then sat down a spun a ball of this stuff.  I have to admit I was getting a little bored spinning white fiber and I really could not wait to finish because I wanted to see how it would knit up.  What I really wanted was a warm scarf.  I seem to make a lot of pretty scarves out of hand-dyed, hand-spun silk but I’ve never made one out of alpaca.  The whole process took quite a while because it was about two o’clock when my husband emerged in my doorway wondering why the heck I hadn’t gone to bed four hours ago, at my bedtime (I don’t stay late).  But I was just so taken with spinning and the idea of knitting what I had spun that I could not stop spinning until this ball of yarn was done.  I like that feeling.  In fact I am dreaming up a post about feeling blocked and feeling open when it comes to creativity.  For me, it’s often the difference between a good day and a bad day.  Sure, other things can factor in, but if I am feeling dead creatively I have a hard time making it through the day with a bounce in my steps.  Later on that.  Now look at that beautiful spinning wheel below.

That’s my beautiful Jensen, my only wheel.

My ball of yarn and some knitting.

Just the knitting . . . I love the lace feeling of it.