drip drop

Back in January, at the blending workshop I went to with my mum, I came home with a bundle of delightful new-to-me fibre, to continue to work on a handspin that I’d started at the workshop. Handspin, in the full sense of the word- I’d started spinning in on my drop spindle, that’s been sitting in my bulky tools box and has been used maybe twice.

From there, it sat in my trolley for a couple of months; with each reset I would promise myself this was the month I would finish it. Each month I’d ignore it, or spin a bit and then leave it. Last month, I gave myself one last chance, and as I worked through my goal to touch everything in my trolley at least once – otherwise what would be the point of including it in what is supposed to be the space for my most active and pressing projects – I finally pulled it out, and spun until I got to the end of the carded yarn.

It’s a super pretty fibre spun up! I do have a small amount left, that still needs prepping and carding, but I’m going to pop it away for a bit I think, and maybe come back to it over winter.

The drop spindle has been a fun way to experiment with spinning, but now I have my wheel, I’m not sure I will use it much; in fact I’ve contemplated selling it…but also if I get that brown fibre carded up, the spindle makes sense as the best way to spin it – such a small amount it doesn’t seem worth doing on the wheel. The spindle also feels a bit friendlier; I can work with it and still chat with my family, and Beetle loves to sit at my feet and be the one to add the next spin to the spindle for me. For that reason alone, I’m reluctant to let it go too soon. Maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to the rhythm of the spindle, which is rather different to the rhythm of the wheel; maybe its a mindset and expectation issue more than the spindle itself…now I think I’ve not only talked myself into keeping it, but getting a braid of yarn and seeing if I can get the hang of it and fall in love with it. Whoops.

As for my current yarn? I’m thinking maybe a cowl with a feature stripe? I could buy some undyed yarn, knit up a couple of inches, add the handspun and knit until it runs out, then finish with the same width again of undyed? That’s my loose thinking at this stage – if I could make that work, I could spin the brown and do the same with it, for my mum – the brown was her favourite of the fibres we played with at the workshop. We’ll see. For now, I’m going to ball it up and pop it in my bag of handspun and let it settle for a bit, and the excess fibre can go into the storage box while I think on it some more.

Today, I’m in the big smoke for Miss14 to get her braces off. We’ve been to the bookshop, and bought a coffee; we’ve had road trip karaoke and multiple rounds of “if you could”. While I wait, I’m knitting and getting today’s YouTube video uploaded, then we’re off for some more girls day fun – Spotlight and Kmart and maybe some clothes and makeup shopping while the boys aren’t here to roll their eyes at us. We don’t get a chance very often so we’re determined to make the most of it. Chances are also high we might end up with donuts for road snacks on the way home. Love some bonus girl time – she’s growing up far too fast so I’ll soak it all in while she’s still happy to hang with her daggy old mum. Even if it does mean I get fleeced for a couple of new projects that by rights should come from her pocket money…