Do I really need another obsession?

Of course I don’t. Will that stop me? Hmmmmm……jury is still out on that one. But it isn’t my fault at all. Nope, not at all. 

It’s all JudyL’s fault. She started it .  I’ve always had a thing for any sort of fiber work. I’ve done embroidery. crewel, needlepoint, garment sewing, quilting, temari and back in college, I knitted my first project, an afghan. A while back Judy posted on her blog that she had knit a pair of socks.  Hey, that sounded interesting, I thought I might want to give that a try. I consulted an acquaintance that is a knitter, told her I had knitted once, 30+ years ago, did she think I could learn to make socks? She said that it was too difficult.    You KNOW what that means! I promptly bought a instructional dvd/yarn/needle kit for making socks- 2 at a time. I am on my third pair (they take me a long time because they get put down for long periods while I pursue other obsessions interests) and while I can’t claim to be an accomplished sock knitter, I am able to (and do) wear the ones that I have finished. So you see, Judy started it!

I do love reading Judy’s blog, she does so many interesting things and has a way of telling a story that makes even the mundane a hoot. And she tries so many different things. In that respect I think we are kindred spirits, if I lived four lifetimes I couldn’t try all the things that capture my interest and imagination. Judy not only quilts, lectures and writes quilting books, she now raises chickens, makes her own cheese and bakes her own bread from flour she mills herself. So, you see, Judy is to blame.

I have started knitting things other than socks. And, in the spirit of trying new things, from scratch, I took a few lessons how to use this:

 

Yep, a spinning wheel….to make my own yarn. Under my instructor’s guidance, I spun and plied some roving. It wasn’t too bad for a first effort, but it was rather irregular. It is one of those things that you say you were going for ‘novelty’ yarn and wanted it to have different thicknessess. “I meant it to be this way”.

I purchased more roving, this time pencil roving and on my own spun it up. This was much more regular and uniform-not perfect, but much improved. This morning I finished spinning it and also plied it. The pencil roving was wonderful to work with, and the colors…….ooooooh, how I love intense color. The roving went from an yellowy-orange and deep lavender to a hot pink and dark purple.

Here it is while being spun:

 

I’m enjoying this. Of course, the sensible part of me (which can be found on the fingernail of my left pinkie finger) is telling me that to justify doing this I would have to knit a whole lot more. Added to that, spinning wheels tend to be expensive. So, along with researching fibers and techniques, I have also been collecting instructions for making your own spinning wheel—you know—so you can really do it from scratch……….

#1DS is now hiding, as he is the one that gets recruited to help me with all the ‘crazy mom projects’. In Momspeak, ‘help’ translates to ‘do’.

So, you see, it is really all Judy’s fault.    ………..(psssst, hey Judy, thanks!)