Spinning

Mondays are always hard.  The Monday after a three day weekend especially so.  I stayed up late last night to watch Texas Rising, so I was working on little sleep to begin with.  Then something had my allergies all stirred up -- judging by my inability to take a deep breath, I would guess someone was mowing -- and I had a splitting headache.   Needless to say, I did not want to get out of bed this morning. 

I thought I was going to get a lot of spinning done, what with the 3 day weekend and all, but alas, it was not to be.  The little plastic connector thingy that connects my treadle (foot pedal) to the wheel broke.  I'd planned on ordering a Lazy Kate anyway, so I added a new connector and some other stuff to my basket.  It'll be a few days before it gets here, but I didn't want to wait.  I spun anyway, using what I call the park and draft method.

That is, I'd draft some fibers, then spin the wheel with my hand to twist them.  Draft some more, spin by hand, then spin again and let the bobbin take up my singles.

It's slow and inconsistent, but I can get good drafting practice without having to worry about  coordinating my hands and feet.  I'm pretty good at treadling, and getting better at drafting.  The trick will be to do them both at the same time. 

When I got tired of that -- as it is a bit tedious -- I finished weaving my scarf. 

In retrospect, I wish I'd used a solid black or gray for the warp.  Obviously, I need to do a better job of figuring out how long of a scarf my yarn will make.  I've got lots of fringe left over.  I could have gone with a slightly shorter warp, and had enough yarn to make the scarf a bit longer. 

Eh, I figure charities need kid sized scarves, too.

Still, the spinning bug had bitten me, so I dragged out my drop spindles and got back to work.  I finished this one:  

I think I dyed this with onion skins.  It's been so long, I don't really remember.  It'll be plied with this one, as soon as I find an empty spindle.  

I was all up in my closet, looking for the aforementioned empty spindle, when I found this.  

A lot of fiber, dyed with cherry Kool-Aid.  It's a lot of fiber.  I'm thinking I might wait until I get the hang of the wheel to spin the rest of it.  On the other hand, that is my best drop spindle it's on...

And this:

Dyed with Paas Easter Egg dye.  I'm spinning that on a Spindolyn, which is a supported spindle.  I've got one spindle already filled, but I didn't use the base with it.  I tried and tried, but couldn't get the hang of it, so just used it like a regular drop spindle.  I'm going to try again with the second one and see if I can get it this time.

And look, more fiber.  The two smaller ones were dyed with Easter Egg dye.  I think the big blob was, too.  I checked back through the blog and discovered that I'd dyed the big glob back in 2008.

I thought it looked like cow intestines, so I named the colorway Disemboweled Cow.  The two smaller balls, I was going to put with these three and make something for my sister. 

They are already spun and plied, even the green yarn that is still on the spindle.  I guess I ought to take it off, huh?

Then I'm thinking a striped scarf or something.  We shall see.