Anastasia is my Polish princess, a Kromski Sonata. Here's what I can't explain. I love spinning. It is my favorite thing, the one thing that never fails to make me all zen and happy. Less than a year ago, I gleefully drove the six hours to Asheville, NC, to choose her and bring her home. Furthermore, since I got back from the festival last month, all I've wanted to do is spin. So how is it that, other than packing her up and driving her to Pittsburgh and back, I've had no interaction with Anastasia since October? (To add to the irony, in my last post about spinning, I expressed a resolution to ply all of the yarn I was working on immediately so that I wouldn't have a bunch of full bobbins sitting around.)
In any case, better late than never. Although I have been spinning on my drop spindle whenever I get the chance, my first time back at the wheel in months was still pretty awkward. I think Anastasia may be part cat: she was a little recalcitrant when I suddenly reappeared in her life and wanted to play. But she doesn't seem to be the grudge-holding sort, and within a few minutes, we were getting along famously.
I finished up the Stargazing roving that was my treat after the festival in October.
It's one of my hand-dyes. The wool is BFL, and it's super soft and fabulous to spin. I'm absolutely delighted with it. I had done the caramel part back in the day and then lost the end of the blue part.
Do you see the end? Of course you don't. All the king's horses and all the king's men, scotch tape, a toothbrush, other knitters--nobody could find the end. I finally gave up and broke it to make a new end. I kept following promising bits of yarn until something crossed on top, then following the one that crossed on top, until I got to a seemingly M. C. Escher-esque infinite loop of two strands that both crossed on top of each other. I couldn't make heads or tails of that, so I broke one of those and started plying from there. I expected to run into a problem pretty soon, but instead I plied and plied, until I finally got to a point where the yarn crossed under something. I looked at the bobbin, and there was just a narrow band of yarn on top of the piece I was working from, and there on top, plain as day, was the end. So I pulled that off until I got to the other end of where I broke it, set that aside, and kept on plying. It turned out to be only a few yards, and I would have joined it onto the end, but it was really bad yarn anyway--thin parts, not enough twist. I wasn't paying attention for a while before the break that caused the lost end, apparently.
So! I finished the blue yarn. Here's the last of it.
It looks a little sketchy now, but I think a bath will even it out. I also finished the purple part. This roving is completely spun, I have two empty bobbins and one small alpaca surprise that was hidden under all this wool, and I'm ready to start something new. I'm so excited. Do I really have to go to work? Can't I just stay home and spin?
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