Small Steps, Frustratingly Small But Steps Just The Same

Ta Da!!!

The best yet. Despite it being a shorter staple fiber I returned to the brown fiber that came with the wheel (I was out of the peruvian highland wool) and concentrated on keeping it as smooth as possible. And it worked to a degree. The above is what I spun up yesterday and proceeded to ply it. The better quality first spin along with how firmly I spun it allowed the ply to go much better. It's even better than the white peruvian wool I had worked up the day prior. It's still not where I want to be, but a solid week into my playing with the wheel again I can't complain. It's a perfectly workable yarn, and wonderfully soft after the wash to set the twist. And even better, after I washed it, it didn't twist in on itself! Which means it's also the most balanced yarn I've made to date.

I even have a plan for this 75yards of wonderfulness. As I was spinning it up, a darker strand of color started to appear. The darker fibers were a bit longer than the lighter and stayed near the core of the yarn as the lighter fibers fluffed around them giving it a little bit of extra character and reminding me of something. There is a beautiful brown standard poodle that I occasionally share a morning walk with him, his sister and human mom with that is almost this exact hue and color combination. Brown poodles as they age go kind of brown/silver and the more I play with this yarn, the more it looks just like Jonah. And before you get ideas of the big poof ball haircut, I have to tell you his owner has taste and keeps her kids trimmed in a short single length coat. And this is a BIG poodle. He's big boned and tall, and with his little mustache of sorts kind of distinguished looking. But don't worry, I won't be getting a poodle of any size.

As chance would have it, Jonah's moms birthday is approaching and being the big 70 they are planning on having a surprise birthday party where you bring things of 70 or the date. I'm thinking a present with 70 yards of Jonah colored yarn will be fantastic. Any ideas? She's a very young 70. If I hadn't had been told which birthday this was I would have gone a decade younger, and that's only due to her being retired from her original job. Now she fly's all over the country doing education consultations. So much for enjoying her retirement by playing with her art crafts, eh?


As for the rose colored yarn I had dyed up for my nieces 8th birthday, I combined it with the previous yarn I had made from the brown fiber to make this.

She's a bit of a girly girl, and has outgrown the hat I made for her last year for Christmas. I think she's going to like it. I'm considering getting her an IPod for her birthday as well. In fact, I was considering IPod's for her and both her older brothers for all their birthdays this year. They're all starting to form their listening preferences and I figure Mom and Dad would probably enjoy their kids growing music interests a little more if they had headphones. It would also make Christmas a little easier with Apple ITunes gift cards. Does that make me a bad uncle?

Well, I guess I'm going to go up and get the spinning wheel and pull it downstairs so I can get a couple of hours of spinning in before bed. I return to work tomorrow night so this is my back to night shift flip around night. Really, it's just an excuse to play with yarn while listening to an audiobook on my own IPod in the man-cave downstairs. If man-caves have sewing machines, ball winders, yarn swifts as well as the flat screen TV exercise equipment and what not. It's an eclectic man-cave.