Well....it sort of counts

So I didn't exactly meet my goal yesterday, but I did try something new at the wheel, so I think it still counts. I didn't spend any time at the wheel yesterday, then at night after I turned off the computer, I realized I hadn't tackled my spinning challenge. I didn't feel like turning the computer back on to look anything up, though, so I just went back to playing with my alpaca.

I decided to spin a 3rd sample of fiber that I predrafted a fair amount. No picture, it doesn't really look any different than yesterday's 2, but it does seem to be the softest of the three. Maybe it's just that I managed to put less twist in it and it has nothing to do with the predrafting....I don't know.

Then for some reason I decided to switch my hands. I started spinning with my left hand in front when I first got my wheel, and it seemed to work, so I never tried it the other way. Until last night! Lo and behold, it worked quite well with my right hand in front. Possibly it even worked better. When I'm pinching with my left hand, I usually find a fair amount of twist still enters the draft zone, which is a pain. This seemed to happen less when I pinched with my right hand instead. I shall try it some more and see if this is really true, or just a figment of my late-night imagination....but at the very least, it seems I can comfortably spin with either hand in front, which seems like a good thing.

Instead of spinning, I spent yesterday's fiber time shopping at London Yarns and then starting a new knitting project. It was Wednesday sale day, and this week they were discounting sock yarn. While not an amazing steal, it was a good excuse to pick up some sock yarns I haven't tried before:
stash 002
Estelle Arequipa (superwash wool/alpaca/nylon). It's actually slightly darker than pictured, more deep burgundy/wine colours than bright reds.

stash 001
Plymouth Happy Feet (superwash merino/nylon). I had a really hard time choosing colours on this one--there were lots of lovely brights. But I finally decided a tamer colour was what I wanted. (there was a gorgeous green shade, but only 1 50 g skein, so I passed). Sorry it's so blurry, I'm really struggling to get good yarn photos lately.

And then I got totally temped by some scrumptious Misti Pima Cotton. I decided this would make the softest baby clothes ever, and so I bought some for a co-worker who just had a little girl and started knitting:
knit 001
The pattern is Checky, from Mission Falls "Wee Knits 3." It's quite straightforward knitting and is going pretty fast, although it seems to me like it's pretty big.....but she'll grow into it, right?

I'm not setting a new spinning goal today, but maybe I'll get around to tackling yesterday's. I think I'm headed to K-W this afternoon for 2-3 days (Stephen is working there this week), so I'll be away from my wheel and computer until Saturday or Sunday....

Comments

Cinders said…
Like the sock yarns very nice.