Spinning But Stuck

While leisure and recreation are necessary to get closer to life, you need alertness and effort to face it.― Tapan Ghosh

I added a new thing to our office space. You've got ten seconds to guess what it is:

Yes, it's finally happened. I have a spinning wheel. After years of playing about with drop spindles and tahklis, I have succumbed to the siren song of the wheel:

I've been thinking about learning to spin on a wheel for a while now. I still have a deep love for my spindles, but I also have a cupboard full of unspun fibre that really deserves to be something. A few months ago, an acquaintance mentioned to me how she had acquired far too many wheels a couple of years ago when she was organizing a spinning workshop, and my little ears perked up. I asked her if she would be interested in teaching me, and she said, "Of course. And I can give you a great deal on a wheel as well."

Fast forward three months, and I finally found myself in her house last Thursday. And, to my delight, sitting down at that wheel was like getting on a bicycle. It's like I always knew how to do it. That's what several years of spinning on spindles does for you: you know how to handle your fibre, how to build up twist, and what it feels like when it's going right or wrong. It was lovely to sit back and be mesmerized by the rhythm of the wheel as well.

The wheel above is a lovely used Ashford. It came with a Lazy Kate, which is a frame that holds full bobbins of singles for plying:

And here's the current bobbin on the wheel. I got to play around with all kinds of fibre, from pencil roving to raw fleece to silk blends to combed merino top:

So, my plan is to spin this bag of combed merino top into a couple of bobbins of singles and then return to my teacher for some guidance with plying on the wheel:

Except... I haven't been able to get near the wheel since I brought it home. Life happened.... home stuff, family stuff, cooking and cleaning and sleeping stuff... all the stuff you're supposed to take care of before you do the other stuff...

And well, besides all of that stuff, in an uncharacteristically multi-project fashion,  I seemed to have committed my craft time to far too many things. For example, I have it in my head that I need to knit Seymour a sweater. He disagrees, but he can't knit, so he doesn't get a say. I picked up a bag of odds and ends at the thrift shop for $1.75 a couple of weeks ago for exactly this purpose. I was hoping to get started on that before the weather gets too warm for him to wear it:

I also have my Papillon shawl to finish. I've finally managed to get through the pink section of the gradient yarn I am using for the Papillon shawl, much to my relief. Unfortunately, it has also finally reached that weird stage when it all of a sudden takes ages to get through a row. That will not be a speedy finish, but I think Seymour is happy about that because it means he won't be trying on rainbow-striped sweaters anytime soon:

And if those weren't enough projects to finish, I've also cast on for a hat that I'm making as a sample to help another acquaintance with learning a new stitch. So far, I've got a few inches of ribbing to show for it, and while I would really love to get it out of the way sooner than later, I'm really looking forward to having a new grey hat in the process:

So yeah, I have a spinning wheel now. I guess it'll have to be just another piece of furniture for a while until I finally learn not to try to do too many things at once. Luckily, some of us do not have that affliction:

Have a good week!