Back in Blue

There's been lots of things going on chez Avrienne in the past two weeks.  Remember those guests I mentioned?  They were here from the Tuesday I last posted, until this pastThursday.  The days leading up to their visit were consumed by a flurry of cleaning.  Then when they got here, it was cooking, eating, drinking lots of wine and cider and beer, and the playing of many, many board games.

Also, there was a day trip to Frankenmuth, during which I totally neglected to get pictures, and then later a trip to the Detroit Zoo, where I got many.  But that's another post all on its own.

Today, in the first of many updates on what interesting things I've been up to, I'm happy to present a craft I've long neglected....spinning.

I learned to spin on a drop spindle in college, from the same lovely woman who taught the weaving class at the college craft center, and who shortly thereafter went on to open a local yarn shop!  Ah, memories.  Ahem.

We used these immense spindles her husband had made for us, and I wasn't very good at it, and I didn't stick with it.  But then several years ago, I really started to notice all the lovely handspun yarn floating about the blogoverse, and I picked up this little spindle, traded on the Knittyboards for some fiber, and off I went.

That spinning phase lasted, oh, a few weeks.  Maybe a month at best, I don't recall precisely.

I don't know exactly what caused me to pick up the spindle again three weeks ago.  I didn't see any particularly noteworthy spinning being done, I didn't get enabled by anyone, I didn't fall down and hit my head and say "Spinning!  That's what I need to do now!"  I just...wanted to spin.

Having traded for it so long ago, I have no idea the exact fiber I'm spinning here.  I picked a braid of roving out of the stash because I liked the color, but I'm pretty sure it's wool (most of it is, aside from one bunch I'm sure is alpaca and another I suspect might be) and it's soft enough that I'm willing to bet it's merino.

I'm trying to spin the singles fine enough that it will be a laceweight yarn when I ply it, or at least a light fingering, because I have ambitious visions that it might someday be an Echo Flower Shawl [Ravelry link].  But I have no idea how much yardage I'm going to end up with, so it's certainly not set in stone.  Right now I'd just be thrilled to stick with it long enough to get through the whole thing!

I am trying to subscribe to the Ten Minutes A Day theory on handspinning, and doing fairly well so far, though there were many days while my guests were here that I simply didn't have time, which I think can be forgiven.