Fiber Friends

Remember when Carole sent my that wonderful “welcome to spinning” package? Well, the welcome wagon has hit again and this time I received a package from Micki. I must confess I was half expecting to receive a package from her. She’d spun this beautiful pink, gold and white yarn and commented that she didn’t really like it. Of course I volunteered to take it off her hands and so she came up with a swap idea. If she sent me this yarn that she’d spun, then in the future I’d send her a skein of yarn I’d spun. It sounded like the perfect plan.

But when the package arrived, it was kind of fat. How could this only be one skein of yarn? Well, it wasn’t.

The first thing I found in the package was this beautiful fiber from Copperpot Woolies. It’s a fluffy and soft 4.2 ounces of merino and the colorway is called Beyond the Realm.

Next came another stunning fiber from PigeonRoof Studios. It’s got amazing color variations and is 4.1 ounces of corriedale in a colorway called Dovecote.

Last, and best of all, was Micki’s very own handspun, but this was not the handspun we’d agreed on for our swap. This handspun is made from fiber made at Crown Mountain Farms. This makes it especially precious because the Sock Hop Yarn from CMF is what started my interest in spinning. This is 360 yards of fingering weight 100% superwash merino (111 grams) in the colorway Good Vibrations.

Micki has only been spinning for about 6 months (if that) and this yarn is perfect. No, really it is. As soon as I can spin yarn that looks this good, then I’ll fulfill my end of the swap. Is a year or two too long?

In knitting news, I actually have been knitting. Unfortunately, I’ve been sample knitting for designers so I’m unable to share any photos until the patterns are released.

The one thing I have been madly working on since returning from vacation is this beautiful stole designed by my friend Laura. I’m honored to once again be asked to test-knit it (or did I *tell* her I was test knitting it?), but it was until yesterday that I noticed this:

When I put the two shawl ends together, one end of the shawl is much lighter in color than the other end. Obviously one skein of the Malabrigo got a lot more of the deep blue than the first skein I used. Drat. I’m not ripping back though. It’s going to be a design element.

Bay-kay-she-on

I wonder if the locals in Mexico enjoyed hearing me attempt Spanish as much as I enjoyed hearing the locals attempt English. My favorite word was vacation. When pronounced by a local, it sounded like “bay-kay-she-on”. I probably will forever refer to our vacations now as “bay-kay-she-ons”.

We had a full eight days of fun in the sun in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. We rented a unit from an owner at the Coral Baja Resort which was recently acquired by Wyndham. We stayed in a one-bedroom unit with a full kitchen and living room, although most of the the time we were only there *sleeping*. Fortunately for us, the other family members staying there had the penthouse, so that ended up being the indoor hang out spot.

Day 1: Lets just say that I started off vacation by ending day one worshipping the porcelain god. On the upside, here was the view from our balcony I got to see the following morning:

Day 2: One of the water pipes for the pool burst, so most of the day was spent in the sun waiting for everything to get fixed. Luckily at 3pm everything was in working condition, just in time for the arrival of my step-daughter, son-in-law and grandkids.

Day 3 & 4: Nothing beats two days at the pool basking in the sun, drinking margaritas, and playing in the pool. I even managed to get in some sample knitting time under a big umbrella to keep me cool.

Day 5: Even though the guys got to spend many hours golfing, that afternoon we hung out at Santa Maria beach. I love this photo. I think my step-daughters family is so cute… even from behind.

Day 6: We drove into Cabo San Lucas and spent that day at the Mango Deck Beach Club at Medano Beach. Initially the local vendors that come up to you every 5 minutes asking you to buy their *junk* are annoying, but after a few beers, margaritas, and shots, you don’t really care anymore and somehow you are convinced to buy stuff. We definitely came home that afternoon with our fair share of t-shirts, hats, and silver jewelry.

We also participated in a competition called “Name That Movie”. The DJ would play 3 seconds of a song and you’d have to guess what movie it was from. The winning movie was guessed by yours truly (Dr. Zhivago). Of course, when the prize winning bucket of beer and tequila shots were delivered to our group, hubby and I were off checking out the Arch and Lovers Beach on a jet ski. Unfortunately FMS had reared its ugly head that day and even with a *little* bit of alcohol, I only felt well enough for a 10-minute ride. Thankfully our 3-yr-old grandson is fearless, so he finished up my ride with his grandpa.

Day 7: The guys were off again by themselves early this morning to try their hand at fishing. When all was said and done, we had 2 Tuna, 4 Halibut and 1 Red Snapper. Since the penthouse had a BBQ on the patio, we had quite the fish feast for dinner and the men were all smiles that they *provided* dinner for the evening.

That afternoon when they’d returned from fishing, the resort had a beer drinking contest and not only did my step-daughter beat out her husband, but she beat out everyone and won! Her daddy was so proud.

Day 8: For whatever reason, we got a late start and only got to spend a few hours at Chileno Beach.

This beach is by far the best in the area and we collected lots of sea glass, saw tiny black crabs climbing the rocky areas, and wished we’d had time to snorkel. There are a lot of amazing fish to see in that water and we will definitely make this beach a must-visit when we return to Cabo in the future.

In the afternoon we went shopping at the town closest to us, San Jose del Cabo. We had a great time going through all the shops and was caught off guard a bit by all the Dia de la Muerte items for sale. I know it’s a big part of Mexican tradition, but it was still a bit surprising. Mixed in with the local downtown shopping area, was the Mission of San Jose del Cabo Anuiti which was founded in 1730.

But our best find of the day was the Tropicana Inn. This is a beautiful hotel and restaurant with absolutely amazing food. The grandkids were fascinated by the lobster tank in the center of the restaurant, but only the eldest was brave enough to touch one.

Day 9: Today was my son-in-laws 40th birthday, (so weird that he’s a year older than me), so the morning was spent at the pool and the afternoon was spent in Cabo San Lucas for shopping and dinner. He requested to have dinner at Mi Casa, the same restaurant he and his wife ate at when they came here for their honeymoon.

Everything we ate and drank were complete perfection from the homemade corn tortillas

to the huge margaritas that are the best I’ve ever had. And believe me, I’ve had my fair share of margaritas during my life.

Not only was our son-in-law given birthday “cake” for dessert, but they also poured a shot of I-don’t-know-what down his throat and then shook his head a few times.

It was a wonderful evening of good food and drinks with family and I’ll never forget it.

Day 10: That morning we spent watching the grandkids play in the pool, and that afternoon we found ourselves saying goodbye and headed off to the airport.

It was a wonderful vacation, but I must say I missed my dogs, my home, and my spinning wheel. So if you don’t see me around the blogs for a few days, you know where I’ll be.

Fly-By Post

I just wanted to give you all a quick post to remind you that I’m leaving on vacation (in 6 hours) for ten days and I may or may not have internet access. If I do, I’ll probably tease share with you a photo or two of the beach or a tropical drink or my toes in the water. If I don’t, then things will be pretty quiet around here or awhile.

That reminds me, my airplane knitting will be this lovely skein of yarn.  If you like knitting with laceweight yarn, or are interested in trying it, you must get your hands on some of this. It’s Malabrigo Lace and if you’ve ever knit with Malabrigo before, I promise you’ll love this just as much … maybe more. Each skein is 470 yards / 50 grams and although I know The Loopy Ewe carries it, they didn’t have the colorway I wanted, so I purchased mine from Twist. I recommend both of these places without hesitation. They really know how to put the customer first. This particular colorway is Taureg and I’m using it to test knit another stunning stole design by Laura. I’m so lucky.

Fabulously Felted

I’m so late in getting this post out, but things are crazy here. I’m leaving for vacation Friday morning and since I lost 25 pounds since last year at this time, none of my summer weather clothing fits. I’m not complaining about having to shop for clothing in a smaller size, it’s just that since I have 15 more pounds to go, these will just be in-between clothes, so it kind of feels like a waste of money. Money that could be spent on fiber.

Pattern: Felted Clogs by Bev Galeskas
Source: Fiber Trends
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes; (2) skeins Black Cherry Heather, (4) skeins Gray Heather
Needles: Knit Picks Options 9.0 mm / US 1
Ravelry: My Clogs

After seeing Lynda’s fabulous clogs, I decided it was finally time to felt mine. I’d knit them in November, but didn’t have any clue how to successfully felt them, so they sat with the other UFO’s that I’m trying to ignore. I didn’t want all my hard work to be ruined by doing something stupid in the felting process. I sent Lynda an email to find out if there were any special instructions for felting things that must fit on your foot. Unfortunately it was as I expected and I had to try on the wooly wetness of my clog a time or two (or three in my case) to insure I didn’t over-felt it.

I tossed them both into a zippered pillow cover, filled the machine with hot water and let them agitate for 10 minutes. This was most definitely not enough time, and I returned them to the agitation cycle for another 5 minutes. I then noticed that one was smaller than the other, so I left it out and put the other one in the machine for a few minutes. When I checked it, that one was the perfect size and the other one was too big, so back in it went for 2 minutes. Perfect! I did find out later however, that when felting multiple pieces of a project (such as TWO clogs), each item should be put in a separate bag. This helps them felt more evenly as mine had not in certain places that I will not point out. I formed them to my feet (more or less) and set them out to dry for two days.

I had no idea they were going to be as comfortable as they are and the double sole makes them very cushy. I wouldn’t hesitate to make a lot more of these for family and friends.  I most definitely won’t have trouble figuring out holiday gifts this year.

By the way, don’t go to WEBS to check out their annual anniversary sale, you may end up finding something like this on your doorstep a few days later:

(Click on photo for link to Flickr with all the yarn information)

Friends and Frenzy

A few weeks ago, my wonderful friend Carole surprised me with a package of rovings and a sweet card welcoming me to the world of spinning. The roving I noticed immediately was this one:

This is 100% Wool (label doesn’t say what kind of wool) from Knit One Spin Two. Although the natural BFL I showed in my last post was easy to spin, the bright green color of this roving could be seen clearly which makes it perfect for the beginning spinner. I know personally how much it helped me spin more consistent singles. I’ve only spun one bobbin of this and I think I may use it a practice to try Navajo Plying.

Also included in the package was 4 ounces of this amazing merino/bamboo fiber hand dyed by Spunky Eclectic. The colorway is Walking on the Sun, and it’s even more beautiful in person. I haven’t spun it up yet, because I’m not sure how different spinning the bamboo fiber will be. I’d like to have a bit more practice with the BFL and Corriedale I have in my fiber stash so that I don’t waste a bit of this.

Since the first day, I have been inspired by the stunning yarn that Micki has been spinning on her Lendrum wheel. She has been enabling helping me by making recommendations of where I can purchase beautiful rovings to spin. Within the matter of a few days, my doorstep was no longer being graced with packages filled with yarn, but with packages of rovings from Paradise Fibers, Wolly Treasures, and Crown Mountain Farms. I’ve already started spinning the fiber from Paradise Fibers, which is 4 ounces of this beautiful Ashland Bay merino top in the Forest colorway.

Photos of the other rovings will be shared as I spin them, but for those of you who don’t want to wait, check out my Flickr Spinning Set.

I know it’s hard to tell, but lately there has been more knitting going on around here than spinning. The problem is, I can’t show you everything I’ve been knitting. The only project I can show you is the beautiful blue blob which is another test-knit for my friend Laura. The project doesn’t have a name quite yet, and there will be two other knitters joining in, but since I was waiting for my sample knit pattern to arrive, I cast on and knit this as quick as I could. I’m only halfway through the stole, not including the border, but I have to stop now and work on the sample knits so it will look like this for a few weeks I’m afraid. By the way, this is Malabrigo Lace yarn in Taureg, and it’s every bit as soft as the Malabrigo worsted in my stash. Do you know how tempting it is to knit lace undergarments in this?

The knitting items I can’t show you are my sample knits. I met the designer at TNNA and told her I’d be thrilled to test or sample knit for her and after some email correspondence that followed, she agreed to send me a sample to knit as a trial to see how well we worked together and more obviously how well I could or couldn’t knit. When she received the first sample knit she said she loved it and asked if I could do two more for her this month. I feel so flattered and lucky to have this opportunity, and it has given my “cute knitting hobby” some credibility with family and friends since now I’m being paid to sample knit. Unfortunately for you, there will be no photos until the designs have been released.

So currently I have two sock samples due by the end of this month and I’m trying to get them both finished before next Friday when I leave on vacation for 10 days. I’ve also made it to the next round of Sock Madness and the next round starts tonight. In fact the email with the pattern should be arriving in my inbox at anytime. Oh crap, that reminds me, I’ve got to go wind those skeins of yarn which might take a minute or two or twenty since this round is a pair of socks in laceweight yarn in two different colorways. Yikes! Don’t even get me started on how much house cleaning, vacation preparation, emails, and voice mails that are being neglected. Aren’t you surprised I found time to squeeze in another blog post so soon? I’m still in my pajamas though if that gives you any clue as to what got skipped today so that a blog post could be written. You’re all worth it.

You spin me right around

About a month ago, my beautiful spinning wheel was christened when I had my first spinning lesson from Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts. Lori made me feel at ease instantly, and since I’d practiced treadling slow and steady for a few days, the only thing I really had to pay attention to were my hands. I’m not sure how to describe the feeling of spinning yarn other than to say it was magical. I was a bit surprised that it felt semi-natural, like it was something I had done before. The only thing I can equate it to is the feeling you get when you do something that you learned many years ago, but haven’t done in a long time, like riding a bike. At first it feels a bit awkward trying to remember about the balancing and steering and pedaling, but after a few minutes of riding, it all comes back to you. That’s what spinning for the first time felt like to me.

I credit most of my ease to Lori, because I really believe that if you have good equipment and a good instructor, you’ll learn a lot quicker and easier. Lori is an amazing instructor and after seeing her beautiful dyeing, spinning and knitting, I knew I was learning from a master artist. In fact, if you’re looking for beautifully hand-dyed fiber (yarn and roving) or handspun yarn from her hand-dyed roving, check out her etsy site.

At the end of my first day of spinning, I had this:

And at the end of the second day of spinning, I had this:

And then, when I filled another bobbin and plied them together, I got this:

Fiber: BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) in Natural
2 ply
330 yards
90 grams

It’s obviously not perfect, but it is my first handspun so I’m proud of it. It’s also not quite thin enough to be sock yarn, although it is close. I have no idea what to do with it though. Right now it’s sitting on the bookcase attached to my desk. For those of you who spin, what did you do with your first handspun? What do all of you knitters think I should do with mine?

And before I forget, I’m going to try and post a couple of times this week and next to try and get caught up. I have so many things to show and tell you, but if I don’t get them all posted here before I go on vacation in 10 days, they’ll probably never get shared.

I’ll have another cup-a-tea

Many of you will remember from this post, how my wonderful hubby thought the Clapotis was named Cup-A-Tea. So in honor of my husband, here’s my second Cup-A-Tea.

Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
Source: Knitty.com Fall 2004 issue
Yarn: Brooks Farm Acero (2 skeins)
Needles: 4.0 mm / US 6 KnitPicks Options Nickel
Finished Dimensions: 60″ x 20″
Ravelry Info: My Page and Pattern Page

I’d originally purchased the Acero yarn to knit the Ella shawl, but for whatever reason, at some point I changed my mind and so the yarn languished in my stash. Then, a few weeks before Stitches West I joined my very first knit night group (Anaheim Hills Knitters), and figured I’d better take a fairly uncomplicated pattern to knit so that I could knit, talk, and pay close attention to all the conversation going on. Since I’d just seen Jillian’s beautiful black Clapotis, I knew I must cast on for a solid color Clapotis and went stash diving. Thankfully the Acero fit the bill and I cast-on immediately.

Since the Acero is between a Fingering and DK weight, I decided to add some extra pattern repeats to keep this more of a wrap than a scarf. Of course this added some additional knitting time to the project, but it was well worth it.

The completed shawl turned out exactly as I’d hoped and was perfect to wear in the cooler weather of Northern California. Unfortunately Clapotis has not been hardly used since, and most definitely won’t be seeing the light of day today … it’s a blasting 83 degrees. Does this mean it will be in the 100’s for summer? Perish the thought.

Madness, Movies, and Motrin

I’d missed out on Sock Madness last year so when rumors of Sock Madness 2 started circulating, I signed up immediately. I thought that my sock knitting skills had vastly improved over the last year and that I knit socks fairly quickly and felt pretty comfortable with any difficulty level. One thing I’d recommend though to anyone who decides to take on something like Sock Madness is to arm yourself with lots of movies for entertainment and motrin for the inevitable pain.

Pattern: Zombie Socks by Sheryl Giles designed for Sock Madness 2
Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock lightweight in Obsidian
Needles: 2.0 mm / US 1 Knit Picks Circular Nickel (2) 24″
Ravelry Links: GuiltyPleasures and Sock Madness
Started: 3/13 11:00 am; Finished: 3/15 8:30 am

Thursday morning at 10am as I sipped my morning coffee, I did as I do most mornings at that time and checked my email. There it was. The sock madness email I had been anticipating. As I sprung from the sofa and into my office / craft room, I started up my office PC and printed out the sock pattern while searching for my swift and yarn. Normally there would be no searching, but the craft room is in the midst of a remodel and so things aren’t in their usual places. Hubby came into the room to see what all the bustle was about, and in my best panicky voice I said: “I can’t find my swift, I can’t find my swift.” As he holds his coffee in one hand, he reaches over to the top of my double wooden filing cabinet and calmly says: “It’s right here”. I gratefully smile at him as I grab the pattern from the printer, my needlecase, the yarn from its container, and rush to the dining room table to turn my yarn hank into a ball.

I quickly read through the pattern. Zombie Socks. Sounds interesting enough. I cast-on and after the necessity of the ribbing was completed, I excitedly began knitting the stitch pattern. I was definitely thankful that there were no jobs, or children to get in the way of my knitting time, and although I miss hubby while he’s at work, when he walked out the door at 2 pm I was anxious to knit all evening until he returned home at 1 am. I had the stitch pattern memorized immediately and since there are dropped stitches, I wondered why the instructions didn’t have me knit through the back loop (ktbl) of the stitches before and after the dropped stitch to reinforce them. Then I finally realized that since Zombies are a bit on the disheveled side (although I’ve not personally met one), and by not reinforcing the stitch, it makes it look less “neat”. Besides, I’ve already knit the “neat” version of this pattern before. It’s the Tangled Up In Blue pattern by Judy Becker. You know the one .. Judy of Judy’s Magic Cast On. There were a few minor differences, in Judy’s pattern but overall I kind of felt like I was knitting the same sock pattern twice.

During that day I was able to complete the leg of both socks, and at bedtime I was grateful that I had a bottle of muscle relaxants in my medicine cabinet. The next morning as I worked on the heel flaps, my body told me that it needed a day off to rest. As I opened the bottle of Motrin I told my body to be quiet since there was no time for rest and things would be fine. As I continued to knit, I noticed my knitting was quite labored and slow. I also noticed that the pain had not been helped by the Motrin and when I finished the heel flap on the second sock, I noticed that things weren’t lining up. Riiiiiiippppp. I recounted, I repositioned stitches, and started again. I then realized my problem was that I was trying to watch new tv programming, and new-to-me movies, so my concentration wasn’t focused enough on the socks.

I glanced over at the 100+ DVD’s in their dilapidated shelving unit and figured that this is the ideal time to re-watch movies I know and love so that I can more fully concentrate on the project at hand. I knit and knit and knit and when hubby arrived home at 1 am, he found me in the same position as when he had left that same afternoon. He could tell I was in pain since non-stop knitting and fibromyalgia are not a great combination, and he highly recommended I go to bed. I assured him I wouldn’t be up much longer, and whether he believed me or not, he must have been too tired to argue with me and put himself to bed. I doubt he was surprised much when he woke up at 7 am and found a completely exhausted wife sitting on the sofa with socks in hand working on the toes.

By 8:30am hubby was off to work and I had finished knitting, photographing, and uploading my sock photos to Flickr. I sent off my email to notify the Sock Madness maidens that I had completed my socks, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I gathered up my finished socks, the bottle of Motrin and the strewn about movies, put them in a pile on the table and went to bed.

One final note, it’s now 4 days later and in my division only 23 people have completed their socks. Since the top 40 people continue on to the second round, I was obviously a little over-zealous with pulling an all-nighter to complete my socks. Damnit.

Come to the Flower Faire

Well, she’s gone and done it again. Laura has designed a stole and scarf version of the Garden Party shawl, and has named it Flower Faire. I was lucky enough to also be asked to test-knit this shawl and since there are 3 sizes to choose from in the pattern, I requested the wide scarf size.

Pattern: Flower Faire by Laura Patterson
Pattern Source: Fiber Dreams / Ravelry
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 in Ruby (500 yards)
Needles: US size 5 / 3.75 mm Knit Picks Options (Harmony)
Finished Size: 12.5 x 62 in. (32 x 157 cm)

My Ravelry page

After looking through my laceweight yarn stash, I realized that not only do I have a very small laceweight stash, but that the JaggerSpun Zephyr that I used on my Garden Party shawl was the perfect choice. Since I was using leftovers from a previous project though, my only concern was that I wouldn’t have enough.

All sizes are knit in the same manner from the center towards one edge from a provisional cast on. After completing the first side, you pick up the stitches from the cast on chain and knit the second side exactly as the first. Easy peasy.

If you prefer to use a heavier lace weight or fingering weight yarn, then the narrow scarf version will work perfectly for that. If you want your stole or scarf to be longer or shorter, it would be quite easy to modify the pattern to either omit or add extra repeats of the different motifs.

I can usually tell when I’m going to run out of yarn when knitting socks, probably because I’ve knit so many of them, but laceweight yarn seems a bit trickier for me. As I neared the border on the second side I repeatedly asked DH if he thought I had enough yarn left, or if I should omit a repeat. He said “you’re fine”. “How would you know”, I inquired, “you don’t knit”. He responded with the obvious “Then why are you asking me?”

I fretted and debated during each and every row if I should omit a motif repeat before the border, and as I looked at the dwindling yarn ball remaining, I was sure I didn’t have enough. DH tried to reassure me that I had plenty of yarn, but I kept ignoring him thinking he didn’t know what he was talking about. I remembered thinking at one point that it would have been wise to weigh the first half of the completed scarf and then the remaining ball of yarn to know for sure.

I finally decided to omit one pattern repeat of the last motif and knit the border. As I bound off the last stitch of the border, I looked at the ball of yarn remaining and gave myself a swift quick in the butt. I not only didn’t need to omit the last repeat of the motif, but I had to tell my husband he was right. I hate it when that happens.

Stitches West 2008: Sunday Surprise

I was sad to wake up on Sunday morning knowing that this afternoon I had to leave Stitches and all my new friends to return to normal life. I was anxious to hit the market floor one last time and got impatient waiting for my husband, so I went to the market a few minutes ahead of him. I wandered the aisles and picked up a few little things for some friends. I can’t show you what they are, but if you want to check out Debra’s Garden and Gita Maria, you’ll have an idea of what I bought.

My husband met up with me before my purchase at Debra’s Garden, and gave me yet another knitting bag. He knows I have a love for bags, and I had commented earlier in the week that it would be wonderful to have a bag like that one to take to my knit nights so that my bag stayed upright. Obviously he was paying attention.

And if that weren’t enough (and it was) as I wandered with him by several beloved vendors such as Blue Moon Fiber Arts and Brooks Farm Yarn, I noticed the Carolina Homespun booth and their spinning wheels that had been taunting me all weekend.

Several of my blogging friends are spinners (you know who you are) and since they flash their beautiful handspun on their blogs, it had me fantasizing about spinning my own yarn also. On Friday afternoon after milling around the spinning wheels for awhile, I was asked if I had any questions. I let them know I was just looking and that I was going to save my money this year to purchase a wheel. I inquired about the best wheel for a beginner, and after 30 minutes or so, I decided that the wheel that would probably work best for me is the folding Lendrum Double Treadle wheel.

As hubby and I passed their booth Saturday morning, I’d realized that I didn’t remember the name of the wheel, nor had I written it down. I showed Morgaine the spinning wheel with the forgotten name, and she said that one is the folding Lendrum Double Treadle wheel and its a wonderful. I inquired about her shipping policy and she quickly let me know that she could either ship this wheel to me, or I could take it with me today. I laughed and explained that I was still saving my money and that I wouldn’t be purchasing until much later this year (if not next). My husband interrupted and said “no, we’ll be buying the wheel today and we’d like to take it home with us today.”

I held onto his arm to steady myself and said “No, I will wait until my birthday or Christmas because I’m going to save my own money to buy it”. He gave me his “don’t argue with me” look so I stopped talking.

Then there was the option of taking just the wheel, or purchasing the complete kit. Hmm… guess which option we chose?

Margaine then asked if I wanted a bag to put the wheel in. I politely declined and my husband said in his gently stern voice “pick one”. I told him again it wasn’t necessary and I could look online for bags when we got home and then he interrupted me. “You need your wheel to be protected. We’re not leaving here until you pick one.” Sir, yes sir.

Margaine left the booth to get my wheel and bag from her trailer and I stood there in complete shock. I’ve never sat at a wheel and I’ve never attempted spinning, not even with a drop spindle. I told hubby to pinch me because I still must be in our hotel room asleep and dreaming. Then it hit me and I asked my husband “when did you know you were going to buy this for me?” “Thursday night” he replied. “Then why did you let me buy all that yarn when I should have been purchasing fiber for the wheel?” He didn’t hesitate for a moment and told me “You’ll need yarn to knit while you’re learning to spin, won’t you?” He was correct. Besides, if he thinks I’m going to stop buying yarn just because I’m going to spin now, he’s crazy.

One last thing about my wonderful husband. A night or so ago when he came home from work I told him I wanted to show him what I’d received in the mail. He sat down on the sofa next to me and I handed him a skein of fingering weight sock yarn. He looked at it for a moment and then just as I looked away I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he was sniffing the yarn. My head spun around to catch him in the act, and he gave me that “oh damn she caught me” look. I giggled and he smiled. I guess spending a few days at Stitches West truly rubbed off on him. In a good way though.