Working Away

The baby blanket continues to grow - 19" done so far! I was going to take an updated picture but I laid it down and you know who laid right on top of it. My plan is to wait until the blanket is finished, banish YI to the bedroom, and take some pics of it on the floor before I throw it in the washer.

My spinning wheel calls to me - lol. We bought it at the Stitching Post (used to be down on 10th, sold knitting machines, yarn, books, some roving, and WHEELS). It came in pieces, unstained, in a box with an instruction sheet. It took me almost a week to decide what color to stain it.

At one point, all the stained pieces were drying in a back bedroom, and all I could think of was "How the heck is this thing going to come together and be a real spinning wheel!!" But I put it mostly together by myself with a little help from hubby (I wanted him to do the staining and finishing but nooooo...he thought the building part would be the most fun, too).

After it was put together, it was so beautiful I didn't want to even use it. But I finally got up my courage, got on the internet, and found a list of spinners. Several were very kind and helped me through the first few steps via email. They recommended books, I got the books. They recommended places to buy roving, I bought roving. I took a couple of lessons at the Stitiching Post and was off and running.

BTW, the Stitching Post was where I first saw roving being spun! I used to go there because they were the only place in town with a good selection of knitting machine magazines. Anyway, one day I was working my way back to the yarn section and in the middle of the shop was a lady spinning! On an Ashford Traditional! Did I want to try it? Hmmm...I watched her for a few more minutes and thought - why not! The rest, well you know the saying about history and all.

So my wheel calls to me (but so does the knitting machine, the beading, and the naked Barbie dolls lined up in a row on the cabinet). And I have CUT BACK on the amount of crafts I do so I could focus on knitting, well, on fiber (the beads aren't my fault, my niece Celia FORCED me to get back into jewelry making). And I still have a business to run that sucks up all my daylight hours.

Well, I have an open house tomorrow so will be taking the blanket to work on in case it's not very busy. I WANT TO SPIN!!