Twist and Shout

My books came in, at the Yarn Haven, so I swung by there last Thursday on my way home from work and picked them up and set aside some more roving and a skein of Noro's Yaiyo blend #20.  The books were Thinking Outside the Sox and Elements of Style.  Avery's latest, Knitting 24/7, is on back order so it was a no-go. 

The roving was something different from the BFL I've been doing; this time I got some of Mountain Colors' Targhee Top.  Their Sandstone colorway is what really drew me, but I also picked out the Northern Lights and the Indian Corn. 

Friday, I was in early to work and stayed late, and our coding there is still behind, but we did put a big dent in it that night.  Saturday, I got the groceries done before the grooming appointment, got the dog dropped off, then went back out to the Yarn Haven to pick up the goodies they were holding for me.  You know me, I added to it with the book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece and something else that I've been eyeballing for months.  I got that Culinary Dyes kit from Knit One Crochet Too.  As much as I was just twitching to play with it and start preparing the Sandstone targhee fiber, I still had some stuff to do.
It was raid time!  Our WoW guild's 10-man ICC team seems to be stalling a bit, as is our 25-man one.  And not because we're stuck on a boss fight, but because of time.  One night a week for each ain't gonna get it, would seem.  Tonight, I'm gonna propose we extend our raid resets so we can progress a bit more.

After the raid and some supper, I got some of that first bit of Romney that I still had left over from my beginnings with the drop spindle soaking.  While it soaked, I got the targhee wool fluffed and prepared for spinning.  Then it was time for some culinary dyeing!  I went with the purple, light blue, and brown, and am proud to report that I didn't stain me or the kitchen, nor did I felt the roving!  It's currently hanging up to dry on our shower rod, and I'll post pics when it's dry enough to braid.

That put me late going to sleep last night, and I was up early this morning.  I got up early to squeeze in watching Drafting: the Long and Short of It before hubby started in on his DVR'd Nascar races. 

Then it was time to get that Sandstone started on the wheel and pack it into the car to go to my knitting group.  Um, there is where the first snag of my weekend occurred, literally and figuratively.

I was trying several different things from those first two skeins I had done, so a lot of variables could've been the culprit.  I tried the smallest setting on that medium whorl; I tried spinning the single with the wheel going to the left instead of the right; and I tried this backwards slide thing I saw on that video for worsted short-forward draws.  It started out great with an amazingly thin strand.  But . . . when that first break happened, as is likely for a beginner spinner going thin, I had sooooo much trouble rejoing it to the fiber!  Before, joins were easy-peasy.  But that morning, it somehow unspun as I pulled it back through the orafice, so that I ended up with fifty breaks in trying to fix the one!

Um, the wirty dords flew.  
*sigh*
So I used the bigger groove on that whorl, lightened up on the bobbin's uptake, and it started to behave much better.  Though I did still have some hiccups with it during our knitting group, later this morning.  I apologize to all who were within earshot of me.  I started out mostly self-controlled, with those little cursing substitutes we all use.  You know, "Sssshhhhhhugar!"  and, "Son-of-a-biscuit-eater!"  But upon eleventy-hundred more breakes in the single, those little curse-word-wannabes just didn't last long.  Stronger words were then muttered.  Then shouted.  Well, maybe not shouted, but I did see the need to hush after I realized that there were children present in the book store. 

But ya know, with all that fibery stuff in my head that morning, as I headed out of the house, I totally forgot to bring my camera and notebook to the group (blush).  Reckon I was just a bad Moon that day.

So along came Monday, and somehow the same bit of spinning went very smoothly.  Go figure.  The joins are still a bit fussy, as it really wants to untwist up into the bobbin.  Hard to believe I'm not getting enough twist in it, as I worry it may have too much.  But a bit extra does make the joins behave, so I reckon that was it.  Weird, this spinning thing.

Speaking of things Wyrd, I scratched my eye again last Tuesday, so that it swelled plum shut by Wednesday.  Yup.  The same eye.  Again.  I'm beginning to think there's something wild going on (chuckle).  My contact lense got dry and stuck on the old scar, so that I had to pick and peel it off my eye, to get the hateful thing out.  I'm officially swearing off contacts for a long time.  That eye apparently still ain't right.  Today, it's much better, thank you, and I no longer look like Popeye nor sound like Yosemite Sam.

It's Thursday now, and our boss at work declared mandatory overtime for this upcoming weekend, so please pardon me, whilst I log on here and there to humbly bow out of some things I was going to do.

(This time, the overtime is going towards my upcoming trip to Aiken, S.C.!)