In which I handcard and acquire a new spindle

A basket of handcarded mixed wools. I was practicing handcarding and color mixing using odds and ends of leftover rovings.

My new Grafton flagship spindle. I love it.

In which I am a bad, bad girl

Here it is Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend and I can think of nothing but wanting to knit. The problem is that I still have a few hours to go before I can leave my office and I really should be writing performance reviews. I, of course, have no desire to write performance reviews at the moment--or at any time, if truth be told. It's really quiet around the office and streets of the financial district are basically empty. Do you think I can get away with a row or three? (I've got a clapotis as my carry around knitting.)

Hey, I wanna do that!

I spent yesterday afternoon spinning on my Joy while keeping Kristine company at the Claremont Middle School Spring Fling. Claremont Middle School is in the Rockridge area of Oakland. They have an amazing school garden and music program. Kristine's booth was on the lawn near the garden and the petting zoo (which had the cutest little pig).

The beginning of the event was slow back where we were. By early afternoon, a number of kids had stopped by to see what Kristine was selling and what Adrienne, Sara and I were doing. Soon Adrienne and Sara were showing kids how to spin on a spindle. There was one boy that was closely watching me. I asked him if he wanted to learn how to spin. "Yeah." "On a spindle?" "No, on that" pointing to the spinning wheel. I slowed down to show him exactly what I was doing with my hands--a modified long draw. Then we switched places. At first, he wanted to treadle just as fast as he would if he were riding a bike and the wheel kept snatching the fiber from his hands. I stopped him and got him to treadle a bit slower. He started making bumpy, lumpy yarn like all beginners make. Then the urge to race the treadles bit him again. Snatch, stop, re-thread the orifice, start again.

After about 10 minutes, I noticed a little girl sitting on the chair next me. I asked her what she thought about spinning. Her answer: "Hey, I wanna do that!"

So I began the cycle of showing another child how to operate the spinning wheel. Man, was she determined. After awhile, she stopped and wanted to spin some different colored fiber. I asked her why. "Because this is ugly." (Mind you, this was some polwarth I bought at Deep Color Studio last summer in a colorway I love called "Black Magic".) "I wanna spin some of that" pointing at some of Kristine's indigo dyed fiber. I explained that we couldn't use that and that I didn't have any other fiber other than the "ugly" stuff with me.

"Well, I don't like it."
"Okay, what colors do you like?" I asked.
"White."
"Why do you like white?"
"Because it's pretty" all the while grinning at the sky.

This Baby Surprise Jacket flew off of my needles last week. I made it for a co-worker's newly adopted newborn girl. The buttons are Peter Rabbit and are leftover from baby things I made for my daughter forever ago.

Handspun weekend

This is the yarn I made this weekend. It is a combination of this:

baby llama purchased from A Verb for Keeping Warm at Colors last weekend and

80% merino/20% tencel purchased from Deep Color Studio in December.

I hand spun the merino/tencel and spun the baby llama on my Schacht Matchless. The colors of the merino/tencel are bright and the gray of the llama tones them down so that they are much softer. The yarn is approximately 18 wpi and 262 yards. I'm thinking neckwarmer.

The most stylish woman on my street

This lovely lady lives in one of my neighbor's front yard. She is always there, regardless of the weather. She makes me smile every time I see her.

RIP Ada

I hoped against hope that in the end Ada would turn out to be the perfect throw on sweater. Alas, I was mistaken. Last night, Ada and I bid farewell. And this morning, Ada went to the frog pond. Ada, it was fun while it lasted.