Plying Is Trying!

It's not that I hate the Lincoln Longwool. I don't. I have given it all the tender loving care one would expect. I have sorted it, washed it, carded it, dyed it, blended it, spun it...why is it taking me so freaking long to get it plied???? I mean, it's not like I'm even getting fancy here! We're talking a simple two-ply worsted. And I really like it. The only thing I don't love is the way the dye set. It's not quite what we'd call color-fast, but I can work with this. What the heck is my problem?

I had a week off. I was stuck at home for several days due to lack of transportation. I still have a mere two skeins to show for all this time.

And the last one was done Sunday night. Probably out of guilt.

Sometimes I think I can hear it whimpering a little in the dead of night. "Why doesn't she like me? What is wrong with me?"

I do like you Lincoln, really I do. I just get sidetracked easily. I have that rug to work on, socks to finish and I've recently decided to use up all the odds and ends of yarn laying around the house in a variety of "stash-busting" projects. It's not you, it's me.

I feel you deserve my full and undivided attention. You are worth it. You are good and kind and worthy of all the best I have to give. Don't you feel that our time together should be special?

Now, don't tell the Lincoln this, but it may have a somewhat longer wait that originally anticipated. Weekends are normally Sheepie Fiber Frolic time and I can always carve out a pretty good chunk of time for spinning activities. This weekend, however, I have been called back into service to the Maine Academic Decathalon. My "retirement" from this event was supposed to be last year, however this was not to be. When the previous director of the event passed the torch to a new regime after the 2005 competition, my services (rendered out of friendship as much as to my commitment to the event) were duly noted and then tendered to a new group of worker bees.

I sort of knew I'd get the call. Those of us who had worked this event for so many years (referred to as "the inner circle") kind of had a groove down and could do many of the tasks in our sleep. Come to think of it, we were doing much of this in our sleep by the eighth or ninth hour of the competition. Not shocking to have mrichme ask if I'd consider participating again this year at a less intense level. His carrot: "Hey, you'll have lots of uninterrupted knitting time this year!"

What's a Sheep to do? The plying will wait. Don't tell the Lincoln.

SA