Have Spindle, Will Travel.

Last night, The Sheep wore shoes after 7:00 in the pm. and headed out to Chicks With Sticks night at the invitation of the ever-gracious Noolie. As an added incentive to the shoe-wearing, there was a guest knitter on the program that I've been wanting to meet for a while now: Brenda! I caught sight of her while I was spending my cat's inheritance at SPA but was unable to successfully negotiate my way through the hordes in order to introduce myself. I was thrilled to learn that she would be in attendance!

For those of you keeping track of my social life these days, that's two trips outside of my home where I actually interacted with others in a somewhat acceptable manner in the space of four days.

However, it became clear to me yesterday morning that I would need a good traveling project. I have a couple of things going on right now, but both are at that stage where the knitting techniques required are akin to adjustin' yer thong: best done in private. Too much risk of the horrified stares and mutters of, "what the heck does she think she's doing there???"

I quickly cast on for a drop stitch scarf. That I can manage publicly. The downside of this strategy was that I got to sit and knit my humble scarf while those around me had their needles flying around complex projects that required math and spelling skills. I hadn't thought of that...

Fortunately, Brenda emailed me earlier in the day and asked if I might be willing to bring my new spindle for her to see. Thus, I was able to redeem myself a bit by showing off my mad spindling skills and have a brief moment of coolness before returning to my sad little scarf hanging from the gigantic, clown-like needles.

This being a vacation week for my Sheepie self, I have made some genuine progress with the spindle. I wound off a goodly length of ply #1 yesterday by whirling it on the ball winder.

OK..."goodly amount" is a relative term, I realize. But it is about half the fiber with which I was working.

When I'm finished with the second lot, I'll wind that into a nice center-pull ball then ply the two. I have no earthly idea just how much of it will be usable given that this is the first yarn I've spindle-spun in at least five years, but I imagine that some of it will pass muster. I hope...I've been babbling on about this spindle since it followed me home and I feel that I at least owe you all a picture of the yarn just for your kind attention to the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the school vacation time. Today represents the half-way mark and the downhill slide back to workdom. As is usual, I did not do nearly as much as I'd hoped and spent far more dollars than I'd planned. But, there are still a couple more days to be fiddled with so perhaps I'll surprise myself by actually finishing something on the To Be Knit list. There is still a glimmer of hope for a finished sweater, although that is going rather slowly now that I am a spinner again. Let's not even discuss the sock...

It's all that socializing. How's a Sheep supposta get anything done when she's all out on the town all the time? I really must slow down!

SA