“Schpinsch” *

Spinning-sun 

Yeah Baby.. that 40th birthday came and went with a big party and a proposal from my beloved, whom, by the way, has been regarded by me as a husband for about 7 years now. But, alas, the vows will become official sometime in 2009. We are currently discussing all kinds of options to ensure that both family and friends can attend. Not an easy feat considering that all "mine kind" live across the ocean and over the sea. So there might end up being two celebrations.

Since I'm the kind of gal that can be hard to please with gifts and stuff, I was so happy that DH organized a chip-in present from friends and family. He knew that I had been coveting a spinning wheel for about 20 years and especially after taking another workshop with the talented and wonderful teacher Laura from Lettuce Knit, I had to have one. After he surprised me at the Birthday party with the funds for the wheel, I went looking and kinda knew from the beginning that I wanted to have a Louet Victoria, or an S10. I went to Lettuce Knit, where both Denny and Laura helped guide my innocence ignorant self in realizing that the Victoria would be my wheel. 

Vicky has now been living with me for about 6 weeks and I have spun up all the fibre that came with the wheel. The yarn it produced, well, let's just say there are lots of pictures of beginners spinning on the web and I don't need to bore you with one of mine. I learned a whole bunch, got all (I'm not kidding with ALL) the books from the library and looked through them to pick up tips. But the best tip/trick is to just keep working on the wheel, get a feel for it and accept the resulting product. I will eventually take another workshop, but that will happen in good time. Maybe there is SOAR in the future?

At the Kitchener Waterloo Knitters Fair I picked up some wonderful Shetland fibre from Michele at Hopeful Shetlands, what a difference in spinning.

As I've mentioned in a previous entry, DH works from home and I actually set up the wheel in his office and in the evenings, I spin there while he works. We get a chance to bond and chat while we both get things done. So, yet another reason to not need TV.

*"Spinsch" swiss-german expression for something like "are you crazy" or also do you spin? "Schpinä" stands for both spinning the act and spider