It was a beautiful weekend.  Sunny, breezy and warm but a whole lot cooler than it has been.

How did you spend your weekend?

When he's having a slow day he takes a long lunch.

At the Range.  (BRAT)

He's been taking a lot of long lunches this summer.  (Brat! Brat!)

All that extra Range time  has improved his aim too.

Yup, ELPH beat me.

By Nine points.

I lost.   I bought lunch.   He took my $20.    I don't mind paying up.  It's his gloating that's making me crazy.

It's been awhile since I've posted.  Too hot.  Too humid.   The Lake is like bathwater. So not refreshing.  Blech.  

I've been trying to knit and just not feeling.  All I really want to do is lay around an watch TV with the A/C on.  But the dog gets me up off my ever growng backside every so often, just about the time I decide to settle in with my knitting.  It's slow going.

Bartina, the new kitten in town is giving me grey hair.  Yes, that's her ASLEEP on the OUTSIDE of the deck railing!  I have to close my eyes and take a deep breath when I find her like this.  She is all kitten.  Ever playful and always getting into something.  

Literally.  

She thinks she's a wild cat and my plants are her jungle.

 Good thing Peace Lily's aren't poisonous and I'm not particularly attached to this one.

Ever since the Tour de Fleece I've been strongly resisting the urge to dive into the Spinning pool.  I have too many other things on the list that needs doing and completing.  BUT that doesn't stop me from looking.  So when I spotted an ad on Craigslist for an antique spinning wheel for sale right here in town. ..OVER 100 YEAR OLD SPINNING WHEEL GREAT SHAPE( $200 bucks and no photo, hmmmm)  but I thought  ' it can't hurt to look. It's probably not even complete'.    Even IF I decide to purchase a wheel I'm SO not  looking for an antique wheel.   So before I went to look at the Craigslist wheel I called on my Zombie Prom Date Knitter's for advice.  And boy oh boy did they have advice!   "If it has a great big wheel and no treadle you don't want it" was the consensus.   This is what I found...

This my friends is in fact an antique Walking Wheel.  And it is complete.  IMHO it is a beautiful show piece that should be used and displayed at a living museum somewhere.  I'd love to have it sitting in my living room but it's a lot of money to spend on an item that I will not use.  Plus a $200 dust collecter doesn't pass the worthy items ELPH test.  So I think I will continue to spin on my drop spindles, resist the wheel bug a little longer and take a couple for a test spin when I go to S.A.F.F. in October.

I took this...

Knit Witch 100% Super Wash Merino

 and made this...

Drop Spindle Spun Two Ply

and I'm using it to make this  scarf...

Le Petite Echarpe

 I think it's going to look great!

This post brought to you by Fiber Friday.  For more Fiber Art posts check out Wisdom Begins in Wonder

I kinda like this spinning thing but I'm still going to wait until S.A.F.F. in October before I decide to buy a wheel.  Sometimes I jump the gun on things and I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a wheel that is just going to sit and collect dust.   Like my treadmill did:)

After spinning everyday for almost 23 days straight I really learned a lot.  I was amazed at how different fibers like wool and alpaca were so different to spin  and that plying isn't scary  as I made myself believe it was:)

Like those make-shift bobbins and 'Lazy Kate'?  Hey, you use what you have on hand.  This was the 100% Super-Wash Merino from Knit Witch 

I'm planning to use my first hand spun yarn to make Le Petite Echarpe  (Ravelry Link).

Here are the results of 23 days spinning. Not overly impressive but for a Rookie Spindle Spinner and holder of a full time office job, it's not too shabby either.

I've spun up some mystery fiber

And some Gale's Art

the lovely Briar Rose  

and the first of the 3 different amazing Alpaca from Wonder Why Alpaca Farm.

The difference between wool & alpaca for this first time spinner was…slippery!

But I'm still spinning singles read: I have't tried plying yet.   So that is my challenge with this current roving.

This is The Knit Witch's Essoterica hand dyed roving "Delusion".

It's 4oz of 100% Superwash Merino.  If you're into yarn, pottery or spinning fiber you would check out her website http://knitwitch.com.  She's got some pretty cool stuff.

So I'm going to ply this one, meaning take two singles and spin them together to make a slightly heavier yarn.  And to do that I need equal amounts of fiber to spin the singles and the easiest way to do that without a scale it fold in half and cut!  It was kinda scary because I have no idea what I'm doing but ya gotta learn somehow.

I think this project will involve a little ZPDK advice…WINE!  See when you spin singles yarn you spin it all in the same direction but when you PLY two (or more singles) together you spin in the opposite direction that you did the singles.  Confusing?  Not really but it helps if you don't think about it too much, hence the wine:)

Wish me luck!

"I'm so dizzy, my head is spinnin'"

*ahem* sorry.

Anyway, between sunning, boating, eating, napping, relaxing & visiting with Dad I've been participating in the Tour de Fleece.  This was my first attempt at spinning. I call it Tooty-Fruity:) 

It's a bit thick & thin and some would call it Art Yarn, I just think it's cool.  Not much here, didn't measure it, maybe 6 or 8 yards.  It's from some wool roving I recieved as a gift well over a year ago when I also recieved my Fat Cat Spindle. 

With practice,  pre drafting and some pointers from the Zombie Prom Date Knitters, I learned to control things a bit better and produced this.   

Much more even!  I took this off the spindle and started in on the Gale's Art Roving I bought at SAFF two years ago. It went from this...

to this...

to about 200 yards of this...

 Not too shabby.  I'm working on some very lovely Briar Rose Fibers now. Ooooo! Spins so nice and smooth!

I have 4oz of this color and another color.  If my current spinning is any indication I should get about 400 yards from each color!

It's mocking me.

Can't you hear them?  "Why are we in the dark?  Come fondle us!  You know you can't resist for ever!"  "Spin me, spin me, spin me!"  

One more day my loverlies one more day.  Then you meet... the Fat Cat.

Bwahahahaha! 

Oh and I've been stocking up on plenty of this...

(both the bitching and the drinking)  It makes the spinning easier:)

This was part of Fiber Arts Friday.  Now go to our host and enjoy other great fiber adventures!!  Hey, link in too!  You know you want to be part of the fluff, fun. Fun.

Grrrr.