Thank goodness January is nearly done....

I dislike January immensely. Christmas is over and it feels like spring is forever and a day away. It's usually cold, dark and blech..... This year even the chinooks (a warm wind that causes the temperature in and around Calgary to rise dramatically, sometimes from the -30Cs to the +teensC) just make me mad. Why oh why would the weather make me think that spring is just around the corner when the reality is that spring is 2-3 more months away???

I haven't even been knitting or spinning much (and I certainly have been feeling much to negative to blog). I spun a quckie little bit of yarn to make this bunny (what a great idea and tutorial!) for Chey as an inspiration for Eli's next project and also for my nephew's first knitting project. It turned out quite cutely if I do say so myself and I might just keep my gauge swatches from now and to make an entire bunny family.....



I also knit this top out of some Jade Sapphire Cashmere (that's Chey hoping to be a part of the photo).




I am still working on my September Year of Lace project, but am determined (ha!) not to start anything else until it's finished! My resolve is strong! I can almost block out the sound of the other the projects I want to make, crying and begging in their rather pathetic manner.... almost.... I think I can do it.... Did I mention that I have a couple of great ideas for actual "designs" that I'd like to try my hand at????

And finally, I finished one lonely sock that I started as my travel sock over Christmas. Travel sock it was not..... The sock is lovely and the pattern was interesting and easy, but not so easy that I could mindlessly knit it, which is kinda what I want in a travel project.....



I have to finish (or rather start) the other sock before I can begin a new travel project. Which will be my first ever Notorious Sock Knitters World Domination Tour (gawd! I LOOOOOVEEEE that name!) project for the 2009 club. I won't post any pictures of the kit for a bit so that I don't ruin it for others, but it's lovely yarn......

I've also decided what to do about next January... plan a trip! Yesterday I booked a trip to Denver to visit a friend in March and almost immediately felt the fog lift..... something to look forward to!!

Lightbulb moment.

As I've mentioned before, my darling hubby bought me a spinning wheel for Christmas, knowing that I wanted to learn, but without me asking for (or even hinting at) one. And because I had guessed what it was, he decided to give it to me early (I should mention that he was not very impressed that I guessed, but it was his own damn fault... he gave away the size and it was the only thing I could think of that would be bigger than a bread box).

I immediately ran out to buy some roving and attempted to learn to spin, on my own with a book, as I've learned so many other things (knitting included)...... The Wheel defeated me, completely blew the air right out of my tires...... First of all, it took me hours and hours to figure out that you don't use a double drive and a scotch brake at the same time, but by the time I had figured it out, I had a big knotted mess of crap that used to look like some lovely roving from Louet, called Northern Lights. Secondly, I couldn't seem to draft, the roving would resist and then break. I watched videos, I read about drafting, but I still could NOT get it to work for me. I decided, at that point, that perhaps I needed lessons this time, but that they would have to wait until after Christmas (Christmas knitting and all that). While I was on Vancouver Island over Christmas and visited The Loom in Duncan, I picked up a book (or two) on spinning and a Drop Spindle from Make One when I returned home and tried again. I had a bit more success with the drop spindle, but something still wasn't right (I was still struggling with drafting) and although I didn't expect it to look as easy as the multitude of videos that I had watched on YouTube, I did expect it to be *slightly* easier......

Here is my first attempt with the drop spindle.



Today, when I was browsing one of my books on spinning, I found a neat little notation..... (I'm going to paraphrase here).... Some Commercial Roving drafts easier from one end than the other, so if you are finding drafting difficult, try the other end...... Voila! My lightbulb moment!!! I pulled out my spinning wheel, flipped over the roving and BAM! the magic began...... My first single is far from perfect, I'm pretty sure it's overspun and the diameter changes dramatically from a very fine cobweb, to almost a fingering weight in some places, but it's mine.... and it was (all things being relative) simple. Far, far simpler than my earlier attempts would have me believe..... I plan to spin another single in the next couple of days and then I'll try to ply it and see if that helps with the overspinning a bit (I've read that plying can help?).

My first single.... about half done, it even looks a bit like real yarn!






Damn, I love figuring stuff out on my own......