In Which the Pirate Teaches.

I apologize for the quality of today’s pictures; Pirate-Husband has the camera and I took these shots with my phone. Better than nothing, but not that great.

To really change things up a bit, I retrieved this languishing laceweight spindle project for an afternoon. It’s just half an ounce of merino, a fibre sample from Sheepish Creations, that I decided to spin as finely as possible to get the most yardage out of it. Perhaps that wasn’t my wisest idea ever, but there’s no turning back now. Besides, it’s a good chance to use the 14g spindle, which I could not resist getting from the Spanish Peacock at an SCA event a few years ago.

The other reason for me to spindle today was that I had the opportunity to teach my friend Erika to spin! I started her on my Cascade Little Si, a 1.5 ounce spindle, and some green wool top that came with my first wheel. I think we have a new spinning addict in the fold. She caught on quickly – so quickly, in fact, that she didn’t even ask what to do when she came to the end of her first chunk of fibre. She just got the next piece, thinned it out, laid it over the end of the first piece, and kept right on going. When I had to head off to bed, I left her with the rest of the green top – probably about an ounce – and a cardboard roll to wind off the singles if the cop got to be too heavy. I’m interested to see what she does with it today, and will probably teach her about plying tonight or tomorrow.

I can’t spindle for too long before my shoulder begins aching, so after a while I moved back to the wheel and spun up some more of the Rambouillet. It was lots of fun to spin with company! Tonight we’re going out to dinner with friends, but I ought to be able to get at least twenty minutes at the wheel to meet the challenge of the Tour de Fleece.