Allo everyone.

Well, it wasn’t the original plan, but I ended up spending the whole weekend at NH Sheep and Wool. This wasn’t bad per se. But if I’d known that my other Sunday plans were going to fall through, I would have gone home to spend it with Mom.

However, all things said and done, it was a good weekend.

Sadly, I fail as a blogger and took zero photos of the festival. I do, however, have stuff to show you from the festival… but again, I’m a bad blogger, and left most of it at home.

So I’ll show you this teaser of it.

A new Bosworth Mini, in Bocote wood, 0.88 ounces, exactly what I was looking for, small but with a little heft.

That’s a cormo/alpaca/angora blend on it, in what will be a two-ply heavy laceweight to light fingering weight yarn. Very very soft, lovely to work with.

You’ll also notice it has something of a cop on there.

Let me tell you, I spent a remarkable amount of time this weekend preaching the Abby Gospel as I wandered around the fair spinning on my new spindle (which keeps up remarkably well in the wind, by the way). Repeatedly, people would be standing behind me as I looked at something while spinning and start telling their child or companion, “Oh yes, those are good for people learning to spin because they’re slower than a wheel.” or “Those aren’t as good for spinning, but they’re good for learning.”

Well…

It’s not a huge cop, especially considering how long I spent on it. Many of my friends could have done double or more that in the time I was at it. An Andean spinner could probably have had three times that spun and plied. But…

It’s spun.

The fact is, I’m still a fairly new spindle spinner, not very fast in the scheme of spindle spinning. I’ve only just learned the art of navigating crowds while spinning. And yet I managed to spin all that, while doing things with my hands, and looking at things, and talking to people.

Now imagine you’re out herding sheep, walking to and from fields or other houses or whatever, and that you spend a large portion of every day doing these things… see where I’m going?

Yeah, it’s no mystery why a lot of cultures and people see no need to move to a spinning wheel, is it? And when you’re trying to keep up with people who are weaving (which burns through yarn faaaaast, but also makes fabric faaaaaaast) you need every inch you can muster.

Now, I’m sure some people are saying, “But you can’t fit 4oz on it like you can on my wheel bobbin!” to which I say, no, I can’t. However, other people who are more skilled can. And I’m getting better at it. Even on this little guy.

The other thing, of course, which often led me to turn around with an, “Actually…” was that “slower” thing. For me, it’s slower no matter what I’m doing. But that’s because it’s a fairly new skill for me. The fact is, it’s catching up pretty quickly. And you’ll notice that’s a fairly fine yarn, no frog hair, but fine. To keep a fine yarn made of short fibers together (which that is), you need more twist. Ever seen a spindle whirl with a good thighroll? Those suckers FLY. You want a fine yarn with a metric ton of twist in it? Chances are, a good spindle spinner can put that twist in faster than a wheel will.

All that said, the big difference for me? I spun that cop of yarn. If I had only been wheel spinning, I wouldn’t have spun anything.

Some is always greater than none.

Now, with all that done and getting down off my little spindle soap box… oh right, still don’t have photos.

Um… look, up there, soft shiny fiber!

I’ll get a more complete update up soon. Also, I know the shop is getting empty… so…

Fiber that’s been weighed out and awaits dyeing. Hope to get a chunk of that dyed tomorrow night which means Wednesday night or Thursday there will be a fiber update. Yay! We like fiber.

Also, for those awaiting shipments…

A couple things that should have gone out Friday/Saturday didn’t, as I was up at stupid-o-clock and running around trying to get everything I needed up to the fiber festival. So anything that didn’t go out then is going out today. This includes the trade to Naomi and BeLinda’s yarn, sorry guys.

Work on the paper progresses. Work on the outline for my thesis progresses. Big mucka meeting next Friday. Cross your everythings for me. So far, things are looking good.

Lots of things in the works, never enough hours.

Hai, ceiling cat? it’s me, Gnome. plz 2 b makin moar hours in teh day? plzkthxbai.

Think that’s all for now. Will get more stuff done for the shop soon. Also need to get the stuff for trades done. Hope to get it done this week.

~The Gnome