It's good to have goals

Well, here we are, December 2020.

I, um, do not have another pair of finished socks yet.

In fact, I'm quite sure that SSP 2020 will not have 12 pairs of socks in the end, and I'm completely okay with that. I think I'll make it to 10. My September socks are just over halfway done - I have a complete sock and, erm, some ribbing - and I have the yarn picked out and wound up for my October socks too.

Kindly ignore the clutter in the background - life, you know.

I also picked up a new toy.

Yes, that's a (beautiful!) drop spindle, from Fox Mountain Spindles, and yes, I have been playing with it, learning how to spin. I have long admired others' handspun, but was quite sure spinning wasn't for me - I didn't want to buy a wheel because I would need to figure out where to store it when I wasn't using it, and the whole storage issue also carries along with it a risk of me never actually getting it out and setting it up to do the spinning (this is also why I have resisted buying a swift for winding yarn - I'm pretty sure I'd never actually use it). Plus there's the whole learning curve - it seemed to me that it might take a whole lot more learning to get to a point where I was able to produce yarn I actually liked and could use, which was not especially encouraging.

About a month ago, though, I started having spinny thoughts - I think it was when I saw a video with someone using an Ashford e-spinner, and it just looked so nifty. Learning is good for the brain, right? I consulted Google, saw how much those suckers cost, and quickly abandoned that particular plan, but the notion of spinning my own yarn stuck around. I kept thinking of the nubbly texture of handspun, with different-coloured plies twisting around each other, and I kept thinking that would be terrific for socks, and I also started thinking that it might be possible to spin self-striping sock yarn.

That learning curve, though. I'm not the world's most coordinated person - another strike against traditional spinning wheels, I'd have to get the hang of treadling while trying to get the hang of drafting. I looked into the Electric Eel Wheel, which is more budget-friendly, but I still wasn't comfortable putting that much money into a tool that I might not even like in the end. (I suppose I could have tried to sell it second-hand if it didn't work out to my liking.) I was also nervous about trying to learn to do a new thing with one of the key variables out of my direct control. I mean, I'm sure I'd have been able to adjust the settings to suit my needs, but I had this mental image of me trying to spin, having it not quite work out, but instead of being able to pause and work through it, the electric wheel keeps spinning and I can't figure out how to make it stop fast enough and I end up destroying my roving, or my single, or both, or maybe I have a complete spaz out and actually damage the wheel.

So a drop spindle seemed like a good way to start learning. It won't spin forever and ever without me doing something, so I can't have the fibre ripped out of my hands by overzealous spinning machinery. There are fewer moving parts to figure out, so the overall learning is a bit more manageable and approachable. Plus drop spindles are much more budget friendly! I could have just rigged one out of a dowel and an old CD, but I managed to upsell myself to a finely made wooden one that I really like, just to enhance the overall pleasure of the experience.

I had some remnant mawata kicking about, and figured that learning to spin would be a good use for it - it's not enough for me to really do anything with.

  

So far, I quite like it. That mawata is all spun up and plied into a pretty variable 2-ply yarn, I'll share pictures another day - it's already too dark for natural light here, and I was going to try out a ring light Mister got, but I don't know where the power cord is for it.

I've ordered more spinning fibre. It's in a pile on my living room table. It came with a little sample (about 21 g) of merino that I am now using as more practice fibre to really get the hang of spinning singles as fine as I need them to be to make a 3-ply yarn that will be suitable for socks. My first few pairs will probably be closer to sport-weight, judging by how things are going so far! But I am okay with that. So far spinning is mighty good fun.

There is one slight problem, though. I can't spin and knit at the same time.

Maybe having the October socks done by the end of the year is an overly lofty goal?

(I'm also hoping to finish up a sweater I'm currently working on for my sister. I'm about a third of the way down the first sleeve. My pace on that has slowed in recent weeks. Hmmmm.)