Spinning yarns
Ha! Get it? Spinning yarns? Because this post will be about storytelling AND spinning?
…fine, never mind.
We had a great time at the storytelling festival. The acts were great, including Emily’s grandparents and her fifth-grade cousin, who was storytelling for a crowd for the first time. He’s acted before, but this was his first monologue-type performance. This boy’s got crazy talent. Remember me when you’re rich and famous, kid!
They had a really nice kids’ area put together as well, for when the young’uns got restless from listening to stories. At left, Emily attempts stilts with a little help from her Dad. At right… I don’t know who’s at right. I thought I was taking a picture of my daughter, but I guess this super-hero stepped into the frame. Oh well.
Emily was super-excited to see her cousins, with hugs all around. They had a good time playing all weekend. If you look at them, you will see yet more proof that my daughter gets most of her genes from her Italian father. All she got from my side was some freckles and a propensity for hiccups. Thanks to her Italian genes, even though she spent a fair amount of time in the sun and I spent all my time in the shade, I was the only one to get sunburned. My nose is peeling, but Emily looks great. Go figure.
All this activity did leave my daughter pretty worn out. She had a good time, but it was also overwhelming, in the way that new activities often are to her. Here she is resting with her dad. Aw.
I spun up more of the red stuff I got from Yarns Etc. I think I want to try to make socks from this, so I’m not sure whether I should ply it (twist it with another strand to make it stronger). I’m open to suggestion from spinners, because I’m still quite inexperienced at this.
I haven’t been keeping good track of how much of the original batch I’ve already spun. I thought I’d bought six ounces, so I didn’t want to spin more than three until I could figure out whether to ply it or not. I don’t have a postal scale (I really should, for the business) so I didn’t have an accurate way to measure what was left unspun.
What I wound up doing was attaching the skeinwinder to the top of my wheel and being sure it was balanced. Then I hung the bag of unspun fiber from the left arm and a bag containing something I thought was approximately equal in weight from the right. In this way, I determined that I have between a small juice box and a vienna sausage can’s worth of unspun fiber left. In other words, about 4.5 ounces. That doesn’t seem right – did I buy eight ounces originally? So now I’m stuck as to what to do.
All my charity Jayne knitting is done. I may actually put out a call and see if anybody else wants one – I’m feeling very inspired by Joss Whedon’s recent Equality Now post on Whedonesque. The man’s a good writer, you gotta give him that.
Emily’s been super-engaged lately, which is fantastic but also means I really have to bring my A-game. So I’m off for now!
Hats up for: NJ, CA, CO.