ohhhhh, What Have I Done

Yes..... that's Kaity, and yes.... she's spinning.

She's been wanting to spin for awhile now. And, I keep saying, absolutely not - NOT in my house. Seriously, people - you have no idea how her knitting alone has taken over the entire house. It's everywhere, in some form or another. Two or three WIPs lying around, and that's just in the family room - my office has a few other WIPs, and then.... there's all the "stuff." The little cut pieces of yarn that never seem to make it to the trash, the patterns and parts of patterns everywhere.... DPNs, circulars, aluminum needles - on the couch, in the couch, under the couch...

Gotta love her - but, man, that girl does spread it around.

So, NO, I was not giving in to spinning, and roving fluff adding to the mix. Not.Giving.In.

Then, we heard rumor of a new yarn store. Modern Gypsy Studios. Exotic fiber-handspun yarn. Well - I mean, really, we had to at least check it out.

It's a small place, but 95% of the yarn in there the owner, Deb, has spun herself! LOTs of it- mostly wool, but some silk and other stuff too.

Deb - she's quite engaging.... and very friendly. She just started telling us all about the store, the yarn, her plans. She showed us a new shipment that had just come in (darnit! I wish I'd actually taken my camera INTO the store, duh....). It was a box of 100's of silk worm cocoons. Little white balls of silk with the worm still inside. She showed us how they opened them, got the little guy out, then dyed them and spun yarn right from the cocoon. Well, I never...

Then, it happened - she saw the twinkle in Kaity's eye and glommed onto her, and that was it. "Here, hold the spindle like this... try it... it's easy... it's fun." Kaity's beside herself now - eyes twinkling all over the place. And, me - I'm right along side her.... "ooooh Kaity - you can spin the yarn and I'll knit it! Ooooh, look! - you're doing it!"

And Deb, the owner, she knows we're sucked in.... now she's talking classes and rovings and dyeing, who knows what else.... we're still in super-novice mode - a little green on the lingo.

The clincher was when she handed Kaity a spindle made from a dowel and a CD. "Look, if you just want to practice and see if you like it, this works just fine! Here, I'll even give you this one."

She knows a sucker or two when she sees them. Like the hubby would say - "she's a-cutting, and you're a-bleeding"

Yeah - so, I caved..... I bought the daughter a $5 bag of roving.... I'm such a sucker. Really, one of us ought to exercise a little self control.

Kaity spun all the way home (not an easy feat in a VW bug), and I could barely tear her away to go to graduation practice. I've created a monster, I'm sure. Let the fluffing begin.... fluff everywhere.... fluff, fluff, fluff.

Sadly, I'm as excited as she is - you should see the beautiful rovings in this place - and such pretty colors.... oooooooh (can you hear the sucking noise?)

All in all, we got out pretty cheap for our first trip - a free spindle, $5 of roving, and I bought three $5 skeins of wool sock yarn (Alice Strathmore Scottish Campion) - one of the few yarns Deb didn't spin herself.

What have I learned this week - Never, never, never say never.

Oh, yeah, before we left - she demonstrated her spinning wheel ;o) No, absolutely not.