Having almost no time to knit or spin after work, you learn to do things in small amounts bit-by-bit.
Having almost no time to knit or spin after work, you learn to do things in small amounts bit-by-bit.
Having almost no time to knit or spin after work, you learn to do things in small amounts bit-by-bit.
This week's been fairly quiet... At least on the yarn front! I've been running around like a crazy woman, sorting out ID numbers and social security and bank accounts, not to mention viewing various flats around Barcelona. We actually saw one near the Santa Maria del Mar church - great location - that had zero windows. Not. A. Single. Window. I don't know how the tenants there deal with the humidity, and I don't even want to think about what happens inside the sweatbox when someone has too many beans on their toast in the morning. No escape.
Anyway! This week's project has been more spindle spinning at the mister's house, and working on Pigging Out, my combo spin of Cherry Bakewell and Pigs. By the end of Friday 17th, the end of the second week, I'd make a good start on the braid of Pigs, but not much more! Time for some more gratifying spins to finish up the last week, something nice and quick and chunky I think.
Everything is ready: an overflowing stash, a nicely oiled wheel, empty spindles... I'm ready to go! I'm part of the Fondant Fibre team this year, my first TdF, so I'm spinning predominantly FF fibre, with possibly some Spin City or some Nunoco, maybe some Countess Ablaze if I run out of FF or if I just fancy a change. I'll be spinning mostly on Zelda, my Ashford electric spinner, though weekends I'll be spindle spinning because that's when I'm at my boyfriend's place and Zelda is just too clunky to move back and forth!
The Tour guidelines are as follows:
- Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday July 4 through Sunday July 26th. Days of rest: Monday, July 13th and Tuesday, July 21st. (Just like the actual tour.)
- Spin something challenging on the challenge day (usually the toughest high mountain stage: this year, it’s Stage 18, on Thursday, July 23rd, when they will climb 5 mountains, including the 1,924m high Col du Glandon).
- Wear yellow on Sunday July 26th to announce victory. Why not wear yellow on any day you feel particularly successful? (Yellow is the color of the race leader in the Tour - but here we are all ‘race leaders’) Other colors if desired: Green (sprinter - think FAST), Polka-dot (climber - as in uphill), and white (rookie).
My own personal goals:
- Spin at least 30 minutes each day, Saturday 4th to Saturday 26th
- Take a rest day 13th and 21st
- Post a weekly update on the blog, showing work in progress and finished handspun
- Post in the Ravelry group for my team - Team Fondant Fibre!
- Challenge: spinning punis backwards long draw - I find this difficult and want to practice more!
And with all that said: ready, set, spin! :)
Technically, most of these were spun in April. I've been ridiculously busy with preparations for a big family party abroad (more on that in another post!) and spinning got pushed to the side. I had four lovely skeins all ready to reskein and photograph, and they just got waylaid... Not to mention my #spin15in15 goal - I've been so good with it, only missing about four days so far, and then bam! over a week with no spinning...
So, I have a ton of wool. I have a ton of wool that's just squished up in a box, waiting to be spun, and no time to do it all. So what do I do? I buy more wool. I'm nothing if not totally pragmatic and logical.*
*Wool is considered an exception to the "must act reasonably" rule, and as such it is completely allowed, obligatory even, to increase the stash at any given opportunity.
Well, this weekend was super happy and super sad at the same time. I spent a great weekend with all the girls - drinking, dancing, gossiping and brunching - to celebrate Emma's last weekend in Barcelona. She's moved back to Wisconsin (cheese state, can I get a what what!) to go to college and see her family and generally get her shit together after Barcelona Baby-adulthood, and we're really, really going to miss her.
The sheep is Pam. Named after the fabulous Pam Poovey. Bear claw rawr-rawr!
The postlady waddled up to my door yesterday with an extra bag attached to her little trolley. Inside, two big parcels - just for me! That's dedication, and I told her so in my weird mix of Spanish and Catalan (Spanalan?) - she briefly laughed and went on her way, while I closed the door as nonchalantly as I could, before sprinting upstairs to rip open the packaging.
I first picked up a spindle in May 2014. A clunky wooden thing, nothing extraordinary, yet it opened up a whole world of possibility. Spinning soon became my way to unwind and relax - the ultimate stress-buster - and I got serious about it from August, when I moved to Barcelona. From August to December, I managed to spin 1,495m from 1.04kg of fibre. Nothing too amazing, all on spindles, but still - it would take about 18 minutes to walk from end to end, and I think that's pretty damn cool.
Instagram user Sherrill came up with a fantastic idea: #spin15in15. The idea is to spin for fifteen minutes every day throughout the year. Certainly seems more manageable than goals to spin a certain weight of wool, or a certain yardage... Instead of weekends of frantic spinning, you take a little time each day to sit down with your fibre and enjoy it. I mean, if you think about it, fifteen minutes really isn't much - it's the time it takes to eat a quick lunch, or to put on your makeup in the morning (or in the case of certain dads, the time it takes in the toilet - why do you need a whole quarter hour??)
