While I am waiting for the Rosewood Glitter fibre to arrive I have been somewhat at a loss to decide what to spin next. I have a heap of yarn ready to knit and have been browsing patterns - but such indecisions. I have sort of lost my nerve after running short of fibre with the Chunderup sweater so I have gone on another tack altogether.
A few years ago I bought myself a blending board - all the rage for a short while and they really are fun to use so I made myself a large number of 'rolags'. These are long snakes of rolled fibre and they are spun 'woollen' rather than 'worsted'. Woollen is spun from the centre of the fibre and creates a softer, fluffier yarn; Worsted is spun from the end of the fibre and gives a smoother, shinier finish.
I didn't get much further with my rolags except for the school visits which Herself dragged me along to in order to demonstrate to the Babies' Class what sent The Sleeping Beauty into hibernation. There is no way anyone could prick her finger with a modern spindle but it gave the kids some idea of how yarn was created before the Industrial Revolution. Herself died about 15 months ago and my rolags have been languishing unloved for years now.
The ones which I spun were all done on my treadle wheel (Ertoel Emma) but my electronic wheel (Ertoel Roberta) uses Irish tension which is set up for a long draw and fast wind in so it is ideal for the rolags and I have been spinning them for the last couple of days. It is a bit addictive - I have not got enough to make anything meaningful so I am going to have to make more - and more - until I run out of Corriedale fibre since I have no other use for it - it pills badly.
D1 is arriving at lunch time on Wednesday and has cut out a Christmas dress which she intends to sew up on my sewing machine which at the moment is at the back of all the things I usually store in the spare bedroom so it is all going to have to be relocated. Now that I have sorted out the car space problem D2 has made no efforts to move either of her Porsches out of my parking spaces but that is no longer a priority so I am happy to let them stay where they are for the time being.
It is the COTA Christmas bash tomorrow but I have spat the dummy on that one since they kept on changing the date and I kept cancelling other things to be there. I have decided to keep on teaching next year for long enough to find out if things have changed for the better or if MI5 is gradually taking over all of our space and making it off-limits. My Windows 10 seems to have settled down and does more or less what I want it to do but it can still surprise me on occasions - like now when it is refusing to get rid of a highlight after I changed the font.
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