Fledgling Spinner

In a time when you can have fast food and instant rice, immediate gratification becomes commonplace. Then you get all cheap and order something that is unfinished and it seems to take an eternity (three days) to finish and you try to do everything under the sun to occupy yourself while your patient spouse fulfills the “some assembly required” role.

I was consumed with reviewing how the whole spinning thing would actually go down. I read the two books I own on the subject, read all the information on the web. Occasionally, I would take out the alpaca fleece and wonder if I would like it and, in turn, how it would respond to me. Fighting the urge to use the wheel unfinished left me with unspent motivation that I translated into preparation in a half baked attempt to get to know my fleece better.

I washed fleece.
I read so many websites which dealt with the idea of washing alpaca fleece. Some swear by pressing it in a sink full of water, other use a strainer. Some are devoted completely to the washing machine. Not wanting to put too much wear and tear on the rental provided washed, I squeezed fleece and soap in the laundry sink. It looked like something the cat coughed up when it was laid on a towel. I tried the washing machine and laundry bag method and after three soaks and spins, I delivered the above fleece. Some tips were still muddy and the sand that the animals apparently like to roll in dusted the bottom of my tub like powdered sugar.

I made the screen to dry it on with bits and pieces from a Home Depot screen kit. I didn’t understand why they don’t sell assembled screens, but I thought it would be obvious if I broke a display window and ran off with the screen so I opted for the kit.

I laid out the hairball for prep.
Some websites advocated combing alpaca, others swore by drum carders. Prior to the arrival of the wheel bits and fine carders, I used an old cat brush to do my version of “flick” carder which my husband observed looked like what young girls used to do to My Little Pony tails. My efforts were rewarded with a small pyramid of combed hair, slightly less colourful than ponies.

I got sick of combing and knit on the sock from the latest Interweave. I have a deep feeling this sock will be long in waiting for a partner, but I have never been a big fan of knitting through the back loops let alone when someone wants me to worry about cable stitches at the same time.

My husband found this bottle of relaxation at Target and thought of me.

I was well prepared for the wheel. I broke in the fine carders and made rolags – rolls of carded alpaca fleece, some rolled lengthwise off the carder and some widthwise.

I was ready and anxious by Wednesday night, enough to admire the almost finished pieces and say “They don’t really need any more urethane than that, do they? The natural oils of what I am spinning should protect them…….”

I enjoy knitting. It occurred to me that at some point this year, I passed the decade milestone since I first decided that I wanted to try knitting. Before the first forays into raglan sleeved sweater making, I had been a strong advocate of crochet. After all, I told myself, I would only have to worry about one loop rather than several with crochet. Some time around the completion of an mock aran afghan, it occurred to me that crochet was a bit of a yarn hogging activity. It seemed to consume yarn almost as quickly as I could unpack another ball. My best friend was knitting smooth even fabric and it seemed to defy logic how long her yarn would last. She picked up where my mother had left off in my youth and taught me a simple long sleeve sweater pattern that I began to replicate in various yarns until I went off the map and began to experiment in knitting. Over the last decade, I have played with increasing intensity and now sit on the eve of an event that will either make or break my knitting destiny.

The spinning wheel I ordered comes tomorrow.

It all began last Saturday. An idea of spinning had taken root in my head with my mother’s visit almost two years ago that ended with her giving me a ball of what I now understand to be roving (which had previously been destined for a person with whom she had consummated a “swap” – they got sea silk instead). I would love and pet the subtle shifting fibers of dark to powder blue, knowing all the while that I couldn’t make anything out of them until I could turn it to yarn in some kind of bibbledy-bobblydy-boo fairy godmother way. It went into the yarn box and lay forgotten.

The idea of spinning began to slowly trickle back in, via recent posts on certain blogs, the fleece peeking out beneath other skeins of yarn on a recent stash hunt, my mother mentioning she bought me a hand spindle, wondering what to do to turn a positive out of my dog’s latest bout of summer season shedding…..and then it happened. I woke up normally on Saturday, wondering what to do. I asked my husband what he wanted to do. I surfed the internet for wool festivals or sheep farms. Living in Florida, it seems that these things are hard to come by, a fact which seems obvious to any non-knitting but frustrating to me. I stumbled across a breeder page for alpacas. I had knit with alpaca before. Knit socks. Tall socks. Surely, alpacas make fiber to spin. I dialed a number from the page for a close farm. I hung up the phone. The person who answered would think me absured. I paced and cleaned the kitchen. I dialed again. She was kind and laughed when I made fun of myself. She said I could come over whenever I wanted and that she had fleece. I saw the alpacas. They were cute and begging to be pet. They played in kiddie pools and liked being sprayed with a hose. I spent my afternoon with a gift from the wonderful lady. The greatest gift a humble fiber fan can have.

This.And it was marvelous. I own no carders, I have but a few books. I read about washing alpaca fleece on several different websites and found no two answers were the same. The most I know about the contents of this bag is that they made me smile from ear to ear for the past week. Several attempts at making a spindle from dowel and cd have left my garage littered with rubber washers and gaskets and a forgiving spouse. After much thought, and a peek at my “for when I really want something” savings I decided that spindle good or spindle bad I would probably end this latest venture pining for the romance of a spinning wheel. It will be unfinished and require assembly. If all goes well, I will have yarn. If it does not, it looks like second hand wheels hold their value. For now, I have busied my hands with every chore I could think of. Washed some fleece and combed it to feel the fiber. I have expanded beyond the basic cedar lined wool box my husband built me when my yarn habit outgrew my knitting basket and now I have taken over the spare bathroom closet. It is the first time since summer vacations of childhood past that I have looked forward to a Monday so much. Please, please Mr UPS man, bring me a package……otherwise what will I do with this?