GAHHH! Damn you, Hurricane Ike! "Due to circumstances beyond UPS' control," my wheel will not be delivered today as scheduled. (As if to add insult to injury, the online tracking device used one of my most hated grammatical errors of all time, the dreaded s' when the original s was not a pluralizing s. I don't care what the stupid rule says! When you say UPS' control, it means the control belongs to multiple individuals, all of whom are named UP. It should be UPS's!!!)

I couldn't resist spinning something last night. I figured since this yarn wasn't going to be bulky, I had no reason to wait for my novelty wheel. It turned out pretty nice, it's spun from camouflage-dyed merino wool:

My spinning moratorium got even more difficult today as I opened up my latest shipment of sari silk. This time I opted to pay a bit extra and buy the premium fibers instead of the recycled fibers, which makes them closer to fabric remnants. There's a long ribbon of fabric with curly silk "locks" streaming out and there's not as much overlap in colors. It doesn't have the muddy character of the recycled fibers, but since it's a higher quality silk I can spin it into luxury-type yarns designed for next-to-the-skin wear without worrying about the bits of recycled-ness being scratchy.

Since I bought way more than I could ever use, I'm going to put some up for sale in my next store update in case anyone else wants to try it. See:

I put all spinning on hold until my new wheel arrives. I have no plans to get rid of "New Zealandy" (my Traveller) but I just have so many things in mind that it can't do. Here's a bit of what I will be spinning when the Mach1 gets here:

I'm currently waiting for Ravelry to designate me as a "yarnie" so I can begin uploading my pictures to their database. Then next up on the to-do list is buy some advertising, and then see if I can expand my store items with a few good consigners. (Consignees? Whatever.)

Haha, so I was looking up information about the medication I'm taking, and two of the side effects listed were "euphoria" and "mania". I guess that would explain why I just SPENT $700 ON A NEW SPINNING WHEEL!!!! Not only did I buy the wheel (mania) but I don't even feel guilty about it (euphoria). I'm dyeing as much fiber as fast I can (you might even say maniacally) in anticipation of the arrival of my SuperWheel. I will spin faster than a speeding bullet and more powerfully than if I were a locomotive! Able to leap 12 ounces of fiber in a single bobbin!

Here's the company's youtube video describing how it works, which will be very boring to you unless you're an obsessive yarn spinner:

A few years ago when I was first starting to get interested in spinning, I saw this one particular yarn that I really loved. I can't remember who spun it or what website I saw it on, but I remember that it was not for sale or I would have bought it in a heartbeat. Specifically there was one small section, maybe a couple inches worth, that had one color wrapped on top of another in a very interesting way. That yarn randomly pops into my head now and then, usually when I am spinning and *almost*, but not quite, accomplish that technique.

After a failed attempt last year with the Stained Glass yarn (although that skein was still awesome, just not what I meant to do), I finally figured it out. The light bulb went on over my head and I spun a giant skein of it night before last. It's a very time consuming process because it involved a lot of overtwisting to get the wraps on and then untwisting to get the coils out of the base yarn. Not to mention that in order to effectively untwist, it helps to be working with very short roving lengths, which meant wrangling 10 times as many strips as usual. Hard work but totally worth it in the end, I'd say.

The thought of selling this yarn makes me panicky, so I am definitely going to keep this one for myself. I still have lots of matching roving left, so I may make a pink skein to coordinate with it and give me a little more yardage.

p.s. I did a lot of picture taking and organizing last night. As soon as I get done setting the twist on a couple more skeins, I'll be updating the store with all the yarns I've been posting about this week. Look for a store update and mailing list email to come soon, hopefully by this weekend.

I was SO HAPPY when I opened my box of alpaca this afternoon. I wanted to dive in and swim around in it, like Scrooge McDuck in his gold coins. It's so clean I almost feel like I could dye & spin it right out of the box, but I'm giving it all a quick soak just in case. I found a giant blue bucket at Lowe's for $7 and I made some drying screens out of some crummy old paintings. I just ripped the canvas off and re-covered the wood frames with a roll of nylon screen and a staple gun. I made 2 of them so I could clamp them back-to-back and the thickness of the wood creates a little pocket to keep the fiber from blowing away.

I carded the horse hair with some variegated swampy-green merino this afternoon and will hopefully spin it tonight or tomorrow. It is SO MUCH LIKE HUMAN HAIR! Seeing it caught up in my carder reminded me of the vacuum cleaner brush as I cut out all my hair that's tangled down there making it smell burny. (Is everyone as nauseous as me now? Yeah, you're welcome.) But seriously, folks, I have faith that there will be others who, like me, have a Tim Burtonesque appreciation for the weird. SOMEONE, somewhere out there, will see this yarn and say, "I love that! I will knit it into a creepy something and love it forever!" Just look at the batt! Can't you just hear it glorrrppp-ing out from the depths of a bog and smothering you in your sleep? Or possibly just causing you a mild inconvenience like having to call a plumber to remove it from your drain?

The chatters in the Ravelry group for spinning art yarns have been talking about a new spinning wheel called the Mach1, made by SpinOlution. I MUST have one, but there's no way I can justify $600 for another wheel. ...Can I? ("No, Natasha, you can't. You are certifiably insane." -Adam, probably)

But it's got no orifice! The bulky flyer on my Traveller is big, but not big enough for all the things I want to do. This wheel has a design I have never seen before that appears to have a little twisting hook to hold the yarn instead of an orifice, allowing you to remove and replace the yarn at any time to allow giant pieces of bulk to go through. Not only that, but apparently the guy who makes them will customize it for you. One of the purchasers mentioned that the company was installing larger guides at her request.

Last night at 5am, I finally went to bed. Then at 5:30, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to sleep while my head was so full of bulky yarn thoughts. The above yarn is what happened when I got back up to card and spin the bulkiest yarn I have ever made. I spun it so thick that a single ply wouldn't go through the orifice without me stopping to yank it through and wind the bobbin by hand. Then I took it off the wheel, folded it over on itself, and plied it by hand, inch by inch. I would pull out some length, let the string dangle until it was done twisting, secure the ball, and pull out another length. It didn't take as long as you might think because I only ended up with a few yards' worth, but it was quite a hassle nonetheless. And the end result was still not as bulky as the plan had been in my head, making me even more sure that I need to acquire one of these newfangled Mach1's.

For now, I will have to let my super-bulky project planning fall to the back of my mind because there is another much more pressing matter at hand: The 20 lbs of alpaca sitting in a box in the kitchen. It's off to Home Depot this afternoon and, depending on if the hurricane brings rain today, possibly a marathon washing session in the back yard.