Isn’t it ironic, my spinning lessons have opened up a world of stash reduction? Here is a Jacob fleece plied with two different mohairs from my stash. There were a number of years there where I would go to Smiley’s Yarn Riot. Not that the yarn isn’t decent or anything, but it was bought in a frenzy with little regard for pattern or preference. This was back when Smileys would take its show on the road, or at least the local roads. They would rent out a conference room in local hotels, fill the tables up with all kinds of bagged yarns (I think all were discontinued) and then everyone would line up and snake their way through the room. The line was tremendous. Once your place on the line passed some yarn on the table, it was really difficult to navigate your way back through the throng. Split second decisions had to be made. At the end, they would throw all of the yarns in giant garbage bags. This was also before I had any real idea of how much yarn went into a project (not that I have a much better grip on the concept now) and so I would buy two bags of everything …. and sometimes more! So, if you want some goldish brownish greenish or blue mohair, let me know and I’ll send you a skein or two, or three, or four ………

The jacob is from that fleece where I experimented with color blending in the drum carder. This is the bobbin I spun before the experiment. It is a very rustic yarn, so the addition of the mohair softened it up. Much like Cara, I was under the impression that plying was a bit of a no brainer. Ha! Spinning lessons have taught me otherwise, so this represents my first educated attempt at plying ….. not too bad.

Daughter #1 is home for spring break. She and Daughter #2 commandeered the television in the den last night to watch old video tapes of themselves. This is a clear invasion of my knitting space. An outright messing with my knitting mojo. Rather than break up the sisterly bonding, I decided to take up my spinning mojo – my wheel and its accoutrements is in our basement, along with a big screen tv. So I got to watch all the preshows and the Oscars while spinning!

ps. shall we discuss what an ass Ryan Seacrest is? gah, I can’t stand him! have you seen Kathy Griffin’s whole shtick on him – she is hysterical. see if you can catch her on the Bravo channel sometime.