Not only were my dreams telling me to dust of Ye Olde Lendrumme, my calendar said the same. Tonight is our Explorer’s Club meeting. This is a smaller group from the spinning guild, that meets to try out and discuss different breeds, preparation methods etc.

This month’s project was icelandic wool. The packets we were given had the wool already washed and separated into the outer and inner coats. Other members of this club will try out different prep methods, I however, have only one available, so through the drum carder it all goes.

fiber going into the carder, blending the colors & coming out!

It really has been a long while since I’ve spun and it took me a few minutes to get my groove on. I spun both of these using the long draw method. The skein on the left is the fiber from the outer coat – this I Andean plyed. I actually almost had a spinning nightmare. I have all of this fiber wrapped around my hand and it was humid enough in the room that it kept sticking to me and would not unwind itself. On top of it all, I had on my ipod and almost andean plyed my earphone cords! On the right is the skein from the inner coat. I left it as a single and I am proud to say that it is my first deliberate attempt at laceweight!

Thank you so much for your ipod suggestions. I think I have figured it out, but I could probably stand to finesse it somewhat. For instance, I have subscribed to the NY Times front page podcast. Do I have to manually update this feed everyday and then manually drop it into my playlist, or will configuring the settings to do it be enough? D#2 tells me that when I want to update things into the ipod, I have to re-insert the white cable thing that connects the ipod to the laptop. This seems ungraceful at best and I suspect there has to be another way.

It is quiet here at Chez Swine. High humidity, so me and the dogs are laying around. panting.

I had a dream last night —- I was laying on my back with my arms outstretched and using a drop spindle. After a rough start, I was doing a pretty good job.

do you think Freud would agree that I need to dust off my Lendrum?

How about some pictures of the Spin Out?

It turned out to be a great day! Cara tells me she ended up with 40 signatures on the sign in list and there were probably a few more besides. As you know, things were a bit uncertain at first because of our stormy weather, but an indoor space was found and the show went on! btw, the building was gorgeous. People seemed to really enjoy it, I know I did! It was great to see everyone spinning away and also a sizeable amount of people trying it for the first time.

I also had a number of people ask me for information about my Spinning Guild – which is fantastic and I cannot say enough good things about. Long Island Spinning Study Group meets the third Wednesday of every month in the Smithtown’s historic Brush Barn. (you can google that for directions) At last month’s meeting there were about 40 people. It is a fantastic, fun and very smart group. The meeting officially starts at 7, but people show up earlier for extra spinning time. There is always someone more experienced to help with any problems/questions. The guild hosts yearly workshops and every meeting has an interesting program. If you are close by, or even if you aren’t and are interested in spinning it is definitely worth checking out! Next month’s meeting is a dinner, so if I’ve gotten you interested, plan on coming to the August meeting instead.

I have finished sock #1 of the Dimple Socks and am onto #2. I am still mulling over my lace project options …..