spinning!

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7

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.

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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.

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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!

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sometimes a cigar is a drop spindle

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8

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?

my ipod gave me a bald spot

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9

For her 16th birthday, D#2 received an ipod upgrade. She is thrilled. And I received her ipod castoff – her lime green mini ipod.

I have spent the past six hours (at least!) trying to figure this damn thing out. So far I have

  1. accidentally ripped the wire from one set of ear phones
  2. fought with Boar over the semantics of playlist vs. folder
  3. fought with Boar over the semantics of podcast vs. music.
  4. continued fighting with Boar over aforementioned semantics even after a common ground has been established.
  5. listened to Garrison Keillor and Brenda Shayne and a reading of the NY Times front page.

this thing is extremely frustrating – any and all advise welcome. Especially if you can explain to me why these knitting podcasts keep going into a music folder. Do you have any great sites I should know about? I am using itunes, but am willing to jump ship at a moment’s notice.