Fiber Follies

I have arrived at the conclusion that my fiber stash is expanding, all on its own. I’ve been spinning the cardigan wools since August (!). I did take lengthy breaks from that when Risky cat passed. I just didn’t feel like doing any of the enjoyable things for a while after that.

I had the naive idea that I could easily spin 25-30g each day. This on top of work and doing EVERYTHING around the house and ALL necessary errands ALL BY MYSELF, as well as keeping the remaining livestock healthy and happy. I’m lucky to have ten minutes in a day to spin. I don’t know about some of the spinners out there, you all seem to spin a few kg a day without breaking a sweat, on top of caring for small children, home-schooling said children, caring for hundreds of sheep and cats and dogs and the occasional fish or bird, travelling all over creation, working two full-time jobs and knitting entire garments while bringing the pasta water to a rolling boil.

Honestly. I just ain’t as good as you all. I’m slow and deliberate. In the time you’ve sheared the sheep, cleaned and picked and processed and dyed and carded the wool and spun it up; I’ve managed to put an empty bobbin on the wheel. In the time you’ve taken your gorgeous hand-painted hand-spun wool from bobbin to knitting needle, completing an afghan or ruana or a half dozen baby blankets, I’ve cast on for a scarf.

Oh well. I may never be quick about it but I surely do have fun.

I decided to start spinning a silk cap. I haven’t spun a cap in months and thought it would be a nice break from the cardigan spinning. This cap is an amazing combination of reds and pinks, bright enough to emit light in a dark room. I can ply it with some cashgora I spun this past week, it’ll add wonderful contrast and body to the yarn.

Now. There are ways and ways to spin caps. My preferred is thwacking it into a cap shape, then peeling out a layer or a few of silk. I place my hands in the “rim” and pull until it breaks, giving me nice long chunks of silk to spin.

Then I put the rest down.

Yeah, right.

Forget it. Silk cap is sticky. I’ve been spinning my nice long chunks while more layers here and there and the rest of the cap dangle by invisible filaments to my fingers. Don’t bother shaking, it just makes the silk find more opportunities to stick. It sticks to clothing. It sticks to hair. I grabbed a tissue to blow my nose and ended up with pinky filament stuck in a nostril hair, which filament also happened to be caught in an eyelash. I tried to pull it away and felt like my face was unravelling. The damn thing was all over me. I’m so bemused by all these blobs of silk dangling from my everywhere that I’m losing the desire to spin.

Spinning silk caps is like wrassling with cotton candy.

Except a battle with cotton candy is one I’d win.