Happy, Happy Spinner

Folks, you're reading the words of an exceptionally happy spinner right now.

Tiny, twirling vehicle of happiness.

Yesterday afternoon I attended my first meeting of the Rhode Island Spinner's Guild... and it was fantastic. I always get unnecessarily nervous before these types of unfamiliar social/crafty gatherings... you'd think I would've learned from the last time I went to a meeting in Connecticut, but I didn't. The Fiasco still had to literally force me to leave the house and I'm ever so glad that he did. It turns out that Rhody spinners are a warm, welcoming, enthusiastic, and talented bunch and I absolutely cannot wait until next month's meeting, during which we will be learning how to spin art yarns! Plus, I got a whole bunch of spinning done on my little neglected spindle:

Pencil included for scale.

If you remember, I began this spinning project way back in October when I bought the spindle (a Golding purpleheart tsunami) at Rhinebeck. That nearly-full cop represents only a tiny fraction of the Merino wool/silk blend top I have stashed so I'll probably be spinning it forever, but I will get a ton of yardage and the fiber/spindle combo is so pleasant that I really don't mind.

I have a second Golding spindle and another bit of fiber that I feel like I've been spinning forever (well, since August):

Woolgatherings 100% Polwarth wool

There is only one explanation for why this yarn hasn't been finished over the past 8 months: I have not been spinning it. Over the fall I didn't spin very much and then since December I've been spinning mainly on my new wheel. I'm fine having works-in-progress, but in this case it caused a problem because the finished yarn was intended to be a birthday gift for my very good knitterly friend, Katy, whose birthday was waaaaaaay back in December. It got to the point where I would walk past my spindles and feel extreme guilt as I sat down at my wheel and spun away on other things. Then inspiration struck-- I had a second braid of the same fiber!

Duh.

Rather than force myself to find spindle time, I started spinning the second braid on the wheel and am making excellent progress. Katy's favorite color is purple so this yarn is literally made for her. I'd say I have about a third of the fiber left to spin and with any luck will finish it soon.

Now, back to that spinning...