Spinning in place

My life is spinning. Some big changes are coming and now my head is spinning. Change is good but I hate feeling the lose of control. When my world starts spinning, I have found myself spending more time at the spinning wheel. I retreated to the front porch to card some lovely grey alpaca. The fleece hadn't been washed and was really dusty...too dusty for the inside. 


And there it was. All by itself waiting for me to take a breath and notice it.The lone surviving tree peonies. 


We have had some major thunderstorms and the heavy rains had knocked all the petals off the tree peonies except one.


These flowers are usually hard to miss, big brassy dinner plate sized blooms.

The last tree peonie of the season.

I'm thankful I didn't miss it. Thanks for waiting!


This past week has been so busy and chaotic that I haven't gotten very much downtime. But when I have had some time I found myself drawn to the spinning wheel and some fluffy fleece. I'm in no way a pro, totally a novice. An enthusiastic novice.


Last weekend during a burst of energy, my husband made me two new tools for my spinning obsession: a lazy kate and spool holder. On the lazy kate are two different types of alpaca; suri and huacaya. I struggled with the suri. The fleece I used was drum carded and very tangly. I ended up predrafting it or in plain English tugging it apart before I spun it. The suri was lovely but still tangly and I should have recarded the rolags. Learning.

My new lazy kate with yummy alapaca waiting to be plied.

I plied the two spools last night into a pretty skein waiting to be washed and blocked. It is soft now and i can't wait until it has been finished. Thinking a cowl or hat. Definitely something decadent worn next to the skin.