Fair October

Long day. Again. Of course. Happy October.

Read this.

Love it.

Know what else I love? My new Ashford Traditional spinning wheel, which I bought used from one of the nurses at work. I spun for an hour tonight, this roving that I got on the farm tour a couple weeks ago. It was cheap, and it turns out that it's not especially well-carded, but hey, it was $1/oz. And the wheel needs to be oiled, and isn't as steady on the carpet upstairs as it was downstairs on the tile (or the no-pile carpet in my office, which was the place it ran the best), so the thickness isn't super consistent...but what it's produced is this high-lanolin, slubby, thick-and-thin yarn which is just totally and completely gorgeous (at least to me). It's very folksy. I see mittens, or maybe a whimsical scarf.

And so I'm sitting there tonight, fussing with the wheel, watching House, and spinning yarn, and my dog is curled up next to me on the bed (the chair I was using ended up sort of up against the foot of my bed), and every now and then she'd lean over and nuzzle or lick me, and I was just like...hmm. This? This is pretty darn close to bliss. And once I get the motion of the wheel evened out...

Quite zen. Very therapeutic.

I bought this thing (and some cards and combs, etc, that are coming later) for about what the hospital bills for one of my therapy sessions. So the way I see it, after having put in a solid hour on it tonight, it's already paid for itself.