Hoeing Your Own Row....

It's often been 'suggested' by people near and dear to me that, though I can be entirely practical and almost always empathetic and reliable (yeah, right), I often give the impression that I'm sort of living on my own cloud. I would generally dispute all of this and point to the more community oriented aspects of my personality but the truth is, I am a serious Hermit. Worse than just a physical Hermit, I'm a mental Hermit, too. It's the way I hoe the rows of life, ya know? Just a short 'mental vacation' here and there can do wonders.

While I do see the advantages of a firm grip on reality in life, I just don't see the necessity to choke it to death and engrave it's every etched nuance into my eternal ether. Consequently, it means I mess up.....alot.... Kind of like when, the other day, I posted a blog on the blog's birthday but still mentioned NOT ONCE that it was the blog's birthday. Sorry, blog. And, happy birthday.

For the blog's birthday I am giving it 3 things:
1. More time and attention over the next year
2. More farm/wool critter content - this hard winter's got my garden fingers itching so there will be more of that as soon as someone comes and magically takes away all the feet upon feet of snow in my garden plots.
3. More handspun - because that generally appeases anyone no matter how badly I screw up for them - LOL.

I've already begun with the skein above - 'Goblin Market' which was in the shop last week as this pretty little roving. That's what I absolutely love about spinning hand-dyed roving. No other way could you combine such an array of contrasting color and still have such a calm tone to the yarn. It is like color magic. The magic of spinning hand-dyed roving is that the colors are cooled and soothed quite a bit in the spinning. As a single, this yarn would have been a much more bright and shifty but happily drenched with color yarn. It would have been fun to do for a hat or something but I wanted sport wgt sock yarn so I went for a 2 ply(340ish yds) - also, I wanted easy peasy spinning and that pretty much either means sock yarn or singles to me these days. I keep meaning to spin something thicker for a quicker sweater but I tend to love a sweater that sort of hugs and smooths across the skin so, as it turns out, I not only like to spin this weight more but I like wearing the knits from it more. My hands just wish, from time to time, that I could knit fast and wild and worsted. Such.internal.conflict. Those of us who like to venture onto their own personal cloud from time to time tend to like the 'surprise' and 'adventure' of turning out a yarn that is an amazing mutation of the colors found the the roving. Give me a row, give me a hoe....and let me get to it.

In between those and my next spinning adventure, I whipped up a few 'light' batts (meaning I didn't have enough to make a full one left when I'd made batts so I generally opt to use up the remainder in a little batt for myself) of 'Big Sky' and 'Turkish Delight'. No thrills, no frills, here. Just blissfully smooth, singles spinning that enables me to visit my cloud for a special long stint because singles spinning is less about the head doing the work and more about the pedal, the wheel, and the hands working like a fine instrument with just a calm soul to guide them along. This is where you pop the recliner out on your own cloud and rest in the nether space a while.



Gripping reality should be brief and concise. This practice should in no way impede one's desire, fire, and fury of ideas to start vast amounts of projects and dream big dreams. It's all good, really, as long as you know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em (ewwwww - just made myself's spine tingle on that one!). This vest is obviously not going to be done by my proposed deadline (which is tomorrow) but that is quite alright with me. I'm finding I like working the modular sweater/vest but like it more as a side project, just picking it up from time to time and catching up with it. It will take a while, but it's all good. I've folded doing the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl Knit-Along because I have remembered my Spider Web Shawl WIP from Victorian Lace Today and I feel compelled to get back to it with some conviction because I want to wear it this spring. With that, my socks in progess (let alone the many pairs worth that sit balled up with their sketch/pattern on top of them waiting patiently for their day in the sun), a few patterns I'm working on, and the ever groaning WIP basket, I'll just have to do it late. The other good thing about having a mental cloud is that when you feel pulled in 4000 directions, a brief stint there can really help you sort things out.



The best place, for me (as if it's not already obvious) to take my little vacations is in front of the wheel. It's good to have a place. Only, I may have tapped too deeply into that place this time and it's gotten me in a real pickle. I.must.resist.knitting.this.yarn.right.away! I'm still in love with the Vardo handspun I've been waiting to knit and am narrowing in on a chance to do with a spin along but, this yarn was another result of my 'vacations' this week and, as you can probably tell or deduce by the yardage versus wgt (500 yds, fingering wgt, 3 ozs), I was really in spinning bliss. It was just one of those times, you know? When the wheel, the feet, the hands, the head, the mind and the Spider Weaver Woman Batts were working together and practically humming in unison. It came out so lofty and springy that I had to clutch it to my chest and sing it a song. She wants to be socks. Ask me how I know. We've talked quite alot, actually, and the urge to ball her up and ditch everything else is definitely difficult to resist. That's how fiber fetishes are, though, always tempting and luring you until you feel like you could just about do anything.....she's trying not to listen to the Spider Weaver Woman yarn and get back to work and maybe cursing the temptation that is a fiber mental vacation..........