For the Love of Play.....

Wrapping up the Tour de Fleece at this very moment is most surreal. At first, I was about to slap myself when I counted up the skeins you see here plus the three that aren't in the pic and am at an official 21.5 skeins.....just 1 1/2 skeins short of my skein-a-day goal. Woot! Considering I've also been tearing my hair out in panic and exhaustion getting ready for Sock Summit, I'm pretty darn happy about it.

The Tour was a gift in and of itself that I am grateful for - it forced me to still make time between dyeing oodles of skeins of sock yarn for the Sock Summit and labeling, and packing, and contemplating sending all this hard work into the ethers of UPS and cross country shipping and still not baring my fangs or even trying to bite anyone for some spinning and spinning is truly my most peaceful state. Okay, I fess up - I did TRY to bite someone but he really wanted me to anyway and that's a story for another day, or not at all -snork. I admit that somewhere around the middle, when I fell behind a bit, I started to feel like growling a bit. "What was I thinking, I'm so freaking stupid to think I can do all of this at once," was something like what I heard being muttered in my head as I slapped myself repeatedly over the head with yarn. I mean, it was squishy handspun yarn so, you know, it didn't hurt or anything. Frankly, with all the chaos going on around here this summer - after a bit of getting used to - it felt quite good LOL - such is the sinister nature of the stress beast. Ah well, if you're going to beat yourself up - better to do it with lovely handspun yarn, non?

Then (queue light bulbs and happy songs in the background) it all just clicked. I remembered why I was there, what was important and that the whole purpose of it all was to enjoy the spinning and the peace it brings me. That's what I love about sports. And, yes, I consider this a sort of sport when done in this manner - it is like any other game or event wherein one sets or is met with a goal and one kills oneself to get to the goal and sometimes one wins and sometimes one is there to learn or remember something else - the love of play. After that, I stopped counting skeins and just tried to keep the time each day to spin a bit. It really got fun, again, and I stretched out in ways that aren't able to be counted.

You might already know that I'm the crappiest spindle spinner alive. You might also have figured out that I do nothing to help myself dispel this title because I don't practice, I don't like it, and I don't ever finish what I start. Not this time. What you see on the spindle, here, is a first - one whole Abby batt (squeal) spun and ready to be removed so I can spin the other and ply them - it will be my first 'real' skein. I've spindle spun some smallish skeins before but never an actual 'normal' sized skein so, you know, I'm beaming and looking all happy and proud and goofy at the moment. I've found out these things: 1) I still suck at it. Seriously. The batts are divine. The spindle is awesome. I still suck, take my word for it. 2) the strange thing is, I no longer care that I suck - I am loving taking the spindle in the car, to the library, up to the mill for those times (though they are tragically few) when I just have to stand around and wait for a bit. And, you know what? Since I'm spinning during those times, I'm sucking less - Woot! Must be that stint on the Tour wherein I was treadling for the Team Suck Less - another great creation by Abby. and 3) because I'm sucking less, I'm liking it more. Please forget the don't finish what I start part because I am not ready to linger in the reality pool beyond hopeful thoughts so I'm forgoing the opportunity to bash myself at all - someday, I'll be better at finishing. For right now, I'm liking being better at remembering the love of play.

Did I not introduce you to the beauties in this pic, yet? Oh, they are, starting at the top, a 380 yd skein of sock yarn from a blend of CorrieX and Cotswold Hogget gray fleeces, very silky and lustrous and squishy like handspun farm grown wools are supposed to be. Then, at the front (supporting the spindle with grace) is a skein of 'Tiny Dancer' Roving and 'Raven' batts plied together and some Cotswold singles in Queen Mermaid.

And, because I am just mean and shriveled enough in my tiny yarn heart to pick a favorite - I'll throw on the cabled 4 ply of this month's Happy Hooves Batt Club installment, 'Neptune's Lair' batts. Because, you know - I like Mermaid stuff. I know, a total surprise, huh? LOL.