So, I am usually pretty...um...compulsive about spinning up all of a batt, or bump, or whatever amount of a fiber I have to spin. I like to finish it all up before I move onto something else. I *always* ply before I move onto something new, and probably unsurprisingly, I develop a plan for whatever it is I am spinning or am planning to spin.
So, imagine my horror surprise yesterday when I realized I had little bits of leftover roving lying around the house. I'm not sure exactly how I got all these little leftover bits, but confronted with them, I decided that I needed a Plan.
Carole recently talked about how it took her a little while to get used to her new HitchHiker, and I've felt similarly about my Kiwi. I want it to be my travel wheel, but I don't want to end up frustrated by the singles I spin, so I decided that I would use the little leftover bits I found to get a little better acquainted with Emme (did I tell you that I named her Emme? Short for Emerald?).
The biggest problem I've run into with Emme is that I tend to overspin my singles. I've got a nice rhythm with Hank, we know each other so well that I don't have to think much about how much I treadle before I wind on my singles. With Emme, I have to be very conscious of the amount of spin I let into the single before I wind on. I know this has everything to do with switching from a single to double treadle, but I can't spin as languidly with Emme as I can with Hank. Emme likes to go fast (I was going to say Emme likes it fast, but well, y'know).
Anyway! Yesterday I worked on the remainders of some Indigo Moon roving I had and some Spunky Eclectic fiber club remainders. Honestly, I am much happier with how both turned out than I expected to be. I navajo plied both singles and the Indigo Moon turned out perfectly balanced, without much fiddling on my part. The Spunky Eclectic ENDED UP being balanced, although it took me too long to figure out I needed to treadle more before winding on my plied yarn. But ultimately I am pleased with the results of both experiments and I've decided to check through all my stash bins to see if there are any more random bits I can spin up today.
Before I implemented Operation Spin all Random Roving yesterday, I finished spinning and 
navajo plied a Grafton Fibers batt (a la Stephanie) that I purchased at Rhinebeck this year. I do plan to use Stephanie's scarf pattern for this yarn, and I am very excited about knitting this up! I am going to start with the skein that is primarily pink and then knit the pink/yellow skein.
I anticipate that my blog posts for the next few weeks will be more fiber/knitting related. I have to start saving up my more random thoughts for February. Y'all know.
I will leave you with one final picture, though...last weekend Mike and I were lucky enough to get together with Rick and Kellee and we had just a fabulous time (as always). One of the fun things that we got to do was pick up our wedding pictures...I really can't explain just how amazing a job Kellee and Rick did - I mean, they absolutely outdid themselves, and no hired photographer could have gotten some of the moments that they managed to capture. Kellee, that beautiful wonderful woman, put together a little photo album for us of some of the highlights, and this photo is of a page from that album. Kellee? Love you. Thank you.
