Best Quote I Heard All Day
Hear no evil, speak no evil - and you'll never be invited to a party--Oscar Wilde

'Tis the season to party. I love a good party and I've got a few on the holiday calendar.

However, I'm so sorry that I won't be invited to this one.

I just don't have the right outfit.

Loose Ends
Yesterday I figured it was about time to finish a couple of things, like Liz's socks, which had been fermenting on the needles.

One pair down, several more to go. I have a feeling that making socks for gifts will take up most of my knitting time until Christmas.

Rummaging in the attic for more sock yarn was a bad idea. While going through the stash, I found this:

Tussah silk. Bought at the Fiber Studio this summer while on vacation in New Hampshire. Two ounces of this and two ounces of a slightly different albeit complementary colorway. Four ounces total. It had to be spun immediately.

Talk about shine. My hair should look as good.

I must admit, I was a bit anxious about spinning silk. Hadn't done it and didn't want to fuck it up. To my amazement, it spun like a charm on the Joy.

My first right move was using the Joy. I find that I can spin tricky fibers like merino much easier on the Joy. Spinning fine yarn has less to do with tension and a lot more to do with treadling at the right speed and managing the take-in. There was virtually no tension set when spinning the silk.

Here's the thing about spinning silk, as I discovered. You lose control of your drafting and you're fucked. It's a lot harder to correct a big honkin' lump of fiber if it's silk. And the other thing that I did, which may or may not be smart, was to spin dangerously close to overtwist.

The proof of the pudding will be in the plying. I finished the two ounces of this colorway this morning. By this weekend, I should have the other two ounces spun and the whole lot plyed up and washed.

Depending upon the finished yardage, this will most likely end up as a lacy scarf, maybe even a Christmas gift for someone.

Home Sweet Hmmm
My need to create comfortable work cocoons is paramount to my accomplishing anything, be it writing, knitting, weaving, spinning or paying bills. This house has a very strange layout, wherein the dining room is separated from the kitchen by a rather large hallway. Clearly, when we first moved here, this was going to be my work space. I now have it as I want it. Cluttered.

This is where I spend a good part of each day. Note the ubiquitous coffee cup and cat treats on the desk and the bottled water on the floor--survival necessities. When company comes for dinner, the loom is folded up, the warping board goes into the closet and the winding station gets moved against the patio door.

Now, if it all weren't so damned close to the fridge, it would be most perfect.

Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill
Feh. I probably won't be posting anything on Monday due to some heavy-duty dental surgery. Perhaps Tuesday. I can only hope that Dr. Sinisi will offer up some good Percocet for his favorite patient.

You know, writing on Percocet could possibly be the next rare and handy remedy to writer's block. It could happen.