A Wheel-y Exciting Day

ducks

Seriously, though, these past couple days have been pretty awesome.  Yesterday, Darren brought home a bag of alpaca fleece.

Hi, Betty!

I wish i'd included something for scale, but imagine a standard household black garbage bag with enough room to spare that you could tie it shut.

It didn't look like much stuffed into that bag.

And yet, Betty managed to cover my dining room table and then some.  Her fleece is doubled in most spots in that picture.

I spent an hour or two picking out the straw (there wasn't much) and the second cuts (there weren't many) and resisting the urge to dive in face first.  The dust stopped me, but the floof was hard to resist.

I'm really glad i didn't dive in

I plan to wash some tonight and possibly be spinning by Sunday.

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot (not!).  I got a new wheel in the mail today.

Chip inspects the strange box.

So, of course, i immediately...


...went for a walk.

What???  It's a beautiful day!

An hour later, i began unpacking.

first peek

laying in wait

I know, this is totally boring, but i don't care.

unfolded and ready for the Mother-of-All

all the accessories toys.  clockwise, from top:
Lazy Kate with three bobbins
regular Mother-of-All with bobbin
fast flyer
"plying" or Jumbo head with big bobbin

fully assembled

regular head with drive band

I'm a little nervous.  My spinning experience is limited to a slow wheel, my Ashford Traditional with one ratio, 6.5:1.  I have tried a Majacraft Rose very briefly, but i was spinning cotton for the first time and the speed was a little terrifying in that case.  I must now dig through my fibre stash for something to play with this evening.  Maybe i'll play with some of the fibre we prepped during last year's beginner class.  I'll let you know how it goes.