Got home from work last night and made myself a vodka tonic before settling down in front of my wheel with some of the pin-drafted roving my in-laws gave me. I decided to try for a lace weight yarn, so I started spinning very thin singles, which proceeded to continuously break on me. It’s been awhile since I tried my hand at alpaca or lace weight, and I guess I had forgotten how short the staple is and how much twist is required. The main part of my problem was I would get a section that would become too thin, and it would snap as it was loading onto the bobbin. So, I’d go to pull out the end and get started again, and the yarn would fall apart as I gently pulled on it. Eventually, I decided that my hands were too sweaty (although I don’t know why) and I was too uptight to deal with fussy alpaca. Thankfully, my brother-in-law arrived for dinner just about then, so I had an extra excuse to put it away for the evening. I had predrafted the fiber, but I think I’m going to try again with the roving spilt in half lengthwise.
I’m still debating joining the Knitting Olypmics. Like I’ve said before I have a pattern and yarn to go with it, but I don’t have the needles so I haven’t had a chance to swatch anything. Additionaly, I’m still feeling underwhelmed about my knitting; I just don’t know if it’s in relation to the current projects I have going (which I just realized I have never updated my sidebar with… might be time for a blog spring cleaning) or knitting in general. I’d hate to sign up and realize that I just don’t want to do it… but if I could manage to finish in 16 days, I’d have a pretty purple sweater to wear. *sigh*