New toys!

So, Internet, a new spinning wheel has come to live with me! She's a vintage Lendrum ST which came to me via the wonderful dnorton. Isn't Ravelry a wonderful thing?

I've been drooling over Lendrums since I learned to spin, but I'm not comfortable on double treadle wheels as my lower back issues mean I have to constantly readjust my sitting position to stay comfortable, and I find that double treadles force me to stay in one position for extended periods. I've also wanted a more portable wheel so I can start attending local guild meetings and meet spinners and take classes. So I was contemplating buying a new ST Lendrum in the fall when this wheel happened to come available on Rav, and at a price I couldn't resist. But couldn't quite convince myself that I could afford it without selling Thecla. Thankfully, my husband, who doesn't have the same kind of Grad School economics mindset as I do, suggested it would be an excellent addition, and that we could afford it without having to thin the herd, so to speak. I've had an awful lot of mileage out of my Ashford Traddy so far, and I love her to pieces, and I'm especially fond of the jumbo flyer that Nathan bought me for Christmas, so while it would be an upgrade to take the Lendrum, I would have been pretty sad letting Thecla go to offset the cost. Now I feel like a totally spoiled princess who gets to have TWO spinning wheels and ALL THE FIBRE <3

She spins like a dream! I snuggled up on the couch with some Corgi Hill Farm BFL last night and spun happily (and silently) away while trying to catch up on Coronation Street (I'm about four months' behind the Canadian broadcasts, so I've got a lot of spinning time in my near future.) After some fiddling with adjustments and tweaking of bits and bobs, we found a wonderful rhythm together. I got through about three weeks' worth of episodes in one sitting. Glorious!

Now I need to get some batteries in my camera so I can take some photos of her in all her blonde maple glory. And to capture the plying head, which is enormous. Seriously, it looks like a missile launcher.

This weekend I'm having friends over for a bit of a fibre party: we are going to play with colours and dyes! I am looking forward to making a mess of the kitchen. I've been doing a bit of dying over the past few months and I'm pretty excited by the results and looking forward to doing a little workshop with my best buds.

Today it is drizzly and much cooler than it has been over the past few weeks, and I am going to brew another pot of coffee, contemplate paying my library fines, and then knit away the balance of the day.