The wheels in my mind are spinning

There’s a group of Vancouver knitters over on Ravelry called the Terminal City Yarn Wranglers. There is a get together every few weeks in Vancouver. Though I’ve been a member almost as long as I’ve been on Ravelry, I’ve never been. Something tends to get in the way most weekends. There was a gathering this past Sunday and I decided that this time I was going to make a point of going. I’m so glad I did.

There were 4 others there at a coffeeshop on Main Street and one of them, Louisa, was kind enough to give me a drop spindle lesson so I spent most of the time “spinning” or at least, trying to. It was fun and though I need a lot of practice, I’ve got a starting point now. I can already see this spinning thing becoming addictive. There’s something soothing about the spinning spindle and the transformation of fiber into yarn.

That’s the result of my first attempt. My plan is to try and get in 20-30 minutes of practice a day. There’s just one little problem, now I want a wheel. I’ve done a little bit of looking and the prices make my eyes boggle a bit. One of the cool things about taking up knitting is that it requires minimal financial investment. All you need to get started is some yarn and needles, and even going high end, the single purchase price isn’t likely to be huge. (Assuming you don’t want to make a handspun quiviut sweater or something). That makes the investment in a wheel seem quite substantial, though still a bargain compared to my kayaking stuff.

So I have a plan. I get paid bi-weekly and have an extra payday in May so the deal is if I don’t buy yarn between now and the end of May, I can buy a wheel. While my stash is minuscule compared to some, it has grown exponentially in the past few months and needs to be tamed. I had it all out on my bed last night. It looks bigger than I thought it was when it’s all together like that.

Wait a second, that sounds an awful lot like a yarn diet. I have steadfastly maintained that yarn diets are a bad idea because you’ll only end up on a yarn binge at the end which will counteract any stash reduction you may have achieved. Hmmm, then again, wouldn’t a splurge like a spinning wheel satisfy any yarn binging urges?

Maybe I’ll call it a yarn fast instead of a yarn diet. Sounds shorter term.