Muse Breaks

A friend of mine came into town yesterday and we raided the local wool shop!  We both had a little trouble buying only what we could afford...

I got allll this:

Top left and clockwise:  2 oz baby camel and tussah silk (my indulgence!), 4 oz kid mohair, 16 oz bamboo silk, 2 oz superfine merino and angora, 4 oz milk fiber.  Oh, and a new bottom-whorl spindle!  We named it "Bobo."

I started out spinning the milk fiber and I freaking LOVE it.  It has a weird crimp to it, a very small one, that makes the resulting yarn look textured and already plied, despite being a single.  I'm not sure if all milk fiber is this way or not, but you won't hear me complaining, it's cool!  I think it makes it a little stronger, too, than the bamboo I've been spinning that has a tendency to slip apart while spinining.

I'm also spinning the milk on Bobo, which is weird to me.  I've never been able to DROP a drop spindle before because I've only ever worked on a Turkish spindle:

It was always too heavy, and the bamboo too slippery, to drop and spin.  I would put the pointed end on the ground and spin it, adding tension as I gained twist, then moving the twist up the fiber separately.  Spinning on Bobo is a whole new world to me!

I like it, though, and it's lightweight enough that I can focus more on other aspects of the spinning and consistency rather than on how likely I am to break the yarn.

My fiance and the girl I went with also got fiber - she got some wool and had a blast learning how to spin it up on her own Turkish spindle.  My fiance got two silk caps, which are WEIRD.  I don't even know how he spun them.  The staple is SO VERY LONG.  He wound up making silk rope out of them, and proved that you don't need a fancy spindle to spin:

That stuff. is. strong.



Remind me to post our Chicken Parmigiana recipe later when I have access to it, ya?  It was the most amazing part of Christmas.  If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be that.

-MM