The Knitting Pirate

It’s unfortunate that I haven’t had much to blog about recently. Knitting and spinning have taken a back seat to spring cleaning and other projects. I’ve made small bits of progress here and there on my projects – most notably the second Pomatomus sock is finally within sight of the toe – but nothing really worth writing about.

I’m planning to go to the MD Sheep and Wool Festival this coming weekend, and I’m getting excited! I’ve been making up a shopping list:

• yarn gauge
• variety of fibers, both natural and dyed
• solids for carding blends
• nylon for making sock batts
• semi-solid sock yarns
• DO NOT BUY A NEW WHEEL

Here’s the thing with the wheel. I’ve been drooling over the Kromski Sonata for a while now. Double-treadle. Foldable/portable. Smooth. I tried one at With Yarn in Front back in November and decided that when I get a new wheel, that’s going to be the one. Then I made a deal with myself that if I spun at least once a week between January 1 and the Sheep & Wool festival, I could justify buying it.

I have not spun at least once a week between then and now. Therefore I shouldn’t even be considering buying a wheel. Except… I am.

I love Patience, my Ashford Traditional. But I’m wondering if I don’t actually love spinning on her. I’ve always been drawn to the look of saxony wheels. They seem so classic, what a spinning wheel ought to be. But… well, I named her Patience for a reason.

And yet I’d feel terrible if I sold her, because Pirate-Husband bought her for me as a birthday present. (He says I shouldn’t feel bad at all, but I have this tendency to get emotionally attached to things.) Actually I’ve been thinking of cleaning her up and refinishing her, though that would be a huge project.

If I had a portable wheel, I could theoretically take it to Pennsic. Last year I did do a little bit of drop spindling there, but whether or not I’ll spin is completely dependent on the weather. Some years it’s not too hot; other years even the idea of holding wool is enough to make me run for the shade of the swimming hole.

I could afford to buy it, but I probably shouldn’t. The savings account has taken a few serious hits lately, and I need to build it back up. I also need to build a new computer, which has to take precedence as my desktop died over a year ago, and I’ve been working on the laptop since.

So now that I’m home from work, I’m going to spin for an hour with Patience. It is Tuesday, after all, and Tuesdays are for spinning. I know that I’m lucky to have a wheel at all, and I need to give her more of a chance before I decide to move on. Perhaps in another six months, I’ll better know whether it’s me or the wheel, and I’ll have gotten over the “new! shiny! want that!” that I’m currently feeling.

This is the reason I’ve not been knitting. This is a 1998 Oldsmobile Cutlass GLS. It has been my car for the past five and a half years. It has 147,000 miles on it. It’s not sporty, stylish, or very much fun to drive… but up until this winter, it has been incredibly reliable. Then the power steering pump started making some funny noises, and then we realized that it really needed new tires. Well, that was just too much money to put into an old car, so we decided to trade it in. The only problem with that is that the car I had set my mind on has a manual transmission, and I’d never driven one before. So Pirate-Husband took me out driving in his Miata, not the easiest of cars on which to learn, and it took me so long to get the hang of it that I thoroughly neglected my knitting. I have made almost no progress on anything but learning to drive.

I think it was worth it.

No, THIS is the reason I haven’t been knitting. This is a 2009 Mazda 3 S Touring in Galaxy Gray, and today I drove it by myself for the first time. I didn’t stall on the way home from work (let’s not mention the way *to* work; I was tired) and I even managed to park it uphill and backwards in the garage. Having done that, I have no excuses left. I should be knitting right now. Pardon me, I think I hear my yarn calling! Hopefully I’ll have some progress pics to show off later this week!