Still hurrying

Again, I must be quick because I'm between things. But I wanted to post something while I had convenient wireless access, so here goes.

On one of the online forums I read, there was a discussion of aging rock stars, precipitated by the appearance of The Who at the Superbowl halftime show. I happened to see that show, and it kind of scared me. The word pathetic immediately rose to my mind and it stuck there while Roger Daltrey and the other musicians gyrated around in the same moves we thought were cool when we were young. Oh my gosh.

But the Emperor and I have gone to see Bob Dylan in concert twice in the past five years, and while I still ask my husband what Bob did with the money his mama gave him for singing lessons, he puts on a good show. So it's not age-ism that I'm dealing with ... I think the Who show was just plain bad to begin with.

The rock group you see above (if you don't immediately recognize them) is Jethro Tull. I've never seen them live, but hope to someday. I understand that they still draw pretty good crowds when they travel, which they seem to be constantly doing. When I become employed again, and Tull is within reach, we're going. Look at the picture... can you see the twinkle in Ian Anderson's eye? Gosh, I'd love to see him play that flute.

Olympic knitting... the Rivendell Single Sock is about an inch from the toe decreases. To summarize, I got through the complicated lacey leg knitting really quickly, but the true Olympic nature of the project was the herculean struggle to keep my attention focused on one project long enough to complete something. I think I'll actually make it to the finish line, but I'll save the celebratory exclamation points for when I've done it.

The LYS has asked me if I'd teach a handspindle class! I'm honored and thrilled, and have been preparing to do this for the past couple of weeks. The Emperor volunteered to assemble some student spindles for me, and here is one of the fruits of his labor.

He found the directions for making a useable spindle in one of my spindle books, and the next time we made it up to Medium Big City he bought the pieces. We figured that each spindle cost about $1.25, if you include the can of finish that he bought to seal the wood. And, they work pretty well. Here's a bit of proof.

I used the park-and-draft method to spin this yarn, which is the technique I plan to teach the class. I think that suspended spinning is fine, but when a student is first learning I want them to understand that it's okay and in fact normal to not have to juggle the spindle, wool, and the drafting triangle before you're ready. You don't have to do the "drop spindle" at all, if you don't want to. My goal is to remove the angst from this spinning technique, get everybody to relax and enjoy the process, and get up to five people hooked on the hobby, all in two class periods.

So there is plenty going on here at Orchard Ranch.