a bit of brightness in the winter

I should begin by saying that I love the bleakness of winter.  When my daughter and I were watching the most recent film version of 'Jane Eyre' the other night, she commented that I must be loving all the scenery shot on the windswept moors.  She was right.

Blustery cold is the kind of weather that I love to get outdoors in and the kind I love to come back home in, to settle in for a cozy afternoon of knitting or spinning.

One dark, grey afternoon recently, I sat down at my spinning wheel and plied some singles I'd spun back in October.  I was able to do this because my foot wasn't hurting too badly for a change and I wanted to take advantage of the moment.

The result is about 325 yards of light worsted weight 2-ply from hand-dyed Falkland roving that I got as part of cosymakes's Falkland Fiber Club.  Cosy calls this colorway 'Electric', and I'm not 100% certain, but I think it may actually glow in the dark! ;)

I have a real backlog of spinning fiber in my stash.  After my foot surgery last July, I had to go many weeks without spinning on my wheel.  Thinking I would be good to go after healing was complete, I kept accumulating more roving and also have the fiber from two Cotswold fleeces and a Shetland fleece that will be coming to me in the spring.

During my recent visit to the foot surgeon, she told me that the lingering pain I'm having in my foot is now not a result of the surgery but is caused by degenerative osteoarthritis.  And, except for physiotherapy kinds of things like massage and hot paraffin dips, there's not much I can do about it.  I still walk a lot and am learning to ignore the discomfort because I refuse to just give up and sit around with my foot up.

When I was at the sheep and wool festival in Rhinebeck back in October, I tried out a HansenCrafts miniSpinner and liked it more than I thought I would.  I will still spin on my wheel - a Schacht Matchless - and on my Bosworth spindles, but for the heavy volume of spinning that I'll have to do to spin up three fleeces worth of roving, I think a miniSpinner might be in my future.  They're expensive so I need to plan well ahead for this purchase.

Part of me really resists the idea of spinning on an electric spinner, though.  It just seems to run contrary to the unplugged nature of the work I do with wool.  Maybe I'm being silly or simply stubborn in my resistance.

Anyway, here's another unretouched photo of the very bright, very glowing 'Electric' yarn.  Something to warm a wintry day.