Slow Progress

I've been travelling back and forth between my house and Mom's house, trying to figure out what to do with all her possessions and getting her house ready to put on the market. All this has taken way WAY more time and emotional energy than I might have hoped...while at the same time being somehow just the right thing to be doing, most of the time.

However, I sure haven't been home spinning (or blowing glass, for that matter...oops) as much as I used to.
I did manage to slowly begin turning those bags of roving (freshly carded at Blackberry Woolen Mill from fleece a friend mailed me) into three-ply worsted yarn. Its a little frustrating, the quality of the wool isn't deluxe, and three ply takes forever, or so it seems. Although I keep thinking about how long 6 ply would take by comparison. Anyway, the plan is to make (lots of) meaty intarsia mittens from this after dying the yarn a variety of colors.

And what with all the schedule disturbances, the constant state of transition, the shifting sands of grief, and whatnot, I admit I have turned to commercial yarn to keep my hands busy when I'm not energetic enough to spin, or home where the wheel is. This is a wispy three inches of tiny laceweight yarn I got for Christmas, knit on size 1 needles; eventually, many many years from now, it'll be the wimple from Knitting in America. I am now facing the 9 inches of stockinette stitch that comes before the large panel of lace. Yikes. But it packs easily because its so tiny and light!

After spinning a quantity of that grey wool, I was hungry for something luxurious, and after working for a week or two on that wimple, I was longing for something seasonal (the season being summer, on my spinning-to-knit timetable; no laughing!) and so I decided to tackle the many ounces of deluxe cotton/silk blend I've been saving up for a tank top or some other sort of summery shirt.

While it will realistically take me quite awhile to spin up enough of this for a top (I'm a big girl!), it won't take me all that long to knit it once I've got the yarn. Maybe, just maybe, if I can focus for more than a few minutes on one single project, and remain in the town with the spinning wheel for a few months, and find time to also get caught up with my work, I might get it done before fall.

Ok, lets be honest. It would be acceptable to me if I just get it SPUN before fall; I can always knit it for next Spring.