Future history

Life proceeds apace.   That seems to be my most consistent internal commentary (i.e. the Voice), when I see life shooting past my slower psyche, lickety split.  Then I breathe deeply, relax, and answer the Voice:  "You do yoga, grrl, you should understand this by now." 

Rosemary is visionary.  She answered my email yelp, "I CAN'T SPIN.  There is no take-up!"  I didn't anticipate the endorphin withdrawal this represented.  Can we discuss dysphoria?  Frustration?  But Rosemary spoke of the wheel and its mysterious currents.  I will show you two pictures.  Can you tell the difference?  The first picture is wheel no go.  The second picture is wheel with adequate take-up and reactivation of the flow of endorphins.  Comme ca^:

The difference is  which hooks I'm using.   Alden Amos, in his most famous book of handspinning, which truly is the only book that even thinks to address these issues, had very little to contribute to solving my dilemma.  He notes eleven reasons why "nothing you do in a gentle, peaceful way will get the idiotic thing to wind-on."  The twelfth reason?  Drove me wild.  After describing eleven possibilities that I either had checked, or lacked the experience to evaluate, he  notes that the problem could be "all of the above, plus about a hundred other little things that experience will help with."   My screams could be heard throughout blogland and my surrounding communities.

My sock proceeds apace.  I'm lying.  I picked up the stitches on one side of the heel flap flawlessly.  Knit them a'la Grumperina.  Beautiful.  I've now picked up the stitches on the other side of the heel flap four times.  Gaposis.  That's medicalese for lots and lots of gaps.  But you knew that.  I've given up, continued knitting the gusset, deciding that if the gaposis is pathologically hideous, I will do some whipstitching.  I've had it with trying to attain perfection that eludes me.   I tried doing it different these three times.  All I've managed to accomplish is stretched out slipped stitches, which will not get me closer to my goals.  Time to move on.  (Is that how maturity is define?  I sure hope so.)

Today, I had my retinas checked.  My ophthalmologist commented on my sweater.  Astute man.  My mother knit it over 20 years ago, and it is a stunner in a wool/alpaca blend.  You know what's coming.  His wife knits.  He and I talked of spinning, and I told him about the Etherknitter blogging phenom.  So I hope she will see this (hi Kathy!) and email me so that she can ignore what I just wrote about my wheel, and decide that she needs to learn how to spin.  He seems to think she doesn't know about fiber festivals.  (The Etherknitter rubs her hands together, planning great corruption in the future.)  The future is impossible to predict, and that makes it all the more interesting.

Comments

[Lee Ann]

Corruption is GOOD.

That is some gorgeous spinning, there, lady, even if you do have to jump on the tension and change the hooks and shake your fist at the sky and swear a lot.

I do that on a normal day ;-)

[Carole]

I had an eye doctor appointment today, too. He was impressed with my Jaywalker sock and assured me that my nearsightedness will mean I can knit without glasses for a long, long time.
This could be fun introducing someone new to fiber festivals. HEE!
Oh, and your spinning is gor-geee-ose!

[Maria]

Knit without glasses? Sigh, I wish I could even aspire to that.

I'm having similar gaposis, but am choosing to ignore it.

[Marcia]

Doncha just love AA? As for gaposis, I always have trouble with the second side (gusset) for some reason. Now I just pick up an extra stitch on both sides and do two decrease rounds right off the bat. Seems to solve that one.

[Norma]

What's with all the eye docs and knitting? Kinda cool, that -- but unexpected. I love your syntax there: I went to get my retinas checked/the doctor commented on my sweater. Hopefully he commented on your retinas, too. :)

(And hopefully they are fine.)

So, like, it was all in the hooks you were using? Wacky.

[June]

Why do you thread through the underside of the hole? I can see why you'd lose take up in the first photo! But if you thread from the bobbin through the top of the hole and out the orifice, then you'll be able to use hooks on either side of the flyer without a problem.

[Chris]

Alden Amos is a hoot, ain't he?? My spinning guild was able to host him and Stephenie Gaustad here last June. What fun!

Do have fun with that corruption thing!!

[juno]

Doesn't KNOW ABOUT FIBER FESTIVALS!

I need to sit down.

Although a year ago, neither did I and look what happened.

Book her for Maryland now, and sit back and enjoy the fun, the pleasure and satisfaction of giving that opportunity to someone else.

As for the wheel - too much drag with the yarn coming up and across? Glad Rosemary could save you from the pain and panic. But I was also struck by the same thing June mentioned - always go with the path of least resistance. At least spinning .

[Cordelia]

Such a lovely, lovely shade of blue. Is the yarn as fine/thin as it looks? You Spindicate members make it looks so easy to spin fine yarn; I assumed it'd be easier to spin something thicker.

So which definition of apace did you finally decide on?

[julia fc]

That's right. Pass it on. Then you get your wings.

[Ruth]

That IS a beautiful sweater, if it's the one I'm thinking of (the one you wore to Willow Books, and -- if I'm not mistaken -- in the picture of you showing off your beautiful socks). It's wonderful to have something of your mother's to wear and cherish. I wish I still had some of my grandmother's Norwegian knits.

[Chris]

I second (or maybe that should be "third") the opinions that you need to bring your yarn through the most direct route to the hooks. I used to have a wheel that had only one set of hooks on each side of the flyer and I'd pass the yarn around the back, as you've done, to fill the bobbin more evenly. Definitely affected the takeup and I always had to increase the pull on the yarn to get it to wind on properly.

[Cassie]

I love the idea that you found a potential spinning victim - er.... convert? - while sitting in the opthalmologist's chair.

And just think - the combined wisdom of blogland outdid AA. Impressive.

[Lisa S]

Yeah, that odd bit of business of having your yarn go around the under side of the orifice is quite unusual, my dear. I would tend to think that like an unseen double wrap around a hook (why oh why is this yarn not drawing in nicely?...ask me how I know), anything that adds to the route that you choose from fiber to bobbin will give you some uber twisty yarn and looking at the picture, you are achieving this. NOW, before you start changing your ways to fix this...finish what you are doing OR roll that yarn off of the bobbin and onto a ball winder. Now you can self ply that ball and have an evenly but firmly spun little treasure. That's what I am saying...muttering like a hairdresser looking at self mangled locks...WHO cut your hair? Um, WHO taught you to thread your bobbin that way, Miss Thang?

[Beth S.]

All this spin-talk is Greek to me, but very amusing to read nonetheless.

And speaking of things that are hard to predict--how much snow did you get today? ;-)

[SpindleRose]

Visionary may be a bit much. Happy I could help.

[SpindleRose]

Visionary may be a bit much. Happy I could help.

[Marcia]

What does it mean if I only turned my eye doctor on to vanilla rum and Vernors (ginger ale)? Is there, like, a fiber enlightenment hierarchy?

[JessaLu]

SUUURE she doesn't know about fiber festivals...she probably just didn't TELL him she knows and tells him the groceries/electric bill/whatever was/were extra expensive that week ;o)

[Kathy]

Regarding the sock and the gaposis, remember what the very, very wise Cassie blogged about a few months back -- to paraphrase "finished is better than perfect". So just get through them. You can always wear them with clogs with heels and show off the leg if you are not feeling the gusset love, right! Also, this is your official reminder not to forget Marla -- even if not worn, bring it along -- she'll love it.

[Judy]

just a LOT of little wonky things to remember, huh? who'd think? It's looking lovely!

[Kim]

Gapotis........hhahahahaha!!! Sounds like some of my socks!!

I agree.....can you try threading that hole from the top and not the bottom? It may help......or not......LOL