Trenchwork

Grades are in, students are gone, and I have one deadline left to meet (belatedly, I’m afraid) for the print-ready version of the compendium text for a fall literature course.  That’s my task for today, and I’m reckoning I can have it done and delivered tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday was the spinning group meeting, and I cannot say how much I enjoy the group.  It’s rare that one finds a collection of—as Marit said yesterday—very different personalities, but who all genuinely thrive in each other’s company.  I can’t host the full group since our place is a bit small and having even the vacation-slimmed group here means removing furniture from a room in order to have room for five or 6 and wheels—and even then it’s a tight squeeze.  So knowing that they can all get along?  It’s definitely a plus!  We’ll meet privately for August, but then need to go back to a public location for September to allow for walk-ins we don’t know but, in the meantime, it’s nice to have the group in a more cozy environment.  And I have to laugh, because I have the same sort of syndrome as someone who works with kindergartners all day and then finally has a chance to talk to adults:  they can’t stop!  Poor Marit and Ingvild didn’t get out of here until almost 5:30—and we quit at 4!

I’m going to become one of those eccentric old ladies everyone avoids because they can never get free and she only seems to talk about one thing.  (Hm.  I need to think about the verb tense here.  “Going to become” may be a little optimistic.)

For those of you not in the know, Tour de France has a corresponding fiber event where spinners all over the world wash, comb, card, flick, blend, and spin.  It’s a way of watching the Tour, cheering for the riders, celebrating the event, and at the same time doing a little stash busting and project spinning, or just spinning in company with others.  The spinners rest on the days when the Tour rests, and challenge themselves on the day when the riders have the hardest leg of the tour.  There are teams devoted to specific fibers or tasks, a team for clearing out spinning UFOs (unfinished objects), another for new spinners, one for sprinters, and a host of others.  For some spinners, the goal may simply be to finish a yarn which has been languishing.  For others, it may be to spin the yarn necessary to a particular project.  Others may have set themselves a challenge to spin their first yarn of a certain fiber, or their first fleece, and still others may be using the Tour as a way to try and spin up some of their stash.   But, regardless of whether the spinner is starting with raw fleece or ready-prepared fiber, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the quiet swish of fiber being prepared, the global hum of spindles and wheels, and the soft chatter of spinners everywhere as they participate in the ancient craft of making yarn.

For my part, I’m trying to do a little stash busting and finish off a couple of the things which are incomplete.  I won’t set myself specific goals beyond that since I do have to work and there are indeed other things I need to accomplish over the next three weeks, but I’ll take it as it comes and see how far I get.

Because yesterday was the spinning meeting, I actually got very little done, contrary to general expectations.  So, Day 1′s fiber results?  Three combed bird’s nests of Bond fleece (a lovely lovely Bond named Thomas, from Kate Lowder) and half a bobbin of fingering-weight “Mad Hatter” singles from Enchanted Knoll Farm.

It’s a start.