It's the journey that counts

My weekend in the mountains with my dad and stepmother was beautiful and restful, and even included lots of spinning, but unfortunately ended with a migraine that kept me form posting on Sunday as usual. But I'm back on track today and got some more spinning done, so where am I in my quest for Ravelympics glory? Well, there are lots of days of competition left, but I must say I'm really just happy to be participating.

My goal was to spin up 1 lb of my white merino top, which came out to completing 4 oz, or about 1 bobbin's worth, every 4 days over the 16 days of the event. It didn't take long to realize that this was not a very realistic goal. My back can't usually handle spinning for much longer than an hour at a time, and while knitting is portable on my commute, spinning on a wheel is just not really practical on public transportation. Granted, I haven't tried it yet, but I think it's safe to assume that I won't give it a spin (sorry, bad pun). I did spend several hours spinning while visiting with my folks; my dad is fascinated with my wheel and seems very intrigued with the whole process.

So what have I accomplished so far? I've spin a total of about 6 oz as of about 4:30 pm Monday evening. It comes out to 1 full bobbin and one about 3/4 full. Quite frankly, I'm pretty happy with this amount. I preferred choosing too big of a goal to picking something that I secretly knew I could complete easily. I would possibly also be a lot further along if I had not decided to spin with my opposite hand, as this has slowed my production down somewhat. But It has enabled me to become much more efficient with left-handed sinning, and if I had done all the spinning with my right hand as usual my arm would probably have been be too tired to have done as much as I have actually done.

And of course, there are still 6 days to keep working towards my goal. If some amazing burst of spinning mojo happens, along with the accompanying time, energy, etc., it still could happen. I will be away from home for more family activities over the weekend so I'm probably be spinning only in the evenings, but I will be thrilled with whatever I get done. It's been very gratifying to get even this much done toward spinning up a big batch of the merino.

What about knitting, you ask? Well, the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket is progressing very well but has finally gotten too big to carry around on my commute. Dragging along a big blankie is quite comforting and I certainly have had the urge to crawl under my desk with it for a pleasant little nap, but it's just too big to keep dragging about. But now I really need a new knitting project for commute knitting.

I'm planning on starting a project with the beautiful Brooks Farm Yarn's Acero I bought at Stitches West last spring (it's much more teal than in this picture). Does winding it into balls count as starting? Probably not. But I'm going to take a few different sized-needles with me tomorrow and get started on some swatching. The yarn is pretty fine so I'm guessing size 3 US at most. Right now the plan is to do the Leilani sweater from Berocco. The pattern was designed for a much heavier yarn (Linen Jeans) that what I have chosen, but it's very simple shape lends itself easily to reworking in a different gauge.