Easter

I hope you are having a nice Easter day.

It dawned chilly here with promises for rain. We had a nice soaking rain overnight and a little thunder, but not the hail they thought might happen. Rain is good. Texas can always use the rain.

I have a visitor staying with me from yesterday, one of my knitting students I met in Germany. It's nice to have a bit of traditional fun. I don't bother usually with Easter decorations and such, but it was fun to put together a basket to surprise her with this morning.

She wanted me to teach her to spin yarn on a spinning wheel, so after a ham and egg breakfast we spent two or three hours getting her up to speed and developing the muscle memory it takes to spin yarn.

It's like driving a car. You can't do just one thing. Well...you can, but you won't go very far very well. To drive a car you need to pay attention to the steering wheel, the gas and brake, the mirrors, turn signals, where you are in the lane, the road signs,...

When you drive a traditional spinning wheel, you need to move your feet, pay attention to the direction your feet are spinning the wheel and how fast, how much twist is going into the yarn, control the tension so the yarn doesn't feed onto the bobbin too fast or too slow, control where the twist is feeding into the fiber, make sure the yarn isn't twisting around the guides, thin out the wool roving so you get the thickness you want, keep all of that consistent so the yarn you begin with is the yarn you continue to make,...

It's a lot to pick up all at one.

But this gal? She's one of my best ever students. She managed to get the hang of it within two and a half hours of effort. She's good.

It was a fun, full week.

And I'm tired.

I'm looking forward to a couple of quiet days before I do a short trial camp before my trip.

Tomorrow I might not do anything.

Except breathe.

I think I'll take a nap and start tomorrow, today.

So, off I go.