Today was Day 1 of Spinzilla 2014 and I might have set my alarm early so I could get some spinning time this morning. I just might have. I told myself I was so disciplined, so organized. The truth? I just didn’t want to wait until this afternoon to get started. Later, when I got home for the day, there was an email from my Hill Country Weavers Team Captain letting us know… that she had gotten up early to squeeze some spinning in before work. Ha! Great minds …and all that.

I stuck with my plan. The Pima and Silk went on the drop spindle and traveled with me while the Sapphires and Topaz went on the Louet S90 and stayed home. Even so, I got more done on the wheel then I did with the drop spindle.

As soon as I got home, I was out on my porch spinning away. My little porch is a perfect spinning spot. Its tucked in out of the wind, the light is good and there are no cats. Anti-Spinning Feline Overlord and her sidekick Cowardly Disappearing Boy Cat were shut on the other side of the screen door. Ha!

The Sapphires and Topaz is 100% corriedale by Fiber Obsessions and its just as easy to spin as I knew it would be. I’m spinning it worsted with a back draw. The fibers are fairly short (about 1.5 to 2 inches) but its very well prepared. For prep I’m just stripping and attenuating a little. I think if these braids hadn’t sat in my stash for two years (and compacted a bit) they wouldn’t need attenuating at all.

The Pima and Silk is a bit more challenging, as I knew it would be. Cotton has such a short staple and, even blended with silk, its tricky. Plus, the drop spindle I have is not ideal. I should have a light-weight spindle for this. But I am a RovingCrafter and we make do with what we have! So I did and I’m very happy with how its turning out. I’m spinning it worsted to with a (very) short forward draw and a lot of twist. I don’t have to attenuate but a little fluffing the fibers out helps a lot.

As the light was fading for the day, I decided needed to get my pictures taken. I let the furballs out onto the porch to let them play and let me get the mandatory bad kitty pictures… and they gave me nothing. All Boy Cat did was sniff some fiber that blew off the table. A sniff? That’s it?

And the Feline Overlord gave me this.

I told her expectations were high and I needed some badness. She did not care. After a while, I gave up on her. I was taking yarn pictures, I was changing lenses, I was screwing on my close-up filters. I was juggling eight things at once and I looked down… and there it was…

… the bad kitty picture. I knew she wouldn’t let us down.

So that’s the Day 1 Post.  I’m doing pretty good right? You can find all the progress for my team on this ravelry thread. You can get an eye full of all the yarn-in-the-making on the Spinzilla forum.

Oh no, I’m not done spinning for the day. Not at all. But its dark out and there will be no more porch-spinning. I just have to pack up and head to Starbucks, where they have coffee. And no cats.