Spinning

I've been doing some spinning when I can, and trying more than anything to create more consistency in my drafting. I recently bought Start Spinning (from Interweave Press), which has been a big help in at least improving my vocabulary for describing what I'm doing. It would appear that I've developed a short forward draw, without really knowing that's what I'm doing. At this point, it's working, but I know that I'll need to try other kinds of drafting for different materials. I think it's developed at least partly in response to a need to control this more slippery yarn (the tencel has something to do with that, I believe). Here are the results of my latest spinning and plying.
I may be fooling myself, but this looks much more consistent to me than my first batch of yarn spun from this roving. At this point, it looks like I have about 350-4o0 yards of this, so I need to figure out the best thing to do with it. I'm seriously considering knitting a cover for a throw pillow, which I think would be soft and pretty, without needing the kind of consistently spun yarn that a garment might need (maybe one side from the first batch of this yarn, and the other side from the second batch?). We'll see.

In the world of knitting, I'm still working on both Boing! and the triangular shawl. Most of my effort has been focused on Boing! (I take a certain childish glee in writing that name, so please forgive me), as my self-imposed deadline for that one is next Monday night, when I am planning to give it to a friend. I'll write more about the whys and wherefores of that tomorrow. This means that I've set the triangular shawl aside for a few days. This little scarf is a nice palate cleanser, as it goes quickly, and the rows don't get any longer (!). Rick and I did some math, and I figure that I've got about another 20-24 hours of knitting on the triangular shawl, given the increasing length of the rows. We'll see. I'll be glad to get back to it, as I'm dying to see it blocked!

All of this means that I don't have much to show for all the knitting I've been doing (the pictures just look the same, which is somewhat depressing). So I'll distract you with a card that I bought for myself years ago, and which I haul out from time to time when I've had a year like the one I've just had. I thought it might amuse some of you.