Knit and spin

This title comes doesn't come from the public library, or the university library, but from the library of the Manawatu Spinners and Weavers Guild. I joined the group last year, having been a knitter practically for ever and having got more and more curious about spinning. I'd bought a spindle a few years before and learnt how to use it at Handmade. I wasn't sure whether our already bulging at the seams house would cope with a spinning wheel, but a friend at church had been encouraging me to go along to the Guild's Thursday group, so eventually I did.

And so glad I did! It's a great group of people doing lots of different and interesting things with fibre, and they seemed to think that what I did with fibre was different and interesting as well. Trying things was easy in a group - making Dorset buttons, felting, spinning alpaca, spinning raw merino, and there are lots of people around to show me how to do things, like grease a spinning wheel (I did buy a second hand one through the Guild).

It's also very close to where I live. I live on the outskirts of town, and okay that town is Palmerston North, so nowhere is very far from anywhere, but my dream life is where everything is within walking distance. My first flat was in Tinakori Road and I loved being so central. Work was 3 minutes away, the central railway station and bus terminal 5 mins, the Botanical Gardens were just up the road, I went to church on the Terrace, we had a dairy next door! Loved it. Rangiora Hall is not quite evening walking there and back distance, but I can bike it in about 5 minutes, so that's good enough for me. Even when I take the car (yeah, tough to take a spinning wheel on a bike), I like the 'just popping out' feeling.

After I'd gone to the Thursday group a couple of times, I thought to look in the storage room. Oh. My. Shelves of wool, spun and unspun, bags of fleece, bits of spinning wheels and other paraphernalia, and books and magazines (! LOVE magazines. Even love the ads in magazines) galore. Knitting, spinning, crochet, weaving, you name it. Happy sigh.

This is the first thing I've actually borrowed from the library, and it looks a good un. Interweave Knit and Spin, from the amazing Interweave Press, who I credit with dragging my knitting out of the 1980s.  It's aimed at experienced knitters just getting into spinning, so it's perfect for me. I've already read the article about washing wool fleeces (hmm, I wonder where I'd store them?).

In other library book news, I've finished reading Needles and pearls, the indulgent chick lit read which now has me wanting to re-read the sequel (and then I'll probably want to re-read the first one - sigh), and am now reading Margaret Atwood on SciFi. V. good (natch) - perhaps I should also re-read Oryx and Crake.