That is what the carding problems felt like, but without the ever so rewarding whacking, which give you some relief even if you happen to miss. Still, as I mentioned in the highly unusual second post yesterday, it got much better.
Carding is once again the order of the day. I really want to get this job done so that I can move forward on the next fleece that has been sitting far too long, waiting for me to do something with it. But this whole adventure has made me wonder about something else.
I mentioned seeing a lady carding a prepared top? It never occurred to me before that this would be something one would do. I mean, it is ready to spin as is but sitting here, carding yesterday and thinking about stuff, I did think of my vast quantities of beautifully prepared top sitting in the other room.
When I purchased my Julia wheel oh so long ago, there was a credit included for two hundred dollars of prepared top. I could have traded the store for some of it but I decided that I wanted it all. It seemed like a good way to get a good supply of stuff to spin in one fell swoop.
I planned for project spinning. My dream of spinning has always been to spin lace fine enough to make a shawl so I bought lovely gradations of colour in Shetland sheep top and blue faced leicester top enough that even counting practising and messing up, I would have lots to knit a shawl. I bought Finn and Gotland to try some different breeds. I bought some wool and linen and some soysilk and corn fibre just to try that too. And I bought some good sturdy superwash wool to spin some sock yarn for socks. All tops.
The last few years, I have been spinning differently, trying to spin woollen. Once I learned how to do that or to do my version of it, it quickly became my favourite way to spin. After spinning the first carded fibre from one of my fleeces on hand, I wan't sure what I was going to do. Yes, I had fleeces to have my own carded fibre, but I had all that top that wasn't nearly so much fun to spin. It became one of those niggling little things that hangs at the back of your mind, ever present, but not presenting itself into conscious thought.
After seeing that lady card prepared fibre, I realized that this is what I need to do with at least some of it. Maybe not all of it, but a good portion of it. And this is kind of an exciting thing.
But first, fleeces. I need to whack these fleece on hand into order and get them ready to spin. Then I can play to my hearts content and practice spinning fine wool, fine enough that I shall have that shawl of my dreams hand spun and knitted by me. Sometimes in life, you are not the guy whacking the mole. Sometimes in life you are the mole, you get whacked and you see things just a little differently.
Life is a lot like a good game of whack-a-mole.
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