I want to talk about one of my favorite eXtra-curricular activities, today.

This is what my kitchen looked like this afternoon–three spinners, two Lendrums, one Majacraft, lots of fiber, and one dog–at least some of the time.

How eXcellent is that, huh? This is Jessica and Risa (sans twins).

It was fun the way this came about, too. EXtraordinary, even. Jessica had been interested in buying my Kiwi until she went to Rhinebeck and bought herself her Lendrum instead. Which is also where she met Risa, who mentioned her on her blog, which made me say, “Hey, I know her” and anyway, we all decided that we should get together to spin–preferably on a day when Risa’s parents could look after the monkeys. And we figured my house would be a good spot because of the three, it’s the most centrally located.

So, how much spinning did I get done in the four hours or so of spinning? An eXceptional amount. Two full ounces of my peppermint merino, plus a decent start on its corresponding magenta corriedale.

Not that we ONLY spun. We also talked. A lot. About all sorts of fun and interesting things. We ate the oatmeal cookies that Jessica brought (some with raisins and some without because I really don’t like raisins). We also ate the popcorn, which I made.

And I opened the birthday present that Risa brought me–a lovely green sweater from J. Crew. (So soft, it’s not even funny.)

Chappy was thrilled because he had guests, and there’s practically nothing Chappy likes more than the chance to say hello to people and be fussed over. I think saying hello and eating are pretty much tied for him as favorite activities. So he was beyond happy to have eXtra people in the house. He napped during most of the afternoon, though . . . watching spinning
wheels just isn’t that exciting for him . . . but he was still happy!

Speaking of spinning, a couple people asked about my wheel skeiner–which, I grant you–didn’t look like much of anything other than tinker toys in the picture I showed you the other day.

Well, assembled, it looks like this.

Hmm . . . it does rather look like a tinker toy, doesn’t it?

Okay–maybe an eXample will help:

I finished my second skein of raspberry yarn last night, and promptly wheeled it off onto this instead of laboriously winding it onto my niddy-noddy.

I love it already. Even if the little handle promptly came off. Really, it’s not that necessary (grin). It took a matter of a minute or two to wind all of this into a skein, rather than the minutes of the shoulder-tiring winding.

This means, of course, that I’ve got half of this raspberry yarn finished. (It’s hanging in the bathroom drying at this very moment.) And thanks to all the spinning today, I’m well on my way to getting the next quarter done. Isn’t that eXciting??

(I hope you don’t think I’ve over-eXtended myself by using this for my “X” post, but . . . it’s not like I have a xylaphone in the house to photograph. XXX OOO.)

• Tags: ABC-Along, Friends, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Spinning ‘Til We’re Dizzy //