Urban Sheep

So, you saw my post from yesterday, right? I did indeed buy a spinning wheel! The reason it is still in its box is that I bought it unfinished, thinking it would be fun to choose my own stain and do it myself. In making this decision, I completely ignored the fact that I find this sort of choice absolutely crippling. After an hour of standing in front of the stain samples at Home Depot--China Red? Spice? Antique Red? Cherry Blossom? Clear Poly? Tung Oil? Wax?--I left empty-handed. Since I need to finish the wheel before I assemble it, I am temporarily stalled. This condition will correct itself in a day or two and I'll be able to show you a picture of the wheel itself (finished, I hope), instead of the box.

But aside from the glorious excitement of buying the wheel, the journey to get it was an adventure in itself. There is only one spinning wheel dealer within 100 miles of my house. It is a sheep farm in one of the many unincorporated areas that surround the city of San Diego. Are you surprised that there is a sheep farm in San Diego? Me, too. I always forget, living here, that outside the city is the country. This farm is only 20 miles from my house, but it would never have occurred to me that wool-on-the-hoof was available so close to home!

So I drove out past the city limits, off the main road, onto a dirt road with streets named "Peace Valley Lane" and "Shady Grove Street" and "Keep Out Road", past the Lemurian Fellowship (who'd have thought lemurs would have their own church?), and out into farm country. There were horses! And cows! And--best of all--sheep! I pulled up to the farmhouse and got out of my car. There didn't seem to be anyone around (man, was it quiet), so I wandered over to the goat pen, where a very friendly angora goat climbed up the fence and licked my elbow. Ever wonder where mohair comes from? From him. I call him Fred.

Eventually, it occurred to me to call the owner on my cell phone and let her know I was there. She appeared from somewhere and took me to her shop. And in the name of all that's holy, I almost passed out from sheer joy. It was a whole building just full of yarn and roving and looms and spinning wheels and every imaginable sort of fiber in every possible color and some I think may not have been discovered yet. I just kept turning in circles and babbling and picking things up and putting them down and babbling some more. I think she laughed, but I was pretty distracted.

Finally, I calmed down enough that she was able to show me the wheels and set me up with some roving and I spun my very first, absolutely disastrous, ugly, lumpy, overtwisted, undertwisted, bright orange yarn. See? (It kind of came untwisted on the way home, so it looks even worse now than it did when it came off the wheel.)

I'm so proud. I have high hopes that my next attempt will be, well, better comes to mind.