To Wheel or Not To Wheel

That is the question . . . for those long time readers of my blog, you know that my wheel met with an unfortunate accident in the form of my cleaning lady. Yes, my shoe steeling cleaning lady knocked my wheel over, breaking the metal brackets that hold the flyer, and totally throwing the wheel out of whack, the whole thing is just misaligned. And, since I only paid $200 for the wheel in the first place, I wasn't sure if it was worth it to reconstruct the thing, or to just buy a new wheel.

And, there were other reasons I stalled out on fixing the wheel. First, my yarn habit is already sucking my bank account dry, did I really need another fiber fetish to put the nail in my financial coffin? And, spinning definitely took time away from my knitting.

But, I've watched as Carol's Black Bunny has gotten better and better every time I pick up a skein -- and I've been mighty wistful staring at her roving. And, I really did enjoy spinning, especially when I had finally gotten to the point where I was spinning something that actually looked like knittable yarn. The final motivator in my wheel lust was Shannon Okey's visit to Rosie's last week. I blew into Rosie's straight from court, wired, stressed, and while not in motion, still moving, thinking, anxious - and when I sat, watching the wheel going round and round, and her hands drafting the fiber - there was something so relaxing about it, soothing, that I immediately wanted to go home and break out the wheel - but the wheel is broken.

And, that brings us to Rhinebeck - to bring home a new wheel, or just say no to my wheel envy? Or should I just bring pictures of my broken wheel, and talk to an Ashford expert about getting the parts to fix it? Dilemnas, dilemnas - all compounded by the stress of getting to the Fold booth when the sun comes up to snag Socks that Rock (don't worry Judy - I won't forget you!).

So, Christina and I are leaving at 4:00 today, and heading up to the Hudson Valley. The newly finished Poppy will be accompanying us. I can't tell you how much I love this sweater. The bottom of the sweater is knit in Cash Iroha, which has recently come under scrutiny about its cashmere content. I did not buy this yarn because it had cashmere in it - I bought it because it's fabulous regardless of the content. The color is so rich, and the fabric feels like butter. If it doesn't have cashmere in it, it has some other kind of magic - I hope this isn't the death knoll of Cash Iroha, that would be a sad thing indeed.