The Morris Dancers were out in full force around the May pole. All the flowering trees and johnny jump-ups everywhere made it obvious that spring is here, so glad to be on this side of the vernal equinox, and having the weather start to feel like spring!
Also, plenty of lovely fiber to be found. I picked up some merino/silk roving, some lovely laceweight and a poly drive band for my ancient Ashford Trad from Lucy at Mind's Eye Yarns. When we got home, I checked out her blog and was sad to see that her shop in Porter Square is closing soon unless a suitable new owner is found. I encourage Boston people to visit while you still can!
I enlisted Jack to help me cut the drive band and melt it together. Took us a couple tries, so it's a good thing I listened to Lucy and cut it a little longer than I needed. It is much nicer and less slippy than the old cotton cord that came with her. It's anyone's guess how old it was, but I think the wheel is 70s era and was mostly a decoration piece for the previous owner, so it could have been original. At any rate is was fraying to pieces, and after replacing it, she's like a new wheel.
The roving seems to fall apart really easily, probably because of the high silk content, but it is very smooth and shiny on the bobbin. Goes fast with the new drive band! I don't have anything in mind for it yet, but we'll see how it looks after it's plied. I'm a novice enough spinner that I don't feel too confident in trying to spin to hit a certain WPI range target... I'll just see what it wants to be! The photo doesn't really capture how green and pink this really is.
Hopefully I'll find a nice pattern to start with this once it's spun up! Seems like it won't be too hot for spring/early summer knitting.
