All spun up

Well, it's official. I have caught the spinning bug. When I first discovered people were spinning their own yarn, my first thought was "that's the most crazy arse idea yet! I hardly have time to knit with yarn that's already spun!" Now please don't misunderstand me: I am most definitely a Dyed In The Wool DIYer (pun intended). But with so many gorgeous options out there, is there really a need for me to spin my own? Over the past few months though, spying on everyone else's spinning in Blogland, I've slowly been seduced...I must spin! Especially when I see wool that looks like this.

But no, I can't just go slow and get a hand spindle. I must feel the hypnotic rythem of the treadle! I long for the soft fibers being drawn through my fingers! So now I'm on the market for a wheel. Yes, I know they're expensive. Yes, I know that I'm tossing out a huge chunk of cash out on something I've never tried. Yes, yes, and more yes. Of course, I don't have enough money saved up yet because of my yarn habit, which is currently on hold for this new Need. Let's see how well I do on a serious yarn diet. A yarn fast, actually. Hmm, we'll see what happens.

In other news, this is how far I've gotten on my multi-directional scarf:

That's a self-portrait, with the camera cleverly cropped out of the picture (actually, it's not so clever -- it's just photoshop). =)

This scarf is being worked up in Noro Silk Garden. It's moving along slowly because first off, I started out with only two skeins. Clearly not enough, so I had to buy another...when I finally got around to it, the yarn shop (back in NY) thankfully still had the same color/dye lot. Now the problem is that I have other projects winking attractively at me, so it's hard to stay faithful to this one. Whenever I do work on it again, I am once again completely taken in by the yarn's beauty. If you have never used Noro Silk Garden or Kureyon, you must. I need to get some nuetral colored Kureyon to make a pair of fingerless gloves/arm-warmers for my sister for Christmas (Do you realize that's only about 60 days away?!) Ah! All these plans, so little time.