Ride a painted pony, let the spinnin’ wheel fly . . .

Spinzilla is underway! Since Sunday, it’s been pretty much all working and spinning around here.

I decided to start the week off with 12 ounces of alpaca/BFL I got from our friends whose farm we visited for Alpaca Days a couple of weeks ago. What a pleasure to spin! It drafts incredibly easily and is oh so soft.

This was what I ended up with on day one. It’s a little over 6 ounces of singles.

On day two, with a lot of help from Lola and Rasta, I finished turning the rest of the 12 ounces of roving into singles.

Today, I ply! I can’t wait to see how this turns out. I’m thinking I’ll end up with a sport weight yarn that wants to be mittens or maybe a scarf.

The weather has been gorgeous with lots of welcome sunshine after all the days of rain we’ve had recently, so even though I’m trying to spend every spare second at my wheel, I made time for a walk yesterday afternoon.

I think this might be Blade’s first appearance on the blog. He’s had some health issues lately, so we haven’t been on a good long walk for a couple of weeks. This one made us both very happy.

While I’ve been spinning, I’ve been listening to podcasts and watching a lot of TV. I even put my Elizabeth Zimmermann DVDs in the line up. It’s so  nice to spin along while she talks about the poor dear pearl stitch and the tragic consequences of ignoring gauge. It feels like any second she’s going to reach out from the screen and give me an encouraging little pat on the back. She’s the coolest.

At some point during my fiber media fest (can’t remember exactly when and where), I learned about Neural Knitworks. Have you heard of it?

It’s a project connected to Australia’s National Science Week. They ask people to knit neurons, and then groups of these textile neurons are put together to make what the organizers call “soft sculptural representations of the brain.” The point of the whole thing is to highlight the ways “Yarn craft, with its mental challenges, social connection and mindfulness, helps keep our brains fit.” The quote is from the Neural Knitworks Facebook page.

It’s a great idea, but what’s most interesting if you’re not an Australian school child, is how the project is serving as a kind of information hub for neuroscience news. The Facebook page is the best place to look for this. If you’re curious about how the brain works and how this ties into knitting, definitely give it a visit. There are links to everything from relevant TED talks to representations of the brain in textile art.