Catching Up- Road Spinning

We left Hastings early Saturday morning. Instead of heading north past Gary, IN, we stayed on I-80 through Illinios and Iowa, swinging up to Albert Lea, MN to catch I-90.

We drove through a storm in Illinois- heavy rain, hail, and lightning drilling not 50' from the car (the thunder was loud enough to rattle the windows). We spotted these funnels trying to form about a mile off. I took the picture with my phone, so it's fuzzy, but take my word for it, both of those things were rotating. We were very glad to get past that little bit of nastiness.

We pulled over in Wallcot, IA for a bathroom break, and to fill the gas tank. We lucked into Iowa 80, the World Largest Truck Stop. The name may be hype, but it surely is a very large truckstop- with a food court (multiple big-name vendors), many shops, a museum, and an on-site dentist, not to mention all of the other things that truck stops are known for: showers, beds, and down-home cooking. It was a fun stop.

We spent the night in Sioux Falls, which was wonderful for the final day of travel, but it played hell on my reserves. We were in the car about 2 hours longer than my sanity could absorb.

On Sunday, we got up early, ate breakfast, and headed home. We went through Mitchell, which has The World's Only Corn Palace, something you're not apt to forget or ignore if you're anywhere near Mitchell. In case you don't know this already, the murals on the outside of the building are made from corn, and only corn- natural colored corn at that- no dyes or artificial coloring. It is actully a pretty cool building, and they change the murals every year, so it's fun to see what new notions they come up with.

I didn't feel like knitting on the way home (write that one down- it may never happen again), so I tried spinning in the car. Amazingly enough, one can spin just fine in a moving vehicle.

Well enough to fill my two larger spindles.

Even more amazing, one can spindle ply in a moving vehicle. Plying on a spindle has always been one of my least favorite chores, but I sort of found a rhythm doing it, and as long as I remembered to go slow, it all went very well. These two hanks were spun and plied between Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday, I worked on the little alpaca roving balls that I bought at the festival. Since I only had one laceweight spindle with me (the new Greensleeves), I wound the first singles on a pencil, and then continued on with the next color.

They all came out very well (amazing: practice really does make perfect... or at least a lot better than I had been doing). That's 269 yards of wool/mohair 2-ply yarn, 3.8 ozs, probably a sportweight. I think I'll knit a hat and mittens with it (it's not quite enough for socks).

This is 68 yds, and .4ozs of alpaca. I plied the singles with a metallic strand for some sparkle. The kinks will pull out after the yarn is knit and blocked, though it does look rather pretty all boucle-y (I'm going to make a lace scarf with this and one or more of the other alpaca roving balls).

I just like this picture, and wanted to share it.

I'll leave you with this last picture of Michigan roadside beauty. It was a wonderful trip. I hope I can go back next year.