Madness and Silk

First the Madness: The sudden microburst thunderstorm that hit Somerville over the weekend managed to back up storm drainage and sewerage into the whole basement space of the building where I work. Myself and 25 other basement-dwelling coworkers had to be relocated hastily as it was no longer a healthy work enviroment. The week has been spent packing up cubicles and computers into boxes to be relocated to temporary office space for the next month or so while carpeting and cubes are ripped out and replaced. Fun times.

I am also headed out of town sans PumpkinBoy and husband tomorrow through Sunday, off to Pennsylvania to attend my sister-in-laws baby shower. This will be only the second time I've been away from my little boy for any overnights, and I'm going to miss him. He and Daddy have lots of fun stuff planned, and apart from missing my boys and long hours in the car, I am really looking forward to the weekend. That also means you'll get photos and a post of the completed super-secret-baby-knitting next week.

And now the silk: I bought a lot of silk to spin when Cheryl and I hit the NH Sheep and Wool on that legendary rainy day. For my first attempt, I decided to tackle this cap. The color is a poor choice for photography purposes, but it is a crazy bright, glowing blue that just about blew out my poor camera every which way I tried to photograph it.
I've never done this before, so I followed instructions from here on peeling off one layer (I think I only got one - it was hard) and stretching and pulling it into roving. This stuff is STRONG, and the length of roving from one layer is pretty impressive (feet included for scale):

It was a challenge to spin, but I did get the hang of it. The instructions I link to above really mean it when they say pre-draft the roving out to just about where you want to spin it from - it takes a lot of muscle to draft out thicker spots once you've got an end tied up in the twist. I would also strongly recommend removing any rings you wear that might snag the fibers, as well as not doing this when its 90 degrees and 70% humidity out - sweaty hands do not ease the process in any way.

Depsite all my fumbling, I managed to spin a little mini-test skien of singles from my little pile of roving. I have left plenty of room for improvment, but I am pleased nonetheless.
Happy weekend to all.