Once I created all those lovely rolags, I couldn’t wait to start spinning some! But, I put them in my fiber cupboard because I had intended to keep spinning the declutter stuff. Then, I got to thinking about my original statement with the craft room declutter, which was the goal to spin something ready to spin, then force myself to spin something that is from the declutter. I spun all that gorgeous grey fleece locks, so now I get to spin something ready to spin, right?

So, I pulled out the green rolags and started spinning them on support spindles. And I am truly enjoying that.

I am not spinning these as any type of gradient or anything, I am just choosing a rolag and putting it on the spindle. No rhyme or reason to it. I probably do need to settle down a bit with this project though, as my hands are aching for numerous reasons. Too much spinning for one.

I also realized that I forgot to show off the little sample spins I had done when I first started the declutter.

On the left is a jacob fleece sample, and on the right is a racka plied with navajo churro sample. I didn’t count yardage on these, as they are so small. I am considering getting some sort of pin loom for these samples and for leftovers, maybe creating some little coasters or something out of these types of things. Might be fun…

The other activity we participated in yesterday was a nice motorbike ride! Finally! Here’s the thing, by last spring/summer, my work situation had devolved to a point where I was so anxious and stressed all the time that many of the activities I used to love really didn’t bring me a lot of joy. Things like mountain biking and motorbiking just made me all the more anxious and stressed. It’s like the culmination of work stress made me so terrified on the bike that I couldn’t enjoy myself. In addition to that, being so terrified and anxious made me a really poor rider. Last spring I might have gotten on the motorbike once, but that was it. The experience was so bad that I didn’t want to repeat it. And, at that time it was safer that way.

My work situation changed significantly about 8 months ago. And, it’s still changing really, but for the better. Pretty consistently for the better. I’ve been feeling eager to get back on the motorbike this year, but as soon as it got warm here, it got HOT, and there’s no fun to be had wearing jeans, boots, and a motorcycle jacket on a 100-degree day. This weekend has been more pleasant, so yesterday Mr. Ink got the bikes out, and we headed out on a ride.

He explained his route to me. And I said, “Oh, isn’t that a toll bridge on our route?” He said, “No, I don’t think so, I didn’t see a booth when I was checking out the route on satellite maps.” I shrugged, figuring maybe something had changed. We headed out on a glorious ride. My riding skills were better than they have been in 2 years. I was completely comfortable. Completely in charge. The winding roads we were on didn’t make me terrified, and thus, I rode WELL again. It was so pleasant. We headed over that bridge, only to find out that it was indeed a toll bridge. Hah! I asked Mr. Ink if he had any cash because I didn’t think I had any. He said, “I have one dollar.” I looked in my wallet. I, too, had one dollar. We were very relieved to find out that motorbike toll was one dollar. Phew.

I grabbed a photo when we stopped for ice cream. Only the two nearest bikes are ours, as a group came in after us and parked near us. Then found us in the ice cream shop to chat, as often happens.

Anyhow, the ride was fantastic, truly. I am so glad we went. It’s too bad we found out when we got home that Mr. Ink apparently never registered his bike at the end of last year. Or at least, we don’t have the registration and tag. Oops! So, now we have to resolve that before we can go out again.

That’s about it from around here! The weekend goes so quickly, doesn’t it?