More Joy!

I'm liking my Ashford Joy so much better! I had the drive band on very strangely. I was fortunate enough to sit next to a woman at the Spinning Silk class that told me what I had done wrong. People are so accepting at these spinning events and rarely give unsolicited advice. I just happened to mention that I didn't seem to have enough takeup and the woman told me that I should always have the drive band in the groove directly under the whorl I'm using. And I was thinking about it as if it was a bicycle! I'm actually not really embarrassed.
The right way...














And the wrong way!











And I even found out there was a neat little spot for my orifice hook. I do feel very stupid not to have figured this out myself.......












So now that I'm operating my Joy more the way that it was designed, I felt ready to spin up some left over roving into a practice skein.











I haven't played with the Pygora too much. I spun a tiny amount straight from the bag..no carding or fluffing. I got a fairly good yarn but after trying a small bit after carding, I found I could get a finer more consistent yarn. Mind you not very consistent, just more so. I think I'd prefer to card and spin. I'm pretty sure Judith MacKenzie mentioned Pygora does well spun worsted. I also have heard that Pygora has no memory. I'm wondering if lace is or is not a good option for this fiber.
It is wonderfully soft though.
Kristin G. told me that this particular goat that this fiber came from had a very nasty temperament. I got a little superstitious when a day after I bought the fiber, I found myself in more than a few altercations with people. I was nervous about the possibility of "nasty goat energy". I mentioned this to a friend and he asked me for some of the fiber because he feels he needs a little more assertiveness in his life.
I made him an i cord necklace. He's not crazy about the way it looks. It's too fat but he's wearing it anyway. Doing this though gave me an idea for using small bits of fiber. I'm hoping it doesn't just stay in the unrealized idea category.








My library system is so great! I got to take a good look at Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas. This is a book I definitely want to own. Alot of good background on the Muskox in Alaska and a brief overview of the villages that have knitters participating in the Ooomingmak cooperative. The latter was my first glimpse of life in rural Alaska. Great patterns too that will work well with other fibers besides qiviut. And I especially appreciated the small projects that use very little yardage, the perfect thing for using precious and expensive fibers like qiviut, bison, cashmere etc. It also is a pretty good introduction to lace knitting for those that haven't tried it yet.