Despite a shaky start, I continued on anyway…yes, even with a noisy wheel, no thanks to a nearly-straightened crank which is supposed to be slightly bent. I don’t spin all the time during the day though – just when I feel like it, since the flyer whooshing away and the noise from the crank can be a little annoying.

While Eva has a high tolerance for noise during her naptime, I don’t really want to push my luck. So I just spin for about 30 minutes to an hour during the day. The spinning action really kicks in at night, when she’s asleep in her own room – of course this is if I’m not pooped out for the day.

So yeah, back to spinning it is…and soon, with any luck, the shop will be open again!

Is it just me and the light here in Asia is really different from in Europe?

With my wheel fully assembled (yes, the boxes arrived yesterday and I started unpacking them), I decided to get back to some serious spinning action. One night and one morning later, I have this to show for – a smallish heap of underspun singles (there are smallish heaps of fibres all over my tile flooring too), which resulted in plenty of breaks, enough to annoy me into checking if my wheel was set up properly and such.

But really, this is the moment when sagely advice given to me when I first start spinning hits home – practice really makes perfect.

It felt so weird holding the fibres in my hands and trying hard not to let them run away with the spin. I never realized that treading the wheel and controlling the draft at the same time was such hard work until today. Well, maybe that’s because I wasn’t busy minding Eva at the same time – well, it was more of she minding me. The little one was busy staring at me frowning while drafting the fibres.

Anyway, I discovered that my flyer wasn’t exactly aligned properly to the wheel so after, a few twists of the screwdriver, I tested it again with a few spins. The singles are looking better than before so I’m keeping my fingers crossed as to the outcome. Am so hoping that I won’t end up with underspun singles like before. Otherwise it would be such a waste of lovely fibre (am utilizing some yummy 50/50 superwash merino-tencel blend).

With any luck, I ought to have a bobbin full of singles to show for by end of next week – I’m being optimistic.