Training course

This morning has mostly been about gathering the things I need to survive for a week away from home, as I'm heading off to London later this afternoon for a training course. I've mentioned this to a few people already and it's interesting how their first reaction is to tell me which sights I should visit.

Sadly, there won't be time for sightseeing. Technical training courses, or at least every single one I've ever attended, tend towards full days in the lab absorbing as much detail as possible.

Come the evening, I'll be exhausted and my plans involve nothing more complicated than me, a sofa and a sock. Admittedly, the sock in question will be the Jaywalker, who's first incarnation met its demise this week, so I've no idea how successful my attempts to knit will be, but that's what I've got in mind. I've even cast the sock on again and knit four rows in readiness.

I'll not be taking a laptop with me, so that means no internet access for the week, which of course means no email and no Ravelry. I can survive for a week without the internet, but it normally involves being under canvas so this will be a novelty for me.

Anyone who speaks to Dave while I'm gone, be nice to him. He's in sole charge of the cats, who're bound to run circles around him for the duration.

In other news, I got my spinning wheel out yesterday afternoon. It did not go well.

I'm sitting here trying to explain why and I can't. I set it up with an empty bobbin and spent a good while practicing treadling, which was fine, but the instant I attached a leader, it all went wrong. First it wouldn't draw in the leader. I adjusted things so that it would. Then I found that if I held the leader, which should store the spin preventing it from traveling up the leader, the wheel stopped dead. As far as I could tell, there was no spin in the leader at all and no amount of adjusting or repeated attempts seemed to help.

I persevered for maybe an hour and a half, then gave up and got my spindle out which gave me predictable, reliable results and reassured me that I wasn't completely rubbish. However, either the wheel is misbehaving or I've forgotten everything since the last time I used it back in November.

Back to the drawing board, methinks and time to read those books Dave bought me for Christmas called 'Start Spinning' and 'The Whole Craft of Spinning'.