Destressing, or How To Ignore What You Should Really Be Doing

Remember this? This is the Calliope colorway from The Silkworker that I got a month or so ago. I started spinning it a few days ago because nothing was on the wheel. I had finished up the Harvest roving singles and since I like my singles aged, couldn't ply them yet. Nothing is more pathetic than a spinning wheel with nothing on it, so I thought, "Why Not?" I grabbed Calliope, separated it into smaller sections for easier spinning and jumped in. As it turns out, spinning silk is a great way to ignore/forget what I should be doing (finishing Christmas gifts) and pretty relaxing once you get into the rhythm of it. For the first time ever, I'm spinning on my wheel's highest ratio (19 point something or other) and I put on the laceweight flyer - I figured it might be more gentle on the silk. Because the silk is so slippery, I have to pay close attention to what I'm doing, but I'm being rewarded by this amazingly, gorgeous shiny stuff on my bobbin: I am just loving the way the colors are looking together. The dull colors make the bright colors pop and it is totally reminding me of Kaffe Fasset's striped fabrics. I'm spinning the singles at 40 wpi, and since silk is so lightweight, I figure the 2+ ounces I have will probably give me 3, 248, 305 yards of yarn, once its plied. We've already discussed how embarrassingly easy I am to amuse, so you can imagine how I feel as I spin this (oooooh, grey into green, OH, here comes gold, and look at the little pink parts!), add in the fact that I have to pay close attention to my treadling and drafting and you can see how easy it is to relax into an almost meditative state. When I spin this, I can't worry about all the little things I have to do before Christmas, I can't worry about all the music programs, church pageants, Christmas parties, and (yeah, yeah) finishing and shipping Christmas gifts. I can only think about the silk and the rhythm of my body as I spin it into yarn. It's become a wonderful distraction from all the stress this time of year puts on us and even spinning for 20 minutes a day helps me keep it all in perspective and enjoy the Season for what it really means.