It’s a sad, sad week when I’ve been too busy working, battling a cold, and running around willy-nilly to give my weeky Inspiration Saturday post its proper due. Even when I know I have a busy weekend, I try to plan my post ahead of time. No luck this week, however. This morning I’m off to vend my Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe products at the Mount Hope Farmer’s Market in Bristol, Rhode Island. (If you’re local, come say hi! Open 9 am – 1 pm.) Then the Fiasco and I need to visit our wedding reception hall to have a chat about details and then I’ll probably fall into bed, weary of body and hoarse of throat, for probably the rest of the weekend. (Fun times, eh?)

Polka-dots!

To make up for the lack of my usual pattern-and-yarn-inspired ramblings, I’ll leave you with a photo of my brand new stunner of spindle. This is another beauty made by the talented Joshua Lynch from TexasJeans on Etsy. I’ve been enamored with this polka-dot style inlay since I first saw it and finally inquired about a custom order. He said he probably wouldn’t get to it until June. Because I got impatient, I went ahead and purchased one of his Russian spindles to hold me over, figuring I could justify buying two spindles if they were a month apart… turns out, I ended up with two new spindles in one week! While I’ve had to dodge some (probably well-deserved) glares from the Fiasco, it’s so pretty that I just don’t feel very bad at all about my sudden-onset spindle gluttony.

Experimenting with some Louet merino/silk fiber.

Details: The whorl is made with birdseye maple, and inlaid with purpleheart, redheart, and osage orange. A pretty purplish dymondwood was used for the shaft. I love whatever waxes Joshua uses to finish his spindles, they are so incredibly smooth and silky-feeling. The whorl is just over 2.5″ wide and the whole things weighs 1.24 oz (37 g). It’s a nice mid-weight top whorl with a pretty, balanced spin. I plan to do a little experiment with the fiber shown, spinning about 0.5 oz on each of my spindles and comparing how spindle style/weight/etc affect the finished yarns (but more on that later).

That’s all I can manage at the moment. I hope you have an enjoyable Saturday!