I'd never spun from a batt before - I'd always been somewhat scared of "ruining" it by stripping the fibre apart. What can I say? I love them. No predrafting required (my nemesis, it's so boring), the colours fade beautifully, and they're like little clouds of fluffy fibrey goodness to play with. What's not to love? I like big batts and I cannot lie. 



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Lately I've been working through my Nunoco stash - previously afraid of stripping the beautiful batts and "ruining" them, I've really grown to love how easily they draft, the gorgeous colour progressions, the subtle texture. I've been working on Hen and Speckled Egg - one a silky neutral, the other a bright and textured cloud of fluff - but both thoroughly enjoyable.

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I intended January to be a month of cold-sheeping (a slightly fluffier, less gobble-gobbley cold turkey). Now, I know some people just cannot hold back when it comes to wool, no willpower or thoughts of actual money management... What? No! Who does that? Yeah. Okay. I lasted ten days. Nunoco opened after their Christmas break, and my self-restraint is that of a peanut. -1 responsbility. Boo.



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I first picked up a spindle in May 2014. A clunky wooden thing, nothing extraordinary, yet it opened up a whole world of possibility. Spinning soon became my way to unwind and relax - the ultimate stress-buster - and I got serious about it from August, when I moved to Barcelona. From August to December, I managed to spin 1,495m from 1.04kg of fibre. Nothing too amazing, all on spindles, but still - it would take about 18 minutes to walk from end to end, and I think that's pretty damn cool.

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Going back to London for Christmas was fantastic. "Only hand luggage" was not. I got some really lovely things for Christmas, and even more in the Boxing Day sales, and there was just no way to lug it all back in my teeny little Apfelgrun suitcase. This is the part where Mama and Daddy came to the rescue - I got a knock at the door today, with a UPS man bearing an incredibly large, incredibly heavy parcel.


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Instagram user Sherrill came up with a fantastic idea: #spin15in15. The idea is to spin for fifteen minutes every day throughout the year. Certainly seems more manageable than goals to spin a certain weight of wool, or a certain yardage... Instead of weekends of frantic spinning, you take a little time each day to sit down with your fibre and enjoy it. I mean, if you think about it, fifteen minutes really isn't much - it's the time it takes to eat a quick lunch, or to put on your makeup in the morning (or in the case of certain dads, the time it takes in the toilet - why do you need a whole quarter hour??)

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January brings with it the return of school, the replacement of wall calendars, and ample reeds and driftwood washed up on the beach (much to Dog's delight). With the girls in school, I donned my coat and wellies and took her to the beach for some running, jumping, stick-chewing and hole-digging.

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Around Christmas-time, a new tag cropped up on Instagram: #getyouryarnwishesgranted. The idea behind this was to post a wish of your own - for wool, yarn, or other related items - and hope that another IGer would just happen to have it lying around in their stash, unused and looking for a new home. To date, the tag has been used well over a thousand times, and is a real testimony to the generosity of the site's users.


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I have somewhat of a wool problem... I see something I love, and I absolutely have to buy it. A few weeks ago, wool and yarn was spilling out of my wardrobe and I had to swap the wool to the bigger compartment, and my clothes to the smaller one. That's right, wool takes up more room than my clothes do. Oh. I've definitely had those moments where I have to forbid myself from even looking at any remotely fibre-related websites, knowing full well that I can't currently afford to buy any more. It's not that yarn and fibre makes me poor, it's that all my money is tied up in (soft and fluffy) assets.

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After knitting, and knitting, and knitting some more to get a bazillion pairs of socks ready for Christmas (okay, two), I happy kicked off the New Year by starting a new spinning project: "Rebel Rebel" from Spin City. (Well, actually, I kicked off the New Year by having a delicious meal with friends and eating twelve grapes for good luck, one with each chime of the clock at midnight - much to Ryan's relief, as he had previously been informed that Spanish tradition dictates the gobbling up of twelve oranges; Lauren frankly stated it would be impossible to even peel one before the twelve chimes were over, let alone manage to somehow consume a dozen. This was followed by a little bit of bar-hopping, then stumbling home on the night bus after perhaps a few too many glasses of cava, and groggily waking up at 2pm, searching for a much-needed glass of water).

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