Coraline, or How I learned to Spin

We had some time to kill before the movie, and while we were browsing in Nordstrom's, I saw this dress, which reminded me of the Atlas fabric I became so fond of in Urumqi:

It's not exactly Atlas, but it's so close!

I really enjoyed Coraline, even with the addition of new characters and a slightly altered ending. Visually, it was absolutely stunning, and now I'm even more interested in making one of those Coraline Boxes I've been seeing everywhere. I love buttons.

Before the movie Desi and I had lunch where we exchanged birthday gifts. She seemed to like the Guan Yin figure(it's much heavier than it looks), but she totally wins the gift-giving round this time. She got me two drop spindles(one large, one small), a niddy noddy, a nostepinne, and some gorgeous red wool roving. After the movie we went to the Chocolate Apothecary, ordered some drinking chocolate(I had the Chocolate Mocha, and I highly recommend it) and settled into the overstuffed chairs in front of the fireplace so she could teach me to spin.

Her yarn is so even and thin. I must practice until I get that good.

And my sorry excuse for yarn. Super-lumpy.

I'm still proud of it, though. It didn't end up a giant tangled ball.

We got free biscotti. People love spinners.

The hardest part for me so far is drafting(where you pull the fibers apart so they're thin enough to spin, but not so thin that you split the roving). This roving had a fairly long staple length, which helped.

That's a niddy noddy she's winding her yarn around. The yarn looks red in the photo, but it's actually orange and purple.

You know, the Chocolate Apothecary should really consider paying me for my endorsement.