Recognising the symptoms of "havin' it baaaddd"...

How do you know when you're displaying the symptoms of some weird new addiction or compulsion....or as us yarn rednecks refer to...."havin it baaaadddd"? Truthfully myself?...well...I don't usually have an addictive nature (shhhhhhh....don't mention carbs) but I must admit my new found fondness for hand spinning yarn is taking strange new steps into uncharted "full on hobby and lovin' it" territory. It started relatively recently (last year sometime) when my good friend Tye was absolutely BEAMING showing me her new Ashford spinning wheel. I was having a good ol' giggle (as a member of the non-spinning population) thinking of it as a pursuit of the C.W.A fraternity (stuff for Grannies). It didn't take much promting for me to hop in and have a wee spin on Tye's wheel and I LOVED IT. It felt.......right. I felt as though I had done this before. I couldn't believe the peace and enjoyment it brought to me. I couldn't believe that my hands and some old wooden piece of machinery that doesn't even plug in can turn fuzzy bags of yucky fleece into beautiful, useful, practical works of.....well...art?!?!? A few months later Tye and I were keeping an eye out for another wheel and I was stoked when my cousin Darryl from Kyabram found one while holidaying and bought it on my behalf....another Ashford exactly the same!! (It was meant to be!!) Since then I have gradually been tackled by the before-mentioned symptoms of my weird new addiction. Symptoms like looking closely at all things woollen and trying to work out the S twist vs the Z twist...symptoms like this mornings email from an alpaca fleece dealer from ebay asking what colour I would like him to list....but my perusing new year Christmas decoration sales wondering if I could spin them with some Merino is taking the weirdo cake!!! So...Tye....a heartfelt, heartfelt thanks goes to you. Thankyou for having enough zing zing zing bah to sit there and teach yourself spinning then selflessly share with me all your hard earned learnings. Thankyou for welcoming me for a 'little spin' even though I have a noisy little entourage every where I go. I love the way you can do all the things that people say can't be done....hehe! Thankyou for the gift of spinning (teary now) that's gotten me through a very busy and stressful year. I know this is sounding totally dotty now to non-spinners but you've just gotta go with me on this one...the calming effect spinning offers is amazing. regards, Ruth. xx P.S. Oh...yeah....you CAN spin Christmas decorations with Merino. hahahahahahahhahahah(deranged laugh)