I don't know why I've never tried spinning big and thick and thin before. It seemed like I should make the most of the jumbo/plying head, so I carded up some of the purple merino from the mixed colour bags I got from Wingham Wool Work. Unfortunately, I still find it all too easy to spin unevenly, but I'm terrible at spinning thick. No matter what I intend to do, my singles usually revert to a default setting of teeny. The jumbo head stopped this, and using the slowest whorl, I filled up the bobbin with big, fat, juicy, slubby yarn in what felt like about three seconds flat. It was so much fun! I now urgently need to do lots more of this.

I want to ply it with a contrastingly tiny, tightly-spun single though, so I got out the fast flyer and spun some of the dark purple roving from the end, on the fastest whorl, in a worsted one treadle/one draft style, which bores me to tears. I can't ply them together yet because I have a cunning plan involving some things to string onto the thin single, which are in the post. I'm desperate to get back to the big thick spinning, but I've only got one jumbo bobbin, which is full of the purple stuff, so I've just been carding up some more merino roving into rolags so that as soon as the postman does his stuff I can get right to it.

These bits of roving are becoming the rolags below. The book that can be seen is another reason I haven't left the house today. It's The Intentional Spinner by Judith McKenzie McCuin, and it's incredible. I also just received Deb Menz's Colour in Spinning, which is even better than everyone says it is. I'm dodging back and forth between the two books, getting more gobsmacked and awestruck each time. I do realise that spending today like this means spending Sunday up to my oxters in thesis, but I'm powerless to resist.

This is why I have to acquire a drum carder, even if it means eating nothing but Tesco 8p noodles for months. (Again...)