Remembering How to Draft

It's been quite awhile since I spun anything on my lovely spinning wheel.  So, I decided I should get back to it!  This was the Australian Merino I decided to start with last night.  It looks quite different from anything else I've ever spun up.  The edges of the single aren't particularly distinguishable from each other. Normally it's very easy for me to see the separate strands as they wrap about the bobbin, but these just blend together and look altogether way to soft and comfy :)   Hopefully this will be to my finished yarn's benefit and make it uber-soft.

Spinny Goodness

A closeup of NeedleWoman's beautiful spinning wheel in action.  I've never been able to get a good shot of mine while spinning, but at the harvest fair we were spinning all day and I was right next to her and could snap picture to my heart's content.  Her yarn is so beautiful.  She dyes it herself and this one she colored with sage. 

5/24/2010 - I swear I was just born in the wrong century

You know.... I like spinning, knitting, crochet, cooking, growing herbs in a container garden and anything hand made.  Sometimes I feel a little out of place in the modern day with all my old world interests.... then I think about all the fun things I do with my blog, digital photography and social media.  So... maybe I do belong on the present day, I just have strong tendencies for doing things the old school way.  Oh, and this is a picture of a beautiful Ashford Traveller Spinning wheel.  Hopefully I will have a similar one of my own some day soon!

5/20/2010 - Plying Insanity

The center pull ball of one of my hand spun singles wrapped around my wrist so I can pull from both ends and ply them together using the Andean plying technique on my drop spindle.  Very very cool and easy to do so long as you remember to not cut off the circulation to your hand, lol.

5/15/2010 - I might just be getting better at this...

This is the beginning of my second attempt at hand spinning my own yarn.  Thus far I am very happy and love the color, which is called Cactus Flower :-)  After spinning up all the roving, I plan to make a 2-ply yarn out of it, which I have never done before... so things could get interesting real quickly!

4/14/2010 - The Hills of Central MA

The sun setting as I arrived at the Leicester Senior Center for my fiber group with all my awesome knitsibs.  If anyone is interested in spinning, knitting, crochet, or weaving, we met Tuesday nights at 6:30 until whenever we get too tired to stick around.  Feel free to join us!

4/6/10 - Spinning to my little heart's content

I have only recently discovered spinning thanks to the extra special knitsibs I have at my weekly knit night.  They are such a great group and everyone is so talented.  Since there is such a variety of talents in the group, there is a lot of opportunity for learning.  

A few weeks ago we had a spinning night and a bunch of us tried out drop spindles for the first time.  It is actually quite amazing how easy it is, you just have to practice.  Last night was only the second time I've picked up my drop spindle since our group spinning night and I was able to make some good progress on turning a quarter pound of mystery roving (I think it might be alpaca) that my mom got me into a heavy worsted to bulky weight yarn.  

I'm guessing I might have 50+ yards at this point and still have 2/3 of a bag of roving to go.  So, more practice for me and in the end I'll be able to make something small, like a hat or cowl, out of yarn I have spun up myself.  Pretty neat huh?