Clicked publish now a little too soon.

I'm such a space cadet I forgot to include more of my spinning I had wanted to share. I swear spinning is becoming like an addiction for me. I find it a great way to de-stress. I'll probably end up with more than I could possibly use but I'm sure I'll find a way to fix that.

I had some older roving that I had picked up way back when I first got a drop spindle. I had about half of it left from when I gave up in frustration on the spindle. Funny now that I've gotten it on the wheel I think I may try the spindle again some time. I think it was easier to learn on the wheel then the spindle. Anyways, this is the result of spinning that roving, I'm not sure what kind of wool it was just that it was wool and it spun pretty nicely. I was sad to come to end of it.










I also had some more fiber, again not sure what kind of wool just that it is wool. (I really should have marked these) Its a bit rougher and has these cool silvery grey streaks through it, I think this was picked up at OFFF last year. This has been even easier to spin a finer strand but I also got quite a few slubs in there from when I screwed up. Its a little more of a faded blue than it shows in the picture.










I'm thinking that once I'm done with the blue I may ply it with the beige as I think they might be a nice combo, still debating it though. The blue in this picture is a little closer to the true color.

More spinning goodness.

I realized I never mentioned that I did end up purchasing the rose. I really enjoy spinning with it and I also just love the way it looks.

I picked up a drying rack from Ikea since its dangerous to leave drying wool in the bathroom since they usually are not dry by the time my son needs the shower. I took advantage of the new rack to finally properly set my hand spun and I was surprised at how it really made a difference in how it looks and hangs.

After seeing how others take pictures of their hand spun I also took another shot with a penny to give a better idea of thickness.

You spin me right round...

I've been spinning like a mad woman. I have some ugly practice runs but I just plied my first batch of yarn (not counting the small one I did in class) and I'm in love.



There is just something that is so relaxing about spinning. I love watching the colors spin up especially when plying. I can't wait to try dyeing some of my own roving and spinning that up. I had picked up some black Wilton's dye because of the interesting results a friend of mine got and I'm thinking I need to dye some of that up this weekend to spin. I may do a separate batch of roving similar to this one (minus the black strip) and then spin both of them up and ply them together.
I have my second class tonight and I can't wait to see what else the teacher will be showing us.

In other news I've been working on the craft room again. It seems like I'm always cleaning and organizing the craft room but its because I never really finish it. I also just need to work on parting with stuff that I think I might use and yet I haven't used them in ages. I have a few bins of clothes I just need to goodwill or freecycle. The biggest problem is I have more stuff then I have space for and it quickly overwhelms the craft room. I just have too many interests and I really need to either narrow them down or just find a better way to keep them organized.

Fiberlicious!

So I took the first part of my spinning class on this weekend and actually managed to make some yarn. Its thick, a little wonky and a very small amount but I've been trying to teach myself for a couple months now with no luck so I'm happy just to have gotten this far. The teacher was very cool, very knowledgeable and had some kick ass examples that were quite inspiring. She also showed me why I was having so much difficulty. I hadn't realized I needed to adjust the tension if the fiber wasn't winding on the bobbin, I was getting so frustrated because it would seem to over twist and never get on the bobbin properly when all I need to do was make a small adjustment to the tension and zoom there it went!



As part of my "homework" we need to spin 20 minutes a day and then make something out of what we spin. So here's what I currently have for my homework. Its still on the bobbin and hasn't been plied or set yet.



I want to see if I can get the yarn a little thinner though this already much thinner than my first effort. I have no clue what I'll make out of it especially since I'm not sure how much yardage I'll have in the end.