Testing this new way to blog. Maybe I'll blog more often.

My how time flies......

I can't believe its been so long since I've posted. Especially since the last post I joined a spinning guild called the North Texas Spinners who meet the 2nd Sunday in Denton, TX. They are a great bunch of women (and the husbands are nice too :)). I really had a good time. I took my fiber from my previous post and showed them what I had done so far. Linda had me sit down at her spinning wheel to try it out and I spun up the black and white fiber that Carol Lee from Sheep Shed Studio sent me as a sample along with the brown. Here is a picture of that after I spun it and plied 2 singles together. I had such a great time spinning with her wheel and really hated to leave it. I was talking to the women about their wheels and looking at the various types when I started talking to Emily. I said I was really interested in the Kromski wheels. She said she had a Sonata that she wasn't using and if I wanted to I could borrow it! WOW!!!! My mind went into overdrive. Not one to procrastinate :), 2 days later I went up to Emily's house for a lesson. The Sonata is one of the wheels I was most interested in as it folds for travel. It even comes with a padded travel bag. As I had said, I had spun the black and white roving on Linda's wheel and then Emily showed me how to ply it using both ends of a center pull ball. Its really lovely. I think I will just keep it at a reminder of what I first spun. Then I started spinning the brown and white roving on the Sonata. I did try out one of her other wheels (can't remember what its called right now) but I really loved spinning on the Sonata. I took it home and started spinning. I've nearly spun up the brown and its making a lovely tweed looking yarn. Here is a picture of the single plied from both ends of a center pull ball from the drop spindle in the previous post. I just love the wheel. I have 2 skeins of brown and white ready to set the twist and am just waiting on the rest before doing it. I'm going to order white roving next and spin some up for the next meeting in May because we are going to be dying with indigo at that meeting. It should be great. Hope you enjoy my spinning adventures. I'll keep you posted.

New Spinning Project

I'm so excited! I have new wool! I ordered 1 lb of mill end roving from Sheep Shed Studio last Friday and got it today, Monday!!! Thanks Carol Lee! I ordered the brown colorway and here it is. Isn't it beautiful? The colors range from nearly white through a rich caramel color with a few streaks of very dark brown. Here is a closer look. It almost reminds me of the coloring on a chipmunk with the dark brown stripe between the white stripes. I made a spindle using a rubber grommet, 2 cds and a wooden dowel. I didn't put a hook in the dowel, I'm just putting a half hitch knot at the top and its working well as a bottom whorl spindle. I'm very, very happy with what I have spun so far. It is much superior to the first roving I spun up. This is so soft and silky and I can draft it out very thin. Here is a close up of my spindle and single so far. If you look back at my earlier post you will see the difference between this single and the one with the blue yarn. This one is very even and very thin where the blue roving was much harder to draft and was thick and thin. Out of 8 oz of the blue roving I only got 171 yards. I'm looking forward to much more of the brown. I have even been able to keep the spindle spinning and draft instead of parking and drafting. I think its much more even this way.

First roving spun!

I've done it! I've finished spinning the first roving and have set the twist and used a ball winder to wind into a center pull ball.
Now, what to do with it..... I have ended up with about 171 yards and it is definitely thick and thin. I did get more consistent but it is not even.
I think its made more uneven by using the park and draft method but I was unable
to get the hang of spinning the spindle and drafting.
I may not have the right kind of spindle. Maybe I need to make a CD spindle with a bottom whorl. Not sure.
I do think that I will be able to get more even singles if I get a spinning wheel, but that is far down the road. I'll need to practice with my spindle more. I need to get more wool.
I don't have a drum carder or hand carders so I need something that is ready to spin but not sure what to get. Anyway, I have included some pictures of my yarn. I can't think of anything to knit with this, any suggestions? I'll probably end up with a scarf since there isn't much yarn, only 171 yards. I would have more if I had spun thinner singles but this is the first one.

1st Skein

Well, I have finished my first skein of handspun yarn! You can see there are thick and thin spots but I am working on being more consistent with the next batch. This is just 1/4 of the roving and spun up to 32.5 yards. I don't know how many WPI it is but that would vary with the thick and thin bits. Overall I'm happy but I'm going to spin up the rest and see how it goes. I still need to do the spin and park method for now, can't seem to get the hang of letting it spin while drafting. I'm sure that will come with time. I really do think a spinning wheel is in my future though. I will continue to research that as they are very expensive.

My First Spinning Project

I've had this spindle and roving for about 3 years I think but got frustrated right in the beginning and gave it up. But since I have gotten more and more into knitting I really wanted to get more creative. Nothing seems more relaxing to me than spinning. So this is my start. I want to get comfortable with the hand spindle first before investing in a spinning wheel. So this is my first attempt. The first picture is the roving that I ordered from eBay and I don't know what type of wool this is.The next ones are of the spindle with partially spun yarn on it. Its thicker than I wanted but seems to be pretty even. I think I need to draft a little more before spinning. I plan to use this blog to document my progress with spinning and then knitting items from my handspun yarn. I doubt very many people will see this but you just never know.