Ladies and Gentlemen...

May I present: my seven-year-old daughter, Angel, and her first yarn. With a little help from Mommy, she spun this yarn herself, on her own drop spindle. It's a wool single, and varies in thickness between worsted and super bulky. Obviously, she's very proud of herself. Not quite as proud as I am, though.

To anyone who thinks spinning is difficult...may I just say: if a seven-year-old can do it, so can you.

A Day Off...

Today, I took the day off. I got a massage, then drove around finding local yarn stores. The first one I visited didn't have what I was looking for: wool roving. But they did have lots of lovely yarns. I was going to buy some "cool cotton", which is cotton with super-fine threads of steel spun into it. Very cool-looking. The price that I thought was for the whole bag of 10 skeins...which I thought was a great price...turned out to be the price per skein. So I decided to save up some money first. I didn't need to spend that much money on yarn for one project, especially when I already have boxes and boxes full of cotton yarn at home. But maybe if I get a gift certificate at some point...

At the second yarn store, I hit pay dirt. (What, exactly, does that mean anyway?) I found eight ounces of red wool roving, and 7 ounces of the softest, squishiest white alpaca fiber. I'm looking forward to spinning them up, especially the alpaca. It feels so lovely. The wool isn't so soft, but I can condition it with hair conditioner after it's spun, and that should help.

I had a very nice day. I had planned on also going to my favorite bookstore and just sitting there, knitting or spinning, but the traffic was getting pretty thick, and I was starting to get a headache. So I went home earlier than I'd planned. Now it's time to start the pizza, and do a little spinning...

Spinning Success!

The other day I found a package of mystery fiber at the thrift shop for a dollar. I decided, at that price, there was no reason not to buy it. I would practice spinning it, no matter what it was. But I was still curious to find out what it was. So I did the burn test. I held a tiny bit of it over a glass bowl and held a flame up to it. It burned; didn't melt. The smell it produced was like burning hair (nasty) and the flame was small and flickering. The ash was brittle and fell apart easily. And it didn't smolder when the flame was put out. After this test, I was fairly certain of what the fiber was, but I decided that to be completely certain, I needed to perform the bleach test. I got another glass bowl and placed a little bit of the fiber into it and added straight bleach. It only took about 5 minutes for the fiber to completely dissolve. I thought that was pretty cool. And based on the results of my oh-so-scientific tests, I knew that the fiber was wool. And, knowing that, I was very happy; I had gotten roughly four ounces of wool for a dollar! And since it was natural cream-color, I would be able to dye it any color I chose!

I began spinning it immediately, using the same spindle I showed you in another post. I was very glad that I figured out how to control the fiber better. It still turned out thick-and-thin, but the thickest was about fingering weight, and the thinnest was like cobwebs. But overall, it was mostly laceweight. Here's a closeup picture to show the thinness and consistency. It spun up into roughly 130 yards. I say roughly, because the chair I'm using for measuring is actually 38 inches around, so I'm not getting an accurate yard measurement. It went around 125 times (I think), and I didn't feel like doing all that math to figure out the exact measurement. So I just called it 130. It's not like I'm going to sell it, so it's just for my own reference. Now I have to decide what color to dye it, and what to knit.

I was considering a really pretty beaded lace cowl I saw in Knitty. It's called "Ice Queen", and it calls for a mohair yarn that comes in a 229 yd ball. It doesn't say whether or not the entire ball gets used, so I'm thinking I might not have enough. Oh, well, the search continues.

A Yarn Story.

This is my spindle. I made the whorl out of polymer clay. It's a little heavy, so I decided to make another, lighter one. Perhaps you'll see it in another post.

Here is the ball of roving. It came in a sampler package of different colors. There was less than an ounce of each color.

And here is the same roving, after I unrolled it and drafted it a little.


Here, we have the spun yarn. Hooray!

And here is the yarn, wrapped around a chair back, waiting to be wrapped into a skein. It's about 9 yards.

And, finally, the finished skein!

I was going to knit it up, and post a picture of the knitted fabric, but I decided to wait until I get all of the colors done. Then I'll knit up a striped bag, and felt it.

Coming up tomorrow... the first pictures of my work-in-progress: the Rebekah and Allyson Shawl!

Gonna try out a new hobby...

I've decided I want to try my hand at spinning. Some of my friends are spinners, and they were talking about how much they enjoy it. I figured that since I love knitting, I might also love spinning.

So I'm making myself a drop-spindle. I made the whorl out of polymer clay; it's really pretty. I mixed together burgundy, pink and white clay to make it look marbley. I hope once I put it together and get some roving, I can make it work. I think it could be a lot of fun. I've just finished baking the clay whorl, and it's cooling. I'll put it together with the dowel this evening. Tomorrow I'll go to Hobby Lobby and get some wool roving, if they still have it. I know I've seen some there before.

Wish me luck!