The Learning Curve

It’s fiber central around here.  Our friends are visiting, and their 3 girls are working on knitting projects.  The mom started her third work in progress.  Every room has needles and yarn hanging about.  It’s truly lovely.

 

She’s so cute. 

The spinning wheel has been getting a workout.  I’m learning.  I’m also burning a nice blister on my left index finger.  Sometimes you’ve got to pay the price for your obsessions.

Sometimes you’ve got to get back to your obsession before you can bring yourself to get dressed.  Sometimes you’ve got to stick with in and stay in your jammies until afternoon threatens to become early evening.

Yarn #2: Natural Corriedale wool, about 78 yards, currently morphing into a knit hat for Ellie.

Yarn #3 is the first venture into colored roving. I got this (Merino/Kid Mohair) from Twisted’s Etsy shop:

It spun very nicely into singles like this:

And those plied nicely into this:

The above picture is “pre-blooming/thwacking”.  I learned that it’s a good idea to “shock” the wool by alternating hot and cold water dunks, and then to thwack it around…it helps the spin get happy and comfortable in its new state.  Thwacking is fun. Here’s a post-blooming-and-thwacking picture:

And the finished product:

I spun 4 oz. and ended up with about 103 yards of 2-ply yarn.  I still have learning to do, but it is becoming more and more even. I have no idea what I’m going to do with this yarn…I’m open to suggestions.