Spinning Yarn

First of all, head on over to www.divinebird.com to see the new pic. I was so sick last week and the week before that I just couldn't update then, but now I'm back on track. The image is my April Fool's Day image, inspired by my friend duskydawn. I am thinking of reworking it in black & white for when I do the t-shirts for it. :D

And now, on to the spinning.

As seen in my earlier posts, I received a lot of roving and a spindle from my most recent Secret Pal. The first thing I did was this:



That's just under two ounces of sheep's wool. The pic is actually pretty close to the color, which is a lovely pale grey.

I brought the spindle to my LYS to show it off. :) There, one of the owners (Pam, the knitter) and I wound the singles into a ball using the ball winder. This was also a test of how well I spun, since if I hadn't done it properly, the yarn would have unspun and broken. However, all was well, so I ended up with a little cake of yarn.

A few days later, I brought the cake back and the other owner of the shop (Erica, the spinner and weaver) showed me how she plies from a center pull ball using the spindle. It went pretty quickly!

When I got home, I measured the result using my stepladder, which just HAPPENS to be a yard around. (Niddy noddy is next on my list of things to make for myself!) 44 yards!! I set the twist by soaking it and hanging it to dry in my shower, et voila:



Add this to my first few tries at spinning--

And now I need to figure out what to make with it all.

Any ideas?

Next on the spindle: Wine and black alpaca, probably no more than DK weight when it's plied.

In addition to all this spinning, I've been working through a ton of UFOs and WIPs that needed my attention. Now finished are my mom's Rabbit Tracks scarf, my dad's Trigger Mittens, and three new baby hats. I'll be posting pics of the hats once all of them are done--see my posts back a few months for pics of the first three I did. I have about three or maybe even four left to go, depending on how well the yarn holds out.

My husband's alpaca s0x0rs are almost done--all that's left is the peasant heel on both of them, and then they'll be ready to wear. I hope they fit him, after all this time!!

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about how things are coming along. I really wanted to complete the Knitting Olympics, but failed miserably due to too many other obligations. However, now that I can sit back and admire my finished pieces that have been hanging over my head in some fashion since before Christmas, it's refreshing to be able to say, 'what else could I knit now?' without feeling guilty about starting something new!

So there we go.