what I've been spinning

I've really been getting the hang of this spinning thing! 

I started a year ago, spun enough for one hat and the yarn was horrible (but incidentally the hat turned out pretty cute!). The yarn was wayyyy overspun, making it all curly-q-y. I was self taught from a book, and the book didn't go over what to do with the yarn after you're done spinning! So I just knit it right away and it was not great. Then it became summer and I put the wheel away for months, partly out of frustration and partly just because it was hot and I didn't feel like working with wool, and partly because I had so much garden work to keep me busy!

Then I read more online, and my friend Lani's mom (who is an expert spinner--teaches classes in Ann Arbor, and writes knitting patterns!) came to town this fall and offered to give me a free lesson! She trouble-shooted my wheel and helped me fix a few things and taught me more about adjusting the tension (which in my opinion is still the HARDEST thing about spinning!), etc. Now I feel soooo much more confident!

Lani's Mom had me practice first with some cheap, rough wool I got at the Boulder Farmer's Market this summer (with a gift card from Joe--thanks little brother!). She thinks based on the look and feel that it was shetland wool, which has longer fibers so it's easier to spin. Both Lani's Mom and the guy from the mill who processed the alpaca wool said that alpaca is hard to learn to spin on, the fibers are short and it's very "slippery". So I used all of the shetland and made the brown yarn you see below! Then I felt confident enough to try the alpaca! I started with the cream, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be,it didn't take too long to catch on. I spun just enough of that to ply with the little bit of leftover brown shetland to make the brown and cream skein below!

special thanks to Kelly who gave me an awsome stamper for Christmas! This has inspired me to try to make fancy tags for my homemade goods. These are simple but I recently bought some fancy origami paper so I can make even nicer looking tags! Thanks for the great gift, Kelly!

Then I started to get more bold. Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow inspired me--I spent the entire first round playoff game spinning cream alpaca--I filled the bobbin entirely, I've never done that before!! Probably 3 hours or more of straight spinning. Then during the 2nd playoff game the next weekend, I spent the whole game spinning the BLACK alpaca roving, same thing, filled the entire bobbin! Then right after the game I was so excited, so I immediately plied them toether.When you do that you use a 3rd bobbin for the 2-ply yarn, and I was nervous I would have too much singles that I couldn't fit it on the 3rd bobbin (and I only have 3!). But I just kept going and really over-filled the bobbin which didn't seem to be a problem, so I fit it all on the bobbin. I got the pretty black and white speckly yarn below!

(The extra step I referred to above is that after you spin the yarn you have to soak it in water for a few minutes (in a hank like this), then hang it up to dry (in one big circle, which is what it looks like before you twist it into a hank, remember that lesson from an earlier post?). I used a regular clothes hanger, then I weighted it down with a plastic grocery bag with a can in the bottom, tied to the bottom of the circle. That tension on the yarn takes out some of the twistiness, making it nice and smooth and not twisty. I did this with all three yarns pictured in this post.)

The black and white yarn turned out really great, and it made a lot more yarn than my previous little practice skeins. I might be able to actually make something out of this! Which is interesting, because I really felt like I could not have spun any more yarn than this and still fit it on one bobbin. For this weight of yarn, this is the most amount of yards I could ever make in one skein, I guess, without starting a 2nd bobbin and tying it on with a knot, which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world, but in reality I'd probably just make 2 medium skeins rather than 1 big skein with a knot in the middle.

I think it's a little thicker than a worsted weight, but a little lighter than bulky weight....maybe closer to bulky though. I'm thinking about knitting a chunky, cabled hat. Maybe something like this: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ripple-cable-hat Any other ideas?

What do you think of my new hobby......who wants to learn how to spin next!??!