Adventures in Spinning

Remember that roving I bought at the Houston Pony Meet? Well I ordered a knitpicks Turkish drop spindle and worked a little on it, it was difficult and I did like it, but it wasn't going as easy as I hoped. Learning curves, and the fact I was trying to teach myself really. Then work got busy and blah blah blah. Well I started watching some more drop spindle videos and learned a few new things so I picked up my spindle and started again, this time it was going much better! Before I knew it I had spun up all my roving into two lovely little balls of singles

Clearly my technique needs some refining as the singles are wildly thick and thin. I figured after plying it would balance out a bit.

During plying I realized I did not add as much twist to the yarn as I should have, because it turned out very puffy and loose looking, but it held together well anyway

I got pretty quick and plied the second ball in about an hour. The Turkish spindle is great because it makes a center pull ball and you can ply from the inside and outside without a problem. I love it.

Then Zoey helped me wind into a skein and tie it up to prepare for setting the twist. Without a niddy-noddy I used two chairs next to each other. I could have just used one chair back, but I like the way a longer hank looks. I wound up with about 110 yards of yarn. To set the twist I soaked in some water for a few minutes, rinsed in cold, squeezed out the water in a towel, whacked it against the tub a few times and hung to dry.

When it was done drying, I twisted it into hanks. Lovely. There it is, my first hand spun yarn all ready to use.

It took me a while to find a pattern to use since I was overestimating how much project I could get out of my 4 oz of bulky/super bulky yarn. I did find this pattern for a headband ear warmer which I decided would be just right. I don't really wear hats in the winter because my hair is always in a pony tail, so this sounded like something I might actually use. It took just a couple hours to knit up (with kid interruptions) and used slightly less than one of my balls of yarn. I think I might make a matching one for Zoey if I don't find any other pattern I like.

Over the weekend I started looking at hand carders...and wool combs...I think I might see some in my near future. This whole spinning thing is way fun!