I've mentioned several times over the past year or so my newest time sucker- spinning. Last summer I bought my Lendrum which I do really love. It took a while to fall in love though. At first it sat in the corner of the room looking at me accusingly. I guess I was a little afraid of it. When I did buckle down and give it a try I had many frustrations and went through lots of wool to get where I am now. This is in stark contrast to my friend Sarah who started spinning a few weeks ago and is already producing lace weight yarn. Anyway, fast forward to April and that week at home with the flu. I spent many hours at the wheel getting to know it better and realizing that I could make thinnner, more consistent yarn. I finally figured out how to draft and what would make the wheel get caught up. I learned to fill the bobbin more evenly.
Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon on the patio plying up my latest effort. This lovely bit of wool roving is from Lorna's Laces. I'm calling it Storm at Sea.
This is all my handspun from the very beginning. I still haven't knit any of it up. I guess I'm having too much fun spinning. My teacher, Pam, Baabaara's Wild and Wooly, suggests that I keep my earliest skeins as a memento, but I'm not so sure. I may knit them up and felt them like Sarah did.
This is the yarn that caused the most frustration. Some of it is spun on a handspindle, the rest on my wheel. I was having a terrible time with overspinning and wasn't drafting properly. This is a bag of generic wool roving from La Lana Wools.
This was my first yarn that I really enjoyed the spinning of and was more consistent. This is natural roving from a local sheep named Monica.
And here's Storm at Sea, all plied up and ready for a wash. I do like it indeed. Oh, and that tool, if you're not into spinning is called a niddy-noddy. It's a great word, isn't it?