Adventures in Spinning

I've been spinning a lot lately. It might be a result of the fact that I'm not very enthused about my knitting projects, so breaking up long periods of melonstrosity (yes, I'm back to working on it. It's freaking freezing and nothing sounds better than a big cozy blanket) with spinning either on the wheel or finishing up some stuff on the hand spindle. I showed you a picture of the stuff on the hand spindle before, but here it is, nearly finished:

This is Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, from Storied Yarns. It's just BFL, but it's pretty luscious. I haven't had a chance to ply it yet, because my ball winder broke sometime in October, and I put off getting it replaced. I'm hoping that it'll come in the mail today and then I can get on with plying some stuff that I spun over the summer.






Next, let's take a look at my first handspun from the new spinning wheel:

This is some mystery fiber. I purchased it last year, shortly after I learned how to use a spindle. I think I got it because I loved the color so much. It's not my favorite fiber, but I did have quite a bit of it. Took forever to spin up. But it was a good first project because I didn't care if I messed it up, or had to throw a bunch of it out or something. Anyway, it's kind of tweedy, and I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Anyone have an idea?





Finally, we have my first attempt at spinning from a batt:

This is Octarine, again from Storied Yarns. Octarine, for those who don't know, is the color of magic on the Discworld. It's kind of a greenish purple. This batt is "textured" so it makes kind of an art yarn, which is not really my style of yarn, but you should try everything at least once. I'm going to have to try it more than once because I bought another textured batt from this lady, and it's lying in wait in my pile of fiber waiting to be spun. At least now I know what to expect. This yarn is going to have to be just a piece of art for a while, because I really have no idea how much yarn i have, and what I would want to use it for.


Since I've finished with all this fiber, I've pulled out some of the fiber that I purchased at the Estes Park Wool Market this last June. I bought quite a lot and haven't really made a dent in it. Anyway, I pulled out a bump of Superwash Merino roving, and am relieved that it's spinning quite well, because I was beginning to worry that I'm rubbish at wheel spinning, since the stuff I'd spun so far was a bit lumpy. Turns out it's meant to be that way, or the fiber wasn't the highest quality. Good to know.