Like Lightning

This spinning thing moves along quickly! It could just feel that way because I'm working with small samples and 2 oz. bits of fiber, but I've finished my first batch of spun yarn!

Unwinding from the "cop", while Calypso investigates

Since I don't yet have a niddy noddy and I was kind of in a rush, I wrapped the yarn around my forearm, which turned out to be a silly idea because I ended up with a bit of a tangled mess of yarn.

Kinky nest of yarn. I bet a bird would love this.

But I figured, what the heck, let's go ahead and "set the twist" anyway. So I gave it a bath.

No, no rubber ducky.

And hung it to dry, weighted down to reduce the kink-factor.

My crazy-ass first handspun. So proud!

Like I said, it's a bit of a mess right now, but hopefully when I go to wind it up it will look nicer. I also just hope it doesn't all fall apart! But I trust physics. I can't wait to see what it's like to knit with. And, I already started another batch, which has been drafting much more easily than the other wool did and I'm getting a thinner, more consistent yarn that I adore.

Ignore the lumpy teal stuff, that's leader yarn.

More details later, though. I even spun in the car on a road trip, haha. My Fiasco may come to rue the day he gave me that spindle. Yay, spinning!

Note to self: Put down the spindle and work on your socks. You only have 2 days left to finish your second January pair. I'm on the gusset of the second sock... commence speed knitting!

Getting All Knit-stalgic

There's almost nothing I love more than converting unsuspecting innocents into diehard knitters. Nothing. For some, their attention is grabbed because they're fascinated by the process. For others, they covet the results. For my dear friend Katy, it started with the yarn (Bugga!) and since I talked her into purchasing her first skein, she's made lightning-fast leaps and bounds down the winding road to Diehard Knitterland. Here's a bit of a map to how I see that road going:

The 12-Step Road to Addiction
Step 1A: Hmmm, this knitting thing sounds interesting. *internet research*
Step 1B: My, what pretty socks you have. I want! *covet*
Step 1C: Omg! Yarn is so pretty! I had no idea! *spends monies*
Step 2: I will try this. Yes. *scarf knitting commences*
Step 3: Ravelry is discovered. Countless hours are lost.
Step 4: What are these circular things? * hat knitting commences *
Step 5: This Yarn Harlot lady is hilarious!  *knitting blogland is discovered*
Step 6: Nobody told me size 1 DPNs were so small! *first sock knitting commences*
Step 7: What is The Knitters Book of Yarn? *learns everything about yarn and still wants to know more*
Step 8: Stitches East? Vogue Knitting Live? SOAR? Sock Camp? Rhinebeck? *wishful thinking about yarn-related events commences*
Step 9: Expresses love through creating knitted gifts.
Step 10: Expresses love through creating more knitters.
Step 11: So many things to say about knitting! *blogging commences*
Step 12: I could make something like that myself! *designing commences*

Katy is currently somewhere around Step 7. I couldn't be more proud! In two years, she'll be giving spinning a whorl (haha puns are fun) and eventually we'll both be traveling  from festival to festival purchasing hand-dyed yarns, spindles, wheels, fiber, unwashed fleeces, and ultimately whole sheep. At least for myself, it's only a matter of time.

I feel pretty confident about my two-year prediction, because here is my first sock, finished in January 2010:

Knitpicks Stroll

Ill-fitting, loosely knit, and awkwardly modeled, yet I can't help but be proud of them and I even still wear them from time to time. Now, two years later, I'm around step 11 & 12 of my personal road to addiction and branching out into the brand new world of spinning. It's so fun to learn a whole new jargon, new ins-and-outs, make new mistakes, and discover new tricks. I just wish, as always, that I had more time.

Whereabouts are you in your road to Diehard Knitterland?

I Wish I Could Quit You

In this instance, it is not knitting that I wish I could quite, nor yarn, nor my brand new spinning interest. It's my research project. Stupid horseshoe crabs and their stupid non-model-able data. I've spent 6 weeks trying to redo what I did in my thesis to make it better, and nothing's made it better, and now I'm stuck having one of those weeks where a million deadlines are occurring at once and I wish I could just be a cat instead.

Who else is jealous right now?

Now for happy thoughts: spinning is fun!

Look, yarn!

I'm working my way through the this Corriedale roving pack dyed by Wysteria Editions available on Knitpicks. Each little bundle is 1/4 ounce, so I've worked through a little over 1/2 ounce of fiber so far.

Thick-and-thin

The resulting yarn is incredibly inconsistent, I'm still struggling with drafting the fibers out nicely, but I'll get the hang of it. I'm just going to spin up this batch into some crazy multicolor novelty-esque yarn that will become the lumpiest knit potholder in all the land. But I'm cool with that because it will still be yarn that I made!

Twisty proof that I'm doing it right!

Funtimes.

Spin Me Right 'Round, Baby, Right 'Round

Lookee!

Golding "Learn to Spin" kit and Knitpicks Wysteria Editions Wool Roving pack

I was so excited about starting to spin that I coerced my wonderful Fiasco into giving me my birthday present at the stroke of midnight, Cindarella-style. :)

It's a nice, solid, 3", 1.9 oz drop spindle with a cherry whorl, walnut shaft, and dragon heartstring core. (teehee... Yes, I know this isn't Harry Potter, but it really is a little like magic!)

First attempt!

I struggled a bit with drafting the fibers correctly, so I have a lot of messy bits where the pieces overlap. The roving I used was different than I expected from the books I read, it was already combed neatly and seemed to be drafted already, when I tried to separate the fibers a little bit the strip just fell apart. So I tried just pulling a thin strip off the roving and spinning it as it was without any more drafting and it seemed to work better. It made a smoother, more consistent yarn when I just connected strip after strip. It's probably not the most efficient way to do this and I'm probably not explaining it right, but later on I'll do some youtube video research and see if I can puzzle out how other people work with roving like this.

Do you have any favorite spinning resources/videos that I should check out?

Where Did The Year Go?

One year ago today, this was me:

Shawl pictured: Springtime Bandit

Super excited, newly engaged, and completely unaware of the craziness (much of it unfortunately bad) that 2011 would bring. But I managed, because I had this goofball by my side:

Shawl pictured: Aestlight

We're currently no closer to having a wedding planned or knowing what our futures hold than we were a year ago, but that's alright. I know we'll figure it all out eventually because we have each other*. Awwwwww...   :)

*I'm rarely this cheesy in public but it is our engage-versary and I just couldn't help myself. Sorry!