From Pause to Present



Super Bulky Clown Colored Glory



I was really hoping that my first project from handspun would be some delicate gorgeous something-or-other, but instead, here it is in it's Super Bulky Clown Colored Glory.

I started learning to spin using a drop spindle in March of this year after purchasing a Trindle. I watched some YouTube videos to help me learn what to do, and that's probably why Kelie has asked me why I spin left-handed - ha! Hey - at this point it feels right to me, and it seems to be working, so left-handed it will be.



Day 1 from pencil roving



Day 3:  Looking Better

The first fiber I had to practice with was some 100% wool Schoppel Wolle Roving Ombre in colorway 906 Multi that I won at Stitches.  The pack contained a 50g braid, and a 50g skein of pencil roving.  At first, I thought you could draft off the pencil roving skein without having to break off sections of fiber.  That obviously was way wrong.  So I put the pencil roving away and started working from sections of the braided fiber and started to get better.  I remember when I finally drafted AND had the spindle spinning at the same time - woohoo!!!  So I kept at it for a few days, and then admit that I lost interest and put it on Pause.  It wasn't looking that great. 

Practice and good roving makes a lot of difference!



Then in June, I heard about the Tour de Fleece event on Ravelry.  In this spin-along, participants were supposed to spin each day of the Tour de France competition.  I thought this would be a great way to get some consistent practice in.  I went to the LYS and purchased some Artistic Fibers roving in 50/50 Alpaca/Silk that was wonderfully soft.  I kept up with the Tour for 9 days, and then ironically tripped over my husband's bike in our garage and hurt my left wrist (elbow, hip, knee...)  That ended the Tour de Fleece for me as I needed to let my wrist heal for a while. 

This month, I've been posessed by the need to finish up some projects (love it when that feeling hits!) and I started working on this roving again, and now have half of the 4oz braid spun.  I'm slow, but happy with the results.

On Monday, I was cleaning up some project bags, and found my first spinning efforts.  I decided it was good practice, but unusable, and threw it all away - braid, pencil roving, and the fiber I had spun.  Then as an afterthought I pulled the pencil roving back out of the trash, thinking it would be fun to spin it without any drafting to make a thick 2-ply yarn.



2-Ply Super Bulky from Pencil Roving



That night, after emptying my spindle, I spun the 42g of remaining clown colored pencil roving, and then plied it.  It only took 45 minutes from start to finish, and I ended up with about 19 yards of decent looking super bulky yarn (wpi = 4).

Penguin and Alpaca House

Yesterday, I knit it into a small purse for my neice using size 13 needles, and used pretty much every inch of the 19 yards.  I figure she can appreciate the bright colors.  I had purchased two cute finger puppets at the Vista Fiber Fiesta for her, and this purse makes a perfect home for them.  I'm going to send them off to her today  :-)



Now I'll go back to spinning my pretty alpaca/silk roving, and when I make something out of it, it will be a delicate gorgeous something-or-other.

Cheers-