Friday, October 14, 2005

Spinning update: Week 4

Last night was the fourth installment of the "Sheep To Scarf" class. Having already learned spinning, carding, and dying, we had already learned the basics. Last night, we continued to work on carding and spinning. Kay also taught the basics of crochet, first using just our fingers and then using a crochet hook. I practically came out of the womb knowing how to crochet, and I was on my third row of finger-worked half-doubles while the beginners were still doing chain stitches. Why? Just to see if I could.

Kay also brought some roving (wool that was professionally cleaned and carded) and also dumped out the contents of her scrap basket for us to help ourselves to. The scraps were small and dirty, but I flicked a couple of bits that were big enough to spin. I just added them onto the onion-dyed wool from last week.

Then I spun up my piece of roving - and fell totally in love. It's so soft and smooth and clean, and it spun up beautifully. At the end of class, some of the students left their pieces of roving behind, and I snapped them all up. I was doing pretty well at resisting the lure of spinning, but this may push me over. I find myself thinking, "If I had a better spindle and some pretty dyed roving, this would not be such a bad hobby." I know from some of the knit bloggers that buying a real spindle is the first step down the slippery slope to a spinning wheel. Must... be... strong...

Here is my output and stash after four classes:



From left: the pilfered roving, the spindle with four different yarns going, some gold fleece that was also abandoned last night, the black wool spun and hand-wound into a ball, and the previously displayed natural wool on the nostepinne.

Here is a close-up of the yarn currently on the spindle:



If you look carefully, you can see tan, white, and two shades of yellow/gold.

2 comments:

Aser said...

When we get to the total breakdown of society, Cheryl, I want to team up with you. At least then I know there will be clothing available.

Cheryl said...

And you know how to grow foodstuffs. We would be a formidable team.