spin yarn

I have ordered three clumps of roving wool from Etsy.com, having failed to find a yarn shop around here (shocking for a small, sleepy town!).
I shall try hand-spinning, both with just my hands, and then with a home-made drop-spindle. Hooray!

I knit (badly) but I would like to become more involved in the entire creative process. Spinning the yarn is not the first step to getting the finished product, but it is one that I can easily learn to do myself and with the restrictions of space/time/access to sheep :)

This is about 250 yards of awesome merino wool I spun up. Squishy!

I did not dye the wool, but it is a good lesson in combining colors as I’m spinning. I still need to knit with it to see if it’s strong enough in the joining sections.

This is my first attempt at spinning. It’s just a tiny skein of natural colored yarn, but it’s mine! Since it is my first, it is going to stay in its infant yarn state and not be turned into a coaster or cat-toy or whatever.

I bought a drop-spindle kit, and with the instructions included, along with some internet help, I am well on my way. I will not consider myself fully versed in art of spinning until I a) create something I can sell, b) learn to ply, and b) use a spinning wheel. I think all methods of spinning are important, so I want to learn both of these (then we will see about more exotic forms).

I taught myself to spin using the internet. Not only that, I made my own spindle following somewhat vague instructions and basic understanding of how a spindle works.

I produced a basic drop spindle out of a small, circular piece of wood, a picture hook, and part of an old, wooden pointer. Fun times all around.

I salvaged some kind of fiber from a drawer in the art room. I don’t care to speculate on what it is—it’s a scary thought.

It took me about 8 months to learn to spin, but I wasn’t practicing regularly. I bought a spindle, and then kind of set it aside in frustration when I couldn’t figure it out. Eventually, I joined the spinningfiber community on LiveJournal and after watching the videos on icanspin.com and getting a slightly different spindle, it kind of “clicked.” One morning last year near my 30th birthday, I hadn’t had coffee yet, but I sat down and spun about a yard of wool yarn on my drop spindle! Today, I spin regularly and have made several things with my handspun yarn.