Look what I did

For Christmas last year my best friend< Kindra, bought me four batts of roving and a drop spindle. This wasn't a surprise because she knows nothing about these things and had to ask me for the names of what she was supposed to buy. But she went to a lot of trouble for it because the only store I know that sells roving and spindles in Sacramento is called Rumplestilskins and it is located in downtown Sac (that isn't saying that there aren't more, I just don't know of them). Kindra hates driving downtown, it is very busy with cars and since it's the original part of the city the streets are all small and one way, but she did brave them. Then she went into the store, pointed at something and said, that's a spindle. When the clerk said yes, Kindra was very happy, she may have clapped and jumped up and down. She was nearly ecstatic when she got roving right as well.

However, she thinks I am a crafting genius and either figured I knew how already or had instructions so she didn't get me a book. I finally checked a couple books out of the library and spent Thursday spinning after work.

I can't tell you how many wraps per inch it is because it it ranges from lace weight to worsted (it is after all my first skein), but I am so stoked. I did have a few issues with it. The book says to attach a leader yarn and spin clockwise. Didn't have trouble attaching the yarn to the roving, but I had a dickens of a time trying to get it to spin, the leader yarn just kinked up. It was spun the other direction, and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Turns out my leader yarn was two-ply, and plied yarn is spun counter-clockwise. I also wasn't sure if I was supposed to soak it. My books are about spinning fresh off the sheep yarn that still has lanolin in it and might be dirty. My roving was clean and dyed. So I soaked it once for a little while and right now it is hanging in my bathroom on a bent hanger, drying. Don't know what I'll do with it, but I am considering a few possibilities. I actually saved the last strip of roving to spin when I went to Grandma's apartment so I could show her how I did it. I was so excited that I took the whole spindle to work to show off to some friends, and then to my mom's for her and my sister to see.

Plus, I still have three more batts to spin. I am thinking that if I decide to do it more often and in larger amounts I might have to get a small wheel of some sort. It was hard on my carpel-tunneled wrists and hands to use the drop spindle, but I still had fun. I want to do more kinds of fibers besides wool. Hmmm, wonder how Xander would get along with a big fluffy angora rabbit...

Blessings,
Agate