Spinning about

I've been busy! For the past couple of weeks, I've been spending more time spinning. Part of my idea is to use up some of the modest stash I've accumulated so I can conscientiously move on to spinning some fabulous new fiber or other I might find at a shop or festival. The other part of the idea is to not spend any money that I don't have to spend, but still keep the creativity going.

When I bought my Ashford Joy, I bought it used on Ebay and the nice lady I purchased it from sent it in a box with all of the space packed tight with fibers, really nice fibers. I gave some away, but last month found the rest cached in my workshop. This is probably some of that Ashford roving that you can get almost anywhere. It was a hoot to spin, and I got enough of a nice light DK to make a lace scarf.


Among other things, I promised a friend to make something for her professional organization's silent auction. So, I spun up a skein of 100% Merino wool that was processed at a woman-owned and -operated mill in Wyoming, the Mountain Meadows Mill. This wool has such a tiny, tight crimp that it makes really springy yarn, almost like elastic.


Because I've been spinning so much, I made myself a little bits bag out of some scraps I had in the workshop. I saw bags like this in our local quilters' store, but wasn't willing to fork out the dough for something I could make really easily. The rim is held open with a small strip of quilters' template plastic. On the other side of the bag is a strip of cloth with a little bean bag full of, well, beans to act as a weight so the bag will hang over the edge of a table or maybe the arm of a chair.

See, the idea is that when you're sewing or doing embroidery, you always need someplace to put the little ends of thread. Same goes for spinning -- there are always stray bits of fiber, or maybe vegetable matter, that you'd rather not just let fall to the floor. So, I put this bag in my spinning tool tote and when I meet my spinning friends for a morning's twist, I have someplace to put the bits.

I haven't been such a good girl with the stash that I didn't find an occasion to buy a little bit of inexpensive pin-drafted roving for myself for my birthday last month. It was only four ounces...

and it is spinning up to be a whole lot of very fine yarn. I'm trying hard to end up with a two-ply worsted-spun large fingering weight or maybe a tiny sport weight, and when it's finished I hope I have a little more than four hundred yards of yarn for a pair of Rivendell socks. This is only about an ounce and a half of the roving, so I have a ways to go.

I am seriously loving this color. The color in this picture is similar to the yarn, but doesn't do it justice. It looks like turquoise water. I find myself stopping every so often to let some of the singles twist up into a 2-ply (something they say you should do to check your twist and your size, like doing a sample on the fly) just to admire the color. I think I have maybe another two weeks of spinning on this roving before I can think about plying it. But it will be beatiful when it's finished, provided I haven't mucked it up. This is my first worsted-spun yarn.

It's about time I started to show some skill, for the twenty-nine years I've been spinning. Sheesh.