Wow, what a difference a day can make! Kate, a great gal from our local knitters and spinners group, is amazing! I went from a frustrated maybe-one-day-I’ll-be-a spinner to a very excited spinner! She was so patient and had great tips (and helped me figure out a few mistakes I was making) on Saturday when we both brought our spinning wheels to the 3rd Saturday local knitting get-together at a Border’s.
Here’s a comparison of what I was spinning last week (white – below), to what I was spinning Sunday afternoon after Kate’s help (brown – above):
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Sure, it’s far from perfect, but it is a vast improvement, trust me! I had so much less breakage, and more consistency – I _ENJOYED_ the experience so much more – this is why I wanted to spin!
Kate was even so generous as to give me some roving to learn on (I still owe you for that, Kate). I had mistakingly been using the wool that came with the spinning wheel which is combed top – roving is much better for beginners. The sample on the bottom in the above photo (white) was from the combed top that came with the wheel, the sample above it (brown) is not the roving from Kate, but after I figured out what I was doing on some of her roving, I went to this brown Romney roving that Mom and I picked up at Greencastle, for a mere $8 for 8 oz, for practice. Kate had said it was much better than the other greasy stuff that I also bought from another vendor, boy, was she right.
And so, after spinning 2 bobbins of the brown Romney, I plied them together into a Heavy worsted to Bulky skein of yarn – my first!:
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It ended up being about 2.4 oz, but I forgot to count the wraps on the niddy noddy, so I’m not sure how many yards it turned out, and I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet, but I’m excited!
bq. *Thank you, Kate! ! !*
And what I put on the wheel next was from the same vendor mentioned above that’s ball of roving was VERY greasy. It’s definitely greasier than the Romney, but it’s died a very, pretty Sage Green (one of my favorite colors), so I had to give it a try:
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Pardon me, but I am just so excited and amazed! I still have so much to learn, but I think the toughest part of the learning curve is behind me, so watch out now!
I haven’t knit so much lately, but I am working on my April socks for the “Sock-a-month knit-along.”:http://knittinmom.blogspot.com/2006/01/sock-month-knitalong.html They will be for my Em, and are made from “Magic Stripes yarn,”:http://cache.lionbrand.com/yarns/magicStripes.htm in the Jelly Bean color way. I’m doing them one-at-a-time, toe-up, on the magic-loop, since I didn’t split the ball and we want the stripes to match up, which could not be done taking a strand from each end of the ball this time. These are my first socks on size 0 (ZERO) Addi Turbos, and I’m getting a lovely 8 sts per inch – _TINY._
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I’ve turned the heel since I took that photo yesterday, and Em tried to convince me to stop right after I finished turning the heel, but I’ve talked her into a compromise of ankle socks. So, that means just a couple rows around then a short ribbed cuff and the first one will be done.
And since I don’t have any recent FO’s to share, here is a past FO, donned by the recipient, the miraculous “Princess Kamryn”:http://www.kamrynlily.com (held by her beautiful mommy, and my dear friend, Jill):
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