Show & Tell Spinning: First Skein on a drop spindle

Before I get to spinning a couple of important announcements.

1.  If you want to see photos of my new place visit my recent blog post on my family blog. 

2. I have not yet changed any poopy underwear. I swear it is a potty training miracle. But the racing stripe I found when putting Roman in his pajamas tonight was pretty gross. 

Okay, on to spinning. The instructor from my spinning wheel class told us that once she started spinning she didn't knit that much. At the time I thought that would never happen to me. But now that I am actually making some progress with my spinning I am starting to prefer it over knitting. Though I could never give up knitting all together since then my house would be over run with hand-spun yarn. I know I could give it away but apparently I am a bit attached to all my yarn. My husband was leaving on a business trip to Taiwan with another friend in the industry who crochets. He told Joel to bring some yarn on the flight and he would crochet him a hat. Of course Joel asks me if I have any yarn to spare. (He knows how much I have, having just moved it all across state lines). How could I say no? How could I say yes? Each skein has a plan, even if that plan could be possibly 100 years in my knitting future. I was disappointed that I had become so materialistically attached and such a snob that I didn't want to give my good, quality yarn to someone else to knit/crochet. (Most of the acrylic or other blah yarn was sold at our garage sale before our move.) In the end I gave him a pile to choose from and he ended up taking some of the yarn that we unraveled from an old sweater of his. And even though it was technically his yarn, I still had a hard time letting go. That hat better be amazing! And I think I felt a little bit betrayed that he wants someone else's handknits/crochets. Am I pathetic or what?!?

Anyway. While I was house hunting and not blogging this summer I turned these singles:


Into this plied yarn. Frankly I am ecstatic over it. If you remember my first (and only) spinning wheel spun yarn you will understand why. I may not knit anything with it but cherish it as my first drop spindle spun yarn.


And this white skein is my second skein.  Not sure it is quite knit worthy yet but I am thinking about a sweater for my oldest son with some Cascade 220 yarn for most of it but a bit of hand spun in the yoke. In my head it looks great. We shall see if that is true.


I read this book this summer by Abby Franquemont. And I recently found her videos on youtube. She is a great teacher for hand spinning. Very inspiring. And her book makes me want a prettier spindle.


I tried a greensleeves spindle at a local yarn store in Sandy, Utah. The whole experience was really quite horrible. I pulled up into the parking lot right outside the store with my two daughters. The younger one promptly flung open her door and banged into the Lexus next to us. A big group of ladies were standing in the front of the store so I had to walk in and ask whose car it was. The sweet lady came out to look at the damage but my embarrassed child had taken off by then. Now this lady and I had to search the parking lot for her. I was so mad when we found her but was trying to play it cool. The woman ended up not being worried about her car. I think she could see that Maeve felt horrible and I clearly had bigger problems dealing with her. But I was so flustered after that. 

The sweet lady was spinning on a supported spindle in the store, which I had never heard of until I read Abby's book. It was fascinating to watch. She offered to give me a try and it was really difficult to do while everyone was watching (and probably if I had been alone too). Then another customer showed me the greensleeves spindles and had me give those a go. I sucked at those too. It was like I had never touched a spindle before. I was so nervous doing it in front of people. Clearly I am not ready for public spinning. In the end I bought a skein of Noro that I have been wanting to learn entrelac with and got the heck out of that store. 

Good times. 



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