Spinning!!

Bwahaha, my upcoming domination of the world through fiber is almost complete!  Seriously, I've wanted a sheep since I was three and once I found out about the whole sheep -> yarn process, that desire wasn't going anywhere.  Although I realized that I'm learning the whole process backwards...

Through my parents' office, I met a woman who's president of the local fiber guild, has a few patterns published, etc and she agreed to meet with me last night to talk about fiber!  I think she spins more than knits and, before I realized what was going on, she handed me a drop spindle and taught me the basics!  She's an amazing teacher and is extremely British, which I've missed very much.   I'd give you a link or something, but I don't know if she has a site and I forgot to ask permission...  But we might be taking a trip to a fiber fair together!  I believe it's the SouthEastern Animal Fiber Fair.

But look!  It's my first bit of spinning and it's fabulously lumpy!  It's wool, rather heavy on the lanolin (wool oil) and very, very sticky, but my teacher says it should felt nicely.  I'm thinking about making that Dumpling Bag from Interweave Knits everyone lusts over if I can get any kind of consistence going.



And this is what I've got now.  It looks a little bit better, but I still have no idea how tightly I should be spinning this.  I knit and crochet with a deathgrip, so I'm assuming I'll likely overspin.  I think I have two pounds of this stuff, but I have no idea how that would translate to yardage.  Also, the very best part, the sheep this came from has the same name as my mother!  Were I superstitious, I'd say it was meant to be.



I left with more pressies too!  First, some small bundles I can play with, even though I really just want to keep them as is and pet them...  From left to right, top to bottom: hand carded wool batt, salt and pepper-colored wool roving, gorgeously deep red alpaca, creamy alpaca ball, earthy alpaca.  I'm not positive on all the fiber types, but I think they're right.  (This is like a pop quiz the day after a lesson...)



And finally this beautiful wool that's threatening to eat the bottle in the background is special to me.  My teacher is good friends with the curator at the local Schiele Museum (worth a visit, if you're in the area) that I loved going to for school field trips, summer camp, and short hikes.  Anyways, I'd always try to spend some time in their pilgrim village, talking to the sheep, and this is from my favorite of them (Sarah).



Now that I've shown off my new toys, I'm going to get some much needed practice!  Bye, guys.

-Cristy

Currently Listening to: "No Surprise" - Daughtry (Slacker.com)