Rhinebeck - Part II - The One Where She Spins

I didn't set out with the intention of really buying anything other than some STR. You know from previous posts that I'm not totally into the yarn itself but I love the colors. Don't get me wrong, it's a pleasure to knit with and the colors are absolutely awesome but it's a bit on the thickish size and I want 10 more yards per hank so I can make man socks without sweating it out. I hate that feeling of, "OMG, These will be peddie socks for my husband".

However, next year's New Year's Resolution will be to be able to spin yarn on a wheel and do a good job of it. Entirely do-able, being I have what, 14 months? I'm almost brave enough to actually sew alone but not quite yet, this is yarn so it will be a piece of cake. Let's talk about spinning...

I tried on a really pretty wheel at Rhinebeck. I have done it only one time before and this time was a little bit harder, actually. I think the first time that I tried it, the lady was helping me draft and the roving was somewhat predrafted to begin with. All I had to do was peddle slowly and feed, drafting only a teeny-bit for evenness. I was able to do it and created lovely bumpy yarn. This time, harder still. The wheel keeps going and it was hard to keep up with it, peddle, draft, feed the yarn in the little hole, all these things happening at once. There was no doubt in my mind that I would get it, just that I needed time to get the right coordination thing going and learn to draft smoothly. So, I got a drop spindle.

Sunday morning, I got up and took apart this nicely braided pile of roving and sat down to try out my spindle. It took me a long time to get it started. I cheated and used a scrap piece of yarn to slip knot it around the shaft instead of trying to spin my own. I don't think that it makes much of a difference, actually. You can't really use the very end of the yarn anyway. After about 40 minutes, I got it. I watched a few videos on youtube that were very helpful. I spun and spun and spun. And, after like the ... the entire day, I had enough to actually wind into a ball. I have no idea how much you can spin before you HAVE to wind it off but I was getting very excited and wanted to see how even it was. The very beginning was coming out nicely and then when I got to the end, I saw the unevenness. That's ok, this is just practice and I'm not at all hard on myself. After all, the day before, I couldn't do it at all. It was actually knittable yarn! I started another ball last night with the intent of actually using it for a small swatch, to keep forever, maybe hang it on my Christmas tree with my first sock....

Pictures are coming tomorrow. I am out of space on my Google account and cannot post pictures until my space limit is raised. I just bought 10GBs but it takes 24 hours.

Next post, more Rhinebeck pictures, pictures of my spindle and homespun plus more ponderings.