Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Adventures in spinning

I've recently had the opportunity to rent a spinning wheel, and have made a bit of progress on some of the roving stash. First, pictures of my spindle-spun yarn:



The yarn was made using a drop-spindle, provided by my dear friend Sam, from her personal stash (what a buddy!) Some day, I too, will have a personal stash of drop spindles. I want to pay it forward and teach someone else to spin, the way Sam has devoted several hours of her time to teach me first to drop spindle, and then to wheel spin! You can see that my first efforts were very uneven, just what you would expect from a beginner. I've created about 75 yards of novelty thick-thin yarn, from which I plan to make my daughter a scarf.

Progress has been made over the past several months since my first foray into spinning, and this picture represents my current spinning level:



Here is a close up of the plyed yarn:



The colors are not at all true in these photos. We are having another gray, rainy day here in the PNWet. The final yarn is very bright: hot pink, light pink, soft peach, bright yellow, lime green. The colorway is Sherbert from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Roving, 100% targhee, was purchase at the Seattle Fiber Arts Expo, back in February.

I have about 250- 300 yards of relatively even, worsted weight wheel-spun yarn. What should I make? I am considering the flower basket scarf pattern. Do you think the yarn is too busy? Would I be better off just making a simple small triangular shawl? Do you have another suggestion? Leave your vote in the comments!

7 comments:

e's knitting and spinning blog said...

beautiful!!!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful yarn! It looks even better in the closeup. Congratulations!

Anne Turner said...

Thats so cool. What a great job. A neck warmer like you just finished would look good out of that yarn I think. Keep up the good work. It looks better then mine!!

Kim said...

Nice work!! What kind of wheel are you spinning on?

Anonymous said...

"A spinning wheel" ??? Any particular kind? Is it one you like??
Caroline

jenknits said...

Thanks for all the great comments and suggestions on stitch patterns. The wheel is a rental - Ashford Traditional. I like having my own wheel to use - A LOT!

Anonymous said...

looks awesome! This would make some serious socks!