So, I have had a crazy busy couple of weeks since the fair! Changing schedules, lots of other personal stuff keeping me busy, sheesh! I’m excited that’s ALMOST fall, because I like fall just about as much as I like fall fairs (so um, a lot). All that personal busyness, combined with continuing to be very careful and mindful and minimal around crafting, to keep my wrists healthy, means not a ton of progress on all of my projects.
BUT! I have been doing a little bit of spinning. For some reason, the last few years, late summer and early fall seem to be the time of year that I remember how fun spinning is. Several years ago, I took a spindle spinning class at one of my local yarn stores, and then was gifted some extremely beautiful handmade spindles by my cabinetmaker brother-in-law. And THEN figured out that spinning fiber tends to be a bit cheaper than yarn even… so now I have LOTS of fiber, and LOTS of spindles, and occasionally I actually combine those with my HANDS and get to making yarn :)
So, here’s the fiber I pulled out of my stash (which is, thanks to a recent closet downsize, sadly in bags in a pile… sigh.): It’s 4 oz of 22 micron merino pencil roving from a (now out of business) local dyer, Everything Old. (The dyer now has a fabulous knit/spin/sew podcast – check it out: The Knitting Pretty Podcast!!) The colourway is what pulled me WAY in when I bought this at Fibrations 2012; it’s called “seaglass”.
Holy gorgeous, right?
Even smushed up in its bag it looks pretty great :)
It has been a delight to spin, so far!
And how pretty is this spindle?
I’m planning to ply this, although I haven’t yet decided whether it will be 2-ply or 3-ply. Feeling pretty excited about how fine I’m able to spin it, though! And dreaming about what I’ll eventually knit with the yarn. I’m a VERY slow spinner (spindle + still park & draft + only spin once in a while), so it will be a long time until this is a knitting project, but it’s so so fun and at the end YOU GET YARN! If you’ve never tried spinning – do it :)
barf green is best 
I hope to be able to get my wheel out soon. Unfortunately, we’re trying to find the “new normal” at hour house with the early arrival of Stormageddon (seriously, three weeks early by due date; two weeks early by scheduled eviction)…..I’m not sure my wheel is going to make an appearance for awhile. I’m lucky if I get any knitting in (which I haven’t since I was in the hospital). I don’t know that I’d be able to resist that roving…it’s lovely :)
Congratulations on the new arrival!! Hope you’re feeling more rested already :)
Sarah, that wool is gorgeous!! Are you spinning some of it on the spindle or all on the wheel? I have 3 average spindles and still haven’t conquered the art of spindle spinning—only because I won’t practice!!
You are so sweet – thank you!! ALL on a spindle :) I haven’t learned how to wheel spin yet! I definitely still consider myself a novice (still park & draft, and not really trying to stop doing that!), but for me practice has made a HUGE difference in how thin/fine I can spin. But bulkier yarn is awesome too!! :)