Spinning Notes

Okay, so here are some pics of me spinning. (note: click on the pics for larger viewing.) Don't laugh! It's in our TV room, which is kind of getting cluttered with all my STUFF. It's not in our cleaner living room, so most of the mess is in here. You'll see lots of knitting and spinning stuff around me. It's like my throne room! Lol. And, it's about 11:30 or midnight, and I think i was watching Indiana returns or something political. Note our beloved rescue kitty Tigger, who is perched on the table next to the wheel--the flyer is spinning--hence the blurred shot. He'll sit there for hours, occasionally swiping at the moving parts of the wheel, or he'll try to bit the knot of the drive band whipping by...

The fiber is something I bought probably 7 or 8 years ago. Now that I'm fundless I'm trying to use up what I have. I bought 1 pound of the corriedale wool with the pretty colors. The single is coming out mostly blueish, with some nice reds and other colors here and there. I also have 8 oz of light grey merino with silk noils.

I have the damnest time with blogger, trying to get the pics to go where i want them! The pics have a mind of their own. It doesn't matter if i choose no format, or even a format. Anyone with blogger have an idea how to place these wherever you want? Maybe I have to have more text than pics so that the text flows around the pics. I'll just have to type more. Oh, I see, if there is enough text to go around all the pics I can place them on the right...duh...

Anyway, the fiber is really long, which is great for doing a wicked long draw. It will probably fluff up a bit after plying and washing (I always wash my skeins after plying and letting them rest). So, I'm spinning for sockweight yarn. I was getting kind of tired last night when I started the second bobbin, which i got 1/2 filled, but my spinning started to suck. It was getting down to laceweight and thinner. One thing I've noted, since I've been spinning so much thinner yarn lately, it's very hard to get back to spinning the way I did in the first couple years of spinning. I've been spinning for over 15 years now. When I attended SOAR '96 or '97 in Smugglers' Notch, Vermont, I took a workshop with the fabulous and talented Rita Buchanan. It was "spinning bulky yarns". What a hoot!

ETA: pic of the two skeins I plied last night. At the right, you can see how the color of the plied yarn is mostly blueish green now. It's wet, but I am hoping it is less blue than green. I have a really cool vest I want to make with it. Vermont Gay Men's Knit Group tomorrow! More on that later...

Have a great day and enjoy the pics!