Saturday, November 26, 2011

Adventures in Spinning

Every yarn-a-holic loves a good warm spot to sit and knit/crochet.


I've wanted a spinning wheel for a while now. I had no idea how to use one. All I knew is that you made yarn with it.

Then I got handed 2 large bags of raw Merino Wool from the finest of animals from down under (Australia). So I started researching, first how to wash it and then how to spin it.

Everything I read for beginners said to try a drop spindle. So my friend gave me an extra she had and another friend gave me ready to spin wool to practice with.

So I tried my hand at it and hated it. This took me forever to get a small amount. You have to spin the spindle and then draw out the fibers and stop the spindle, wrap it all up on the stick and then do it all over. This stopping and starting was annoying.

So, then I discovered that my nifty cell phone is an android and apparently, since there are half a million apps I put in a notification for craigslist for a spinning wheel.

for a couple of months, I get getting the same old responses for some truck and/or stationary bike. So everytime that little icon poped up on my phone, I'd ignore it.

Sitting in the coffee shop one night with a friend, I thought, oh what the hell, yet me close out all these rediculous icons and clean the toolbar out. Well, it showed that I had a spinning wheel notification and so I checked it expecting to see another stupid ad for something completely the opposite of what I wanted.

Someone posted an actual spinning wheel and so I responded. About 4 times actually. And the lady called back in minutes!

I ended up getting it and now I'm trying to finish all my hat orders ( My Handmade items can be found here )so that I can wash and spin all my nice Merino wool. Which, I hear I'm getting more of soon! So I've got to be ready!

I'm also trying to figure out what to make for the very generous people that are giving me this nice wool!

So begins, my adventures in spinning!