Spinning – Page 3 – Ms Lindz – My little corner of the internet

Spinning and Tour de Fleece Update

Posted on July 21, 2009 by mslindz

This past weekend, I finished drafting up the rest of the mernio from Zarzuela’s Fibers in the Emerald City colorway.

Picture taken using my iPhone since I forgot to take one with my camera before I started spinning – whoops!

Friday and Saturday I spent an hour each day pre-drafting. Sunday I spent about 20 minutes finishing up pre-drafting, then did some spinning for an hour and 10 minutes for a total of 1 hour 30 minutes on Sunday. I had about half of a bobbin full on Sunday.

Sunday’s Progress

Yesterday, I spent 4 hours spinning. I couldn’t believe I spun for 4 hours!! Matt was playing a new video game (Red Faction on the Xbox 360), so while he played, I was watching and spinning.

Spin, spin, spin!

I finished up the first bobbin…

First bobbin, 2 oz of fiber

Then the second bobbin…

Second bobbin, 2 oz of fiber

Then I realized it was 10:30 pm and we’d been sitting there since 6:30 pm! I did get the rest of the merino spun up (took 2 bobbins), though, and today I plan on plying it.

Both bobbins together (1st on the right, 2nd on the left)

Each bobbin I spin, I see my progress. The singles are getting thinner and more even with each one! I’m anxious to see how much yardage I’ll have once I ply these together. I’m hoping to have enough for the Button Up Neckwarmer from the Summer 2009 issue of Spin-Off magazine. Over in the Zarzuela’s Fiber Junkies group on Ravelry we’re doing a Spin-Along/Knit-Along for the Quant and Button Up Neckwarmer patterns in this issue of Spin-Off (Quant is also a free pattern from Knitty). I have to say, these singles feel like buttah! Really quite soft 🙂 I can’t wait to get it plied and skeined so I can squish it! I’m looking forward to knitting with it, too 🙂

Here’s my updated totals of how much time I’ve spent spinning throughout the Tour de Fleece 2009 so far:

July 4th: 1 hour 5 minutes
July 5th: 1 hour
July 6th: 2 hours
July 7th: 20 minutes
July 8th: 20 minutes
July 9th: 20 minutes
July 10th: nothing
July 11th: 2 hours 20 minutes –> Finished first yarn
July 12th: 3 hours
July 13th: 2 hours –> Was the scheduled day of rest, but I did some spinning since I “rested” on Friday, July 10th
July 14th: 1 hour 30 minutes
July 15th: 1 hour
July 16th: 2 hours
July 17th: 1 hour
-> Finished second yarn
July 18th: 1 hour
July 19th: 1 hour 30 minutes
July 20th: 4 hours -> Was the scheduled day of rest, but I’m “resting” on July 22nd instead (knit night)

My total so far: 24 hours and 55 minutes. Wow! It doesn’t seem like much looking at the list, but that total blows me away a bit! For a while, I just couldn’t really get into spinning. Since I was still learning, I just wanted to knit instead of work through my initial issues with the wheel and learning how to draft/pre-draft and how to join a new bit of fiber… all of it just overwhelmed me. I took on the Tour de Fleece challenge in hopes to overcome those things. I think you’d agree that it worked!

I finished my Nanner sock last night, too, but don’t have a picture of it yet. Starting the second sock today and hoping to have them done really soon so I can get back on track with the 52 Pair Plunge! I’ll update on my progress with that, soon. Another busy day here, but I hope your Tuesday is going well 🙂

Cooking, Current Projects, Spinning

Craft Room, Prezzies in the Mail, and Nanners

Posted on July 20, 2009 by mslindz

This weekend seemed busy, but long. I feel like I at least got a lot done, so that’s always a plus! We did 5 loads of laundry yesterday, which didn’t seem so bad because we only had one to fold at a time compared to the 2 we would do at a time when we were at the apartment since they had 2 washers and 2 dryers available (of course we paid per use for those). I love not having to get quarters anymore and not having to wait on other people to use them. We’ve been cooking a lot more lately, which I’m really happy about. I think I’ve had my fill of eating out for a while. Occasionally is fine, but when you’re doing it really frequently, it gets old quick! At least for us. We’re even making breakfast in the morning – mini bagel sandwiches with egg, cheese, and turkey sausage or bacon. YUM! And it keeps me filled until lunch, which is fantastic 🙂

I unpacked almost all my books in the craft room. I need more shelving before the rest of my cooking and other books can be unpacked, so for now the ones that don’t fit on the shelf are in boxes in the closet area. I even sorted some recipe cards I never bothered to open however many years ago it was that I received them.

Sorting recipe cards.

I’m hoping to use my cook books and recipe cards more to change up our dinner routine. We’ve started to get bored with the same old thing week after week and now that they’re unpacked, I plan on making use of the books that haven’t received much love over the years. I took some updated pictures of my craft room to show how it’s coming together.

View as you enter the room.

To the left after you enter are my book shelves and sewing table.

To the right after you enter is my stash.

On the back wall is the closet. I’m planning on hanging those curtains draped over the bar there in place of closet doors.

I wound up the pink and purple yarn I spun this weekend and found that I have about 153 yards. Not bad! This one was much more even then the first one, but that’s to be expected. I’m really loving spinning!! I’d say I’m thinking about it just as much as knitting now 🙂

Pink and purple yarn, skeined.

Friday, I got prezzies in the mail! I received a shipment from All Spun Up. Talk about fast shipping! It was mailed out Wednesday from the west coast and I received it Friday. I love these colors even more in person then I did from the photos online! Simply beautiful 🙂 This was my first order from Kristin, but you can bet I’ll order again.

Top: Mernio/Silk blend, Bottom left: Superwash Merino, Bottom right: Merino, all are 6.2 oz

I also received the yarn I one in the Cookie A. KAL on Ravelry. It’s Nature’s Palette in Seafoam. Very pretty! I’m already trying to decide what I’ll make with it.

Nature’s Palette in Seafoam

This weekend I decided I wanted something new to knit on, something that would go pretty quick, so I decided to cast on Nanners with Socks That Rock mediumweight using US 1.5’s (2.5 mm). I’m up to the cuff of the first sock as of yesterday, so it’s going pretty quickly. I didn’t even modify the pattern to do a short row heel instead of the slip stitch one the pattern calls for. I have to say, the slip stitch heel seems to take a lot longer and I can’t say it fits my heel any better then a short row one, but I like how it looks.

Nanners!

Nanners, on my foot, top of the sock.

Nanners, on my foot, side of the sock.

I did some spinning this weekend, but I’ll wait until the next post to show you all my progress and talk a little about my Tour de Fleece progress. Hope your Monday is turning out to be a good one!

Spinning

Just keep spinning, Just keep spinning!

Posted on July 17, 2009 by mslindz

Yesterday I spent a good 2 hours unpacking and re-organizing things in the house. Our kitchen really doesn’t have enough cabinet space! I was able to remove a shelf from one cabinet and add it to another, so things fit a lot better, but we still have a number of boxes that have no place to go. I can’t wait to be able to re-do the kitchen and add a LOT more cabinets (and stove and counters and….). I think that if there’s one room I’m least fond of, it’s probably the kitchen, sadly. There’s a lot of physical space, but not enough storage space. Plus, I really want a gas stove! Anyhow, I got a lot done and the only things left to still unpack is the rest of my books in my craft room, a few kitchen boxes, and bathroom stuff. I’d say we’re about 75% unpacked now. Soon I hope we’re completely unpacked and can have our housewarming get together!

Since I did some work around the house, I didn’t feel so bad about spending time spinning. I knew that if I didn’t get to the house stuff soon after getting home, I wouldn’t do it, so I made sure I didn’t sit down to spin until after I felt pretty accomplished about unpacking and re-organizing. I was able to finish the rest of the fiber and filled the bobbin almost full.

Second Bobbin

I was half tempted to just keep them as singles after putting them side by side.

Pretty Singles

But, I decided I wanted to ply it.

Two Ply Yarn

I really like how it looks plied, so I’m glad I decided to do that. I haven’t taken it off the bobbins yet and don’t know how much yardage I have. Total, I spent 2 hours spinning yesterday. Next, I think I’m going to spin up this:

Zarzuela’s Fibers merino in “Emerald City”

And maybe after that, I’ll spin this:

Gnomegarden Fiber

I did do a little bit of knitting on Hey Teach yesterday, but no real progress to show. Spinning has become about as addicting as knitting! As if I needed another addiction! I blame all the spinners who’ve been slowly sucking me in with all their pretty fibers and yarns they make from them 😉

Current Projects, Spinning

Spinning, Hey Teach, and Round Toes

Posted on July 16, 2009 by mslindz

I spun for an hour yesterday. I really love how this is turning out! Can’t wait to ply it 🙂

About half a bobbin full of pink and purple fiber.

I’ve been making some progress on Hey Teach, too. Yesterday at knit night, I finished up the left front and started on the right front. If I keep going at the pace I am, I could actually get it done this week!

Left Front

Beginnings of the Right Front

I’ve put aside other projects until I finish this up. I really don’t have all that much left to do, so I just need to get it done already! I still need to find buttons for this, though. I can’t decide what might look good with this yarn. I was thinking maybe wooden buttons. I’ll have to see what I can find from my favorite button shop.

Recently, I’ve had a lot of questions about how I knit the toes of my socks. Many people have noticed that they are more round then most of the toes of socks they see (or knit). A long time ago, shortly after I knit my second or third pair of socks, I read on the Yarn Harlot’s blog about how she knits her toes shorter to better fit her foot by decreasing every round at a certain point instead of every other round. Most sock patterns are written that you do the increases (toe up) or decreases (top down) every other round, so every other round you’re increasing/decreasing 4 stitches. My feet are wide and my toes are kind of round (more like a slant where my big toe is the “tallest” and each goes down from there), so this method of increasing/decreasing doesn’t fit my toes the best and makes them seem rather pointy. I don’t really find this type of toe to be that comfortable, either!

Typically, knitted sock toes look like this, with increases/decreases every other round:

The “rounded” toe I do looks like this:

And on my foot, looks like this:

So, taking a bit from what the Yarn Harlot did, on my next pair, I decreased every round when I got to about 30 or so stiches on the needles. This made a rounder toe and fit better. When I started doing toe-up socks, I’d been doing this “decrease every round” thing for a while, so I adapted it to toe up.

Here’s my formula for toe up socks:

Cast on 16 (4 each needle if using DPNs, 8 each needle using Magic Loop or 2 circs) using your preferred method of casting on.
Increase every round for 5 to 6 rounds (depending on how round you want your toe).
Now, do increases every other round until you are at the number of stitches needed.

For top down, I usually do this:

When I get down to 36 to 40 stitches (36 would be 5 increase rounds toe up and 40 would be 6 increase rounds), I start decreasing every round until there are 16 stitches left, then I kitchner them closed.

Pretty simple way to make a change in fit that can make a big difference. 🙂

Cooking, Current Projects, Spinning

Tour de Fleece (Spinning!), Stripes, and Cooking Class

Posted on July 15, 2009 by mslindz

The Tour de Fleece continues! Yesterday I spent an hour and a half spinning. I think I managed to spin up half of the 4 oz worth of BFL I’m working with, which filled up my bobbin.

Pink and purple filled bobbin.

By the time I was done, my knee was actually hurting a bit. I think that was probably the first time I spun for over an hour straight! I didn’t really want to stop, but considering it was 10 pm and my bobbin was full, I set it aside for the night.

So far I’ve logged 13 hours and 55 minutes worth of spinning which averages out to over an hour per day. Last week I didn’t get in the hour per day I wanted to because I was feeling rather worn out from the week and even had a day that I didn’t spin at all. I was curious about my time and since I’ve been posting it in the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry each day, I looked it up. Figured I’d share it here, too.

July 4th: 1 hr 5 mins
July 5th: 1 hr
July 6th: 2 hr
July 7th: 20 mins
July 8th: 20 mins
July 9th: 20 mins
July 10th: nothing
July 11th: 2 hr 20 mins –> Finished first yarn
July 12th: 3 hr
July 13th: 2 hr –> Was the scheduled day of rest, but I did some spinning since I “rested” on Friday, July 10th
July 14th: 1 hr 30 mins

A lot of days I did over an hour of spinning, but there are quite a few where I did less. Ah well, it’s been a lot of fun regardless! The best part has been seeing all my progress, getting more comfortable with spinning, and learning things as I go. Before the Tour de Fleece, I didn’t even know how to ply yarn! I got out my spinning book (Start Spinning by Maggie Casey, which came highly recommended by a number of people) and figured it out. Took a bit to get used to, but I think I did pretty good for my first try. Now I’m dreaming of all the things I want to get for my wheel, tools that would be useful, and fiber I want to spin!

I got in some knitting time yesterday, too. I’ve been working on the stripey sock during lunch this week and I’m getting close to where it’s time to start the heel.

Stripey goodness!

The cooking class last night was pretty good. My only real disappointment was that I was pretty sure my chicken wasn’t cooked yet (it was really thick in one spot), but the instructor thought it was and told me to take it off. Sure enough, in that one part it wasn’t cooked all the way through. As someone who’s been through culinary school, I’d like to think that I know what I’m doing when it comes to cooking something. I should have trusted my gut that told me it wasn’t done yet. Half of it was edible and I wasn’t hungry enough to eat the whole thing anyhow. The class was called “For the Love of Garlic” and we had a shrimp salad with vinaigrette, stuffed chicken breast, and risotto with snap peas and asparagus. Of course all of those had garlic in them! I usually don’t care for shrimp, but it was really good and I liked the vinaigrette a lot. I just realized we totally forgot our recipes at the place, though 😦 Bummer. I’ll have to call and see if I can get another copy.

Knit night tonight! Looking forward to it 🙂

Current Projects, Spinning

House Updates, Spinning, and Socks

Posted on July 14, 2009 by mslindz

Since the last time I blogged, I feel like I have a ton of stuff I want to share or say! I suppose that means I should just blog more, but other things keep getting in my way lately.

This weekend was good. Spent time with friends and had a good time with that. We bought lamps at IKEA that have their on/off switch on a button attached to the cord at the base of the lamp. I really love this idea, especially for the living room where the light switch isn’t connected to any of the outlets. We bought two for the living room and one for my craft room. We use CFL’s in all the lights we possibly can, but I’m always worried about breaking them. Well, I finally broke one. I was trying to fix the lamp shade for the lamp going in my craft room and while looking for a place to set the bulb, it broke! 😦 I was really stressed out about it since Matt kept telling me horror stories about people who broke them and had to have hazmat teams come out (CFL’s have mercury in them). I quickly looked up what to do. I found this very helpful article on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. Now if it ever happens to you, you know what to do! It’s really not as big of a deal as I thought it was, thankfully. I also looked up how to dispose of them for Ohio and found EPA Ohio’s website that said to throw them in with your regular garbage. I was a little disappointed that we don’t have recycling facilities for this, but we did find out after a second trip to IKEA that they do accept CFL’s for recycling there (though it didn’t say anything about accepting broken ones, so I’m not sure if they do). We have a few others that aren’t useable anymore, so the next time we go to IKEA, we’ll be taking those there for recycling.

Anyhow… enough about broken light bulbs! I now have lamps in the living room and a lamp in my craft room. I’ll have to take a picture – I love the lamp shade I picked out. I bought a chair from IKEA for my sewing table, but we couldn’t get it together. One of the bars wouldn’t allow the screw to go in. We took it back and I didn’t bother getting another. It was on clearance and I didn’t want to chance getting another broken one that needed to be returned. Oh! And blinds!! We got blinds for the house, finally. We have them up in the living room and downstairs hall. We bought enough to also put some up in the bedroom and office, but I didn’t understand how you should measure for blinds, so we ended up with blinds too small for the living room. As a result of buying cheap blinds, we have two others that need to be returned on top of the two that are too small. One of them had holes and stains on the slats (near the top, so they can’t be removed) and I can’t remember what the issue with the other one was. Slowly, we’re getting there!

I took some pictures of the backyard and uploaded them to Flickr. You can see them here.

This weekend, just as the power went on Saturday evening, I finished spinning and plying my first yarn!

Yarn I made!!

All skeined up.

I ended up with about 137 yards worth. I’d say it’s bulky weight, sort of thick and thin. I love how it turned out and I’m quite proud of it! The fiber is from Zarzuela’s Fibers, BFL in the “Thinking of Fall” colorway.

Speaking of Zarzuela’s Fibers… have you seen her Luxury Sock Batts? This one was so beautiful, I had to have it! It’s BFL, mohair, and silk. I love the color and pictures just don’t do it justice. So soft!! I can’t wait to spin it up 🙂

Now that I have the other fiber off my wheel, Sunday, I started pre-drafting the next thing I wanted to spin. I picked up this BFL a while back at a fiber fest and I believe it’s from Twisted Stitches. Monday I finished pre-drafting it all.

Box full of pre-drafted fiber.

Then, even though I’d said I wouldn’t spin any of it since it was the Tour de Fleece “day of rest,” I ended up spinning a little anyway!

Pretty pinks and purples.

This weekend I spent 5 hours spinning and did 2 hours on Monday. I feel like I’m really getting the hang of spinning and find that I want to do it more and more! 🙂

I’ve been working on my Absinthe sock and have started the increases. The pattern is going along pretty smoothly so far, no issues. It’s been a while since I’ve done cables, so that’s been a nice change of pace for me.

Limey green Absinthe sock.

I haven’t worked on it much in the last few days between spinning and starting this sock…

Vesper Stripey Goodness

It’s been a while since I knit a stripey sock and the recent sock club shipment was really calling to me, so Saturday morning, I cast on for a plain stripey sock. The colorway is “Open Flame” a four stripe colorway. I love it 🙂

I’ve been working on Hey Teach. Pretty close to being done with the left front, but no pictures yet. It keeps getting put aside for other things lately! Ah well, I’ll get to it.

Tonight Matt and I are going to a cooking class at The Learning Kitchen. The class is called “For the Love of Garlic.” Should be fun! I’m looking forward to it. It’s almost mid-week again. Sometimes I just can’t believe how fast the time goes by! Later, all.

Spinning

Tour de Fleece!

Posted on July 4, 2009 by mslindz

Today is the start of Tour de Fleece! This is my first year participating since I’m still a pretty new spinner. My goals for the Tour de Fleece are to: spin at least an hour per day, spin up at least one braid worth of fiber (no idea how “fast” I am at that), and to get better at spinning. I’ve already found that the more I spin, the better I am getting, but drafting is still the hardest part for me.

I wasn’t sure what I’d start with at first, but decided on a braid of BFL I purchased from Zarzuela’s Fibers in her “Thinking of Fall” colorway. I’ve never spun BFL and I absolutely adore this colorway. I had been “saving” it for when I was a better spinner, but decided that’s just silly and I will love my yarn regardless of how it comes out. Besides, I can always get more 😉

Fiber and wheel at the ready!

This morning I was up around 8 am and after showering and settling into the day I figured there’s no better time then now to get going on my spinning for the day. At 9:25 am I got out my wheel, drafted some fiber, and got to spinning.

Look at me go! Hehe🙂

I spun for an hour and 5 minutes today and the end result was about half a bobbin full of yarn.

I made yarn!

It started out a bit on the bulky side, but as I went along, I got better at being able to draft a bit more as I was spinning. Just two months ago I thought I’d never get to that point, so it was really good to start to see my spinning coming together a bit more 🙂

Day 1 of the Tour de Fleece down and 21 more to go!

Are you participating in the Tour de Fleece this year? What are you working on for it? I’d love to know, so feel free to share in the comments 🙂

Today is the 4th of July here in the US. Do you have anything fun planned? We’re headed out with Matt’s mom to some get together with her family. Hoping the rain holds off, but it’s already started sprinkling here. We’ll see how it goes. Happy (and safe) 4th of July to everyone!

Spinning

Babe Wheel, Freckle Face Fibers, & Zarzuela’s Fibers

Posted on February 19, 2009 by mslindz

Guess what arrived yesterday!! My wheel!! *squee*

It’s a Babe Fiber Starter, single treadle. On Craigslist last week, I saw this wheel for sale for a great price. I promptly emailed the seller, she let me know it was still available and offered to ship it to me (since I’m about 3 hours away, one way). I decided shipping would probably be best and would be about the same as I would have spent in gas to get there (not to mention time involved). She shipped it via UPS on Saturday. They tried to deliver it Tuesday, but no one was home. I made sure I was home to sign for it yesterday, though!

Soon as I heard the UPS guy in our apartment complex, I went to the door to wait for him. Yes, I was that excited!! I think he could tell! He’s really nice, though, and just laughed at me when I told him how excited I was about the package. I got it in the door and immediately unpacked it. Since it showed up pretty late last night, I wasn’t able to play with it much or try it out (plus, I wanted to read the booklet with it first). The seller was very kind and included some fiber for me to play with! I can’t wait to get home and try it out tonight.

In preparing for the wheel to arrive, I ordered some fiber. One must be prepared for something like this! I had a happy mail day on Tuesday when two packages with fiber arrived.

Someone turned me on to Freckle Face Fibers, so I finally decided to buy some fiber this shop. I wanted to get a few different kinds of fiber to try out and she had a merino/tussah silk blend that I really liked, so I bought it on Wednesday and it arrived on Tuesday (via First Class mail and Monday was a holiday). Very Pretty and soft!

Coral Reef, 80% merino/20% tussah silk, from Freckle Face Fibers

I’m quite happy with my purchase and with the beautiful colorways and fiber blends, I’m sure I’ll buy from this shop again. She even offers yarn if you don’t spin!

In January I ordered from Zarzuela’s Fibers after much debating about joining the spin along (using my spindle) in the accompanying Ravelry group. I had my eye on some fiber in her shop and after I’d decided to join the spin along, I saw it was still there for sale, so I immediately scooped it up. When I got it, I was impressed. The colors were just like pictured and I got it really quickly. Here’s what I purchased back in January (since I’m pretty sure I didn’t talk about it after I’d received it):

Thinking of Fall, 100% Bluefaced Leicester top, from Zarzuela’s Fibers

I knew that when I wanted more fiber, I would definitely be coming back to Jessica’s shop! There were just so many colorways I liked! So, when I decided to “stock up” on some fiber and get some different kinds to play with, I turned to this shop. This time I purchased two braids of fiber. I ordered them Friday evening, shipped on Saturday, and received Tuesday (via First Class mail and Monday was a holiday). Here’s what I purchased this time:

Emerald City (merino) & DC Sunrise (cheviot) from Zarzuela’s Fibers

I’ve chatted with Jessica over email/blog comments, Plurk and Twitter. When she saw my order on Friday, she let me know she’d be sure to ship it out Saturday before going out of town for a week. I’m a pretty patient person and I would have waited, but I thought it was really great that she let me know and went the extra mile to make sure it got out before she left. In both orders, I’ve had hand written thank you notes and I really love that touch. I already know I’m supporting an independent business rather than a big box store, but it really is the little touches like that that make things special. I’m now a repeat customer and I have no doubts that I’ll continue to order from her as long as she keeps her shop running!

Currently she has sock yarn in her shop as well. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve heard good things. I may place a custom order for some soon enough. If you’re looking for something that she doesn’t have or previously sold, just ask and I know she’d be more than happy to dye something for you! I doubt you’ll be disappointed! What are you waiting for? Get over to her shop! ;o)

That’s all I have for today. Next time I’ll show you some toe-up socks I started this week and maybe some spinning progress!

Current Projects, Spinning

Lakeside Socks, Louet Spindle, and… a Babe wheel?

Posted on February 10, 2009 by mslindz

I’ve been working right along on the Lakeside socks and yesterday I started the calf shaping. Here’s what they currently look like:

I’m actually not knitting on anything else right now, so I don’t have anything else interesting to share right now. I’ve been working on just one project at a time lately and feel like I don’t have a whole lot to say!

In non-knitting, but fiber related news, I’ve been playing with the top whorl spindle that came in the mail a week ago. I just realized that I hadn’t even mentioned it here! I bought a spindle from Louet. I really wanted a Golding, but decided a lower cost version was needed first. As much as I think I like spinning (and I’ve done okay with the bottom whorl one I had), I’m a little afraid I’ll try it and not like it suddenly. Of course this hasn’t happened yet at all, in fact the more I do and try with fiber, the more I love it and want a wheel! But, thinking about cost and not being sure if I’d like the top whorl better than the bottom whorl one, I bought a simple Louet spindle.

It sat on my desk for almost a week (hey, I was distracted by those socks up there!), but yesterday I sat down and watched this YouTube video on how to get started (there’s also a helpful one on drafting). Both of the videos were quite helpful! I drafted out my fiber and then had a go at it. Oh boy was it fun!! Took me a while, but I was able to get a thinner, more consistent “yarn” by the time I put it down yesterday. I don’t have a picture to share right now, but I hope to take one tomorrow!

The only part I’m having a bit of trouble with is drafting. I’m afraid of pulling the fibers too far apart that they will separate, but the thinner I draft it out, the thinner yarn I can make. I keep seeing folks with really finely spun yarn on their spindles and I admit I’m a bit jealous. I know that my skill is just not there yet and I have to keep practicing!

On another fiber related note, I may have a wheel soon! Every once in a while, I browse Craigslist to see if anyone is selling a wheel on the cheap. I happened to look outside my normal list and actually found a wheel that was posted on Friday for a price I could afford! It’s a Babe Fiber Starter, single treadle, complete with the goodies that come pictured there (minus the fiber). Listing said it had only been used once and she was asking $75/obo! I emailed her right away and she said it was still available. I immediately said I’d take it. I think it will be a nice intro to spinning for me. It’s a less expensive way to have a wheel at my house, see how much I use it, see how much I like spinning, and so on. Basically a good starter wheel for me to decide if I want to save up the money to get a different wheel (I’ve been eying a Joy or Ladybug). She’s about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive (one way) from me and said she would be willing to ship it, so she’s going to give me a price quote on how much it would be to ship and then I’ll decide if I want to just go pick it up or have it shipped. This isn’t a deal I could or wanted to pass up! I’m excited! :o)

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