Spinning Away Merrily

I've been having a really good time with my new spinning wheel. I spun up the remainder of the wool my sister gave me, then took the singles that I made on the drop spindle my sister loaned me (thanks Karen!!) and plied them together on my wheel. That first bit of spinning was quite lumpy, but I managed to knit it up into something I'm going to use as a trivet. It's very tight and thick, which I did on purpose. I'm quite happy with it!

I used US 9 needles, and the yarn goes from super-bulky-ish to sport-ish in places. It would be much more obvious if I'd used bigger needles, but I wanted a really firm, thick fabric.

Here are some shots of what the yarn looked like after I plied it. Don't laugh too hard!!



My mom sent me some wool from a friend of hers, which I showed pics of in an earlier post. Last week I spun up the Cotswold 4oz ball and today I did the Romney 4 oz ball. I like the Romney better than the Cotswold because it's easier for me to spin right now. The Cotswold had little lumpy things (yeah, real technical term there--maybe some more experienced person could help?) and has a neat halo, but I had an easier time getting more even singles from the Romney. I also put more spin in the Romney and it plied a lot better.

I realized, as I was finishing up my second bobbin of plied yarn, that I needed a niddy noddy. I knew I'd seen instructions for a PVC pipe one on the 'net, so after a brief search I found this. After a quick trip to the hardware store, I had a new niddy noddy! It's already gotten quite a bit of use. I did end up making the upright column about 15" long though, since the 18" length made a hank that was 82" and I wanted a 72" hank instead--that way each wrap is two yards, which makes it much easier on me when I'm trying to figure out yardage.

Today I was trying to ply my freshly-spun Romney singles and decided to come up with a different lazy Kate than the one that came with my wheel. My son isn't very happy with me because "HEY, Mommy, you ruined my box!!" Keep in mind that he has about 6 boxes, and I really didn't think he's miss one. Turns out I was wrong about him missing the box, but it's the perfect size for my bobbins. I don't use straights very often any more anyway.

Now I just need to knit up something from my freshly-spun (and set) yarn if I could just figure out what! I'm tempted to dye it so that it stripes a bit, but I'm having trouble deciding on a color. I really wish I'd dyed the roving before I spun it but it's in sliver form so that would have been difficult. It was nice because I didn't have to pre-draft, but next time I'm going to dye before I spin.