Adventures in Handspinning

A couple of weekends ago, a friend took me with her to the local spinners & weavers guild meeting. I bought two tickets for door prizes and won some wool locks left over from a class. Then after the meeting, I stayed behind with my friend while she got some instruction on how to use the guild spinning wheel. The wonderful lady decided to teach both of us how to use a drop spindle. She sold me my very first spindle and batt and I created my first sad single.

Later, I made another top whorl spindle from two CDs on a single rubber grommet with a longer shaft than my first spindle. Being the geek that I am, I had to create pretty labels for my CDs. So now I can see photos of my favorite four-legged children when I spin. :-) The following photos are of the locks I won, as I started to spin it into a single on my new CD Spindle. I stuck it all into a muslin bag and took it work, so I could work on it a little every day at lunch.

After a while, I had a nice spindle full of wool and was ready to ply it. I decided to wind the single using my wool winder, then picked up the two ends and starting spinning it in the opposite direction of the way I made my singles. The result was a suprising balanced bulky yarn which I washed and put onto an umbrella swift to set the twist.

I was so excited to have my very first yarn and to be able to knit with it! I am hooked and I am so glad I joined Chimneyville Weavers & Spinners Guild!