Adventures In Spinning

I think I mentioned that I'd gotten a spinning wheel, yes? Well, once I got over feeling intimidated, I went on a spinning jag, and spun up every bit of the roving I got at Shepherd's Harvest - which turned out to be not enough roving at all. But I did learn a bit. Here's what I learned:



Soy Silk sucks. I'm sorry - if you love it, more power to you. But with that teensy little staple and the dusty feeling between the fingers, you can have it. Yuck.




Alpaca isn't easy for a newbie, I got quite a few places where I slubbed, for some reason - but I think if I'd done it after the other ones, I probably would have done better. And it's lovely to the touch!




I like Merino... but boy, there sure is a difference from one fleece/roving to another, isn't there? I have two merino mixes where the merino staple is smooth and long, and both were easy to spin and feel lovely. This one had a relatively short and *very* kinky staple, and was a real bear to try to spin up smoothly... it just stuck to itself and clumped up with the least excuse, even though I prepped this one pretty thoroughly. I think I'd do better now, though, with more experience. The yarn is pretty, though, lovely dye job, and the feel is a real hoot - sort of like very soft sea sponge! (Go ahead, click on the photo so you can see the beautiful color combos and the absolute goober-like job of spinning that was my contribution to the whole thing - you know you want to...)




This was my favorite, a Tencel/Merino mix. It was a dream to spin (so much so, in fact, that I let myself zen out and didn't pay attention to the minor issue of spinning my single to a uniform size - did I mention that I'm a goober?), feels soooo soft, and the yarn is lustrous and silky, has a beautiful drape and color. I just loved it... unfortunately, I only had two ounces to play with. When I can, I'm going to get a nice big order of this!