Spinning stuff

I finally finished spinning, plying, washing, and skeining the alpaca that Amanda sent me for my birthday last year. I absolutely loved every minute of working with this and wasn't in a hurry to finish.

I taught myself the long draw method with this in hopes of making a light and airy two ply. I succeeded to some degree and this is a huge improvement over my denser worsted spun yarns of the past. Here's a pictorial timeline:







Last week my friend Tracy agreed to sell me her barely used hand carders, and today I spent the better part of the morning learning how to use them. I've pretty much turned my leg into ground beef with the sharp little teeth. For future carding adventures I'll be sure to wear jeans instead of shorts. I'm hoping that as I improve I will stop being so clumsy with them.

I managed to make about 40-50 little rolags, which barely even put a dent in the bag of fiber my parents sent me. I'm so excited to get this stuff started and see how it spins up. I'm going to aim for a very light fingering weight/heavy lace weight with which to make a lacy scarf. Being so new to spinning, there's really no telling how it'll turn out, though.




Tomorrow J will be here again:


Wish us luck!