Experiments in Spinning

I have become a bit obsessed with yarn and knitting and all that jazz lately, so I thought I'd try my hand at spinning. My mom has a spinning wheel which she hasn't been using and graciously let me borrow it. It's an Ashford. I love how it folds up so small that it can be stored out of the way. This is very important as my kiddos are VERY interested in making it go round and round and round. It's funny, I pull out the ball winder and it's the same thing. They can't walk past it without giving it a few spins.

I'm afraid that I'm not a very good spinner yet. I do have a pretty good stock of roving to play with, but after yesterday afternoon's spinning session I think I may need to get some more here pretty soon. Anyone have good suggestions on what a beginner spinner should buy for roving? I'm seriously thinking of taking a trip down to boulder to shuttles in Boulder to ask the nice staff to suggest some for me. I can make the wheel go round and round very well. My problems came when I had to draft the wool. I think I was letting the twist creep too close to my drafting zone and then I couldn't pull the fibers apart at all. I think I was also holding my hands too close together. I was doing much better yesterday after checking out some online spinning instructions. I also had a serious problem with getting too much twist built up and then the darn yarn wouldn't wind onto the bobbin (is it called a bobbin? Spindle?).

So, here is my very first skein. I pulled it all off, and wound it into a skein, washed it, and packaged it yesterday so that I could start over fresh. The roving has a very subtle variegation between blue, grey, pink, and green. As you can see, I have some serious thick and thin issues, as well as A LOT of over twisting. I can't wait to pull out the wheel again today during nap time, but as I've determined. I tend to focus too much on the wheel and the kids get neglected if I try to do this when they're awake. Then they start saying "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy!" and I get cranky and yell at them. Not good. So I will be strong and leave the wheel in my room until Alex is in school and Shaya is asleep for her nap.