That's called spinning, what I'm doing

One of the things that happened this summer is that I decided I needed a spinning wheel. I decided this in anticipation of my visit to the Black Sheep Gathering, a fiber festival in Eugene, Oregon in June. I went with some knitting friends and had a wonderful time (and ate some awesome ice cream on the way home).

I went into this semi-major purchase having had very little experience spinning before, but it turns out that I love it. This first picture is of me being shy, testing out spinning wheels at one of the booths. (Oh, I am so dorky.)

So I sat at a few wheels and spun tentatively, admired the beautiful wood, and tried to look like I knew what I was doing. And then I found THE ONE.

Suddenly, spinning was so easy, and things were happening like a dream. There it is, my Kromski Fantasia spinning wheel, a little upright wheel that spins beautifully and fits me just right. I'm finding that spinning is very relaxing, and it involves two of my biggest loves about knitting: the texture and colors of wool. Just look at those beautiful marbles of roving behind me in that picture! Oh! I could just eat them!

But then look at these beautiful marbles of roving! These are BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester), a gift from the lovely Otrembarific, who has been my technical support and spinning cheerleader throughout this whole endeavor. Well, I am not quite ready to spin the BFL just yet, but I am working through my Corriedale roving, and (get ready), look what I spun!

Ta-da! My two very first skeins of very own hand-spun yarn. Hooray for me! I am still working on getting the tension right and making sure things are even-- that is, I don't like the look of a thick strand with a thin one, so I am trying to make them both the same. (This is two-ply yarn, which means it is actually two strands of spun yarn, twisted together.)

And this picture makes me want to take a step back and admire my new table, from a second-hand store in St. John's. Doesn't it look nice against the orange walls? Also, I love my new sofa, but that's another story.