Show and Tell - Spinning!

I haven't said anything before, but for the past couple of months I've been quietly learning to spin!  Another skill I'm learning in the fibers class I'm taking this semester - which I can definitely say is the most amazing class I've ever taken.  

I fell in love with spinning immediately - even when my yarn was uneven in thickness and all curled up from over spinning.  There is something so satisfying in taking fleece and turning it into usable yarn.  And it's also one of those relaxing "zen" things now that I've got it partly down.  I bought a Kromski Sonata wheel that I absolutely love, bought the bigger flywheel for it so I can ply larger amounts, and am well into season 4 of Deep Space Nine on Netflix because of all the spinning I'm doing!

So here's my show and tell:

I've spun two of these bundles of black corriedale roving and love it!  It's from TriPly Fibers on Etsy.

And it spun up into this.  I'm using it as part of my final project - you'll see it in a couple of weeks!

This is one of my first skeins - yep, a little over spun!  But I love it.  It had a light dip in indigo.

I bought this pygora goat fleece a couple of years ago.  I didn't know what I'd do with it, but it was SO soft I just had to have it!  I plied two strands together for the yarn.

A happy accident ... I spun two bobbins of this merino wool at two separate times.  In two separate directions!  When I plyed them, one puffed out and the other wrapped around that giving me a boucle type yarn.  Interesting - I might do it again on purpose.

Tussah silk - not too bad to spin and so beautiful!  I can't decide what color to dye it.

Milk protein silk - really!  Not very nice to spin at all ... maybe easier for someone with more skill. 

Double plied alpaca.  I love spinning alpaca!

Alpaca and Romney wool plied together - the hat is the first thing I've made from yarn I spun.

Hmmm - linen.  I spun this on a drop spindle - it looks (and feels) like jute to me.  I have some more I'm going to try on the spinning wheel to see if I like that better.

And this is more black corriedale I have on the niddy noddy drying after having been soaked.

My husband made me this niddy noddy from PVC pipe using the instructions found here.  It's great for wrapping the yarn on and then soaking in water.  I had him make the top pieces easy to take out of the t-joint so that the yarn is easy to remove.

Now that I'm into spinning I keep finding myself looking up different types of sheep and goats to raise!  For now I'm afraid it'll have to stay a day dream, but it's fun to dream ...

Happy Creating!  Deborah