It's fat! It's thin! It's still the same piece of yarn!

Last Sunday, I headed over to Lettuce Knit for my first class of Learn to Drop Spindle, taught by the ever funny and charming Denny McMillan. I had a great time playing with the lovely fiber that came in our little kit - so soft and cozy! Granted, it was probably one of the hottest days we've had here in Toronto for a long time, but it was still grand.


This is the lovely Ashford top-whorl spindle that came in our kit. Denny showed us how to use it as a bottom-whorl one, just so we'd have played with it both ways. As you can probably tell from this photo, the thickness of my yarn isn't exactly consistent yet. But you know what they say - practice makes perfect!

Here's a better look at how uneven my yarn is:


I haven't quite got the hang of drafting and spinning at the same time just yet; it really is kinda like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. I'm quite proficient at doing the head/tummy thing, but somehow I can't quite get the hang of draft/spin just yet. I'm wondering just how much of a crime would it be to pre-draft everything that I want to spin with!

Plying

At the next spinning lesson, I took my first two ugly yarns and plied them together. See?



Do two ugly yarns put together make an even uglier yarn? At least there were a few sections where cool barberpoling was happening.





Spinning with a spindle takes a long time. I hope I will have the patience to keep practicing, but I sort of fear that the instant-gratification monster will take over (but I want it to be perfect right now!) and I'll lose interest.

(I have a big backlog of stuff to post about. I hope I can get my act together and catch up soon!)

Not exactly a natural talent

Look, my very first handspun (using a drop spindle)!



Isn't it incredibly ugly? Last week Katy was good enough to teach a bunch of us how to spin, and this is what resulted from my first efforts. I showed this ball to someone at WWKIP day last weekend, and their comment was "huh, that must've been a really ugly sheep!" Yeah, the roving is not exactly the most gorgeous thing ever (Jacob sheep, they are spotted!), but I will probably need a lot of practice before I get any good at this.



Next lesson is plying, I'm sure this yarn will then turn into an even bigger horror. =)

My second effort looks ever so slightly better, only because the roving comes in prettier colours.



And because I can't resist pissing the cat off....





She's really getting the hang of this "stay still for the yarn pose" thing. Even though she clearly hates it. =)