Spin a little, knit a little

I am so proud to show my first efforts on the wheel! My friend Kay, the Sock Princess, has loaned me her Ashford wheel to allow me to try my hand before I buy one, and I finally had time to sit and practice.


You can see the progression from the yellow and white on the left, my first try, to the yellow, orange and white (each about 45-50 yards), and finally my most extensive effort, the blue and white (about 75-80 yards). All are 2 plies, and they are all pretty uneven, but by the time I was spinning the blue I had a little better control of my twist, and Beth had given me a little coaching on the drafting technique. I have a lot to learn about spinning, that's for sure! The white is some corriedale blend I bought on eBay, the blue is from a hand spindle kit I bought from kpixie.com. The yellow and orange are single strands I used from White Buffalo Unspun to get the feel of the wheel.

I met Beth at the mall today, and while I was showing her the yarn a lady came up and asked where we bought the yarn. How much more encouragement do I need to keep trying to spin?!

Meanwhile, since I don't have tons of spare time to work on the spinning, I'm trying to finish up some of my projects. This is a cabled cardigan from Knitting the New Classics, and I've finished the back and have started the sleeves. This will be my first saddle shoulder, and I'm interested to see how it comes together.