Hello Spinner

Today was the final spinning class and I had to give the spinning wheel back.  We plied our homework into skeins of real live yarn, wound it using a niddy-noddy, flick-carded some unwashed fleece, and hand carded some washed and dyed fleece.  I spun a little ball of "greasy wool" and went on my way, grinning like a fiend, a little high on sheep-fleece fumes, and thinking "I am a spinner!"

This is my first skein of wheel-spun yarn, and I'm shocked at how usable it is.  It's a long way from perfect, it snapped once during plying, and it's uneven, but it is YARN!  I made yarn.  I made 2 ply yarn on a spinning wheel.  I feel like Dr Frankenstein just after the lightening strikes and shortly before he realises he's made a terrible mistake making a monster from used parts.  "It's alive!"  I have faith my yarn will not try to kill me, but it may pursue me for a skein-mate.  Our teacher Carol Hagen, a woman of patience and skill, pronounced it good yarn.  If you get a chance to learn spinning at Myers House with Carol, you will learn a lot, and have a blast in the process.  And walk off with a spinning wheel for a week, which is worth the price of tuition alone.

The little ball of creamy stuff is the greasy wool, and the tangled glob next to it is what happens when you try to ply clockwise-spun yarn with a clockwise twist.  It's even worse in person, but I have spent most of this week making mistakes with the wheel and figuring out how to correct them.  I learn well that way.  I have to wash the yarn to set the twist, but not till I've shown it off a little.