Tuesday, January 8, 2013

My year of spinning

So, for the annual Spinner's Home Lottery, I am asked to recap my year of spinning.  From a personal stand point this year has been marked with periods of excessive work (and by excessive I mean that work has sapped all my energy and taken all my time) and other periods of freedom and lots of spinning.  The highlight, undoubtebly, was my first participation in the Tour de Fleece. I took part in the first two weeks and absolutely loved it.  Because I was spinning so much I made great progress and just thoroughly enjoyed the companionship and the amount of fiber I produced.  The weather was lovely so I had the windows wide open, the television on and the wheel was spinning and spinning away.

Here is a picture recapping those two weeks:


I finished the big project with the fleece from Australia (the thre muted rainbow coloured skeins), spun some Cheviot, BFL and Romney for the first time and learned to Navajo ply.  I have since been obsessed with Navajo plying and have not plied any other way since.

What I learned from all this is that I still have a lot to learn, but also that I am "good enough" to try anything and make a decent yarn out of it. I've enjoyed all the new fibers and learning about them. What I have learned about myself during my spin-a-thon is that colours matter.  I just love watching the colourful fiber run through my fingers, and I get bored very quickly when I don't like the colours. This is slightly worrying as my big challenge of 2013 is to spin about 1kg of undyed Shetland to make a blanket. We'll see if my patience holds up.

Also, during the Olympic Games I knit a hat with my handspun.  I have since knit another hat and I am knitting a dress for my daughter with the rainbow yarn:




The biggest disappointment, which is simply a delay, is that for my birthday I received a WooLee Winder, but have been so busy, and then sick for so long that I have not yet used it.  I have something on the wheel which I need to finish and it has just been sitting in a corner staring at me...  It is for someone else, and the colours are really not mine and I'm finding it hard to motivate myself, even though I know I will be able to use the WooLee Winder when I'm done. 

3 comments:

  1. Det var en vinge i racerstil ser jag, ante ikke hva det var så jeg måtte ta et søk.. Så mye fint du spunnet, og helt enig, farge, mange farger, er det beste med håndarbeid, i hvert fall på denne tiden om året.
    Lykke til i lotteriet :)

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  2. As someone who's watched you go from the Pepto Pink to your latest yarns, I've gotta say it in Virginia Slims terms: You've come a long way, baby! :-) Seriously, it's been a joy watching you figure out how you wanted things to be, to control the fiber and the wheel, and then make something from that yarn. And equally seriously, I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for you in 2013!

    PS: You know that 1kg Shetland? One way to do it may be to break it up in smaller lots. Do 8 ounces, then a colored something else, 8 ounces, then a colored something else, and so on. At this stage, though, I think I'd recommend the "something else" be about the same grist as the Shetland, or else you may find that you start at one weight and end up with something completely different. And remember to make a control card before you start just to help you remember later if you DO get impatient and put it down. :-)

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  3. Den øverst til høyre er jo fantastisk :)

    Jeg har fortsatt ikke strikket noe med mine "handspun".... Det må jeg få til i nærmeste fremtid :)

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