This winter I have re-visited a skill I learned 20+ years ago: Spinning. This time I will dispense with the fleece-finding, cleaning, and combing and buy ready-to-spin roving. The Internet makes spinning a whole new ballgame. I will focus on what I really like: fiber and color. I bought a Lendrum portable wheel and have invested in some great wool to spin: merino and BFL (3 lbs for $44.95 USD). The wheel spins like a dream. And, it really is like riding a bicycle* - re-getting the hang of it took almost no time at all.
One of the things that is so appealing about spinning is getting to have exactly the colors I want when I want them. The bad news is that in my new house, I don't have a dye space (lest I desire to sleep in the garage for accidentally dyeing the floor). So, I'll be bumming time at other's houses to get yarn dyed up. In the meantime, I played with kool aid to try dyeing self striping yarn. The warp board was simple and had three stations of pegs. I wound them according to the spinning guild class I took, tied them up and then dyed them. The following was dyed using Kool-Aid on Knit Pick's Bare, fingering weight wool.
That's just a peek. Now to see what it looks like knit up next.
* Funny, in recent years spinning meant riding a stationary bicycle at the gym in a class with a Sargeant-like instructor yelling commands and "Drink Water". Perhaps I'll integrate the two activities in my life and allow myself both spinning yarn AND spinning on a bike.
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