Spinning - must make one dizzy!

I thought it was high time that I updated you all on what I have been doing with that spinning wheel I got back in late February / early March.

I have had some fun getting acquainted with my wheel. The first thing I spun was some beige colored fleece (not sure what it is) that I received with my wheel. I plied this as a two ply yarn.



I then decided to spin some Polwarth that I had won during the 7th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat. Since I loved the various colors in this and wanted the colors to stay together, I decided I would try my hand at navajo plying. Since I had never done this before, I decided to search on the internet for instructions on how to navajo ply. A YouTube video entitled "How to Navajo Ply - Demystified and Unraveled" taught me the basics, and away I went. You can see the results below:



I discovered that spinning finger roving is lots of fun. Especially when it is in my beloved fall colors. I had purchased this Fleece Artist Sea Wool finger roving from Gaspereau Valley Fibers during the 7th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat. And since my first attempt at Navajo plying had gone so well, I navajo plied this one as well.



I have not knit anything with any of these handspun skeins yet. I really will need to find some projects for these skeins. However, I have started spinning some very colorful wool/soy silk blend which is intended for a project. Once I have finished spinning all 6 of the 1/4 lb bags of fiber, it will be turned into mittens, a scarf and a hat for my daughter. I have just over half of this spun so far. I actually spun most of this while I was at the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat a few weekends back.



During the retreat, I also started spinning some Polwarth that I had purchased at London Wul's a few weeks prior to the retreat. I really enjoy spinning Polwarth. I find it is very easy to draft and makes it easy for a new spinner to learn how to draft while spinning.



Spinning must make one dizzy and therefore unable to think clearly. As you can probably determine from all of the fleece I purchased during the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat, I will not run out of stuff to spin anytime soon. However, what you don't know, is that about a month ago, I purchased approximately 5 lbs of Alpaca and 5 lbs of Llama - unwashed raw fleece from the beautiful animals you can see in the pictures below. Tanya also purchased some Llama and some Alpaca. We purchased these from a local hobby farm who was looking for a good home for the fleeces. We decided we would share each of our purchases so that we would end up with each 4 different colors of fleece as opposed to only two each. So I am going to be really busy getting this stuff cleaned and spun. I blame the dizziness for this out of control fleece purchasing!!!






In an attempt to get ahead on all of this raw fleece, I decided to wash the Romney/Lincoln that I purchased during the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's retreat. I had to wash it 3 times, and rinse it as many times to get all of the oils out. You can see a picture of it drying below. I just love the colors and can't wait to start spinning it.