This afternoon I had my lesson with Lucy at Mind's Eye Yarn. About two years ago I was part of a spinning swap, so I have my original spindle (plain light wood) and an LCD light up spindle and some fiber from the swap and my "boring brown." I have been buying bits of fiber in drips and drabs, mostly little 4 ounce chunks, a sizable amount of spinning on a spindle. Of course, I didn't know how to spin and was trying to use Spinning the Old Way to help me along, but something just wasn't clicking.
I didn't want to just sit here and say I can't do it, so I finally called Lucy last week and scheduled my lesson.
Goodness! It was fun. I could feel the play of lightly used muscles coming to the fore, mostly little muscles in the hands and shoulders. I don't think I'm a natural, but it was nice to see the different textures coming into play. My yarn is definitely newbie yarn (she said, "Love the lumps."), slubby and thick and thin all over. I'm probably too impatient for the spindle, because I just want to take the little bit I've done and make tiny little swatches. Not that I know what I would do with two little swatches.
Yeah, two.
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Because when I got home I pulled the LCD spindle out of the box and the brightest of the superwash merinos my swap partner sent me, and I spun for about 20-30 minutes (until I started to feel tired). I probably shouldn't be working with the merino quite yet, but I wanted color and to see how far my lesson transferred into the finer fiber. It's obviously a bit harder for me to work with, as I'm producing a slubbier yarn, but I'm just tickled pink (or blue) that it is working at all.
Of course, when the lesson was over I bought some more! What was I thinking?
Yeah, that gives me about a pound of various fibers
to spin. At least I didn't buy more yarn!
Lucy had silk hankies, bamboo, camel and cashmere. I picked something gorgeous yet sensible though I was really drawn to the colors in the bamboo and silk. She also had some of the Noro sock yarn in stock, but I was good relatively and only bought the one thing in addition to my lesson.
Now I'm going to spend about 30 minutes spinning more of the brown wool before doing a bit more knitting for the day. I love learning something new!
