spinning!

The past four Saturday mornings I have spent happily spinning away in a class we offered at the shop. Tomorrow is Saturday again, and I am so sad that I don't get to spin! (I'm pouting, but you can't see that)
I know that I told you about my lovely new Suzie Pro, but now I get to show you my beloved wheel in action...



...there I am gleefully spinning away on I don't even know what! This photo was from the last day where we had the treat of spinning a variety of fun fibers...angora, seacell, silk , mohair...you name it!

It was such an inspirational month of spinning In between classes I managed to get so much spinning done, it was quite remarkable!
Anyway, here is a look at everything that I spun up over the course of the last month...





...the purple and orange yarns are both merino roving that I dyed myself. I'm particularly proud of my first singles (the purple stuff); I think I did an OK job setting the twist, but I'll let you know when I manage to start knitting with it! I also spun up some BEAUTIFUL hand carded merino/firestar fluff, that I made into a 2 ply. it is a super soft, light fluffy woolen yarn, that I'm thinking of knitting into a big cowl-y thing...keep you posted there too.




I've been working on some my Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino...which will now be finished before I die because I have a wheel and I'm not attempting to spin 8 oz of fingering weight yarn on a drop spindle! Phew! I am really excited to finish this one because I have promised myself I can order more fiber from the Crown Mountain folks when I do.



Finally, the last thing I've been spinning is some very pretty pure alpaca fiber in a natural brownish-gray colour. I have abot 7 oz of that and have just begun plying. I'm going to make this into a 2 ply, and it looks like it will be close to a fingering weight, and is another soft woolen yarn. I'm planning something lace, and I think I'll get enough yardage to make a reasonable size project! Yippee!



The topic of wheel naming came up in our classes, and got me thinking that my little wheel needs a name. One woman in our class has a vintage Louet (its lovely!) and she's named it Louis, perfect choice if you ask me. I've been thinking about names and like the idea of giving my wheel a masculine name as well...not enough of them out there if you ask me. But making a decision is never easy for me, even at the best of times. I've tried thinking of some of my favourite characters; Mr. Darcy...Omar from the Wire...neither seems right. Someday my wheel will have the perfect name, and until then I'll just call it spinny, or something like that!