When I came home from spinning class Saturday Chris said he felt like he had a kidney stone.  He was in pain when he and Margaret put up the outside lights.  We are a strand short but we can get that later.  Shortly after they got them up the pain increased.  It takes a lot to get him to the E.R. but he was quite willing to go.  We went, they sent him home on pain meds to pass it....it was a no-go.  We went back Sunday eve. and he stayed til Tues.afternoon when they surgically removed the dear thing.  No photo of it but it was 5mm or the size of a #8 knitting needle.  Everything revolves around knitting doesn't it?  LOL.  He is doing better.  He has a stent in that will be removed soon.

 

Our daughter, Margaret, on Thanksgiving this year. 

Taken by my niece, Emily Rose. 

Attempt #2 to Spin Wool

 I spent this spinning lesson on a Lendrum spinning wheel.  I liked this wheel a little better than the one I used at my first lesson.   It seemed to suit me better than the other.  Kate adjusted it a few times to meet my needs and then everything seemed to flow. 

She taught us how to card using the Schacht carder.  I found the motions of carding to be hypnotic in a way.  Very soothing.  In this card was some dyed Border Leicester locks.  Heavenly.

 

 I was able to spin a little white Cormo wool, Shetland wool and this Border Leicester wool intermittenly .  I changed off and on to get a feel for each wool and to practice adding new wool.  At the end of the class Kate took off  two separate pieces of spun wool and wound each to a plastic bobbin.  Then we made a two-ply piece of yarn by winding them together to the left onto the wheel.  Then we wound it onto the niddy noddy shown here.

Kate then tied them at certain spots and at last I had my two-ply yarn shown below.

Twisted into a hank.

Here is a shot of the Shetland wool and Border Leicester wool before carding.

An up close shot of my very uneven wool...but it's supposed to be like that because I am only a beginner! I love it's character.You can see where some spots were really good and others...not so much.

Until next time.

Attempt #1 to Spin Wool

Yesterday I spent the afternoon learning to spin.  I was able to bring home two samples of my work. Ha!   I tried to remain calm while spinning because I knew that my efforts would not produce a nice little skein of spun wool.  Rather, I spent my time practicing the hand motions, trying to let my muscles get acclimated to the motion of pinching, pulling, holding the wool in my left hand as if it were a bird-keeping control of it but not want to squish the bird, treadling to the right, treadling at the right speed, sitting up straight but sitting comfortably at the same time. 

My first bit of spinning was done with a pretty white wool the name of which escapes me.  There was a lot to take in and I was doing good to sit behind the wheel and function with IT.  This wool seemed to want to be spun, almost as if it had waited its whole life to do it and at last here it was getting spun by a ROOKIE.  Poor little wool.  But it's plight was not in vain.....it gave me hope to spin again.

My second wool was different and oooooo sooooo soft and it seemed that the fibers were a different length so I had to relearn what I had just learned on the white wool.  It was a whole other animal-literally!  It was so very different.  I went back to finish the last little bit of the white wool so I would end my session on a happy note and not a disappointing note.

Here they are side by side...the one on the right seems to look a little happier, but it seemed to be the hardest.

If I thought I should have been able to learn to spin completely and totally yesterday, then I would be a very sad gal indeed today.  But I know it will take a while, maybe a long long while to learn this art and I am willing to make every effort to do it.  So bear with me as I do.   

I don't have a wheel yet so I can only spin when I am at class here.

It was a fun class and part two is coming up in a couple weeks. 

Our teacher was a lovely young lady who is quite accomplished and a joy to work with.  You can get to know her here. 

Trading Post Fibers provided a wheel for me to use.  It looked like this.

Next time I hope to use a different style in hopes to eventually find one that I like enough to purchase.   

Well, that was my first spinning adventure.  It was fun.

In My Part of the World

Chris and I are putting siding on my mother's house and yesterday the sky was so pretty.  I have probably seen this view a thousand times.

Sheepsdown part 3

After I ran out of wool I checked around on Ravelry to see if anyone had some for sale-cheap-like.   One lady responded.  She didn't want to sell, but should would give me a little to finish it up.  How sweet.  She lived very close to New York City and Sandy was headed their way very soon!   She said if she didn't get it mailed out before the storm she didn't know how soon after the storm they would have power and it might take awhile.  No rush....I assured her.  Well, she got it mailed off before the storm and she messaged me later and said they were very fortunate to have NOT lost power at all.  Praise the Lord for that.    The fun part about this is that the computer showed a different shade of wool, which looked like it was the same shade to me....anywhooo, the shades are off but I love it!  So I have renamed it the Hurricane Sandy hat because while Sandy was expected she certainly put a twist on things.