Where Have I Been???

Spinning my little arse off, that's where!

Santa came early this year and brought me an adorable little Louet Victoria spinning wheel.  Many of you know that I've been toying with the idea of getting a wheel for quite a while now and well.... I finally decided to take the plunge.  Unfortunately, I don't have any spinning guilds nor LYS's near me to take lessons from so (as usual) I'm just winging it. 

Here is what my spinning looked like about 2 weeks ago when I first got my wheel and didn't have a CLUE what I was doing.

Yeah, it's pretty bad.  The bottom skein is some American Romney (from a ram named Desi) that I picked up at the Kid 'n Ewe fiber festival last year, and the skein above that is some ugly batt plied with a strand of Desi.  Ugly batts are a pretty good idea for a beginning spinner since you get SO MUCH fiber for SO LITTLE money, and even though the ugly batt plied with Desi looks pretty horrible, ugly batt plied with ugly batt doesn't look so bad.

With each skein I spun I could see improvement.... little by little.....

I've been experimenting with lots of different kinds of fibers to see what I like and what I don't like, and I've come to the conclusion that while spinning dyed roving is probably more interesting than spinning undyed natural fibers, I think I prefer the look of the finished undyed fiber yarns. 

I also think the undyed yarns will be more practical for actual knitting projects as I tend to prefer solid colored yarns over multi-colored yarns.  It is nice though to be able to take a break from spinning brown, beige, or oatmeal colored yarn and spin up some beautifully dyed roving, and some of the dyed roving does indeed spin up into a subtle somewhat muted colorway that I wouldn't mind using for a hat or scarf.  I've not actually knit up any of my handspun yet -- I think I'm afraid to actually, as I fear it will knit up all wonky and skew terribly to one side or another.  Soon enough though, as I'm hoping to knit up a pair of mittens (or two) as one of my first handspun projects.

But don't think I haven't been knitting too!

   

In other news, we celebrated Glamaw's 70th birthday with a huge surprise party!  Friends and family members flew in from all over the country....

Glamaw's baby brother and his wife flew in from St. Louis....

One cousin and her family flew in from San Antonio....

    

Another cousin flew in from Manhattan...

More cousines from Cedar Rapids...

And more cousins flew in from various parts of the country....

Friends Suzy and John Young (the astronaut) attended....

Football Star Son and Sarah did too....

There was cake....

And trick candles....

 

 

And birthday presents...

 

And lots and lots of celebrating...

The party continued the next night with dinner...

Dancing (the hora)...

And a special rendition of You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby from our favorite entertainer...

Glamaw, if this is what 70 looks like, I can't wait!

 

Happy Birthday!

Comments

[alicia]

Glamaw is 70?! I don't believe it! She looks amazing!!! Your spinning looks great! I'm a "wing it" gal too with my spinning so I know how it is to go it alone! Glad to see you back blogging!

[Elemmaciltur]

Why does everybody has to get wheels?!!! I want one!

And wow, Glamaw doesn't look 70 at all. Belated Happy B-Day to her.

[sarah]

Wow, those skeins look awesome! And you really HAVE been spinning your heiny off! I can't wait to see what all of these become. . .

[Chelle]

Happy Birthday Glammw. She's gorgeous. I can see where your good looks come from.

Did you knit her that lovely shawl? What yarn did you use. Details, details.