My First Homespun Yarn

Remember the little drop spindle I showed you back in early October? I've actually been using it to make yarn! I started practicing with some blue, green, and purple wool I bought in Eugene, Oregon, a long time ago.

This is the yarn store, it's called Soft Horizons Fiber. Isn't it cute? There aren't many places I would rather be than a pretty house full of yarn! I miss it!

This is the little drop spindle I bought on Etsy, with my very first little bit of homespun yarn on it:

I watched a couple of good tutorials on Youtube to help me learn how to spin, and some of my crafting friends were able to lend me their advice as well. One of my friends even gave me an extra spindle that she had, which is much bigger and heavier, and therefore can hold more yarn and make thinner strands! 

This is what my finished yarn looked like after cleaning and "fulling," a felting process that helps the fibers of the yarn bind together. You are supposed to hit it against a table until the thickness is even and all of the twists are gone, then hang it to dry. Maybe I need more direction, but it seemed like no matter how many times I hit the yarn against the table it just got more twisted! Eventually I tied it around this chair tightly enough to get the twists out so that it would dry straight. That's probably cheating, I know.

Here is what my finished ball of yarn looks like. You can see the green and blue, with just a tiny bit of purple peaking through at the center. Now I just have to decide what to make with it!

It will have to be a small project and something that will show off the color changes nicely and not get too messed up by the (unintentional) changes in thickness. It's hard to get the thickness even when you are learning to spin. I asked a lady at the Vista Fiber Festival if there was a trick to it and she said "When you find out, you tell me." But to me her yarn looked perfectly even! I guess it takes practice like anything else. Anyway, the only thing I can think of to make with it right now is a scarf, but please let me know if you have any other ideas, I would love to try something different! 

-Assunta

PS- Did you know the word "spinster" is used to refer to an unmarried woman because at a time when most career paths were unavailable to women, spinning was a job that allowed a single woman to make a living for herself. Pretty cool, huh? 

New Toys and the Vista Fiber Arts Festival

A few weeks ago I bought this cute little drop spindle of Etsy to try my hand at making my own yarn!  I've practiced a little bit with it and it's a lot of fun, although it's very tricky to try and keep the weight of the yarn even. I remember when I first learned to crochet, though. It took me a long time to get my stitches even back then, so after enough practice I should be able to get my yarn even too.

This weekend I went to the Vista Fiber Arts Festival with a couple friends. I saw many wonderful things, including this beautiful spinning wheel which I had to resist buying:

...and these adorable baby alpacas:

I ended up buying some gorgeous hand-dyed wool. The booth was called Blarney Yarn, and it was so hard to choose between all of the amazing colors, but this is the one I bought. I love this blend of rich purples and sunny yellow.

My other new toy is this tiny scale. It's meant for weighing small amounts of yarn to see if you have enough to finish your project. It's also perfect for calculating shipping prices for tiny Etsy items. My previous method of holding something in my hand and thinking "Yep, that's definitely less than a pound." wasn't quite cutting it. 

Well, that was my weekend, how was yours? 

-Assunta