My friend Linda came over on Sunday and helped me get acquainted with my new spinning wheel.  With her much needed assistance I managed to make my first skein of yarn!  It’s a nice blend of merino batts and roving from my fellow Phat Fiber artists along with some fabulous wool locks that Linda dyed and shared with me.

Think I might try the wham bam cowl for this.

Thanks to the following fiber artists who were included in my skein of yarn with the generous donation of their samples to the

Phat Fiber Sample Box:

Altered Visions

Infinity Yarn and Fiber

Maude & Me

Moonwood Farm

Serendipity Fiber Arts

Sweet Pea Fibers

Wooly Hands

I ventured out to Woolfest at Lake Metroparks’ Farmpark last weekend with my friend Linda.  I have been completely bitten by the spinning bug after looking at oodles of gorgeous fibers.  I tried a drop spindle a few years back and frustrated myself right out of that.  I should have known better!  I am just not coordinated enough to do several things at once.

I tried this already with glass blowing.  I really wanted to be a glass major at school.  In fact, I made my decision to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art based on that desire because of their reputation and that of the glass department.  Two weeks into the course I realized it requires 3 activities performed all at once.   Keep it moving, work fast enough to keep it hot and turn it into something all at the same time.  YEAH, Riigghht!  So I switched to enameling, which is applying ground glass to metal, and firing it in a kiln.  It’s a beautiful blend of glass that waits for me, and the focus that became my major, metals and jewelry design.

But now I want to try spinning again and with the help of Linda and our local spinners guild I am going to suck it up and try really hard!  I just love art yarns and tweeds and I have lots of fibers, including cashmere noils, that will make spectacular yarn.  Abby Franquemont has inspired me as well with her blog Making a Tweed Blend.  She gives wonderful directions with lots of photos for making batts and spinning tweed yarns.   

Handspun Tweed

In case you needed some inspiration of your own, check out the batts and awesome yarns that Linda has spun – FABULOUS!  Be sure to look her up on Etsy too for more eye candy.

Sunny Day

Batt with Cashmere Noils

Wild Skies

From Andy Paiko on YouTube. A lady spinning fiber on a fully functional glass spinning wheel.

The wheel is a kinetic sculpture made from hand-blown and hot-sculpted soft glass.

Just fun to watch.

For roving and knitting supplies, visit http://www.sevenyaks.etsy.com

Sue Macniven shows a saxony wheel, its various parts and how to adjust a scotch tension.

This one also looks at how to work out the ratios.

Knitting needles, knitting needle gauges, knitting accessories, sock blockers and more at http://www.sevenyaks.etsy.com