My First Handspun Yarn!!

Yes, I've finally gone over to the dark side (they had cookies, I couldn't help it!), and have finally learnt to spin!

I got a spindle way back in February, but I was a bit intimidated by it, and it just kind of sat at the top of my shelves for a few months. Then I saw that my local yarn shop, Twist Fibre Craft Studios, was running a drop spindle class last month. So I booked in before my courage ran out, and then excitedly waited for it to come along.

The class was great! There were four of us there and we got shown the basics of spinning, told a bit about the history and techniques, then given some fibre and encouraged to go right ahead and just do it.

It was much easier than I thought it would be! And so much more fun! Very addictive :D In the class I didn't really understand the whole mixing colour thing (my brain was obviously trying too hard to get the technique to think about things like colour!), so I stuck with one colour of fibre to make my first handspun:







It was very "rustic" ie, lots of thick and thin bits, but once it was plied together and set, it evened out and I'm really pleased with it. It turned out to be a chunky/bulky weight yarn once plied and set. I've no idea how many yards it is though. It kind of seperated into three skeins because I had to judge halfway to ply it, and I didn't do too well at that judging. Also, my joining of bits of fibre wasn't great, so a couple of pieces kind of came apart when I was plying them. I'm much better at joining them now though. Practice makes perfect! This was done in the middle of June, so I've done a little more spinning since then, and am even taking part in the Tour De Fleece over on Ravelry. I haven't been active on the boards due to this grotty cold/infection that I've had, but I've been spinning nearly every day, and it's so much fun! Only trouble is, I thought I had a big enough problem with buying yarn, now I have to resist filling the house up with spindles and fibre too!