Another One

This shawl I knitted from my own handspun yarn and isn’t the last of my finished objects for the WIP challenge.

A while ago (three/four years?) I decided I wanted to spin. I didn’t want to learn how to spin on a wheel as I knew that was very likely to be a slippery slope to having even more yarn that I don’t have time to use. Many years ago when we were still living in Calgary I took a class on learning how to spin on a drop spindle. There were only two sessions and I didn’t practice so nothing happened after the two weeks but I remember enjoying it. So when this urge came on me to spin I gave drop spindle spinning another go but I needed supplies. I had no idea what fiber to purchase. I found a website that supplied beginners packs of fiber and did a little research on good spindles. Although I would have liked something pretty I did not want to spend a lot of money on something that might be used twice only but I did want one that was well made.

I purchased a Kundert spindle and a pack of three different types of fiber from Spunky Eclectic and was ready. The suggestions are to spin for 30 minutes a day to build skill and I could achieve this at first but then life got in the way (Grandchildren moved in) and I was lucky to get any spinning done. I plied the natural yarn and chain plied the coloured yarn, which was fun. Because there were big gaps between my spinning sessions each time was like the first time and I ended up with thick/thin yarn. Nevertheless I wanted to use it and found a simple pattern that I could stop when I ran out of yarn After I started I found another pattern that I could use the border.





Although yellow is not one of my favourite colours, I am pleased with the end result and it will be nice for wearing around the house. I wish I had thought about the yarns more before starting as the rougher yarn is at the neck. A good lesson for next time. The natural yarns are New Zealand Blend Roving and Corriedale Combed Top and the yellow yarn is Combed Top BFL.




And then having spun and plyed my first yarn, I HAD to buy more fiber to continue to practice. Once again I was stuck with “I don’t know what to buy”. There are names of dyers that are mentioned quite often on Ravelry so I purchased from a Raveler’s stash.