Yes, I realize it is way overspun and curly. I also know that most people in their right mind wouldn't think of paying money for anything that looks like this. But I am quite proud of myself. Mostly because before going to the spinning meet, I had horrible visions of the spindle falling to the floor and shattering. (does wood shatter?) I didn't drop it once.
Dina started me off with two yarns so that I would get an idea of what I was supposed to do. Once I had the yarns twisting correctly, I could advance to the real deal - roving. It was slow going, with yours truly the control freak trying to make sure the yarn was thin and even, slowing down the process further. I was doing something called "park & draft" which involves "parking" the spindle between the knees and drafting the next bit or two of fiber. Apparently the beginner version of real spinning. It's been a while since I was a true beginner at anything.
The next thing that I found helpful was Faith's comment about "the drafting triangle". I don't really remember what she said but the concept of watching the space where the fiber goes from a fairly wide strip to a thin twisted yarn stuck. Until then, I was watching the space between my fingers and the spindle. Now, I was watching a place farther away from the spindle, where the yarn was actually starting to form (this is probably so obvious to experienced spinners that they don't even think about it) and I noticed that my yarn was much more even.
So, for what it's worth, from a total newbie:
If you're learning to spin,
1) watch somebody do it first,
2) practice with two colors of yarn to get the idea,
3) when you progress to roving, pay attention to the drafting triangle.
5 comments:
You did much better than when I first learned to spin and you were a quick study! I'm proud of your first handspun :)
This looks good for a first try!
I absolutely have to fish my spindle out of the knitting basket and finally make the necessary changes (it doesn't have a notch, and the hook isn't much good either, I think). Spinning pictures always have that "me too, me too!"-effect on me :-)
I hope I can attend another meetup soon.
Eva
Alex, the yarn looks great to me. It looks like natural yarn that would be used to knit one of those Irish looking sweaters that I love, but can't think of what they are called right now :-). Keep it up, you'll have it down pat in no time and be making even more beautiful yarns.
You should be proud! This is very cool!!
Your yarn looks great to me! Kudos to you for trying something new. It's not always fun to be a beginner, but the unfortunately I've never figured out how to start any new endeavor as an intermediate.
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