Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom

I told you I’d blog about the drop spindle class, so here goes! (Oh, Anna-Liza blogging.)

Maggie Casey is generally considered one of the best spinning teachers in the country, and very possibly the best beginner’s spinning teacher. And I am lucky enough to live within easy reach of her store, Shuttles Spindles & Skeins. My experience with her is limited to this one, one-session class, but I’m going to have to agree. She got me to the point that I feel like all I need to do is practice to get good at this drop spindle business, which is a pretty good accomplishment for one two hour class!

I did better in the earlier part of the class, when I was taking more time and not rushing. But I wanted to get some practice plying while I was still in the class, so I rushed through the second bit of roving and got much poofier results. The plied yarn was, well, “designer”. And then, I just couldn’t resist playing with the leftover Easter egg dye … well, here’s how it turned out:

    <—My first handspun, hand-dyed yarn.                   <—-my second handspun, hand-dyed yarn

Since the class, I’ve practiced a bit, but I have to admit it isn’t quite as easy for me to get time for spinning as it is for knitting (which isn’t easy at all). The kids and the cat are just a bit too fascinated with the spindle at this point. I’m working with a simple CD spindle (the kind for spinning fiber, not the kind for storing CDs, sillies), but I am going to be borrowing a couple of more traditional spindles to try out, and I will be spindle-browsing at Estes Park. Spindle spindle spindle. Spindle. (”Stop talking about the spindle!!”)

In all the excitement of learning a new skill and dying Easter eggs and yarn, somehow I finished Mr. B’s sweater. I’m still a n00b at the photo-uploading thing, and I can’t seem to get this one to make a thumbnail, so click on this link for the picture:  mr-bs-camo-sweater.jpg. Top-down raglan, and I knit the sleeves in the round on DPNs, so the only seams were the underarm ones.

So that’s one project off the needles! (One! One WIP FO’d! Ah ha ha ha ha … [thunder]) Hooray! Progress! Oh, but wait! What’s that in Anna-Liza’s knitting bag?

      <—the first of what will be four socks for the kidlets

     <— a Butterfly Moebius out of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock

That would be two! Two new projects started! Ah ha ha ha ha ha … (thunder)

Oh. Oops.