It was inevitable

Main Entry: spin·ster
Pronunciation: 'spin(t)-st&r
Function: noun
1 : a woman whose occupation is to spin
2 a archaic : an unmarried woman of gentle family b : an unmarried woman and especially one past the common age for marrying
3 : a woman who seems unlikely to marry
via Merriam-Webster OnLine

Now, I'm finally on my way to fulfilling definition #1 rather than #2 or 3. Whew.

On Saturday, my friend Julie (the one with the birthday!) and I took a Learn to Spin class at Make One Yarn Studio (which, by the way, is a beautiful shop! Must. Go. Back.)(after I've lived up to my self-imposed commitment)(honest)

It was so much fun. We learned on top-whorl drop spindles. We spun silk hankies (SO. MUCH. FUN!!) and some wool (possibly merino??). This is from the fibre we were provided, so the color combinations are a bit, well, Yikes.

Julie's first plied yarn!!!


My first plied yarn!!!!


Julie's beautiful silk singles!!!


My silk singles!!! (I think they're pretty too...)


Julie's wool singles!!! (I'm not a pink person at all, but I think this is really beautiful!)


My wool singles!!


My wool plied! (I can NOT believe I made yarn! Me!)


I have a little bit more "practice" wool from the class to play with:

and I bought* some merino roving (I'm not totally clear on the terminology yet)(I think I have that right)

and some silk hankies to dye

but I want to practice a bit more first.

And, living up to my self-imposed commitment:

I decided to crochet an afghan. I was going to knit one but I haven't crocheted in a long time and I'm much faster at crochet than knitting, so... The square above there needs 2 more sections and is currently about 11 inches square. I'm toying with the idea of just making a really big log cabin square instead of making a whole bunch of them to sew together. Either way, this is a pretty good no-look project that I can work on while watching TV. I dont' have a pattern, I'm just winging it based on a knit log cabin square I saw online somewhere. (which is another reason why I may just make one big one, since I may or may not have made a couple of sections bigger or smaller and did not take notes.)

On the spinning front, I need to figure out how to make sure I don't lose the twist on the singles before I'm able to ply them. (or while I'm plying them). Ideas? Advice?

*the purchase of fibre was planned as an exception to my no-new-yarn rule (honest)