But Mom, she followed me home! Can I keep her?

Last week I decided to play with kool aid and dye the 2nd bit of the not-really-for-spinning roving I had got so I could practice. It didn't come out so pretty (the colors are more garish than this picture would indicate):


I mostly wanted to see what would happen when I spun it: what would happen to the distinct color sections, what would it look like plied etc.

It's pretty horrendous though.

BUT, then I dyed some Ramie I bought as a consolation after a extremely frustrating somewhat disappointing trip to a fiber/spinning shop in the area. I had wanted to try some plant fiber so that I could learn and because my mom can't wear wool, I wanted to be able to spin/make something for her. I had an idea of what I hoped it would look like but no real plan to acheive what I hoped for. In this instance, it turned out exactly like what I was aiming for:


Greens and browns and deep blue all moving along the length. I feel so happy when I look at this! The fiber is really nice, although a little frustrating to start out with. I couldn't wait to try it so as soon as the Ramie was dry:


The spinning blended and muted the colors a bit, as did the plying but this picture doesn't quite do it justice. It's slightly silky feeling and has a nice sheen with the colors alternately deep and muted.

Sigh.

Now for the most fun news (and the title of today's post):

As you know, I decided to get a wheel. I had a frustrating encounter with someone who sells wheels on the weekend. After that, I ended up calling Make One Yarns to see if they stock the S17 that I tried out. I decided that I would get one from them since it would save me shipping and customs etc. So I went in yesterday and it turned out that the one they had in stock was the demo one I tried out and they sold it to me assembled!



Sigh.

So, since it was assembled, I spun. And spun. (and watched football) And spun. And giggled to myself as I spun.

I started with the butt ugly rather unfortunate looking roving I kool aid dyed (see above) because I figured if I mess it up, I won't cry at all.



I didn't bother to set the twist yet. It's about 85 yards and 2.5 oz (ish). Now to think about what to spin next...

Thanks to everyone for suggestions and encouragement! Thanks also to the girls at Make One who, in addition to being total enablers are really helpful, friendly and gave me my first real-life blog recognition yesterday, which was fun in that dorky-knit-blogger kind of way!