Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Knitting and Spinning

On Saturday, I meet up with a few friends for a day of knitting and other sundry crafts. We had great food and goodies too. Kathy made chili and Katie brought this Toffee Bar dessert. It was a first attempt at this new recipe and she figured we would all make great guinea pigs. It was very good. Thanks to Carlina for opening her home and to Devon for the nice bag pipe concert.

Kathy spearheaded the meet-up and decided we should have lots of different crafts to try out. She brought her weaving loom and knitting looms. I brought my spinning wheel, because she wanted to try it out. I was a little panicked by that thought though, because I hadn't done any spinning in a year. I mentioned that to one of my other spinning friends and she laughed. She said just think of it this way "They don't spin, so they won't know the difference!" I laughed and thought she's right. I practiced for a while, then turned it over to Kathy. She did pretty well. Then her niece Katie wanted a try. She had a little trouble coordinating the hand and foot motions. For a little while I spun the wheel while she did got used to spinning, then I turned her loose on her own. She seemed to really enjoy it and she did surprisingly well for a first try.

While she spun I knitted on my blue hoodie. I'm only 40 rows away from starting the sleeves. What I really need to do is dedicate myself to doing 4 rows a night for the next 10 days and I would have that part done.

But, last night after dinner, I decided instead of knitting I would do some spinning. The rocking chair was a little too low, so I got out my office chair. It worked just great after I adjusted the height. Here's a picture of my mystery fiber. Well, I do know it's wool, but other than that I've no clue. I got it as a gift from one of my spinning friends when I got my wheel.

I still quite a bit left to spin. I'm hoping I have enough after I get it all spun up to do a pair of socks or may a pair of fingerless mitts. Not sure if I will ply it or just knit it as is, but I will probably ply it.

1 comment:

Laura said...

Oooh pretty! It sounds like you had a great time-almost like a mini retreat!