I Made Yarn!

It's official - I made my first skein of yarn . . . and it looks like crap :-D

Unfortunately, I'm serious. What a complete learning experience spinning is. I know it will get better - I will get better - and I have been reassured that even horrid looking yarn can look pretty good knitted up. So, I will figure out something to make with it and move on. Here is my progress:

First - here are 5 of the 7 bobbins of wool singles that I spun (I was so proud of them!)

Second - here is the first skein, drying

Finally - here is a close up of the yarn

Ick-a-Roo! Don't you agree? At least it was pretty well-balanced. It just didn't loft at all when I washed it, and I thought it would. I think I might have spun the singles a little too thin for this type of yarn - but this is part of the learning. I mean, how else are you going to know how different yarns respond until you actually spin them? I followed what I read, in that I spun it all at once and now am plying it all at once. That's good advice - for experienced spinners. I think, had I known then how the first would turn out, I would have spun a smaller amount, plied it, set the twist and then regrouped. You know, they did that with my eyes - I had Lasik surgery a number of years ago when the procedure was relatively new (best money I ever spent, in case you're wondering). They did one eye first, and based the the second eye on how the first responded to the surgery.

Wish I would have thought of that before spinning the entire 1 - 3/4 pounds of Lincoln as thin as I could reasonably get it . . . like I said, I think the singles might have needed to be not quite so weeny - but again, I don't really know, so I'm taking this with me this weekend to the Fiber and Folk Fair. There will be a million spinners there - I'm sure someone will take pity on me and teach me what I might have done wrong and what I can do better the next time. :-)

The next will be better, and it won't be dark brown. I'm supremely tired of dark brown.

:-D