Spin, Spin, Spinning....

Yarn on bobbin spun during my spinning lesson-purple and green yarn spun after my lesson at home

Yes my friends, I am finally spinning. Spinning real, useable yarn with my wheel! I finally gave up on the whole idea of teaching myself and called The Sow's Ear. I got in touch with Mo, spinning goddess, and we set up a lesson on Thursday. Mo's farm is in a beautiful part of southern Wisconsin. When I got there she was picking a fleece from one of her sheep. Now I am no stranger to raising sheep-my grandfather raised them, my mom raised and showed them, as did I in my 4-H days. I did however gain a new appreciation to the amount of work goes into getting a fleece ready to be spun into yarn after she showed me 'picking'.

The lesson took place on the patio which over looks her grazing sheep and rolling hills. Mo took the time to explain the basics, brought her wheel out (I am a visual person), and I started to do some real spinning. Mo shared some wool from her sheep and it was fun to spin that. The wool was card rather than combed, making it less slippery and easier for me to spin. BTW-Mo will be selling at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September. It was an awesome way to spend two hours of a day off work!!

Natural grey wool carded with sparkly Angelina fiber spun today!

I've also ordered the dye (finally) for the yarn dyeing project. I ordered orchid, raspberry, and madder orange. Hopefully the dye will be here by end of the week. I'm crossing my fingers that the holiday won't mess shipping time up too much. K-Dall will be at her dad's on saturday and my husband is a mailman so he works on saturday. Seems to me that an empty house would make for good dyeing! I'll post pictures!