Spinning in my spare time

As a relatively new spinner, the walls of colorful roving (this happens to be yarn) at the Black Sheep Gathering had my head "spinning". So much fiber, so little money -








I found this beautiful roving and could not pass it up.

None-the-less to say I had no idea what I would do with it - and what the heck was Tencel, anyhow?









But I loved the colorway and I really liked the name - there were two bumps left, so I got them both - better to have too much than not enough, I always say...







Well, I have been intrigued by all the crocheted sock patterns that I have seen lately, in fact I even bought a book of just sock patterns ( I am such a sucker for books...)

So I started spinning it up last week - Oh, did I mention that I had read an article in Spin-Off Magazine about spinning for crochet (for the "non-spinners" you normally spin your singles to the right (clockwise) and ply to the left (counter-clockwise) - I have never had any problems crocheting with my regularly spun yarn, but , apparently there are a few out there who suggest that spinning the singles counter clockwise and plying clockwise make an easier yarn to crochet with - well, I guess we'll find out now, won't we?

When I am spinning colored wool, I just spin my singles and ply how ever it goes together - I think you get some really nice colors that way - and you don't have to get all worried if your colors blend on to each other - so here is what I ended up with .









I have two fairly good size skeins - now I just have to wash it up and decide which sock pattern I want to try out.







The other spinning I've been doing is on some Icelandic/Alpaca blend that I had Gretchen do for me last summer - It is too scratchy (a product of not "de-hairing" the Icelandic wool) so it wouldn't be very good for clothing - but I have been really intrigued by the recent patterns I've seen for crocheted bowls and baskets.






I think this will be really pretty for a crocheted bowl...








This is the triple ply yarn that I made at Judith McKenzie's workshop last month. I think it is Corriedale & silk - it is incredibly soft - and if you click on the picture to biggify it, it doesn't look too bad - I have a plan for it, but I will tell you what I have done with it at a later time.






Triple ply is really something to get used to - I had stuff REALLY tangled up there for a while - I guess, like everything, it just takes practice.

Our church Christmas program is tomorrow night. Unfortunately, Rev. Nan had emergency surgery for appendicitis last week and we're not sure it she's going to be able to participate or not - we rather think not, but where there's a will, there's a way, I always say.

If she doesn't make it, The Shepherd will lead the service - He is our "Minister of Music" and he does services on a regular basis. Although it's not his favorite thing to do, he has filled in at short notice several times over the past 20 or so years that he's been there. Our choir has been working hard on the pieces of music that he picked out for us this year - I hope we have a good showing in the congregation - it always makes it more fun.