Kiwi!

I guess I got a little ahead of myself in my last post about helping me learn how to spin.  I realize I never posted about actually getting a spinning wheel!

I am happy to announce that I am the proud new owner of an Ashford Kiwi which I have affectionately named Gideon.  In the Bible story, Gideon attempts to test God with a bit of Fleece.  You can find the whole story here, The Story Of Gideon ; of course, I always suggest a person read the Bible. 

It seems that many people in the Kiwi owning community paint their wheels, but I rather like the unfinished look, so, before assembling my wheel, I painted just the engraved kiwi himself to personalize it a bit! 

My husband, who is so wonderfully patient and supportive, spent the night putting my wheel together, while I watched my favorite tv shows and knit up this fantastic pattern, Simple. by my friend Alicia Plummer.
I have to point out there, that it's the type of handspun wool in this hat, which was spun my my dear friend Jennifer, and the handspun made by Alicia that had me inspired to learn to spin myself.    My ultimate goal is to be able to hand dye my own roving, then spin it into my own squishy wonderfulness!

Speaking of hand dyeing, I also have a few photos to share of my hand dyeing progress!    I'm thinking of listing my hand dyed yarns in my Etsy shop, so keep an eye out for them!

Ok, back to my wheel, so I have all of these great dreams of spinning, and I watched a bunch of Youtube videos, which make spinning seem so incredibly effortless, and so once my wheel was assembled, I spent a day treadling as suggested, and then broke out some of the roving I'd just purchased.  I had to move my daughter off of it first though, who kept rolling around in the "clouds".

And then I spent the next two days cursing and wanting to cry.  Here is my first batch of "handspun".    I have a great appreciation for the hand eye coordination that spinners obtain!  This is not an easy task!

Luckily, with some practice I got into a groove and finally got a full bobbin worth of yarn.   Of course, it's not perfect, but at least it somewhat resembles yarn!

I wanted to post these pictures for other newbie spinners who might run into troubles.  Just keep practicing!