Another new way to spend time with the kid
I mentioned in my last post that last weekend was spent at the
Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival with some friends. Well, the kiddo went with me also. He thoroughly enjoyed meeting the sheep and alpacas as well as trying something new...felting:
So
Pam and I ran by Hobby Lobby and picked up some supplies. Yesterday, while the kid and I were waiting for the handspun to dry so we could whack it around a little, we tried it out.
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It was fun and certainly easy. I think the element of danger (that needle is barbed to actually felt the fiber) appeals to the kid. Here's what we wound up with:
What a difference a week makes
Last week at this time, I was not a spinner. Didn't own a spindle. Didn't even think I wanted to. Then
Pam came to town. We went to the
Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival. We met
FuzzySheepCrafts there.
And, I swear this is the truth, the pair of them ganged up on me and forced me to purchase some roving and a drop spindle. Pam shoved me to the ground and held me while CBear forcibly removed my wallet from my bag and paid for it all. Anyway it went something like that.*
So once we were back home and the kid was in bed, Pam propped my eyes open with toothpicks and forced a lesson upon me. I mean, 11 o'clock at night...who does this??? I'm pretty sure she infused the fiber with some sort of drug because I was laughing myself silly and became addicted to the rhythm of the spinning. For days afterward I found myself saying things like "It's been 5 hours since I've spun anything," and having a dream about plying wool with a strand of oh-so-fine cotton. I have no idea how to ply!
Since I got started, I figured I might as well keep going, and by last night I had spun the whole ball of roving!
Then I remembered Pam telling me something about setting the twist in the middle of the night. After some IMs and Google searches and a trip to Lowes, I made this:
And wrapped for a while...
Hey look! Yarn! And I'm a spinner...
...with an empty spindle....
*Okay, it may have been more like Pam was admiring some other roving when I said, "Ooh, that's pretty." And then the vendor mentioned that what I was admiring would be a very good roving to learn on. And then I reached for my own wallet. Everything gets a little fuzzy at a fiber festival. Hee.
