Click on all of the pictures for a larger view

• Here are more pictures of my homespun yarn: (unfortunately one day I got on a center pull ball making kick so it is hard to see the yarn)

1. Green Marino that was not very nice stuff that I purchased from a vendor at a show before I knew what I was doing.  It is very rough, but I think that I will make a sturdy pillow or two out of it.  The living room pillows in my house take a beating and need to hold up to the punishment and I think that this stuff will fit the bill for behind the back pillows.
2. Gold and purple wool that was purchased from Woolbearers.  It was fun to spin because of the colors and the little bit of angelina, I think that is what it is called, that runs though it.
3. Purple heathery Marino from Rhinebeck, I gave most of it to my mother in law so that she can make my nice a poncho.  I kept one ball for myself because it goes so well with #2.
4. I dyed this brown sheep roving and then spun it on the spinning wheel.  It is so soft and the colors are great.
5. My first batch of homespun from the brown sheep tails that I purchased.  This is much thinner yarn then the later yarn that I spun with it.  The later stuff, see Jan 30ths entry, I wanted to see if I could make a thicker yarn because I was making thinner and thinner stuff and wanted to see if I could go back to thick again.
6. Wool and silk that was purchased at Woolbearers.  So wonderful to spin on my Moosie spindle from the Bosworths.

   The following are tools that I purchased at Rhinebeck from WoodChuck Spindles, Rod Stevens.  What absolutely fine work he does. 

   

    

• I've been spinning for almost two years now and have been loving every minute of it. I keep my Fricke spinning wheel with a level wind flyer set up all the time in my living room right in front of my favorite chair so it is ready to go at any time.  I can spin for 5 minutes or 5 hours. 

• Here are a few pictures of my recent skeins:

• And now I've been using the yarn that I have made to knit socks:

These socks were made out of some merino top that I dyed with leftover Easter egg dye that was spun on my spinning wheel.  There is so much yarn leftover that I will have been working on a second pair.

• I had been spinning with a top whorl drop spindle for  about 6 months before I took a class and purchased my first spinning wheel.

     My spindle collection  that I've acquired mostly by trading for my beaded purses.  It has been fun trading with people around the world.    

•  It was a wonderful class filled with free fiber, handouts, spinning wheel and book borrowing. 

The following are pictures of some of the skeins that I was able to make on the wheel that I was lent during the spinning class I took last winter.

• This skein was spun on a hand spindle.  I received the silk fiber as part of a swap that I did with a wonderful lady from England.  She was very generous including at least 10 different samples of different fibers and a spindle.  What fun!

• This is the first hand spindle spun yarn.  It is silk that I purchased in 2002 from a vendor at the Stitches East show spun on a Bosworth spindle that I also purchased at the show.

• Brown Sheep Merino skeins (last 4) that were spun on a Bosworth drop spindle (both the fiber and the spindle I can recommend very highly):

The first skein is Tunis that I was given in my spinning class also spun on a Bosworth drop spindle.

• Check out these links to great spinning resources:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spindlers/ - Spindlers is a chatty group for all hand spinners, mainly concentrating on those who use and collect spindles

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NJFiberFanatics/ - NJFiberFanatics is a  group made of  people almost all from the Garden State. Discussion topics are all things fiber related including anything from raising fiber animals to processing to making finished products.