What did I learn today?

Today was my first spinning lesson. Ok, so maybe I should've had my first lesson when I started spinning, but hey, I finally got around to it... four years after the fact. All I know about spinning (and knitting), I learned from the Internet. It's a great resource, but some things can be refined only with personal instruction.

I think I "got" how to ply. This is two-ply, lace-weight mohair, and it's plied evenly throughout the skein. Usually, I have over plied and way under plied sections, but this looks like I know what I'm doing. I also worked on improving my singles - making them more consistent, and figuring out what drafting style I should use to yield what end product. It appears I naturally have a modified long-draw, but I need a short draw to keep an eye on things. With practice, I think I'll be able to do yarn of a specific weight on demand. Just gotta keep at it.

I'm trying to do more sock yarn-like yarn so I can... knit socks. (Check out the latest Spin-Off for a whole bunch of neat info on sock yarns! Love the new format and articles!) Since I'm on this lace kick, my natural tendency to spin finer yarn is actually paying off. I think hearing someone other than my spouse tell me my yarn looks fine and that I'm doing what I should be doing was very good for me. She has over 25 years of spinning experience, so she may have some idea of what she's talking about. She encouraged me to keep up what I'm doing and make small modifications - which seemed to have big changes in my yield.

Now what I need is a knitting class! Seriously. It was only this summer that I figured out how to purl correctly, and the first few years I knit only twisted stitches. I'm sure that I'm not knitting/purling yarn overs correctly - I make a hole in the fabric, but when they're stacked yos (appearing at the same place +/- in the fabric over the course of several rows) they don't appear like in the pictures. Mine are horizontal strings while in pictures, they seem to be gently crossed strings. (Yeah, I'll have to take a picture.) This hasn't really been an issue until the edging on the cape I'm still working on. It just looks different, less graceful, than the picture. I know, the level of detail I'm looking for may live on the Internet, but interacting with a human for this info could be useful. (This from the person who loves ATMs, web forms, and email because I don't have to interact with humans!)

How'd I get here?
I don't think I mentioned how I got started on spinning and knitting. My mother was a masterful crocheter - with a pattern, I don't think anything was beyond her reach. When she died, I decided to take up crochet - maybe I thought someone in the family should keep it up. She'd taught me eons ago, but it never interested me. When I tried again, I found it was too easy and restrictive. It is all written out in a pattern and it didn't seem to have the creativity of knitting. So I figured I'd do the "making knots in string with two sticks" thing. My first completed item was a sock. Perfectly serviceable, full of errors, but it was mine. I was hooked.

When I started shopping for nice sock yarn, I realized that the self-striping ones and ones with snazzy fibers were kinda pricey. I figured I could make my own yarn. I bought some fleece on eBay, a drop spindle, hand cards, and quickly upgraded to an Ashford Traditional wheel. (Drop spindles are not my thing.) Spinning on my own, I made some pretty lumpy, fat yarn - especially since I was pretty bad at fiber prep. (And from the post below, you'll see that I'm not afraid to send fleece to the fiber mill!) Not getting what I wanted, I was frustrated, but kept going, kept knitting, ... and found other hobbies. When I eventually came back to spinning, I found that I'd magically improved to the point where I could make lace-weight yarn, not just a few meters, but a whole bobbin full. And after today's lesson, I can make even more consistent singles and ply like I've always wanted.

I wish I had taken up knitting and spinning while Mother was alive. She always used acrylic yarn or cotton so that the complete item was washable, but I'm sure she would have loved having home made yarn to play with. There is this thing called Superwash, so she could have had the best of both worlds: custom yarn that was washable. I like making animal and plant fiber into yarn. It's almost exotic since I grew up with items crafted from synthetics. I think Mother would have enjoyed knitting, or at least receiving a knitted something. She aways said that knitting was too difficult, but I think she sold herself short.

I wish I had more time to work on my knitting and spinning techniques. With all that's going on at work, I can't even relax when I get home. There's too much in my head, and then there's when I have homework to meet deadlines. I really need to workout, to lose weight, but also to siphon some of this stress. Now that I'm feeling better, I should start biking and dieting - don't want to look like a tourist when we go to the UK! I also plan to spin and knit at work - to not only relax, practice, and get stuff done, but to try to draw others into the fold. I started a spinning/knitting email group at work, but I know only one other person who knits (and spins), so the dialog would be pretty limited. I figure I can sit outside at lunch time with a hobby or two and see who bites.