Fell off the wagon - first handspun

Although I'd been resisting for years to pick up a spindle, I finally decided at the end of June at the Victoria Fiber Festival that I was going to buy a hand spindle and learn to spin. Instead I bought roving - pencil roving - about 300g of Wool-Alpaca-silk blend (40-40-20) in pink-purple-blue colorway, and 200g of a lovely teal green in Wool-Alpaca-silk blend (64-25-10). I figured what I didn't knit (bulky weight), I could learn to spin.

My first effort at handspun singles using a spindle (which I traded for)



and



Then, this week, I learned how to handply these singles with a spindle. After winding them onto a ball winder (while a friend used a yarn counter to measure the feet of yarn I had), she wound it on a partially opened swift, tied little ties on to hold the yarn, and swung the yarn into a skein - yay! (reverse ball winding!)



I'm in love -

My skein is 58g (just over 2 oz) and measures 170 ft or 56.67 yards.