Spinning Fever

In a post on the Dye-No-Mite Swap blog, I talked about my suckiness in dyeing roving. The color was definitely not what I wanted and the fibers got a little matted and felted (not too bad though), so it was definitely not giftable. I borrowed Aubrey's wheel for my first spinning group meeting last Monday and started spinning my semi-matted and salmon-y roving.

It was a little hard to spin at first, since I didn't try to re-comb the fibers and it was my 2nd attempt at using a spinning wheel, but I was happy with the overall results (i.e., no huge slubs). The next evening, I finished spinning the rest of the bad-dye-job roving, including another half that had some blues and some of the same salmon-y colors. After a quick call to Zona about plying, here's what I ended up with:
Although the colors are not what I wanted or what I would actually wear myself (it's the wrong shade of orange for Asian skin!), I think I did okay. I'll have to knit something with it for Aubrey, since she's letting me keep her wheel for a couple of months. I'm getting this idiotic joy from the fact that my busy bride-friend has no time for extra crafty things, because selfishly, I am benefitting from her bustling wedding-planning schedule. ;)

Since I don't have my own wheel, I am making the most of my borrowed one. Last night, I started to spin the Australian Merino that Karrie dyed for me in a swap. This one is soooo much easier to spin, since the fibers seem a little longer and it's... *ack-hem*... not matted. Karrie sent me a large amount of roving, so this is only about half of it.


A close-up: