The BEST WWKIP Day Ever

Clockwise: 1. Marie, Melyssa and Abraham with Christine grilling corn with her hubby in the back; 2. Seven our new alpaca friend; 3. (l-r) Holly's pooch, Holly, Michelle and Denise L. from the Anaheim Hills group photographing me photographing her; (l-r): Gloria, Victoria, Renata and Rachel chatting in front of the prize table.

This past Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day! Many groups in and around Southern California held WWKIP events. Of course this year, my knitting group held our annual picnic to coincide with WWKIP. We invited other knit and crochet clubs from Orange County, Long Beach, Los Angeles and anyone else to join us in the festivities. I think we had the very best WWKIP event. In fact, I think we may have had the best event all around! Okay, so I may be a little biased, but I don't know if the other groups say the following about their WWKIP events:

• We had jugglers and spear throwers who brought juggling and a unicycle. I didn't get photos of the jugglers, but Christine from Long Beach SnB did here!
  

• We had vivacious knitters that tried to knit while hula-hooping!

Above: Zona trying very hard not to drop her hoop and her stitches!


Above: Rachel also trying to keep up her hoop and stitches.

• We had animals at our picnic, including an alpaca! People brought their dogs, some kids brought their surprisingly cute rats and new ATS members Amanda and Margo brought their alpaca Seven, named so for his 7-7-07 birth date. I was really resisting stealing him away in my car, and since he's small, I was thinking that I may be able to pass him off as a rare dog breed or something. ;) Zona snapped a photo of the kids playing with the rat right above my head - eek!.
  

Clockwise: 1. Some kids playing with a pet rat. Rat is on the long-haired girl's shoulder; 2, 3. Seven the alpaca showing off his cute face and new haircut for the camera; 4. Seven smiling for the camera.

• We had musicians singing for us with their guitars. Zona also has a picture of Jeff and his guitar.
  

Jonathan and the kilt-wearing Jeff singing some tunes for us.

• We had several games and contests including a speed knitting war and a mystery fiber game! I didn't snap photos of the finished war fish, but Denise L. did here and here. Zona has a photo of the prize table.
  

Clockwise 1. Robert and 2. Chia working on their Knitting War projects, trying to kill each other off; 3. & 4. Courtney, Shawn, curious boy and Zona check out the Mystery Fibers.

• We had lots of spinners too, including a few very handy and crafty kids who got the hang of spinning in no time!

Clockwise: 1. Kristi spinning some luscious green wool ; 2. Jamie gets the cutest apprentice to help him spin some undyed wool from a small mill; 3. Me spinning some silk; 4. Aliza wanted to learn to spin, so I let her try out my wheel as her brothers watched.

• We had customized name tags! I made about 30-35 name tags for the folks that I knew from ATS and the Anaheim Hills Knit Night. I'm just a little bummed that I forgot to take photos of two of my favorite tags that I made. I made a "King Snark" for Robert, who is undoubtedly the bitchiest and snarkiest member of our group. (Robert wore his tag with pride, btw.) I also made one for Zona's very understanding hubby (Jeff the guitar-playing kilt dude). I gave Jeff a club of his own: S.P.O.O.F. (Supportive Partners Of Out-of-control Fiberholics)

All in all, we all had all the ingredients for a stupendous WWKIP event. We had good food, great people, fiber, prizes, laughs, good weather and an alpaca. Really, what can one ask for? I have more pics uploaded in my Flickr (lots more of Seven).

All this fun would not be possible without our group's fearless leader, Renata who did most of the arrangements, from the park permit to the pop-ups, tables, banner, jugglers and spear throwers!



Clockwise: 1. Karen and Debbie ; 2. Me, Rachel and Zona; 3. Abraham working on his needlepoint while Jamie knits.

Silk and Clay

After months of not spinning, I restarted again, albeit very sporatically, after an invite to Jerry and Debbie's home for some spinning. I had some crappy stuff that I was spinning just to get rid of it, but I really got bored of it, so Zona gave me some of her hand-dyed silk hankies to spin!


It's my first time spinning silk and I'm really enjoying it! The concept of pulling the layers and strands of fibers from the hanky is a little strange since I've only pulled from commercial rovings and rolags that I combed. The downside is that the cap of my spool popped off, so I have to glue it back before I can resume.


My artist sister came to visit yesterday. We bond over many things and are close in age, however sadly, she does not knit, spin or is crafty in the way I am crafty. ;)
She's a wonderful artist though and has designed and laid out many logos and publishing things for me though.

When she arrived, I submitted her to a facial, complete with a mud mask. She's a virgin when it comes to facials. Her mask matches her dress so well, doesn't it?

Ariadne

According to Greek mythology, Ariadne was the daughter of Pasiphaë and King Minos of Crete. Ariadne fell in love at first sight with Theseus, a man who volunteered to kill the Minotaur living at the center of Mino's Labyrinth. After he killed the Minotaur, Ariadne helped Theseus by giving him a ball of the red thread she was spinning, and a sword to enable him to mark his path and find his way of the labyrinth. In some versions of the myth, Theseus abandons her and she later marries Dionysus who makes are immortal and a goddess. My Ariadne is no goddess, but she comes close and is a beautiful as one. I really don't have that much time to spin right now, especially with all the things I'm doing in designing and for Handicraft Café, and with my tendonitis that has been flaring up. Oh, my poor Ashford has been so neglected. However, when I saw Ariadne, I could not resist!

I bought this wheel from a woman who has a small farm with a couple of horses and 3 alpaca. I had to drive pretty far to get the wheel, but it's totally worth it. I couldn't even find information or photos on this wheel in an internet search, and I don't read Dutch, so searching Dutch pages was certainly out of the question.

According to the previous owner of the wheel, this is made by a company in the Netherlands called Ariadne. She lugged this wheel all the way from the Netherlands 2 years ago, in hopes of learning to spin alpaca fiber sheared from her own animals. Because I had driven so far, she gave me a small discount from her price, threw in a set of vintage carders, a vintage nostepine, and a giant bag of natural white alpaca fiber. Because I have many other spinning friends, I also bought a giant bag of natural red alpaca fiber from her so that I can give some fibers to my friends. The only catch is that the bags if fiber are dusty and need to be washed and combed, for which I will need a industrial dusk mask if I don't want to get shipped to the hospital for an asthma attack.

Isn't she beautiful? According to someone on a spinner's group, Ariadne started production around 1975, so it's not exactly an old or vintage style wheel, though the owner had advertised it as "antique." (But many people just think all spinning wheels are antique.) One of the features that I love about my Ariadne is that the lazy kate sits on the wheel and can be turned out (as shown) or more towards the wheel for more compact storage. The tensioning system on this one is interesting, and it took me some time to figure it out. I don't know if you can see it from the photos, but there's a metal hook holding the flyer. Underneath the hook is a screw and a spring used to tighten the flyer onto the wheel by clamping down on the hook.

Staying In

Luckily, my home, my family and the area in which I live is safe from the multiple fires burning rampant in Southern California. However, even with all the doors and windows closed, the winds are blowing all sorts of allergens and irritants that sneak through the tiniest of crevices into the house. I already suffer from terrible year-round allergies and mild asthma, and all the dust and smoke is knocking my entire body out of whack, even with a slew of drugs. Thus, not wanting to aggravate my lungs and sinus further, I think I will remain a shut-in for the majority of the week.

Last night, instead of going to spinning group with my fiber friends, Carolyn came over to my house and spun on her Ashford Traveler. I had already finished plying "cotton candy" (but haven't yet blocked it) and didn't want to spin undyed roving, so I worked on the lace stole for my stepmother instead. It's going slowly, but I've completed half of it already. I contemplated doing 2 separate halves and then grafting it together, but the pattern is small enough that I don't think it'd obvious which way is which, and so certainly, not worth the trouble of trying to graft over 100 stitches.

I also tried to dry a couple of hats a little before I attempted to block by laying them on a towel on my kitchen table. To my surprise, I found one of the cats on the hats. I had not expected one of the naughty ones to bother with the hats because they were wet, but I guess I was wrong. The gray hat is a gift for a Buddhist nun, so now I have to re-wash it and pick out all the cat hairs. Damn cat!

This is another one of the photos I scanned Sunday night. I'm not sure when it was taken, but I'm estimating that my mom was probably about 20-23 years old in the photo.

Cotton Candy

A while back, I had purchased some Brown Sheep mill end rovings at a craft fair to which I dyed some happy-go-lucky colors using some dyes leftover from another dye job. Having temporarily given up on spinning lace weight alpaca, I started spinning the mill end rovings during my knitting group's beach knitting day. My knitting friends thought the roving looked like cotton candy, especially the ones that I had combed out into rolags.

Regarding the lace alpaca that I have been trying to spin for the last several months -- I actually had no choice but to stop, because combined with the cobweb-thin spinning and my lack of skills, the yarn constantly broke. For the last few months, I have been unable to find where it had broken off. The end somehow disappeared onto the spool. I've even recruited multiple people to try to find it for me, and I have even tried picking at it with a wire a multitude of times. Anyone have tips on how to find it? *sigh*

I managed to finish spinning the "cotton candy" during some down time while my family was visiting. All I have to do now is to block the yarn and decide what to do with it.
Fiber Content: approx. 95% wool, 5% mohair (I tried to remove and separate as much mohair as possible)
Dye/Color Method: Randomly applied colors using leftover dyes from another dye job; done over the stove using Jacquard and ProChem dyes and citric acid.

Beach Knitting

This past Saturday, my knitting group had our 3rd Beach Knitting Picnic. Our previous events were held at Heisler Park in Laguna Beach, which is on a small cliff right over the beach. Due to some renovations at the park, we had to change the location to Aliso Beach. Aliso Beach doesn't have a grassy park, but there are some fire rings right on the beach and it's a rather quiet and lovely beach, as you can see from the photos.


It had poured the night before, and in some parts, it rained pretty heavily Saturday morning as well. Luckily, after a brief shower, the beach was the epitome of a quintessential sunny California Beach. What made the picnic even lovelier were the fantastic ocean waves that resulted from the storm system.


Due to the rain and the location change, we had a smaller turnout than the previous 2 picnics. We still had a lovely group of folks and I even brought my spinning wheel and spun with good company, great weather, and the sounds of crashing waves behind me. And in a classic "Oh, Aubrey!" moment, Aubrey, who is known for losing things, somehow dropped her wallet about 10 feet away from our pop-up tent. I don't know how much time had passed (at least 10 minutes) between her dropping it and me spotting it, but had the beach been more crowded, I have no doubt that someone would have swiped it within seconds. Tsk, tsk.

After the picnic, I went over to my friend Rachel's for a dinner party. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours, I felt an allergy-induced pre-asthma attack coming on. I was allergic to something in her apartment -- maybe her cats, maybe something else. My chest began to tighten as my throat itched and my sinuses swelled. I excused myself from the party and thankfully, by the time I got home, some of the itchiness subsided. I thought I was in the clear-- then,l my right eye started feeling weird and itchy. Uh oh!

When the allergy gets in my eye, the white part of my eye usually swells up, as if it's a giant hive. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the worst eye allergy I've had, and 1 being a mild short-term irritation, this one rated about a 5, because I although my vision blurred a little from the constant watering, it didn't hurt. I only get 10s when I'm in Houston without my drugs. The worst one lasted for more than 2-3 days, watered 24/7, blurred my vision and hurt so much due to the extreme swelling of the white part that I could not sleep or barely open it.

All in all, despite the allergy and having an eye that looked like I had been smoking pot all night, the Saturday turned out pretty fantastic and lovely, especially the beautiful crashing beach waves.

Muy Caliente

I'm sure I'm not the only knitter suffering in the summer heat. There's been a sizzling heat wave in Southern California. However, the heat certainly is no comparison to places like Arizona and Texas, but the it's definitely crampin' my style!

I know some knitters take a mini vacation from knitting in the summer, or only work on cooler projects. I've already done some cotton projects and baby stuff, and I no longer have any more hot-weather-friendly WIPs. So, what am I knitting? A project meant for winter -- terrible in this heat -- I can hear my friends now: "Well, Anne is a little crazy." -- And as luxurious and soft as baby alpaca is, in this hot weather, the warmth and heat created by the soft fibers is my lap in rather torturous. I could turn on the A/C and be super comfortable, but then I'm trying to be thrifty and energy efficient. I've also been getting weird looks from people when I whip out my thick winter project in public. Such was the case when hubby and I waited for our table at The Melting Pot this past Sunday night in over 90 degree weather.

I haven't done much spinning either. I'm still working on my alpaca lace spinning project, which has not progressed much at all. This blue one I did a while back, but I never got around to documenting it. It's my second plied project, and 4th spinning project overall, spun from a hand-painted Australian Merino on Aubrey's Ashford Kiwi.

What should I make from it? hmmm...

Jeepers Creepers

As part of my fantasic purchase, my spinning wheel came with a set of hand carders and some roving. The roving was old, nasty, wiry, rough and had lots of weird vegetable matter in it. Needless to say, it got tossed. But before I could practice hand-carding, with better roving, I had to clean out some of the residual roving and vegetable matter (or so I thought) from the carder teeth.

I meticulously picked off the fibers between the teeth with a toothpick and ended up with lots of gross fuzz all over my table and my clothes. Besides sneezing at the annoying bits of fiber, I really didn't think anything of it until I saw that one of the little vegetable matter bits had legs!! Gross! I almost threw up at the thought of inhaling the microscopic remnants of these dead bugs. It was very hard to finish getting all that crap out of the 100s of teeth in the carders.
I can't believe that the original owner actually sat there to comb and brush dirty fiber, complete with bugs. Ewww.

Aside from those nasty bugs, I had slightly creepy experience of a different kind this Wednesday. As I walked across the parking lot towards Starbucks for my Wednesday knitting group meeting, I noticed a guy in the donut shop 2 doors down grinning and waving from his booth inside the shop. I ignored this, since I didn't know the guy. But then the aggressive waving and grinning continued...who is he waving at? No one was walking towards the donut shop, not even in the parking lot, and no one was driving away. Then I noticed that he was looking at me, with his body turned in my direction. The waving and sheepish grin was a little odd, but I quickly brushed it off.

Feeling a little bored and loser-ish, Rachel and I decided to depart early, since we were the only ones who showed up to knitting on July 4th. Outside, some teenage skateboarders were praciting there tricks while an older man (in his 40s?) sitting on the edge of a flower bed wall chatted and watched the boys. The older man seemed short and had a slightly rotund protrusion in his midsection and appeared to be Latino. I thought this guy was related to the boys, maybe one of the dads. I walked past them without any interaction and headed towards my car. As I opened my car door, I saw someone waving out of the corner of my eye. I got into my car and waited for a car behind me to pull out, and the man sitting with the skateboarders continued to wave with a grin. Then I realized this was the donut man! He kept waving at me and grinning until I left the parking lot.

I never waved or smiled back at the donut man, because I didn't want to encourage it. I am still perplexed as to why he was waving like that. I guess could just appreciate that someone was trying to make a connection and may have found something attractive or interesting in me from yards away. But, it was so odd! He didn't even say hi, when I walked by, and he sat outside while Rachel and I knitted. All he did was wave fervently and grin. Weird.

New Toy!

I teased y'all two posts ago regarding the unveiling of something new. Here it is!!
Yep. I got a spinning wheel last week! I did a random search on Craigslist and came across an ad posting for a spinning wheel for $200. After contacting the seller, I decided that this wheel (and price) was worth the 1 hour drive through L.A. traffic to see.

This wheel is slightly rickety and it was missing the drive band and the spring set-up for the Scotch tension brake, but it is otherwise in good condition. It's nothing a screwdriver and some light elbow grease can't remedy. After a smooth haggle, I became the new owner of this single treadle Ashford Traditional, along with the 4 bobbins, lazy kate, drop spindle and a set of Clemes & Clemes carders, for a great bargain of $150!

According to the seller, who is a non-knitter and non-spinner, her mother bought this wheel about 10 years ago. However, upon closer inspection, I think this wheel was bought and made before 1990 (or sitting in a store since). According to my research, wheels before 1990 only had a 2 flyer ratios, just like mine. I don't think there's anything wrong with the 2 ratio flyers, it's just not as versatile as the 3 ratio flyers. The flyer update, although not necessary, would probably cost around $32.

With a simple trip to the hardware store, I bought some springs and rigged my own Scotch tension brake. It's not the same kind of spring that Ashford puts on the wheels, but it works. For the drive band, I'm using a really thin cotton yarn. Everything seems okay so far, except for a few more loose screws and some oiling. I can't complain for the price I got, except for that I think I prefer a double treadle. After having played with Aubrey's double treadle Ashford Kiwi, I think the double treadle system is better and the single treadle. The double is faster and seem more natural for my feet. I have to check with the manufacturer for compatibility first, but eventually, I'd like to purchase the double treadle conversion kit for my wheel (but it's $70).

In Recovery

Just when I thought I was finally nearing the end of my recovery from Aubrey's wedding, I got hit with some crafty deadlines.

First of all, the wedding, veil, and flowers all turned out fabulously. Of course, the bride was glowing, gorgeous and flawless. We were all relieved and elated that the famously klutzy bride did not fall or trip on the uneven grounds of the nature preserve -- not once! Whew! Seriously, this is a lady who trips on air on a flat level surface. However, the bride did not lose a special Aubrey touch: She lost her garter, which slipped off her leg somewhere, and she lost an earring, which she later found with a flower from her bouquet inside her bra.



Above: me and Linh. I don't have any photos of the gorgeous arrangements. I hope Linh blogs them soon!


Above: The knitters! It was really nice seeing some of the knitters dressed up for a change. We rarely see each other looking spiffy and not covered in yarn and fiber fuzz.

Soon after the wedding, I realized that I had an upcoming deadline for a contest that I wanted to participate in. Did I ever mention that I'm trying to do something for an Etsy contest? I had originally planned on entering the 3 maximum allowable entries per person, but it looks like I will only be able to do one before the June 15 deadline.

As I was planning out the contest entries, the author of an upcoming book on recycled sweaters contacted me about some of my project/idea submissions. She and her editor liked the things I submitted and they requested that I send them finished projects and descriptions ASAP. So I spent the week after the wedding getting the projects finished and mailed off. In all, I think I sent in about 6-7 projects. From what I can tell, it appears that the book will be some sort of anthology of projects from various crafters/artists. Hopefully, they will select at least one of my projects.

Wish me luck on both (I think the Etsy contest is a longshot though.)!

Things finally appear to be slowing down a little from the recent flurry of miscellaneous crafty activities. Maybe now I'll have more time to devote to knitting and spinning. I haven't done much of either. I had been making great progress on a double knitted hat and was near-ready to decrease. Then, I realized that my image was not right. I failed to check as I knitted and knitted. What's more is that I lacked foresight in planning the design image, so I ended up with a backwards design on one side. *sigh* That's the Zen of Knitting.

Not having time to knit also means no time to spin -- I still don't think I have more than 6 yards of the alpaca lace I started nearly 4 weeks ago. I DO have some new spinning-related news though! I will keep you all in suspense until I can photograph the great news. ;)

Well, before I get to do more spinning and knitting, I do have to do more sewing. I need to make more headbands for the shop. In the next couple of weeks, I will also be making more of my Fortune Cookie purses (like this one I made for Aubrey) for the shop and for two custom orders I received at the wedding.

Frenzy

My apologies to my swap pals for being a little slow to post the goodies I've been receiving. I received this earthy-color themed package from my Secret Pal 10 swap pal a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely love the fancy fabric, and the colors of the cashmere yarn! The chocolate is also to die for -- I actually bought and ate a couple bars of this chocolate when hubby and I went to Belgium for the Soccer World Cup last summer.
From my Dye-No-Mite swap pal, I received an adorable and thoughtful card with cute and furry sheep on it.

Since Aubrey's wedding is fast approaching (this Saturday!!), I've been helping her with wedding sweatshop (photos here) and other wedding things. I just finished making her chapel length veil, made of silk chiffon trimmed with a rat tail lace at the bottom and a pearl and rat tail trim to match her fancy lace dress. Aubrey hired my friend Linh, who's staying with me, as the florist, so we've been running flower-related errands as well. The wedding is days away, and I still have yet to alter my bridesmaids dress. I have to shorten the straps and take it in near my armpits. Luckily, the empire waist means that I don't have to take in the rib/waist as well. I had to buy a size larger to accommodate my abnormally endowed bosom, which my friend Tedd claims that I stole from all the other Asian girls we knew in college.

As far as my other crafty activities, I'm trying to be an overachiever and spinning lace weight alpaca as my 3rd spinning project. Needless to say, the yarn keeps breaking on me -- I keep underspinning or overspinning and somehow failing to spin somewhere in between. This spinning project is testing my patience and tolerance! I don't think I have more than 15 yards on the spool at this point, and I started about a week ago.

I've also been dyeing the past two weekends. Last weekend, I painted some yarn and rovings for by of my swap pals in the Dye-No-Mite swap and Secret Pal 10 swaps. I also handpainted and listed this in my shop:

Then, this past Sunday, I hosted my 5th Wine, Dye and Knit party. No one got drunk, but my klutzy talents did not fail me -- I spilled half a bottle of red dye on my blonde bamboo floors and all over Robert's (from my knitting group) shoe. Oops! Luckily, I didn't spill on anyone else -- I guess it was a good lesson on what not to do for the 3 dye virgins that came. I'm fortunate that only one tiny spot on the floor turned a little pink, but it's barely noticeable. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because this is only my first major dye accident.

And last but not least, I finally remembered to photograph the purse I made for Aubrey's bridal shower gift.


The inside has 2 pockets, 2 magnetic snaps and a key ring hook.

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:

Mission: Yarn Acquisiion

Today, Zona and I headed went to Laguna Beach on a mission: Clean out a thrift store of it's yarn stash! This is no ordinary smelly craft yarn that you stumble upon at a thrift store. We would not even bother driving down there unless it worthy yarn. This was recycled sari silk yarn from MangoMoon!!! The store had a total of 9 ziploc bags of the yarn (tags removed, but the store said they were MangoMoon). They were $10.50 for yarn in an orderly skein or ball and $5 for yarn barf. More than half were yarn barf, but not unmanageable. Aubrey had wanted some too, but she could not get out of work, so 3 of the 6 bags pictured are actually for her.

After I unbagged the yarn, I felt like a thief for getting this at such a steal. MangoMoon usually retails at around $20 per 150yd skein. The yarn lover and addict in me couldn't help feel a little sad that the store didn't have more!

I've already managed to untangled one of the barfy messes and it wasn't too bad. I haven't counted the yardage, but it seems to be a full skein. I must thank Jan who posted notice on our knitting group message board about the yarn. Thank You Jan!

In spinning news, I finished spinning the remainder of the matted roving. Tomorrow I will try to play with some Brown Sheep mill ends that Zona gave me. If I get insomnia again, I guess I could play with it tonight instead. :)

Spinning Tales

Last night I borrowed Aubrey's Xmas present -- an Ashford Kiwi. I cooked dinner for my friends and after dinner, Zona showed me how to operate the wheel. I had already experimented with a drop spindle, so I already knew the very basics of handling the roving and drafting the wool. (I don't like drop spindles because I find it annoying to have to keep spinning it manually.)

After Zona went home, I played with the wheel for about 3 hours. Look what I did!This is my first yarn. It's some blue-gray roving that I had purchased a long time ago to play with the drop spindle.

I took one of the arms of my homemade swift and used it as a niddy noddy. I'm not sure how many yards I have here. If I don't say so myself, I thik I did a pretty good job of keeping a realtively even yarn. The fuzz was unavoidable since the roving was old and a little beat up to begin with. After running out of this blue roving, I managed to find some more old roving from a felting experiement and embarked on another attempt:
Woohoo! I might just have to hold Aubrey's wheel hostage...