How To Get To Carnegie Hall

You know the old joke. The tourist in NYC asks the native, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” and the native New Yorker say, “Practice, practice, practice.” Well, I’m not ready for Carnegie Hall quite yet, but I have been practicing my spinning. A lot. I started spinning on July 12th and I haven’t missed a day. In the past 12 days I have spun 7 ounces (200 grams) of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, 1 ounce of mohair/Shetland blend, one-and-a-half ounces of Corriedale, and half an ounce of Bluefaced Leicester.

Yesterday I finished spinning up the rest of the dark green (Aurora Heather) Wool of the Andes fiber that I bought from Knit Picks and even got half of it plied last night. I plan to ply the rest of it later today. It’s a beautiful, rich shade of green.

And remember the bit of purple fiber I received as a thank-you gift from Corgi Hill Farm? It has gone from this

Lovely purple BFL from Corgi Hill Farm

to this.

Lovely purple BFL from Corgi Hill Farm on the spindle

The colors spun up beautifully. I just divided the fiber lengthwise into 4 strips, started with the darkest shade each time, and, voilà! I ended up with a beautiful purple yarn. I’m not sure what I will do with this yarn because there isn’t a lot of it. But it might be a good candidate to use in a faux Fair Isle hat. I’m sure I’ll think of something. 🙂

Oh, my! Aren’t you observant! Yes, that purple yarn is on a new spindle. I bought a Kundert spindle. It’s not just a great tool, it’s a work of art.

My Kundert is currently occupied with some gorgeous turquoise Corriedale that I ordered at the same time as the spindle. I am enjoying spinning the Corriedale. It is a very crimpy yarn and has a lot of body. It feels really substantial after spinning the WotA, which is very smooth and slick.

My spinning still leaves a lot to be desired. And my plying? I don’t even want to talk about it. LOL But in spite of all the mistakes and missteps, I can see that my spinning is getting better, and I have learned that handspun yarn doesn’t have to be perfect to be useable. I have come a long way in only 12 days. I think I’ll enjoy my success for a little while and not think about how far I still have to go. 🙂