Gails do not Spin.

There is one bit of the Heartland Retreat I glossed over.

It was the spinning.

First, let me make clear that Toni is a wonderful teacher. Second, I had a ton of fun.

But, it appears that perhaps I am not a naturally gifted spinner. I appear to have control issues. To give you an idea, this is me spinning. Dee took the picture and I stole it from her.

Notice something? The folks around me are spinning the way most people spin. Me? That’s me attempting to straighten out my roving, because I somehow managed to twist the roving. Yes, I made the entire roving into yarn.

With much patience, I did manage to spin enough yarn to make a ball.

You know, if I was a 19 year old on LiveJournal, I’d be able to sell that on eBay for serious bucks. I meant to make totally hosed yarn. I did it on purpose. That’s it.

Last night, I tried again with some roving I’ve had in the stash. I had originally ordered a learn to spin kit, which included a spindle, yarn and Spin It : Making Yarn from Scratch . I could not quite figure it out, so I put it away.

Well, here is what I ended up with.

I think I made some headway. First, I realized that I was putting a death grip on the fibers. Second, I realized that the fiber itself was much longer than what I was using at the retreat, so my drafting hand had to be further back. I still can’t really get yarn without a ton of effort, much less make the drop spindle spin, but I’ll keep at it. Small children can drop spindle, for crying out loud.

Update: Due to Extreme Snowiness, I won’t be at knitting tonight. I shall stay home and watch Project Runway, since I already saw who was told they were “out” last night. Dammit. Oh well.