Spinning follies

I spin a little. And by a little, I mean a little. I have a drop spindle and all the training the internet has to offer. So I do... okay. I make yarn. Not great yarn. And not quickly. Like what I'm working on now. I bought 2.5 oz of black alpaca roving in JUNE 2007. And I've spun about half of it into 162 yards of a two-ply heavy-ish laceweight.


I think what's happening is that I'm underspinning the singles so that the plies aren't, um, plying enough. So it's a very loose two ply. And my operation is probably not the best. I wind the yarn off the spindle onto my ball winder and ply from both sides of the ball. Also, I haven't "set it" yet, which I believe involves soaking the yarn and then beating it vigorously on a counter top. But still, it is yarn, it is knittable and I did make it. I'm working on the other half, spinning a thicker yarn which will hopefully take less than 18 months. :P

My knitpicks order came!

40" classic circs in sizes 0-3, 40" cord for the options set, and a needle sizer with metric. My current sizer was a thrift store find with no metric readings... and old.

The current projects seem to be unphotographable. The light and the yarn isn't co-operating. Alas.

Dang nab it.

Look what happened:


And it happened with 256 stitches on my needle too. Just busted straight through. That's two of my Denise cables which have given out on me. I should send in and get them replaced. Of course, I've had the set for *does math* at least 4 years and it has seen some use. Don't worry though, I was able to save my stitches and transfer them to a different size 7 needle.

The Denises have fallen out of favor with me, as more of my projects are on smaller needles with thinner cords. Who knows, maybe I'll get a set of knitpicks options for Christmas. ;)