I think I have made friends with my drop spindle. The learning curve for this has been pretty steep (hmmm - reminds me of when I started knitting!), but now that I've worked through the four ounces of roving I started with I feel like my hands are learning what to do. I got three small skeins of two-ply yarn out of it. This one, the last one, is my favorite:
It actually looks like yarn! The other two are a bit more, well, sucky, but I'm okay with that. My plan is to use this for Baby Sister's Christmas present, a stuffed cat. I had to find something to do with it that was as sentimental as possible, you know?
I actually have two drop spindles, one made from a cd that I got at a wool fair in the spring ($3, from the kids' tent), and a wooden one that I got about a month ago. After playing around with them I was surprised to find I prefer the cd one. It seems to spin more smoothly and for a longer time. It's pretty homely; I dropped it a bunch of times (insert requisite "they're not called drop spindles for nothing" joke here) and had to repair it with duct tape, but I love it anyway. It's got, um, character.
The spinning wheel is still not here yet. Any day now, I'm told. Oh, hang on, is that a UPS truck?? Nope, foiled again.
I have to say I'm really happy so far with the store I purchased the wheel from, considering I pretty much picked them at random. They had the wheel I wanted, they had free shipping, so that was that. They've been so communicative with emails letting me know when the wheel was being released (since it's a brand new model), when it's shipping, when it should arrive. Earlier this week they sent this:
Because it's a Ladybug, get it? Cute.
Well, back to staring out the window . . .
|