I lifted some of our new potatoes today for dinner- they were delicious, as were the freshly picked french beans . Never mind food miles, these have only food yards. The raspberries have finished now, I picked the last handful on Sunday to eat while I was knitting in the garden.
I like the lettuce from the garden too, but as D and J2 are not lettuce fans I tend to pick a leaf or
two and put some in my sandwiches at lunchtime.There are quite a few apples on the trees, and 5 pears on one pear tree, which is a big improvement on last year when there were none!
I plucked up courage today and fished out my drop spindle which I bought in Keswick last year.
I've been watching some great videos by Abby Franquemont on youtube this week which are very clear and informative .
So fortified by the delicious potatoes & beans (and some grilled pork) I sat in front of the pc, watched the videos over and over again and using a very simple spindle produced a few yards of handspun. (The brown yarn at the bottom of the spindle was with the kit to use as a leader).
I have a lot to learn:
- how to draft properly,
- how to understand the twist building up in the yarn,
- and how to avoid dropping the drop spindle on my foot!
I haven't even thought about plying yet, I'm just going to work through my bag of fibre and keep practising.
3 comments:
Yay you for picking up your spindle. Don't worry now about what you can't do, just keep on doing what you can do. The rest will come, slowly but surely.
when I first started I found spinning over a bed meant that I didn't have so far to bend to pick up my spindle:) also you can rest your spindle on a saucer and spin, if you want to perfect the drafting with out worrying about the spindle dropping all the time
Please post lots of pictures and commentaries about learning to use your drop spindle! I need all the help I can get. Mine's been gathering dust in a cupboard for the last year.
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