Hand-painted yarn

I took my first of two classes on hand-painting yarn today. It's taught by the lady who runs Scout's Swag online and held at Village Wools.

I naturally chose some ridiculous 500 yard skein that ended up being rolled into a ball that could bowl over a small village if released from atop a hill. I am now regretting that as I try to wind it all into a 3-section skein to prepare it for dyeing next week.

It's really interesting and fun so far, and I'm so excited to get to learn it.

Next month is my spinning class. That would be yarn spinning and not exercise spinning. I'd rather die than do the latter. And I'd rather dye than die. Yeah, that was stupid. I'm really excited for spinning, though, because I'm hoping to buy a spinning wheel. I've saved up money and Village Wools store credit from my birthday and may soon be able to afford one. They just start at $350-$400.

In the end, I hope to be able to create interesting yarns of my dreams without spending $50 on yarn for a scarf. Maybe I can even sell some, who knows.

((Dear Mark: So what if all my hobbies are for 90-year-olds?))

Grass is green

Remember grass? I miss the spring. These green items, available for sale at Burst of Happiness, cheer me up:




and speaking of green, I'm turning this heavenly alpaca/bamboo/silk batting into yarn, slowly but surely:

Lookie what I made

I made yarn. I bought this roving from Cavyshops on etsy.com:



Then I spun it on a drop spindle, and out came this:



I don't like so much how the colors spun together -- in some areas it's sort of muddied. And I do realize it's very lumpy. Much of that is because I'd never done it before, so I'm not spinning evenly yet. But because I like textured yarn, I actually did exaggerate it. I'm not sure what I'll make with it yet, since it only made 32 yards (not enough for a scarf).

Next up is this delectable alpaca/bamboo batting that I bought from Loop on etsy.com:


I hope to do a good job on this one, because it's so soft and beautiful. Maybe I'll take note of the process for a future blog item.