I'm Going to Learn Jujitsu...

Do you remember the part in the Matrix where they've got Neo hooked up and ready for combat training and he says the following; "Jujitsu? I'm going to learn...Jujitsu?" It's the best line in the movie and a prime example of Keanu acting at it's finest.

Anyhow, that's how I felt on Saturday. I went to a spinning workshop that Heddy organized (if you click the link, you'll see foe-toes...even of yours truly) and learned how to spin straw into gold. No wait, that's another story.

I haven't blogged about it until now for two reasons. One, I've been on the obsession side of things and also consumed with a three day near-migraine. The one might have some correlation with the other, but I'm not willing to concede that just yet.

So yeah...I am now at the very beginning stage of making my own yarn. We started with a drop spindle kit, which had some natural and dyed roving in it, all combed and carded and ready to be spun. Here's the result of my first few attempts.



Three little mini skeins, wherein I am setting the twist in this picture. All three skeins are two ply. The two white or natural ones are plied with themselves, and the one in the middle is the dyed roving plied with the natural, which reminds me of a candy cane or stick, although it doesn't come out quite as yummy in the photo. The two white ones are a little over twisted, one more than the other, and the colour/natural skein was nicely balanced, which I was pretty pleased about.

But I couldn't stop there. I had to see what else I could do. So I spun up a few singles of the dyed roving and then plied those together, and I was so impressed with the result. It's so pretty!



Here is my two ply dyed yarn still on the spindle...



And here is my wee skein that I wound on my antique wool winder . Who knew that would come in handy so soon??!

Anyhow, after this photo was taken, I spun another skein of two ply just like it. So I have a total of five little skeins of yarn, and I still have plenty of roving left over in the kit. I really am not sure of the total yardage. I've wound the skeins around a variety of different apparatti, including my feet, so there may be no way of ever knowing. I didn't measure my wool winder either. I may go back and do that, perhaps re-wind everything to see how much I've got.

I was talking to the lady beside me at the workshop and we've decided that there just simply is no time left over for a job, so the best course of action would be to start a co-op and do some sort of job sharing, so that we can all get more crafting done overall. And I think I heard Heddy say that when she first learned to spin, she wasn't sure if she'd ever knit again. At first I thought she might be a little daft, but now I know exactly what she means. I have a couple of projects on the needles that really do need to meet some immediate deadlines, and all I want to do is spin.

Next week we learn about spinning on a wheel, which I'm both excited and sad about. If spinning on a wheel is like this awesome experience, then I'll be both elated and totally put out, cuz there is no way I can afford a wheel at this point, and I'll totally want one. I've already told the constable that I now MUST HAVE an umbrella swift, ball winder, niddy-noddy (or is it knitty-naughty?) and whatever else I can get my grubby little hands on. He wasn't as enthusiastic as I was about it all.

Anyhow, I've got a free day, which really means that I have a pile of housework that I am going to ignore in favour of spinning and knitting and just generally indulging in things that cause me neck pain. I don't think I'll go so far as to never knit again in favour of spinning, but I'm pretty sure I'll never do another load of laundry.

If you don't see or hear from me in a while, send moths. That oughtta get me moving pretty quickly.