Like a Hole In The Head

That's how much I needed a new hobby. Yesterday I met up with Kelly to check out the "Artistry in Threads Festival" at our local science museum. It was a small affair, but fun to meander through for a mere $5 entry. We were both called while passing one of the wool booths and decided that we needed to purchase drop spindle beginner kits to teach oursevers how to spin. We grabbed a bit to eat, then came back to my apartment to master our new craft.

The accompanying "Getting Started" article was a bit cryptic and too wordy for our tastes, with horribly reproduced, unhelpful black and white photos, directing us to do what seemed to be the hokey pokey. Something about extending your knee, rolling your hand up to your hip ("... and you turn yourself around...") and other seemingly odd directions that we were just too impatient to read through. I was however, incredibly amused with the opening line: "You may already have some wool -- maybe you are raising a few sheep yourself..." Yep, right in the back yard. Isn't everybody?

Kelly turned out to be a natural, and found her groove pretty easily. I had a harder time of it but eventually got the hang of it. I later found this Knitters' Review article to be really helpful. Our kit came with two hunks (or whatever the technical term is!) of roving, so the second time around was easier to get more consistent weights for longer lengths, though I have yet to master keeping it consistent the whole way through. Nonetheless, in all their lumpy glory, ultimately I ended up with these two ganglia of my very own yarn! How cool is that?!



For another first, as I type, I've got my yarn stewing in Kool-Aid to give this dyeing bit a whirl as well. I'll probably get high on the Kool-Aid scent now permeating my apartment, while I wait with anticipation to see how it will all turn out.



I am hooked. Hooked so badly that I went back to the museum this afternoon (it'a a handy 5 minute walk around the corner) to get myself some more roving. I fell in love with this alpaca-silk blend:




Oh, I almost forgot -- my very cool secret pal Aimee sent me all this fun stuff last week:






Thanks Aimee for a fun SP7!