As The Yarn Turns

Spinning and Ferret Flu

Balt seems to have a case of the ferret flu this week, so I've been preoccupied with him. He's the old man of our ferret family so we worry about him. He seems much better today though so I'm feeling better too. The good thing is that ferrets like to be babied when they're sick.

Several people mentioned that they would like to learn to spin when I got my new spinning wheel. So rather than show you my lack of knitting progress, I thought I would talk about how I learned to spin. I actually meant to post about this earlier but I forgot. I started out spinning with spindles. It's a cheap way to start, although some people find it easier to start on the wheel first. Spindles are also very portable. Plus my closest spinning guild isn't that close and meets at an inconvenient time. I started out with a basic purchased spindle and some blue-faced leicester fiber. You can also make a spindle from CDs and a dowel or from a toy wooden wheel from a hobby shop and a dowel. Here's a few of my spindles.

Starting at the top is a CD spindle (using the clear CD spacers), a purchased spindle, and a toy wheel spindle. If you're interested in making a CD spindle, Spin Off magazine has instructions for making your own CD spindle as well as a charkha and a little great wheel. They also have some downloadable spinning instructions. A lot of people have problems finding the rubber gaskets or grommets for the CD spindles. I found grommets in the electrical department of my local Lowe's. A number of places sell inexpensive spindle starter kits too. If you do better with videos, ICanSpin and Joy of Handspinning have some video spinning tutorials. I found the videos to be very helpful. So if you want to learn to spin, give spindles a try sometime.

by Sydney  |

Yeah, It's Monday

It was an interesting weekend. A friend and I spent all day Saturday at a "how to" workshop on movie lighting. Yes, here in northwest Alabama. The class was good. We even had a little bit of hands-on experience. I almost didn't go but my friend Sandra talked me into it. I'm glad she did. The rest of the weekend, on the other hand, was kind of rainy and dreary and I was feeling kind of rainy and dreary, so we'll just skip right over that part.

I did get a fun fur hat knit for the Childrens' Hospital. Apparently the kids undergoing chemo and radiation love fun fur hats, so Mini is collecting hats for the kids at the Childrens' Hospital. I just happen to have this HUGE ball of fun fur type yarn that I bought for some unknown reason.

I tell you though, it's been a long time since I even tried to knit with this stuff. I have this fear that I've dropped half the stitches and the whole thing will come unraveled. It does make a nice soft hat though. Now I've just got to figure out what to do with all of the ends. I'll probably stitch them down just to be on the safe side. If you're interested in participating, there's more information here. We've had plenty of cancer in my family, so I'm more than happy to participate.

by Sydney  |