A New Spinner

It was only a matter of time before something like this found its way to me.

I mean, I'm a knitter. I love yarn. I love knitting with it. I love feeling it. I have recently fallen in love with dyeing it. Spinning was only a natural addition.

And I can already tell that I will love this. Madly. Brandy was right - she told me I would get addicted.

Kittens, even with that little bit of needle felting roving (which really has no business being spun up into yarn - trust me, no one would want to knit with the "yarn" I've created) I can already tell that my lovely Spindolyn and I will have fun happily spinning.

Over Memorial Day weekend we were in Rockford visiting family. Brandy and her family and I met up and had a lovely day together. One of the places we stopped was Unique Yarns - a relatively new yarn shop in Rockford. Brandy bought her drop spindle there and some beautiful Corriedale roving and I quietly debated on whether to buy one or not.

A few days later, after seeing the beautiful yarn that Brandy spun, I was sorry I didn't buy a spindle. I comforted myself in the fact that we carry a few different kinds of spindles where I work and lots of roving.

But I held out. I tried one of the drop spindles at work, and well, my first attempt at spinning wasn't great. I just could not get the mechanics of setting the spindle spinning and then drafting and going.

When I got home from work that night, I looked on the internet for different spindles. I ran across something called a Support Spindle, but it was way more than I wanted to spend on something when I wasn't sure if I'd like it.

So I did a little more research and ran across the Spindolyn. Much more affordable and the video tutorial was really what sold me. She makes it look so easy! Plus, I like the idea of supporting the woman who invented this design.


After spinning up this pathetic little roving, I know what I'm getting when I go to work Wednesday night. Fiber! We've got some beautiful merino pencil roving that I've had my eye on, and I'd also like to get a bag of the soy silk similar to what I sent to Brandy in her swap package.

What I've heard about the Spindolyn seems to be true: It "wants" to spin up fingering to lace weight yarn. Which, hello! Perfect for this sock- and lace-obsessed knitter!

Well, I'm off to go play. Later, kittens!