More Flowers and also Some Spinning!

Some excellent flowers out there... Check out Cara's faboo pics (which is better, yesterday's or today's? I can't decide, they both rock). And our globetrotter, Paula, posted some Scottish lovelies from her recent trip.

To play along during Flower Pic Week (FPW© - all rights reserved), all you have to do is to interpret "Flowers" as you see fit, then show us the picture(s)! You do not have to post a pic every day. One or a dozen, it is all ok during FPW!

TUESDAY




It is definitely pansy season here in DC.

SPINNING
Once upon a time I went to Rhinebeck and got a whole bunch of spinning paraphernalia. But I couldn't figure out how to prevent slubs and I couldn't figure out how to join the roving back up when it broke. So I stuffed all of the roving and the spindles away and didn't drag them out again until May 7th.

I spent my morning pre-MDS&W spinning a bit. I packed my spindle and a wee bit of roving into my bag to serve as a non-shopping aide as in "see, you already have a spindle Right Here. And you don't need more roving, 'cause you can't spin up what you have." Which, by the way, totally worked.

But then all the beautiful roving and homespun at the fest made me want to spin better faster more!

Enter D.J. and Ann from NoMoCo Stitch n' Bitch! They helped me with both problems, and by last Saturday, the little half spindle of wobbly fiber had become this:


(One ounce down, one to go)

I was totally on a roll... So by Sunday morning I had this:



By Lunchtime? Click here.

That's yarn, folks. And I made it. How cool is that?

Some opportunities I have for improvement:

• I am a parker and drafter all the way. I tried to stand up and actually "drop" spindle with some scrap roving and I really suck at that. I do more dropping than spindling.
• Still not so great at keeping out the slubs (but I am better at catching and remediating them quickly).
• When should I "set the twist"? Before I ply, or after? (Anyone care to guess which method Ms. Impatient chose?)
• I think my plying technique leaves a bit to be desired. Anyone have any tips they would like to share? How do you set up your space, prepare your fiber, do you use any tools? I kept the two little balls in the bowls and just pulled from them... Too low tech?

Tomorrow... Orchids and work-stash (you all have that, right? Not just me?)