Adventures in spinning.

After a few weeks with the wheel, I have two "completed" skeins of yarn (and I use that term loosely).

My first attempt, spun from Mauch Chunky roving and finished a couple of weeks ago, vaguely resembles yarn:



I've been working off and on (more off) on some Ashland Bay Colonial Wool roving since I finished the first yarn. I spun the last of that roving into singles today:



I had some trouble with my yarn tangling while I was plying on the Kromski's built-in kate, so Carol (feistywoman on Ravelry) suggested that I tie a bit of yarn around both of my bobbins at the whorl while they were on the kate, and it helped a lot:



I think that I'll still invest in a proper tensioned kate at some point, but this was a great quick and inexpensive substitute for now. Thanks, Carol!

After plying the singles and skeining, I was left with some pretty unbalanced yarn, so I soaked it, whacked it, and that seemed to help a lot:



The yarn is still not great, but it's definitely looking better. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to practice more! ;)

Even with all of this spinning, I have not forsaken commercial yarns. Let's just say I had a bit of a falling down this weekend:



Natural Stitches recently got in a shipment of Dream in Color Smooshy, and of course I had to go check it out in person. That yarn makes me feel all dizzy. In a good way.

How's that for a slice of fried gold?

Ahhh. It's Friday night, I have a snoozing dog next to me, and best of all, I am blogging from bed. I've wanted a laptop for a very long time, and about a week ago, I went ahead and ordered one from Dell. I set up the wireless router tonight and now I am happily typing away as I watch Pride and Prejudice (in preparation for this!). I haven't had a chance to really sit down to set up and explore the computer yet, but I have found a use for the built-in webcam that I thought that I would never have a use for:



I can take pictures and video of myself knitting! From bed!

Hopefully now I can more easily steal a couple of moments here and there to keep up to date on all of those knitting blogs that I've recently fallen behind in reading. Yay!

I have been doing a very little bit of spinning as well:



My singles are getting better but are still pretty uneven. I have the wheel set up for double drive right now but if I can figure it out, I intend to set it up for Scotch tension tomorrow and give the whole thing another go.

Now, off to catch up on some blogs!