Holy crap I made yarn

I've been spinning my little heart out lately. I have enough roving now to consider it a stash (6 braids). Here's what I bought last week to practice on before the Tempted roving for the SAL comes:

BFL roving from Fiber Optic in Spring Fling colorway:

The next two are both from CJKopec and are 100% merino. The first one is Raspberry and the second is Wild Berry.

This one is so freaking cute! It's Jungle Boogie Merino Top from Indigo Muse. I had planned for it to be the first one I spun, but I was advised against practicing with merino because of its short staple length.

Finally, I bought some superwash BFL from Spincerely in the Harvest colorway:

It became my first pretty handspun (the other skein was my first, but isn't very pretty in my opinion). I didn't spin all of it-I tried to split it in half so I could make 2 singles, but apparently my first half was spun  a bit thicker in places than the second. The second had more yardage, so I stopped on the second half before I was completely done with it.  I plied it tonight:

I think I may need to get a plying spindle. I fit as much as I could on my poor little Alice. I made a homemade lazy kate to hold the singles:

Finally, here it is resting for the night. I want to "thwack" it when it's wet (in other words, beat the snot out of it against the side of the tub), and I can't do that while it's so late. DH would kill me for making that much noise. I put my human physiology book to good use:

Overall, I'm pleased with it. There are definitely thick and thin areas, but overall it's relatively even. This is an improvement over my last spinning. I hope I have enough to make hat out of it.

In other news, I finished another WIP. Remember the Aragorn socks that I started in January 2010? And that they were supposed to be a birthday present for March 2010? Well, I finished them last week and my friend received them today. I am so happy that they fit her! I was worried that they may be too small.

I'm knocking out the WIPs, but I'm replacing them just as quickly with new projects. Currently I have the Lady Bertram shawl and the Ribbed Ribbons socks on my needles, and my poor Geodesic cardigan keeps getting ignored. Maybe one of these days I'll pull it back out.

As if I don't have enough hobbies already

I've wanted to spin for a while now, but I really wanted a wheel (and honestly turned up my nose at spindles because wheels are prettier). But the wheels I want (either a Ladybug or a Lendrum DT) are pretty expensive, and I don't have the spare cash laying around. Let's face it-I tend to be very obsessive with new things initially and then drop them out of a lack of interest after a week or so, and a $600 spinning wheel costs too much for me to just lose interest.

The Knitgirllls and Tempted are doing a spinalong on Ravelry, and I wanted to play along. Not having a wheel, I was going to sit out. A few people on Plurk had joined in the SAL, had bought spindles, and then plurked about them. A little voice in the back of my mind kept chattering on about spindles and roving, getting to play along with everyone else, and how pretty Tempted's roving would be. DH still hadn't gotten me a Valentine's Day present, so I asked for a spindle. After getting recommendations on Plurk, I decided to go with a Golding 0.75oz 2" Cherry Tsunami.

Isn't it beautiful? I want to name it. I was having trouble choosing between Jacob and Alice (lmao), and while I'd like to be able to say that I'm having private time with Jacob, I think the spindle wants to be named Alice. So Alice she will be.

I bought some roving at the DFW Fiber Fest in 2009, but I can't find the receipt to figure out what type of wool it is or where I bought it. Whatever it is, it's 1oz of wool.

Now it's yarn!

I don't have a chair with a back on it, so I had to improvise when I skeined it. I'm glad that I bought that tennis racket lol.

I got approximately 25 yards or so. There are quite a few places where I dramatically overtwisted it, but I think the overall product is is decent for a first attempt. I don't think I'll be able to knit anything with it, so it'll likely end up as a decoration. I have some wonderful green roving coming from Fiber Optic, and of course Tempted's roving will be here in time for the SAL in April. I'm going to buy some more roving tomorrow so I have plenty of fiber to practice on.

In other news, I finished my Clapotis on Friday night. It's right purdy. I don't think I'm going to block it.

Finally, GUESS WHAT. Gnome and I are going to the Estes Park Wool Market in Estes Park, CO, on June 9-12. We're going to stay in her aunt's cabin. I'm so freaking excited. I've never been to CO. We're also going to the DFW Fiber Fest in April. This will be my third year there, and I actually met Gnome IRL there for the first time (we'd been e-friends for a while before that though). Yay for fiber fests! One of these days I'll make it to MDSW, Rhinebeck, and the Sock Summit.