Spinning yarn

So 2 weeks ago I decided to hire a spinning wheel to try my hand at making yarn. It was an old Sheridan, from the 70's or 80's I think. It was a traditional style one, I want to say it was called a Macarthur but I'm not 100% sure. It was lovely, but annoyingly big. After the two weeks I can honestly say spinning wheels are not yet my thing. I struggled a lot but the lady who I hired it from said my yarn was great for a beginner. In the future I plan to try again. I also forgot to take a picture of the wheel. Oops.

Here are some pictures of yarn that I spun, they are all single ply.

This is raw fleece, Corriedale I think? I found it realllllllllly difficult to spin it as it was literally just the wool shorn from the sheep, bugs included.

This is a merino wool top that I bought from somewhere... I can't remember where. This was a lot easier to spin as it has been carded so that the fibres are all parallel. I got this in a couple of different colours. They are lovely.

I did really enjoy the experience and since I am going on my trip for 10 days tomorrow I really wanted to get/make a drop spindle so I could keep trying. I went on an adventure to Bunnings on Wednesday and gosh the staff there were rather unhelpful. But I eventually found some dowel, two weird disk things that I thing were for stair banisters and some hooks. My lovely Father helped me put them together I ended up with a top whorl and a bottom whorl spindle for $12. Last night after we made them I decided to test out the top whorl with some undyed merino gifted to me by Katie (http://www.etsy.com/shop/KardedByKatie), a lovely girl in NSW who I have befriended. She dyes, spins and makes gorgeous baby bonnets! 

I think drop spindles are my calling. I found it sooooooooo much easier to use, and get a more consistent yarn although there are still some thicker/thinner bits throughout it. I love it.

Here are the drop spindles, the one with yarn on it is the top whorl, and the one below is the low whorl.

Here is a close up of the yarn I've done so far. I'm rather proud of myself!

Another Hat

So after I made my green hat I loved it so much that I decided to make the same one for my friend Tobi. Since I tried knitting, 8 months ago, I promised to make her a hat but never did. She'd already chosen wool so I just had to get my act together.
For this one I used a larger crochet hook, a 5 or 5.5mm I think. The hat ended up bigger than mine, which was the plan, and it fit really well.

The flower starting to take shape.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the completed hat so I will have to get her to take one someday!

I've very excited as tomorrow I am picking up a spinning wheel that I am renting for a few weeks to try it out. After learning to crochet, then decided to dye wool I ended up watching tonnes of youtube clips of how to spin wool and so I thought I'd give it a try!