So Kelly and I went to a spinning class this past Saturday. Unfortunately, Kelly got quite ill while we were there and so she drank water and watched. I felt horrible for her feeling so sick. The class itself was ok. It was good for me in that it put everything I’d read on the web into the correct order and cleared up that ‘S’ and ‘Z’ twist deal for me. But other than that, all three of us in the class seemed to have a grasp of it already. We got so far ahead that the lady teaching it joked (quasi-joked. she didn’t seem too thrilled) that we were getting two classes in one and as a result, cheating her out of class fees. I don’t know if anyone else caught it, but it touched a nerve with me. I think this was mainly because she didn’t so much as teach us anything, but just sat there and told us what to do and wow, we knew so much! I could have done this at home with a book and saved money. Also, she had this skein of "yarn" that she had spun herself out of fur that her cat had shed. I declined to touch it at first because it looked like a massive knotty hair ball. But at the end of the class I finally picked it up and yeah, I could have done without that. Curiousity killed the cat so to speak I guess, but it was disgusting. Note to self: Never spin your pet’s shed fur. It will look as gross as it sounds/feels.

I did actually finish a tiny mini skein that fits neatly in the palm of my hand. I was pretty pleased with myself. It’s plied too. She told us how to do an "Andean Ply" which makes no sense now that I’m outside of the class, but worked out pretty well to make 2 ply yarn. I think it’s something that will work best with small amounts of yarn. I spun a little bit on Sunday. But I woke up late and didn’t feel all that wonderful. I am apparently unable to spin thick bulky yarn. I found that I had more luck with spinning yarn that was probably cobweb weight yarn and should I ply it, would possibly be laceweight. Which is funny since I’ve yet to have a successful lace knitting project. What on earth could I do with handspun laceweight?? I suppose I could give it away or something. I don’t know.

We each bought 8oz of uncolored roving to try our hand at dying but we didn’t quite get that far. Soon though. Soon. We have each bought dye so that between us we’ve got a rainbow. I did however manage to buy the wrong dye. I remembered what brand to get, but I didn’t know that Kelly had bought powdered dye and I bought liquid. I looked this up on the company website and sure enough, while the dye I bought would be ok for dying wool, its better suited to that silk screening thing or silk painting. Whatever it’s called. So I’ll go out again and pick up the powdered dye here soon.

Anyway… I’ll post pictures when I get home. Have a lovely rainy day!