Spindling!

I think I mentioned that I've been spending a lot of time with my spindles lately?  Well, it's not only because spindles are great fun.  And it's not only because it turns out that Abby Franquemont is right, and spindles are, in fact, slower by the hour but faster by the week.  (She is right, though; I've been getting more spun on my spindles lately than I've managed on my wheels.)

While those things are, indeed, true, the main reason is because the owner of my beloved LYS, Yarning For You, has decided to give spinning a whirl (get it? get it?  gosh, I'm twisted)(get it again?)(I could spin this out forever)(heh).  She is now not only carrying some lovely sliver and spindles from Ashford, she is also offering spindling lessons, starting in a few weeks.

And when I say that she is offering spindling lessons, what I really mean is that I am teaching spindling at her lovely store.  You can see the announcement on her website on the link above.  (And if you live anywhere near here and have been interested in spindling, now's your chance!)

Actually, I'm pretty darned excited.  I really do love my high-whorl spindles a rather unreasonable amount, and I love teaching a pretty unreasonable amount, so getting to combine the two is a lot of fun.

But it also means that I'm playing with all kinds of things right now, trying to think of as many ways as possible to explain what I already know how to do.  I think that's one of the things I most appreciate about teaching - it forces me to articulate what I know and, if I'm going to do it right, to articulate it in several different ways.  Doing that, in turn, means that I have to think about all of the other ways someone might try to do or understand what I'm doing.  It's an amazing brain exercise.  I got to test run it a bit at a store staff meeting this Monday (and if any of you are reading this, thank you for being such gracious guinea pigs), and I think it went well.

So I have been spinning.  I spun some alpaca.

That's an ounce there, on my spindlewood spindle.  I slid this cop onto a knitting needle, spun another ounce of white alpaca, and then plied the two of them from a shoebox, using my heavier Golding spindle.

I ended up with a very respectable hank of yarn, which still needs to be washed before I can say what the wpi and yardage are, but I think it's a sport-weight yarn.  I'm thinking I'll knit a hat out of it.

My second new spindle also came in the mail today.  It's a trindle - sold on etsy (in the Trindleman store); this one is jasper beads and blackwood.

I'm very happy with it, and I'm thinking we'll spend some time bonding tonight and tomorrow.

So there it is!  A new adventure - I'm really excited, and tremendously honored that my friend is trusting me with this new venture in her store.  I know what a huge deal that is for a small business owner, and I just hope I do her proud.

Tilly isn't worried, though.