I have finally worked out how to download images from the new phone, so will provide a little entertainment for you. Basically I had filled pretty well all my bobbins with spinning of various quality, and the last two bobbins actually looked marginally good. So I felted them, rather than plying them (they were way too thick to be plied), and knitted them up.

It was a salutary process as using the yarn gave me a better feel for how things were progressing. The last spin is considerably more even than the one before, and so forth. These two skeins were the third and fourth last spins.

 The first challenge of course was getting them off the bobbins. I do not yet have a niddy noddy (a long stick with a short stick attached at right angles at each end off set from each other also at right angles).

I tried a long stick with some screws in it, but it ended up being a bit too tight, so the second one I wound around the handles of the grain trolley I used to cart stone and other heavy objects with. Worked much better and will continue in that function for some time I suspect.

Then the wool was soaked in warm water for half and hour, with occasional proddings on my part, then microwaved for 8 minutes till it started steaming (at which point the kitchen started smelling like wet dog).





This is the pattern I chose - it is from the same book I have been working out of for other jumpers. As you can see, the first (most recent) skein knitted up surprisingly evenly.

Not so the second skein which was considerably more over-spun, and had large sections of unspun wool worms that became a little lumpen. Oddly enough, all the lumpy bits ended up in the same quadrant of the hat! And the overspun, ultra-skinny bits turned up in the Irish moss stitch at the crown of the hat!

The other side looks quite respectable, so will become the front of the hat!

The current bobbin is actually building on the abortive attempts to start spinning on the two-pedal model (Kiwi2), but seems rather more respectable again. I do have a bobbin with an even better spin on it, but no photo, sorry.

On Sunday we are heading down to the Brighton Show where we will be parked in the Sheep Pavilion to spin for the mob. Such exhibitions provide an opportunity to chat to other spinners, and perhaps to amuse passers by, but i realised that a we are all spinning 'natural' tops, it would be a good idea to have some more brightly dyed ones on display also, so today I took advantage of a day off and headed to the Moonah Wool Shop (the owner of our local shop is en route to Deloraine for the craft show), and bought some tops that have been dyed in other colours. I won't spin them till I am better (one is a luscious cinnamon blend of alpaca and silk from Ashford), but they will make a nice display. I also picked up some catalogues for wheels (the Moonah Shop is the Ashford dealer for Tassie) so anyone who is interested in taking it up can see the variety of wheels and looms available.

Tomorrow we are headed for 18 and on Saturday for 10, so clearly the weather has yet to calm down into anything resembling Spring.