On spinning yarn

I still have some roving lying around that is begging to be spun. In particular there was (was...note the past tense) some lovely pink roving that was an absolute joy to work with, and after spinning half of it I somehow came up with the idea of photographing each step to share here.

This isn't really a how to post, it's just sharing photos of the various steps. 

First, how it looked to start with.

Of course I had to open it up before I could begin to do anything with it. I measured it at 26 inches by 21 inches, in case anyone is interested.

That would be a bit much to take directly to the spinning wheel, so I tore it into strips. If the strips have a name, I've either forgotten or never learned it. My proper training on the wheel was a bit limited, unfortunately.

Or maybe it's still called roving...?

There's still a bit of yarn from several previous projects on the bobbin. They're sort of important to starting any new project, since I attach the new roving onto them to spin.

If the yarn isn't there then I either need to find yarn somewhere else that I can (hopefully) attach my work to, or I have to start it off by hand. Which I've done. And it's annoying.

Here you can see where I've got the new yarn attached to the old. The new is the thinner stuff.

Ta da! The bobbin is full. Magic. :)

Here's the newly spun stuff next to what I had previously spun.

I wrap the yarn around my hand to make it into a ball. The trick seems to be to keep your fingers open as wide as possible, since the yarn tends to pull the fingers together...which can get awkward.

The finished thing. :)