this is another spinning post

I had the chance to go to the DKC Knitter’s Frolic this weekend. (For the not-from-Ontario: the Frolic is a weekend-long fiber festival, with workshops and a marketplace full of lots of awesome people.) I went last year, not really knowing what to expect, but this year I had plans. I had a Market Agenda, which is important if you’re a person like me who is easily dazzled by soft, fluffy wool and pretty colours.

I mentioned to Steph that I wanted to spin more this year, and that one of my goals was to stock up on some spinning fiber. I feel pretty comfortable spinning small, 4-oz batches of yarn, but I’d really like to start trying to spin with greater quantities, so that I can make larger projects. And she wandered around the market with me and pointed out all of the good places to get fiber, while I thought about all of the awesome things I could spin.

Anyway, that’s how I ended up wandering home with a little over a pound of BFL/Shetland lamb roving. Let me tell you, that is one way to get some funny looks on the subway.

(Cat for scale)

I got it from Hopeful Shetlands, and it is gorgeous. It’s got this really nice soft, sproingy texture, and it’s undyed, but the colour is beautiful. I absolutely love the look of naturally black/brown wool.

My goal is to sit down with this on a regular basis over the summer, and turn it into yarn. I tend to go on spinning jags, where I’ll use my wheel a lot for a couple of weeks and then let it languish, but this is some pretty solid motivation for me to use the wheel more regularly. (Also, uh, the Big Bag of Fiber doesn’t really fit into my stash boxes so well. A Much Smaller Bag Of Yarn will.)

It’s also a pretty great incentive to finish up the project I’ve got on my wheel right now.