Click!

Here's a little eye candy. It's gotten really cold here in the past few days and, more importantly - it's super windy. This is just some decorative grass in the landscaping at a shopping center but I like the way it shows the movement of the wind.

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Tonight was spinning class again and, at first, it was horrible again. The teacher is great and, to her credit, never indicated how pathetic I was. She was very encouraging and assured me that my progress was normal. Yeah, right! I was making the same mistakes as I did on Tuedsday and I felt no closer to getting it right. I could not get my hands to do what they were supposed to do quickly enough and my feet were going way too fast. Just as I got to a point in my frustration where I really started to think I'd never catch on we stopped spinning to learn about using a niddy noddy and put our yarn in a bucket to soak for a while.

My yarn is tied with a green string. All of us soaked our yarn together so I'm not sure how easy it is to see mine. It might be easier to see it hanginig up. Sorry the picture isn't that clear but trust me, you're not missing much. It's thick and thin and really, quite a mess. This is the yarn that you tuck away somewhere so that with any luck, someday when you get the hang of it, you can pull it out and say "see how far I've come."

After the break we learned a little about unprepared fleece. We carded it and then we sat down to try spinning it and guess what - it worked. Click! Suddenly I was spinning stuff that didn't look like ass. My feet and my hands knew what to do and the yarn started to look more even and fine. Apparently the top was too compact for me to get a handle on it. The looser fibers were much easier for me to understand and feel. After that I went back and forth between the top and the fleece. I get it now.

I really wish that this next picture was better but I'm still getting to know the new camera. If it was in focus you'd see some reasonably nice looking stuff. No more twisty, nasty mess. It's just a bunch of somewhat even looking yarn. The greyish, brownish stuff is Romney and it's really nice and even on the bobbin. The white is generic Brown Sheep top which I learned is much easier to handle when it's fluffed up a bit.

Now I just can't wait to go back and practice. Oh yes, and shop for a wheel.