Spinning, spinning...

I have been having a lovely time with my new Traveller Spinning Wheel!
Have spun up some experiments, all navajo plied (I haven't really had the patience to wait long enough to spin up two bobbins).

These two were the very first I spun. The blue had been a single on one of the bobbins that came with the Wheel and the red is some roving I bought when a local craft store closed down. The red is a lot softer than the blue.

Next I started to make my way through the bag of fleece I got with the Wheel. It is pretty dirty but still so soft! It's been quite a long time since I've had to card my own wool since I've spun mostly from rovings of late. I'd forgotten how unpleasant it can be! Bits of skin off my knuckles from the flick brush and sore hands and wrists! But in the end, all worth it. I'd washed the fleece bits before spinning but they were still a bit tacky so after I'd spun it up I sprayed it with stain remover that specialises with removing grease and then put it in a warm bath. So much dirt came out of that last wash! Now it's lovely ans, not tacky at all and lovely light cream colour!

I'm very pleased with these three experiments and I'm washing more fleece bit by bit so I can keep carding and have lots of fluffy wool to spin when I have a chance. I'm thinking of maybe knitting with the three and making a felted pouch or bag-thing with them. The blue really isn't wearable and neither is the red, really and there's not enough of any of them to make something substantial.
Oh well, so much fun. I'll just keep knitting the socks, the shawl and whatever else I've got on the go at the moment and quietly make my leisurely way through the whole garbage bag of fleece, confident that there is no real hurry.
Happy Knitting :)

And We SCORE!!!

I went into one of Jordan's favourite second hand stores today because he said there was a spinning wheel and, ever interested in all spinning wheels, I ventured in to take a peek. It was another Ashford Traditional like mine but I couldn't see the price so I went to the proprietor and asked, "How much is the spinning wheel?" and he replied "Oh, they're both $85 each."
Both?
You mean there's another one I haven't seen yet?
Sure enough, tucked away between a couple of other oddments was this sweet Ashford Wee Peggy


complete with 5 bobbins, a couple of brushes,


and a large bag of soft fleece...

for $85!

I've always wanted one of these because they are much more compact than the Traditional and easier to move around if you want to go to spinning events. I bought it and figured since I'll be getting extra work while Emma our Pharmacist is on holidays for the month of November it was a worthy purchase.
Now I have two spinning wheels! I feel so decadent!!!