Spinning Tuesdays: A Perfect Spinning Toy and How Did Jillian Do in April?

Have you seen this yet? It’s my favorite spinning thing in a long time.

Spinner’s Party Tool

Yes, I was so excited I ran out into the rain to take this picture.

WPI, twist angle and bottle opener in one, all for $5 plus shipping.

From the fantastic minds that make the spinning wheel cup holders, FBN Plastics.

 

 

So how did I do with my spinning goals for April? I certainly got a lot more done than I would have otherwise. Here’s my tally and a few pictures.

April deadline spinning:

Fiber Fiesta for the next issue of Knittyspin- Yes! But I can’t show you.
Samples for the Spin Art SAL on SpinDoctor, the rest of the singles yarns – Ha! I did two. But those are awesome.
The yarn for the Spunky Eclectic blue shawl I have in my head, worsted spun – Nope.

Thick & thin Merino

Thick & thin Shetland

 

I really thought I would get more samples spun from Spin Art, but it just didn’t happen. I did coils and thick and thin and that’s all. I loved thick and thin so much I did two in different fibers, Merino and Shetland. The Shetland thick spots were much puffier and long.

 

April non deadline spinning

Practice worsted spinning (for the blue shawl above, also a 2012 spinning goal) – Yes! Three yarns.
Practice hand carding (from Carol Rhoades Madrona class)- Yes!
Try dizzing from my drum carder (from Sarah Anderson’s Madrona class) – Yes!
Spin and write a pattern for easy mittens and hats using handspun for holiday gifts – Spun 1 yarn
Ponder all the bits for teaching a knitting with handspun class – Yes, and it’s going to be cool!
Spin three things for just spinning – Did 2 though one may become a gift

Hand carding sampler

I did a bunch of hand carding. The samples above are, some super short Southdown (left), opening up of a really compacted roving (middle) and color blending some green fiber. I still have a lot of learning to do, but my technique is getting smoother.

Dizzing from my drum carder

Dizzing from my drum carder was fun! So much fun, I’ll show you more next week.

For May goals, I’ll move over the ones I didn’t get done, maybe with some tweaks and add some more. I’m still thinking about it.

 

What did you spin in April?