Trying Something New

For some time now I've been contemplating something new. I hear all these people talking about spinning yarn, and they seem to be having a grand time. I've also seen lots of beautiful roving (unspun wool) on Etsy and other places, and since I'm not into needle felting I wouldn't have much need for it if I couldn't spin. For the last few weeks I've been trying to convince myself that I want to spin. Of course, I'm not crazy enough to jump into a spinning wheel purchase, for a hobby I may not enjoy, so that led to drop spindle spinning.

I went to Hill Country Weavers on Friday intending to purchase some roving and a drop spindle, but they were out of the spindle that Suzanne likes. She offered to let me borrow one that she didn't like until the new shipment came in, but then I spied the Louet drop spindle kit. Suzanne opened it to make sure she approved of the spindle inside (this was a yes) and I have to say I loved the colors of roving (purple, dark blue, teal) so I was all set.

The instructions included probably help if you already have some instruction from other sources on spinning. The pictures are not very clear, and without internet videos I would have been up s-creek as they say. I'm still not sure I'm "doing it right" but I am getting yarn, so I'm not a complete failure. Here, let me show you:
They are stacked in order of attempts. Top most is my first try and it resulted in a very thick single strand of yarn. No way I was going to try and ply that into a double strand, it would have ended up thick as my arm. The middle one is a very wee amount of yarn. I did some of the dark blue, then changed to the purple, and then when I thought I had the same amount of each I plied them together. It's about as thick as the first one, but is two strands so it got thinner, I just failed to remember that I was going to end up with half as much length. The bottom most skein is two plied teal. I think I started off much thinner, but ended up just about as thick as the middle one, so when I plied it back on itself it averaged out to about the same.

I'm currently working on more purple, but I'm also knitting on multiple projects, so it will in progress for a while. I'm going to try and spin at least a little bit each day. I know I can't rush getting better at it, but at the same time I'm not going to improve without working on it. I'm enjoying myself, but I'm not sure why I'm doing it. I don't know that I have a spinning goal... I have no clue where I'm headed with this thing. Still the kit came with 1/2 pound of fiber, so I've got lots to play with for a while. Maybe by the time I run out I'll know where to go next. Maybe a spinning class?

The other question is what the heck am I going to do with this yarn I'm making now....??