Yay! I just came back from my spinning lesson with Bev. She showed me how to deal with fleece straight off the sheeps back, I learnt to comb the locks and then I got to spin :-) As I expected, I'm not producing a very consistent yarn at this stage, but I'm generally happy about my progress.

There are three wools on the spool, all very nice if you ask me. The red one is a long stranded wool called lester (or something... I'll have to look it up in my book, Bev told me twice, but I promptly forgot). Bev dyes her wools too and she had some lovely examples of naturally dyed yarns, my favourite was a beautiful red dyed with eucalyptus leaves. Next week I learn to ply. So I had better keep busy spinning so I can produce a decent amount of plied yarn. I wonder if I should try to join The Spinning Wheel webring... perhaps, I'll wait to see if I will continue with it first.

My first attempt at spinning wool

Things are getting back to normal with my blog (just the About Me page to set up), and also in my normal life (the tennis is now over; Lleyton lost the final, *sniff*). Yesterday arvo I tried to sit down for a couple of hours to do some sketching for my challenge quilt. I drew one thing, then got really sleepy and had to put my head down on my desk for a little shut eye. I'm not happy with my progress even though I have six sketches (I plan to do 10 panels), I just can't help but think I have come up with a very uninteresting idea :-( I like the concertina book idea, it's the cartoon sketching part I'm not sure about, the images aren't right. Should I be diciplined and continue? Should I move on and try some quilted jewellery ideas I had yesterday? (hey, I could make a 5:1 mini quilt pendant!). OK I'll try a sewing session with the idea (perhaps it is just sewing machine withdrawal). If I'm still unhappy, I'll abandon ship. Tonight is my spinning lesson :-)

I had a fairly lazy Saturday, although I did finish Scarfzilla... which I will wear as a stole I think. The damn thing is about a foot taller than moi LOL

I was watching Terminator 2 when this photo was taken (thanks Riscy XXX). It's a classic, but I can't stomach the violence as easily as I did when I was younger. I still love Pulp Fiction though, so it mustn't apply to all films. I went to Big W today to check out their yarns. There was only one type of 100% wool fabric (which I needed for the felted bag I was thinking about), but the colours didn't grab me so I decided to leave that idea alone for the time being. I have enough projects at the moment anyway. I'm back to quilting tommorow... I promise :-)))

I had to go to East Gippsland for work today and noticed a shop on the outskirts of Bairnsdale called Jumbuk Wools. There were spinning wheels in the window, I bought some carded Corriedale fleece for practicing my spinning (first lesson is this Monday!!).

I am totally tired tonight. The tennis is wearing me out, I didn't stay up last night to see the end of the Federa vs Safin match, it finished around 1am but Chris told me that Safin won when he came to bed and I was so supprised I couldn't get back to sleep for a while. This weekend I want to make major progress with my challenge quilt. I reckon I'll finish scarfzilla tonight so I'll be free to devote some serious time to the project. I want to make another bag too... but not until I've done a good amount on the quilt.

Fleece from Jumbuk Wools in Bairnsdale.

I recently went through my book shelf and culled out a box full of books to take to the book exchange. I got to refill my box with $70 worth of books to bring home... these are the craft books I got

I'm impressed with the fashions in the knitting book (circa 1982), I would even wear some of the stuff in there... I might be able to knit something out of it! I also got the spinning books I had reserved from the library. I've had a quick look through them, but I'm going to study them over the weekend so I'm ready for my spinning lesson on Monday. I didn't tell you how the lesson came about, did I? I was browsing on the net this afternoon, looking for general 'how to' info on spinning. I was thinking about making a drop spindle to try out. I saw a demonstration a number of years ago from the Spinners and Handweavers Guild of Victoria, I decided to look up their website to see what info was there... nothing much but there was a contact number. So I spoke to the President Viviene and she gave me the number of the lady I'm having my lesson with on Monday... Pretty cool :-) Here is a picture of me knitting the huge scarf.