Handspinning at the Yarn School

Katherine and I attended our first ever Yarn School session in Harveyville, Kansas two weekends ago and it was fantastic! We joined about 25 other women from all over the country for a weekend of handspinning on spinning wheels & drop spindles, a dye lab workshop, knitting, eating and socializing. This was my first experience ever at handspinning and I had a blast! I'm definitely hooked. Above you can see my first clumsy efforts using a spinning wheel. The skein of yarn on the right is the first one I did and the skein in the middle is the second. Both are chunky and loose, but I can see a little improvement in the second. I brought the rest of the top home with me and when I buy a spinning wheel after Christmas, I hope to spin enough more yarn to knit a small cowl that I can actually wear. One of the highlights of the weekend was a field trip to the Wildcat Hollow Alpaca ranch nearby. There were many alpacas and they were all gentle, soft, adorable and friendly. The neatest thing about them was that they are curious and get to know you by nuzzling up to your face and sniffing your breath. It felt like they were "eskimo kissing."

Here is some beautiful alpaca/merino blend yarn that I bought while I was there. It was wonderful to meet the alpacas who produced this fiber.

And here are the results of our dye lab adventure.