The yarn you want VS the yarn you get

 

When I was a young knitter, I was happy to knit with whatever I could get my hands on. At that time, it meant acrylic.  Ohh ,but there was fuzzy acrylic and soft acrylic..and then there was the acrylic we all love to hate…red heart.  As a young knitter, I knew no difference.  Sure, I would hear my mother wax poetic on the perfect skein of sock yarn, the kind she could find before she moved to KY, but I was happy with whatever I could get.

 

When I was older, I was surprised to find that there was such a thing as an entire store devoted to nothing else but the joy of YARN; the colors, the texture, the choices, oh my!  Not knowing what to choose that first time, I chose a single skein of brown wool.  I took it home and starting knitting.  I almost finished a small purse before I unraveled it to start over.  I started a hat.  That also was unraveled. That skein of wool is still at home 1/2 finished into something - I cannot even remember what.  But the fun I have had with a single skein.

 

Now I am learning to spin. I am once again faced with knitting with what I can get.  Only now it is not a choice of content.  Ohh, I can get wool and  Mohair and Silk and all varieties in between.  Now, it is the ability to spin the yarn I want.  As a new spinner, I can spin a good single, at what I jokingly refer to as "frog hair".  You know the old saying "fine as frog hair"?

 

I am learning to spin everything else this summer, so hopefully by fall I can spin what I want VS what I can get; a even 3 ply bulky…or a nice 2 ply worsted.  And by nice, I mean with no thin spots and no thick spots. THAT is much harder that is sounds, thank you very much. Lessons have helped, one from Beth Smith of the "Spinning Loft" and one from a gentleman from Claudia's Creations who showed me long draw spinning.

 

Now, it is sitting down everyday to spin.  Practice makes perfect…right?