I first learned to spin on a top whorl drop spindle. A little clumsy and very slow but I eventually got the hang of it. Here is a picture of my (little)
Bosworth spindle.
The "Big Dream" part of my title is that I decided to spin enough yarn on my little spindle to knit the Forrest Canopy Shawl. I began spinning. I'd fill my little spindle up, transfer the singles to my wool winder, carefully remove the wound singles from the wool winder onto my hand, then create a 2 ply yarn...one single coming from the center of the ball and the other from the outer. This was accomplished by spinning the two singles together in the opposite direction that the singles were created on a heavier, slightly larger spindle. I would then transfer the yarn to my
niddy noddy to make a skein and then soak my beautiful (but very small) bit of yarn to set the twist. Once dry, I would knit up what I had produced and begin the spinning all over again. Here is a picture of the shawl so far.
Then, last summer I bought my spinning wheel. Wowee. I bought the
Kromski Sonata.
I could actually produce enough yarn for a project in a reasonable amount of time. By that I mean less than 5 years. I decided to move my shawl project from the spindle to spinning wheel but guilt set in. Guilt! It's only yarn but I had made this decision to create all the yarn on the spindle and I felt like I was abandoning the cute little thing. My spinning instructor thought that I shouldn't move this project to the wheel because the yarn would be different. Ok. After one more spindle full I caved and am now merrily moving along in the shawl project. I may even get to wear it next winter.
