Training Day 1

So I accomplished yesterday's goal, with the help of Diane's great Andean Plying tutorial.

I spun 2 leftover singles, 1 superwash merino and 1 silk. Here are my hands all wound up with the Andean bracelets:
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And
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(the piles in the background are evidence that I am tackling this week's other project, organizing my 7 years worth of lesson plans. The problem is I keep stopping to search out new lesson ideas, so the organizing of the old stuff is rather slow going....)

I tried wearing the bracelet on both hands, as I wasn't quite sure which would be better when working at the wheel. In the end, I settled on the left hand, as shown here:
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For some reason I haven't taken photos of the 2 yarns that this created, but I'll create mini-skeins of them later (neither one was very long, as they were leftover singles) and probably do photos then.

I'm having a harder time choosing my next challenge. A lot of the things I want to learn and try require equipment or fiber that I don't have at the moment. I'd love to learn all about preparing fiber in its many forms, but don't have carders, combs, or the other tools of the trade yet. I'm thinking I should find a class somewhere that would let me try out fiber prep before I invest in any equipment....but we'll see.

I also would like to try spinning from batts, but so far I don't have any. I should have bought some in one of my recent fiber orders, which I'm hoping will be delivered this week, but I didn't. So that will have to wait until next time I buy some fiber....

I'm thinking maybe spinning from the fold next....although I'm wishing I hadn't spun up all my silk top the other day, since apparently that's in ideal fiber for this technique. But I'm sure I can scrounge up something to try this on....

I'm also thinking I need to get a better understanding of worsted v. woolen and short v. long draw. So that should keep me busy today and tomorrow, right?

After that....well, I'm open to ideas if anyone has technique suggestions. Otherwise I'll be browsing the Ravelry forums for ideas...

P.S. Just an update on my earlier post on the big tangled mess of yarn. I got almost everything untangled, and then I sorted the yarn and created "project bags" with coordinating colours, and labeled them with ideas for needle size and type of project. I'm hoping this encourages the kids to be more adventurous...oh and no, I'm not coming to untangle any of your yarn messes. I've done my quota of yarn untangling for a while, I think! :-)

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