Let's see if this works. MJ posted pics in her flickr of the finished yarn. It turned out really pretty.

ooh, the purple looks really good!

I'm glad you liked it; I tried really hard to coordinate the purples when I sent it out.

This was my box o' goodies from thenutmeg ...




and here's the yarn on my bobbin.. that's the jumbo flyer on the Lendrum, chock full of beads and locks and spinny bobbly things...



I'm hoping my friend MJ will have a pic of the finished yarn -- I thought I did, but was obviously mistaken, and she claimed it as soon as I brought it to my knitgroup.

This was a lot of fun, and got me out of my comfort zone a bit. I normally spin 2-ply or 3-ply yarn that's fairly normal (although I have been putting beads into my handspun lately). This was a great way to experiment with "art yarns" without committing to them full-time.

Spin Off has a good 'learn to spin' article on their site... http://www.interweave.com/spin/resources/spinning_brochures.asp
http://www.interweave.com/spin/Spinning_Basics.asp

There's a 'spinning on a spindle' pdf close to the bottom of the page for spinning basics.

What I do when I teach people to spin is tie a piece of yarn around the shaft, pull it up to the hook, and have them spin that bit of yarn until they get used to spinning the spindle, then I attach fiber and have them start drafting and spinning.

IF and only IF it's dry, separate it and pre-draft it. You'll end up with usable fiber, it's just going to be harder to draft if it's super-duper felted.

I bought some roving online and I spun it thick and thin because it was terrible to draft, and it was felted. It's just fiber, keep telling yourself that, and as long as you can still get a decent staple's worth of fiber out of it, you can spin it.

Edited to add: ask me how I know not to mess with it while it's wet. It's just not a good thing.

one more day for signups! woo hoo!

I told my husband I need to knit this so we can match. That's almost his hair color (and he has a mustache and goatee).

"slwyif: bring yarn to front, slip 1 st purlwise"

This brings the yarn in front of the slipped stitch; it's a decorative treatment. Sometimes it's used for a "wrap and turn" type of short-row (this is how you wrap a knit stitch at the end of a row).

sent my info in, too. This sounds like tons of fun!

they make wood stains in colors that won't hide the grain of the wood. They're usually brush-on-wipe-off.