365.347 – Ladybug!, originally uploaded by earthchick.

So yeah. Apparently I like things that go around in circles. Last month, I blogged about my new obsessions with hooping. And I mentioned I had another new obsession as well.

I got a spinning wheel for my birthday! I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. I started out by renting it and taking lessons at The Spinning Loft in Howell, Michigan. (How lucky am I that there is a spinning store a mere 30 minutes from me?). I took four weeks of lessons with Beth, the owner, and at the last lesson, I purchased the wheel I’d been renting – a Schacht Ladybug. I love it SO much.

I originally thought I was going to get a Kromski Minstrel. Both wheels were pretty much the only ones in my price range, and I had read good things about both. I thought I liked the more traditional look of the Kromski. But once I treadled both, I fell in deep love with the Schacht. And I decided I liked the more modern look better after all. I mean, how cute and sassy is that bright red wheel? Very.

I finished my first yarn during the third lesson – 312 yards of black BFL plied with light grey Polwarth.

I am not planning on knitting with it, I just want to keep it, so that I can always compare my later yarns to my first. The first few days after I finished it, I kept petting it and thinking, “This is yarn. THAT I MADE.” Even now, after I’ve been spinning for few weeks, I kind of can’t believe I can make yarn. It’s something I’ve been wanting to be able to do ever since I bought my first bulky student spindle a year-and-a-half ago.

I still have a lot to learn. But in the meantime, I am having So! Much! Fun! I have already made my first handspun handknit (I’ll talk about that in a separate blog entry). And I am finally feeling confident enough to spin the hand-dyed fiber I’ve been accumulating over the last several months.

“Scutterbotch.” 182 yds, 14 WPI, 3 7/8 oz., merino, tencel, and sparkles, a sort of gold with soft pink, from Funky Carolina. (Spun from a batt, which I loved).

“Five Plum Pie.” 4 oz. Falkland, 152 yds. 10 wpi, 2-ply. This is the May fiber from the Hello Yarn fiber club.

There are not words for how much I love this. This is the fourth completed yarn I have spun, and my first Hello Yarn. The colors of the fiber included brown, blue, purples, and a sort of lime green. The overall effect is a kind of soft brownish purple. I am in deep, deep love with it.

Currently, I am able to spin about 4 ounces over the course of two nights and then ply on the third night, making this a much quicker hobby than knitting! But I need to slow down a bit so that I can actually get some knitting done. (I am very, very behind in my planned knits. ) But I am pretty gung-ho when I am first learning new things, so it is hard to rein myself in!