Drop spindle experimentation

I'm starting to wonder whether I'm going to have to change the name of this blog to Vildish Knits and Spins. So far this process is puuuuuulling me away from my needles, but I don't know whether that's the novelty of it all or whether it'll have staying power. For now, I'm just enjoying the learning.

Today I washed my bit of fleece - a wholey unexciting process, but satisfying nonetheless. While it soaked I carded the washed fleece that Barbara gaves us and gave the drop spindle my first try. I have some learning to do, that's for sure!
But here's what I got:



As you can see I'm all over the place with the thickness and thinness, but I think I'm getting better. I hope. I had a really hard time keeping the twist out of the drafting zone and the resulting difficulty in drafting was the cause of most the big lumps in my single.

My next bit of homework is to card the fleece I washed today and after spinning with what I carded today I think I learned a few things about what to watch out for in carding.

Overall, I found drop spindle spinning to be less relaxing and more difficult than wheel spinning, but still a great experience that I'll be trying again for sure! (especially since wheels are so darned expensive!)