"Well, I THOUGHT it was pretty evenly spun."

Here's the fiber. So is that tightly braided? I do know it's hard to pull a chunk off. I have to unbraid a good 18 inches of it, maybe more, to get a length off. And then I have to really tug hard.

I just finished knitting my FIRST SPIN! With only somewhere around a vaguely-estimated 123 yards that I spun, as thickly as I spun it, out of the gorgeous 4 oz. of fiber that Jenny gave me with the drop spindle for Christmas, I was really limited as to what I could make. That's not a lot of yarn but probably typical for a first spin.
I had a particular scarf in mind which is tailored. That was my only problem with it, because I'm not. I still like the way it looks though, and I had enough yarn for that. So I started it and only knit up about 2 inches before I realized, the size 4 needles called for were way too small for my yarn -- at least the part that came off the ball first.
This was coming out super stiff, thick and dense. I hated it, and would never be motivated to wear it. (The center stocking stitch part is where the slit would eventually go.) Otherwise it's ribbed. Thick, stiff, tight ribs!
So "tinked" it. (Jenny says "tinK" is Knit spelled backwards, and it refers to Un-knitting, otherwise known as ripping it out. So I switched to size 8, and started again.
Better, but still too dense and stiff. Only now, add that it would be too wide also. I thought maybe I could fold it over in the back, but why start out having to adjust to something you don't like anyway for this yarn.
I really wanted this first spin to be knit into something I could keep forever. Not only did this fiber come along with my drop spindle (and I can now say my "first" drop spindle), but Jenny picked out the fiber because it's a really nice BFL that spins great, and it was in my colors.
So for all those reasons, I abandoned that pattern and looked on Ravelry again for another thing to make out of it. I found one. Its picture wasn't QUITE what I wanted, but envisioning my yarn, I thought this might be a perfect thing to make. Plus it called for size 13 needles! Now we're getting somewhere!
So I tinked again.
This is now three tinks on the same yarn. AARG!
The pattern did not say "Cast on so freaking loosely that it's downright ridiculous, so I didn't. I cast on looser than I normally do, but not so it was downright ridiculous. Next time I make this (and I will), I will cast on so loosely that it's downright ridiculous. The very first rows are... you start with 60 inches, then knit 2 together down to 30 in the first row! Then without any breather purl row, in the very next row you decrease yet again! Down to 15 stitches. I mean, that's a violent change. I really had to struggle to knit two together even in the first row. The second was worse.
Time out: At least a year ago, I saw a whole set of bamboo knitting needles on eBay, cheaper than just one pair elsewhere. I ordered them for Jenny, just in case they weren't crap quality. I mean, they came out to $1 per pair so I didn't have high hopes, but it looked like these were mass produced somewhere in Asia, and who knows. Well, Jenny didn't like the tiny ones at all, which was what she was after, so I've had 12+ sets of round needles in tons of sizes, just sitting there. I am soooo glad I do! I figure the teensy ones are all wrong (cables are too big) but the big ones, I actually like a LOT! In any event, that's how I came to have so many needles so I could keep trying different sizes. And that's really a darned good deal! I could definitely get into knitting with bamboo needles for everything!
So the yarn kept being thick, and I was really liking this scarf-to-be. Then suddenly, not even a gradual change, it became thin. And I mean THIN! Can't find the close-up, but you can see what happened on the left side of the paper. Skinny yarn, skinny part of scarf.
I kept hoping the thickness would vary back and forth so it would look consistent and on purpose, but there are just sections that are skinny.
So this is what I got. One lacy, thinner tail, and one thicker, clubbier tail.
Adding to the variation in width of the scarf caused by the thick yarn on one tail and the thin on the other, when binding off, I just couldn't do it as tightly as when I cast on. So we have one "super-ruffle" and one "not so super" ruffle.
Here are the two ends hanging off a hook so gravity adds to the differences even more.
End result (the bad part):
And last but not least...
So there it is. And I will definitely wear it! In fact, I think I'll wear it with pride.
I sure learned a lot more about spinning, just from having knitted something out of what I did spin.
BUT! When I wound it into a ball, I discovered much to my delight that the really long unspun parts were all at the knots! Yeee-haw! I cannot wait to knit this yarn, the rest of it came out much to my liking. It's going to become a neck warmer (probably ribbed) that has a split at one end that the other end slips through.
This is a single, I got approx. 123 yards out of this 4-oz. braid. And I will treasure it forever as my first spin, and also just as meaningful to me, the result of the best, sweetest Christmas present I've ever received.
My daughter took up knitting several years ago, and while I absolutely appreciated her work (still do!), I have never been much of a knitter. Well, a couple of exceptions: Way back when God was a boy, I made a big, snuggly, practical shawl, but only because I couldn't buy one like it. I still have it. Twenty years later, I also built a crewneck sweater I saw in a pattern by chance. Again, it had everything I couldn't find in a purchased one. And then last year, I was in need of something to do with my hands, so knitted another sweater. I still don't know how to sew it together. I will though.
So with all the above being super simple stitches, I currently know the following: Cast On, Knit, Purl, Increase, Decrease and Bind Off. That's it!
Meanwhile, daughter Jenny had also now taken up spinning on a wheel. Last Mother's Day we went to a Sheep & Wool Festival for a nice day out together. She wanted to see the fiber and tools, I wanted to see the Sheep Dog Demo's. She bought an inexpensive Drop Spindle for fun. Since then, whenever she'd come over, I'd casually watch her twirling and whorling as we chatted. It was her thing. Horses were mine.
Just on a chance, Jenny got me a Kundert drop spindle for Christmas along with 4 oz. of beautiful BFL roving in my colors. She thought just maaaybe I might enjoy it. But she included the preface that if I didn't happen to take to it, do not feel bad, her feelings wouldn't be hurt one bit. She knew it was a crap shoot, and not for everyone. So Christmas day she showed me how to spindle. I felt as though I had 15 fingers, all tangled together, and then at other times, I needed two more that had to be at least 8 inches long. I had a death grip on the draft, my hands were way too close together and fighting one another. Clearly this was going to be a definite learning curve. But it was really challenging. And kind of fun.
So fast-forward to New Year's Eve, daytime. During the six days hence, I'd picked it up several times a day, and was learning a tad more each time. Park and draft, park and draft. Death grip. Pull, ease... quite a process. But I kept at it because I was seeing YARN! Late afternoon, there was a howling wind and snow/ice storm in progress and all news sources were saying to stay off the roads "unless absolutely necessary." Well, it started dawning on me, I'd gotten pretty far through the 4 oz. of fiber, and no yarn shops are open on New Year's Day. Suddenly I felt clutched. So I called the cops and asked how bad the roads were, reeeally. They said just go very, very slow and take back roads. So I drove just that way to a yarn shop two towns over, and chose from their small supply of fiber. That's when I realized, I was addicted.
Having joined Ravelry, starting membership on New Year's Eve, I see that everyone keeps a blog of their progress and projects. That makes a lot of sense, because you can look back and see your steps and later remind yourself what you did to get different results. And what not to do next time.
So that is how I got my Drop Spindle, and my new hobby, and a blog. Spinning will probably be with me from now forward.
Thanks Jenny, that was the bestest gift to your mom, in the whole wide world... ever!