Of wheels and lanolin

I started my spinning wheel course at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria last week.

We're starting off spinning raw fleece (which means I smell like lanolin in a way I haven't since I was a teenager helping with shearing on a friend's farm)...and so far I have produced this:



So yay! It resembles yarn (though I won't show you the start of the other bobbin which had a few issues!) At the moment I'm using a Ashford Traveller Mk 1 on loan from the Guild and lustfully looking at pics of wheels on the internet. I think I like it better than spindling. It's kind of hypnotic despite the inevitable beginner frustrations!

On Sunday I'll learn to ply and move onto spinning top...we're lucky because there are only four of us in class, so we're getting lots of time with our instructor.