First, there are a couple fun knitting/fiber-related events coming up in the middle Tennessee area and I wanted to share them with you:

• Worldwide Knit in Public Day will be celebrated in Nashville on June 14th at Centennial Park, beginning at 11 a.m.  You can find more details about the event here.  I’m really hoping to make it, providing the weather is nice.  If you come, be sure to look for me and say “hello”!
• The Middle Tennessee Sheep, Wool and Fiber Festival is coming up on May 23rd & 24th.  It’s taking place in Dickson, TN at the Dickson County fair grounds.  More information can be found at their site.  I was lucky enough to get a spot in their Beginning Spinning workshop on Saturday afternoon, and I can’t wait!  (Not to mention, I can’t wait to go ogle all the lovely roving the vendors will be selling…)

Speaking of spinning, I know several people have asked me how my spinning is coming along.  Truthfully I haven’t had the opportunity to do nearly as much as I’d like to.  In the short bits of free time I have here and there, it’s easy to pick up my knitting projects, but I really have to devote bigger blocks of time if I’m going to drag out my wheel.  It seems that I need to make time for spinning.

I did pick up some new roving last week from The Loopy Ewe:

This particular fiber comes from black Blue-Faced Leicester sheep, and then is overdyed with color.  It gives a really neat effect and I can’t wait to see how it spins up.

I also placed another order from The Woolery (where I purchased my wheel) today.  I got 2 more bobbins, a niddy-noddy, and the Ashford maintenance kit.  And I placed an order from Sakina Needles for some lovely Corriedale and BFL (TLE hasn’t had either of those fibers in stock reccently).

So, what have I actually spun…?  Not much.  Yet.

In a previous post, I showed the first singles I’d spun.  Here’s some more shots of the singles and 2-ply I made from that:

Then tonight I finished spinning my second single, a merino/colonial blend from CJ Kopec Creations:

Finally, here’s what I have on my wheel now.  I just started spinning this merino/tencel blend (also from CJ Kopec Creations) tonight:

This merino/tencel is by far the most challenging fiber I’ve spun so far.  The tencel just wants to separate from the merino.  It’s a real challenge!

I’m very glad I decided to order mostly BFL and corriedale (”easy” fibers) to spin next.  I think I need a lot more practice!