Recently...

Over the past 2 weeks or so, I've been spending a fair amount of time with my new spindle, a 3" and 2.2 oz Schacht Hi-Lo. It's so much better than my old spindle and I'm really enjoying it. So far, my forays into spinning have included lots of youtube videos and two awesome books: Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont. Both cover spindle spinning and, while there is a bit of overlap, come at the subject from very different directions. I've been reading and referring to both of them a lot in the past few weeks and they've been very helpful.

In Respect the Spindle, one of the tips, when trying to learn how to use a spindle, is to spend 15-30 minutes a day spinning. I've managed to stick with it pretty well and, at this point, I've spun about 140 yards. Most of it has been thick and thin singles which I'm totally in love with and completely in awe of. It's hard for me to believe that I made this awesome, mostly cushy stuff.  It's even usable and I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a way to use it. Especially that brown skein. It's 54 yards of awesome.

All this this practice spinning seems to working. My hands are better at drafting the fiber and my singles are much more consistent. I'm even moving beyond "park and draft" if only for a few seconds at a time. I can't wait to see how this will progress over the next 2 weeks.