Learning to Spin

Back in July my cousin's fiancée Erin and her mom and sister came to Williamsburg for a visit, during which Erin and I attended the Drop Spindle class that is taught in the Historic Area two evenings a week.   

The class cost $25, and included a kit with a wooden spindle, large hank of high-quality wool, cotton leader cord and instructions.  In theory the instructions would be enough to teach one how to spin, but I for one am a visual learner and it was immensely helpful having an experienced spinner show us what we were doing.  

Our intrepid teacher

Erin learning to spin:  

Look at how much fun it is!

Then two weeks ago while my parents were visiting me, my mom and I took the same class.  I brought along my spindle with the yarn I had already spun, and I finished spinning all the wool that came in my kit during the one-hour class.  I actually didn't have much left to do, as I'd worked on it off and on since the first class.  This left me plenty of time to take pictures of Mom learning to spin!

Joining the wool fibers to the leader cord

Drawing out the wool

Spinning!  

Here I am nearly at the end of my un-spun wool.  

Unwinding the finished yarn from the spindle

My completed skein of one-ply yarn!  

Now I just need to spin it together counter-clockwise to make two-ply yarn, wash it, dye it, and make something out of it!  I just have no idea what yet...