Spinning epiphany

Just wanted to share the fun I had spinning over the weekend.  I have been working on spinning a pound of mill end roving that I had ordered to practice with.  I haven't had time to spin for going on 3 weeks so I had to work out some initial rust.  I also thought I'd try out a couple of new techniques I had read about.  What I ended up with was a disappointing thick/thin yarn and a feeling that maybe I would never progress in my spinning.  I went back to drafting the roving the way I had been doing and my yarn improved but I was still disappointed in my inability to master a short forward draw which is supposed to be a beginner's drafting technique.

I was really getting tired of the mill end roving that it seemed I had been spinning forever and decided to just go ahead and try something new.  I pulled out the half a bag of alpaca I had left from what we bought when we went to the fiber festival in Virginia and thought I'd give that another try.

It was all the fiber I had when I went to my first spinning guild meeting in November.  The ladies in the guild told me it was not a good beginner fiber so I bought some corriedale from one of the guild members who is also a vendor and put the alpaca up for later when I was a better spinner.  I took the corriedale home and spun it all up while waiting for the mill end roving I had ordered to practice on to arrive.  

I pulled out that alpaca on Friday and thought I'd give it another shot.  I was (and still am) amazed at how easily that alpaca spun up.  I finally got to experience what people mean when they say a fiber spins like butter.  I was spinning a very fine yarn using the short forward draw with no problems.  I felt like I could probably have spun with a long draw if I had wanted.  It was spinning up that easily.

I worked through what I had left of the alpaca way too quickly.  What a difference!  I understand now that it wasn't me, it was the fiber.  I understand what people mean when they say the fiber just wanted to be spun thin (or thick).  I feel so much better about all things spinning.  I went back to spinning the mill end roving with the understanding that the mill end roving was meant to be spun at a medium thickness using my version of the short backward draw.  The mill end roving needed to be split about 4 times and pre-drafted once or twice while the alpaca needed no prep whatsoever.  

I'm using the mill end roving to finish filling the bobbin that is currently on my wheel and I need to ply what I've got left on another bobbin with this bobbin.  I've got to do this to free up a bobbin for more spinning since I only have three.  I need to order another woolee winder bobbin and some more alpaca to spin.  I've got some superwash bfl and merino to work on and of course my mill end roving.  I'm really looking forward to trying out the merino and see how I do with that.  If I can spin that well, then maybe I can spin up that merino my mother picked out at the fiber festival and send her some beautiful handspun yarn.