Cancer Free Friday: progress

So, it turns out that the more you do stuff, the better you getat the stuff that you’re doing. Who knew? (Well, quite a lot of people, I guess. See the Carneigie Hall joke and ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’, etc.)

My first attempts at spinning were knotty and rough, but gradually, they’ve got better.

I’ve been able to spin things that look like yarn in the end, but are too over-twisted to be any practical use.

Then I’ve been able to spin yarn I can knit with.

My Dad is the lucky recipient of my first homespun-knitted hat.

Yes, he looks like a burglar.  (He doesn’t usually.) No, it’s not long enough.

But it will keep him warm, and he and my Mum have agreed that he can wear it under a hood or in the dark. Which is about right, I think.

The next thing – a cashmere/silk neckwarmer with a button – was a great improvement.

And the next bit of spinning is another breakthrough – what’s on the bobbin here

is half of this, from The Thylacine fibre club

- and, for the first time, I have spun all of what I started off with. There’s no pile of twisty bits, knotty bits and not-sure-what-went-wrong-there bits just out of shot. If the other half goes as well, someone might get a hat that covers their ears. If not, I need to start cultivating small-headed friends.

So, slow but sure progress. I’m happy. I’m nearly a spinner.

(Oh, and in case you don’t know the joke: A tourist in New York City stops a musician and asks, “Please, sir, how do you get to Carneigie Hall?” The musician answers, “Practice, practice, practice.”)