Okay, so I missed it by a week. Oops.
Early June 2014, I ordered a "learn to spin" kit online. Inside, a clunky wooden spindle, and a few balls of natural Finn wool (it's still one of my favourites breeds, even now). A few YouTube videos later, and I was park-and-drafting, and making some kind of super slubby rope that wouldn't really come in handy for anything in particular. A few days later, the slubs started to even out, and I was spinning some kind of fairly-even-if-a-little-fat rope. And then, 10th June 2014, I plied, washed, skeined and photographed my first handspun yarn. I called it Cappucino. Super bulky, probably underplied, but even now it's stashed away in London as a reminder of where I started.
When it comes to blended tops, I reckon Spin City has it covered. Beautifully bright colours, a big range of wools and fibres, and drafting is easy-breezy - they basically spin themselves... I've not been disappointed by an order yet!
I intended January to be a month of cold-sheeping (a slightly fluffier, less gobble-gobbley cold turkey). Now, I know some people just cannot hold back when it comes to wool, no willpower or thoughts of actual money management... What? No! Who does that? Yeah. Okay. I lasted ten days. Nunoco opened after their Christmas break, and my self-restraint is that of a peanut. -1 responsbility. Boo.
I first picked up a spindle in May 2014. A clunky wooden thing, nothing extraordinary, yet it opened up a whole world of possibility. Spinning soon became my way to unwind and relax - the ultimate stress-buster - and I got serious about it from August, when I moved to Barcelona. From August to December, I managed to spin 1,495m from 1.04kg of fibre. Nothing too amazing, all on spindles, but still - it would take about 18 minutes to walk from end to end, and I think that's pretty damn cool.
Instagram user Sherrill came up with a fantastic idea: #spin15in15. The idea is to spin for fifteen minutes every day throughout the year. Certainly seems more manageable than goals to spin a certain weight of wool, or a certain yardage... Instead of weekends of frantic spinning, you take a little time each day to sit down with your fibre and enjoy it. I mean, if you think about it, fifteen minutes really isn't much - it's the time it takes to eat a quick lunch, or to put on your makeup in the morning (or in the case of certain dads, the time it takes in the toilet - why do you need a whole quarter hour??)
After knitting, and knitting, and knitting some more to get a bazillion pairs of socks ready for Christmas (okay, two), I happy kicked off the New Year by starting a new spinning project: "Rebel Rebel" from Spin City. (Well, actually, I kicked off the New Year by having a delicious meal with friends and eating twelve grapes for good luck, one with each chime of the clock at midnight - much to Ryan's relief, as he had previously been informed that Spanish tradition dictates the gobbling up of twelve oranges; Lauren frankly stated it would be impossible to even peel one before the twelve chimes were over, let alone manage to somehow consume a dozen. This was followed by a little bit of bar-hopping, then stumbling home on the night bus after perhaps a few too many glasses of cava, and groggily waking up at 2pm, searching for a much-needed glass of water).
