What to do with office trash

The beauty of being crafty is that it opens up the possibility to make something out of things that others would probably discard. Now that I have been spinning away with my drop spindle and really starting to get the hang of it, I did some research as to what might be helpful when plying two single strands of yarn together. There is something called a "Lazy Kate" which holds the bobbins of spun yarn and makes it easy to ply several strands together. Seeing as I just depleted my PayPal account buying roving for my new hobby, I decided it'd be easier to make one myself rather than having to buy one for now.

After rummaging around my office, I realized that all the supplies I needed are actually right here. Not only that, but they're plentiful and easy to access. So, here we are - my Lazy Kate recipe.

-2, or as many as you may need, plastic CD spindles (I work in music so there's lots of these around. They usually hold CDs before they go in jewel cases)
-1 cardboard box that is a little narrower than the length of the spindles
-1 pair of scissors
It's definitely a rough prototype and I will make a prettier model later, but it works like a charm (no more "toilet paper roll" bobbins running around the floor) and cost a spectacular free 99. Can't get much better than that!

I have yarn!

A week of practice and several withdrawals from my PayPal account, I am in full acknowledgment of my new fiber fetish. Buying roving to spin may be as much of a curse as buying pre-made yarn. My friend keeps joking that knowing me, I will end up buying a sheep and shearing it myself so that I can take full ownership of the process. She's not completely wrong...after all, you should have seen my face when my husband innocently suggested we get a llama, or some other kind of alpaca. He still has no idea why that was so entertaining to me.

Anyway, I am proud to present to you what I consider to be my first proper yarn. I purchased this from someone on Etsy - 4oz of hand-dyed Corriedale roving - and got to work spinning it up. 4 hours later, I sat back in awe of my creation and incredibly proud that I actually made this!
I am calling it "Midnight Storm" as all the crazy purples and navy blues remind me of the thunderheads at night (or at least what I remember them looking like considering I live in So. Cal and don't have a good point of reference currently). It's 88 yards, 2 ply and I used about 2oz of roving. I still have another 2oz to spin up, so I think I'll have enough to actually knit something with this.

My so called yarn

I had ordered a drop spindle and roving from a farm on localharvest.org last week, so that I could make a few first attempts at spinning my own yarn. It arrived on Monday and of course, I spent quite a bit of that afternoon furtively spinning up the roving in my office at every opportunity I could. Waiting for a report to run? Spin the yarn. Waiting for the printer? Spin the yarn. Well, you get the idea.
Anyway, 48 hours later, I have 28 yards of something that could be mistaken for yarn in my possession. I took it home last night to set the twist and dry it. Then I woke up this morning, pulled it off the shower head and have my first mini-hank of joy!

I'm calling it watermelon. I know that much more practice is needed until I have something that looks more "regular" so to speak, and of course I have ordered more roving already because I'm almost through the practice wool that I bought. As if I need another obsession? Oh well. =)