40 yards and counting

I spent a good part of my day today (it's now only 2:34 p.m. so the day is actually far from over) playing with my new toy. Never mind that I got up at 5 a.m. as usual and also went to the grocery store for an hour. The rest of the time has been spent on the wheel and checking emails.

I spun out half a bobbin of the silver-grey Shetland and two bobbins full of the multi-colored Corridale top and learned several lessons in the process.

1. If you let the twist get past your "guard" fingers, it's the devil to get out and catch up.
2. If you let yourself get mesmerized and forget to change hooks, you end up with a mess.
3. If you relax while treadling, it's a lot easier to treadle.
4. It's up to me to let the yarn feed onto the bobbin (I have it set on double-drive right now) and if I hold it back too long, I get curly pig tails (i.e. highly over spun singles).
5. Plying removes a whole lot of twist so over spinning singles may not be a bad idea.
6. It's easier to make bulky yarn on the wheel than it is on the spindle: on purpose or accidentally.
7. If you have made a mess of your bobbin by not changing hooks, you have a terrible time doing the plying because the singles are all tangled and don't like to come off the bobbin.
   
8. If you wind yarn onto the niddy-noddy wrong, you get a massive knot. (I finally threw out half a bobbin worth of Shetland rather than break down in tears of frustration).
   
9. It's currently easier for me to spin finely on the spindle than it is on the wheel, but I am still set up on the largest whorl, so going smaller and drafting finer SHOULD result in a finer yarn.
   
10. I can see myself making my own sock yarn and sweater yarn and enough yarn to make just about any project in a reasonable amount of time.
    

Here is a picture of the finished skein of the multi-color.

The Shetland, alas, is in the bin for I could not bear to look at it any longer.