Birthdays, Road Trips, and Putting in the Time

I celebrated my birthday recently, and as a gift to myself I purchased 2 ounces of 9 different colors of green silk. I have plans for someday spinning this up and weaving it into a gradient and making a piece of clothing.

Then we took a road trip to a family reunion. It happened to be the first day of the Tour de Fleece, and so I brought a Pushka and some fleece (a mutt lamb fleece from a spinner's flock) and spun all day while walking around catching up with folks.

Once I got back home I have been focusing on my Charkha, working at skilling up and trying to produce the fine weaving yarn I want to  be able to make. Here is three evening's of work. I am spinning naturally colored cotton from Sally Fox.

It really is amazing what practice will do, if you put in the time! The first batch, the green which I have started plying on the spindle, was not as fine as I would like, not as even as I would like, and kept going back and forth between snap! and drift. The brown cotton, in the plying ball, is better; significantly finer and more even, with much more consistent twist. The white is better still.  If there is anything I have learned in my life so far, it is that to improve at anything one needs to practice. Put in the time and you will skill up.