I did it!

I made yarn! :) I got my package from Skeintily Clad the other day and finally had some time to play last night (when I should have been doing other things). The kit contains two 1-oz samples of undyed fiber and two handpainted. The undyed are coarser and she recommends starting with them since they aren't so slippery. I have a cream color and a brown, and then the colored ones are green & purple and yellow & orange.

I started w/ the cream since it seemed the coarsest. I spun almost the whole thing! I was so excited. It came out better than I expected. I did overspin some sections, and underspun others, but I actually plied it (!!) and it looks like real yarn! There was a confusing few minutes when I couldn't figure out why the plying wasn't working, but then I remembered to spin in the opposite direction and all was well :) I figured out how you know when there is too much yarn on the spindle (when it won't "hold" at the hook anymore) and how to make sure a length of the plied yarn is balanced before storing it on the spindle (hold it between two hands and make sure it doesn't wrap back on itself).

I have pics, but they are at home, and I am not.