A new addition...

...to my fiber family...meet Minnie...

...which rhymes with "spinny," of course. :)

I've had it in my mind to buy a spinning wheel for a while, but I couldn't justify the expense. Occasionally, I'd check craigslist, but there were rarely any wheels listed in my area, and when they were, the ads were usually old enough that I'd missed the deal. Until now! I found this little Ashford Traveller listed there along with a whole host of weaving equipment (the listing was titled something about weaving and didn't mention the wheel, which is why I'm guessing I lucked out). It was still available when I inquired and for a price I couldn't pass up. I drove an hour yesterday to pick her up, and while she is definitely in need of a good cleaning and some TLC, she seems to work just fine, as far as I can tell. 

I've really never spun on a wheel before, so I'm just winging it, figuring it out by intuition as much as anything, but after having her home for an hour or so yesterday, I did manage this...

It's yarn! It sure isn't pretty yarn, but it has twist (way too much twist, frankly) and so I'm confident I've at least got the basic concept down. Refining will be a long work in progress, methinks. :} (Just for the record, things quickly deteriorated shortly after I took this picture, as I started getting large knots of overspun wool that would make any sheep cry in terror. Will try again today and hope for better results.)

Learning to spin more proficiently was one of my goals from last year, but I was only working with a drop spindle at that point. And while I did get better at it (which, srsly? There was no where to go but up for me with that skill! LOL), my ultimate goal was to get a wheel. And now I have one, so learning to spin with my wheel can now be a 2009 goal! 

I do wonder how much wool I'll have to sacrifice to the knot gods before I finally get the hang of this, though. Yikes. :}