Apparently working on a collection of knitting patterns isn’t enough yarn in my life, because I’ve been spinning with my spindle on my days off! I finished my second skein of handspun this week and I think I’ve made good progress from the first. I give you Minty Blue Faced Leicester:

It’s a wee skein, about 44g and approximately 35 yards, but I love it. I also tried my hand at dyeing for the first time, and I’m thrilled with the result. I used food coloring to kettle dye it on the stove top, and I love the minty color I wound up with. Here’s a peek at each step of the process, from the single (which I divided into two parts to ply), to the plied yarn, to dyeing, and finally the finished yarn:

I haven’t measured wraps per inch yet, but it’s definitely finer than my first skein of yarn was. It looks so lovely and fuzzy in the skein, though, I almost don’t want to knit it up! Here’s a look at the thickness, with a dime for scale (this also gives you a sense of how tiny the skein is):

I’m excited to keep spinning with my drop spindle, because I feel like I’ll continue to get better with practice. There’s also something really incredible about working on a craft that is as ancient as spindle-spinning. I picked up some nice Shetland wool a few weeks ago and I started spinning that, so we’ll see how it goes!

(P.S. For those who are wondering how that first skein of handspun knit up, you can check out my ravelry page for the chunkiest wristlets. They’re pretty hilarious and ridiculous and would probably fit right in on the set of Game of Thrones.)