Spinning! And a finished object.

So I had the second of my four spinning classes today. I'm improving, which is a relief. Here's the first skein I spun last week:



And a close up, so the flaws can be duly noted (clearly I was having consistency issues):



And here is the skein I spun today; likewise with a close up:





Yay! Improved consistency!

And now, for a little gloating... A few years ago (ahem!) my dad bought be a large bag of alpaca roving, to wit:



It has been sitting in my stash, politely waiting to be spun. I had originally tried to spin it with a drop spindle, but knowing little about spinning, and getting something altogether too bulky, I gave up after about 20 yards. I will not show you that monstrosity. I knew I'd eventually learn to spin on a wheel and also knew the alpaca was too awesome to spin into a clumpy bulky mess. So I waited...

Until tonight.

This is what I have done this evening:



Isn't it lovely?!? To all those who told me, "oh, alpaca is hard to spin...," I say, HA! I rule. It was WAY easier to work with than the crap they had us spinning for class (see purple skeins above), which was super hard to draft. I am so proud of myself.

In the next class, we learn to ply. I'm seriously considering plying the second purple skein with some of the alpaca...

In FO news, I made another pair of Twinkletoes. This time, I got a photo before I gifted them:



These went to my mother-in-law, who saw the first pair and wanted some of her own. The first, unphotographed pair, were lime green and went to my mom. She loves them. I put puffy paint on the bottom so nobody would slip and break something. I'd hate to be responsible for broken parts...