So my good friend Tracy moved up north last year to what some might call a lifestyle block. On it she has chickens and also sheep. When I heard about the sheep a crazy thought entered my mind - wouldn't it be cool to be able to spin wool from her sheep.

And thus the idea of making my own ball of yarn was made. Little did I know she would follow through and one day her husband Aaron shows up with a garbage bag of wool straight from the sheep.

Going from wool to yarn isn't an easy process. Here's what I had to do:

1. sort the wool, removing any that was unusable.
2. Wash the wool, 3 times to remove any dirt and "organic" matter as they call it.
3. Card the wool. Rather than spending money on expensive carders I bought 2 dog brushes and used them to brush the wool out. I used twizers to pull out grass and anything remaining.
4. Spin the wool. I spent ages looking at spinning wheels on trade me. I initially didn't want to get one that was too expensive given this is a new hobby. I bought one finally for $40 NZD. Which wasn't great. Thankfully my father in law Peter saw me struggling and upgraded me to a used Ashford which is one of the best brands. It's a double treadle which has made spinning quite easy.
5. Ply the wool. After spinning 2 bobbins of skinny single ply thread I plyed them together.
6. Make a skein. I then had to get the yarn
From my bobbin into a group. Matt helped make me a niddy noddy to do this
7. And finally I had to set the twist in the yarn by steaming the wool

It's a cool new hobby and I look forward to all the cool new projects I can make with my new yarn.