Catch up and early bday

It's been awhile since I last posted...  Last week I caught a head cold that became an ear infection that moved into my chest for a little bit.  I was really not feeling like doing anything but sleeping and even that I had to do on a pile of pillows so the coughing would let up.  Due to the brilliance of modern medicine, I'm feeling much better even if I'm still a little congested.  At least this didn't happen next week when we're going to be in Chile.  Anyways, I finally finished spinning another spindle full of singles so I was able to ply them together to become my very first handspun yarn.  Here's the pic:

It's still on the spindle, I have yet to use the back of a chair to put it in a skein.  Maybe, I'll put it into a ball and Tempe Yarn and Fiber tomorrow.  My homemade lazy kate worked beautifully!  And the larger spindle (3 oz) (the one I used to ply it and in the picture) held just about the perfect amount of yarn.  I must say though, that I'm glad I learned on the smaller spindle(1.3 oz) because the larger one was much more wobbly, although it did spin longer, I noticed.  I'm going to make a headband out of this yarn (it matches some of my clothing very well).  On to other exciting news, my mom was really sweet, she knew that I was keeping a bit of a birthday list and told me over the weekend that I could go ahead and order what I was wishing for.  One of the gifts (some wonderful yarn for a pair of awesome knee-highs) is backordered and a spindle that I ordered is handmade by the workman and won't be finished until sometime mid June.  So those gifts will be here around my actual birthday.  Yesterday, I received the other two gifts in the mail, they are wonderful!  (My mom was kind enough not to torture me with them - I'm a very lucky girl!)  One is a Golding spindle, it has a 2" whorl and weighs .6 oz, made out of walnut.  It's such a beautiful spindle and it spins great, too!  I'm excited to really get to play with it.  The other gift was some roving... 8 oz of virgin wool in the colorway Iris and 8 oz of the colorway Eggplant (Laurie is so going to steal this from me).  So these will keep me busy for awhile!  I'm so excited to be spinning!  Although, my mom was concerned that Laurie would feel left out with me spinning now, encroaching on her territory...  I'm hoping we'll be getting her a wheel soon.  But right now she's been really busy with work and school so it doesn't seem like the right time to do it.  (That and money-wise with the trip to Chile and the new house...)  At school, she's had to fill in for a teacher that was fired and has been working teacher hours teaching English.  It's nice that she's home at night but I think I like the other schedule better, three day weekends are really nice.  Anyways, I'm off for a nap, still a bit tired with the end of this cold. 

(the Golding spindle)

(spindle and Iris roving)

(eggplant roving - isn't it beautiful?)