The Empty Bins Project

Like many of you reading this, I have acquired newly shorn fiber this Spring. My usual procedure is to send the raw wool or mohair to a processor to be washed and carded or combed, into roving or top. I received some mohair from my friend Sue, and promptly mailed it off, anticipating the clean, ready-to spin top I would get back.

Then I looked around the studio, and realized I have no room to store *any* more fiber (do I hear cries of me too!?). So, I sat down with a goal of spinning up a few bins worth, to make room for the new.

Now, this is zippy-skippy spinning, the easiest yarn to spin in the Universe: it will eventually be cut into little one inch bits as the pile in a rug, so it need not be particularly well spun nor consistent. It is spinning-to-daydream-by, or automatic spinning. I put on a few CDs, and plowed through 4 or 5 bags of prepared fibers:



This is 6 pounds of yarn, in about 8 oz. skeins. The white on the left is Lincoln, the grey is Lincoln, and the cream color yarn is a mohair/wool blend. I used the SpinTech (large bobbins), and zoned out.

The yarn piled up on the worktable, the bins emptied of top. I almost broke my arm, patting myself on the back: the studio was looking positively spacious. The glorious pile of yarn on the table isn't needed right away, I'll start this rug in January or so. I might dye it soon, or better yet, wait until the daydreamed plans for size, design and color of the rug become more solid.

Then it hit me.

I would need a place to store the yarn.

I would need more bins.

I bought more bins. They are Empty Bins, ready for the new wool.