The Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers' Certificate of Achievement in Handspinning I got bitten by the handspinning bug just over a year ago now. Pure wool clothes are snuggly, good knitting wool is hard to find.....it's a trap that's all too easy to fall into. And there's a certificate you can work for that shows you can do it properly. I'm a teacher, I like certificates. It just had to happen. In order to get the certificate you have to complete a portfolio charting your progress and achievements as a handspinner over the course of a couple of years. I have NO idea how to do this. I've never studied anything arty in my life, just foreign languages and sciencey stuff. I'm having to ask my kids for advice, for heaven's sake! Anyway, my husband (who has taught himself how to do woodwork in order to build Daleks) recommends using a blog to record daily progress, so here goes. Right now I'm spinning sock yarn. I love sock yarn. In fact, that's what prompted me to start spinning in the first place, the inability to afford the posh, real wool sock yarns I crave. I've been spinning blue faced Leicester lambs wool, which I've got from a local farmer. It is beautiful, soft like Shetland and shiny like silk, doesn't want to felt and wears like iron. The only downside is that it is an utter beast to prepare. You have to sit with a cat comb and flick these tiny, wavy little locks one at a time. Even a dog comb is too coarse. It's pure masochism. I have found what seems to be a good compromise. I bought a lovely Dorset Down shearling fleece from Rampisham Hill Farm. It is the cleanest fleece I have even bought, hardly and VM or dirty bits. I could have spun it in the grease, but I prefer to wash wool,so I'm washing it in laundry bags. It's very nearly as soft as the BFL lambswool, but chalky looking, not shiny, and very sproingy. There is almost no fibre prep involved. I hardly need to touch the locks to a carder to flick them out to spin. And I can spin it 3 ply, so that it looks almost the same as the Regia sock yarn I bought over the summer. Funnily, it's only 2.5 m/g while the Regia is 4 m/g. How is that possible? Is it because mine is more tightly spun? Does that mean mine is the harder wearing yarn? I hope so.