I have to admit, I've been "spin-curious" for quite a while now.  I like to make things.  I like yarn.  Add a little good-natured peer pressure, and soon enough, pretty obvious I'd want to learn to make yarn.  Enter a sunny afternoon on a good friend's deck, laughter and great company, and it all adds up to an afternoon (and evening) well spent. 

Gathering my things to leave, I experienced the previously documented "enabling" side of spinning.  "You'll want to try this; but it has a short staple length." (merino wool, the color of a camel after it has been dipped in butter) "This has alpaca, and silk, and rayon; the rayon will be the tricky part at first, take two." (gleaming bird's nests the exact combination of my childhood cat, a calico with olive eyes) A loaner spindle!  Resistance is futile.  I drank the Kool-Aid, pretty much.  (many, many thanks for all the tips and practice goodies! I brought the spindle to work today... not that I'm a little compulsive or anything.)

Aw, a little mini-hank of curlicued beginnger handspun! Experienced spinners, I'm sort of in awe of you lot.  It takes Time, doesn't it?  And of course, lots of practice and skill.  I kind of have... none of those things, but it's really fun to learn something new!  I think the next new thing I learn should be how to get by without any sleep at all, because I sort of really need to learn that right away.  I have so many projects in progress, it actually is a little bit hilarious...

Jacob had a good suggestion for me, after watching me practice spinning for a bit earlier this evening.  "That's really cool," he said.  "You know what you could do next?  You could grind some grain into a fine meal, and shape up some patties for the wood oven!  And then you could go out and herd the goats in the pasture."  That cracked me up.  

A (very very beginner, because that's where I am with spinning) question though, if anyone feels so inclined to answer:  can you pre-draft a lot of yarn at once, or is it better somehow to do it just before you spin?