100th post!!!

You have been a great group of posters. It's fun to see what others are spinning and to learn as people post their knowledge and experiences.

This is the 100th post. Does this call for a spindle drawing? :-)

Ed recently purchased a Louet Victoria S95, the small traveling one. I've been having fun learning to use it. (I really like it!) I have spun two ounces of corriedale pencil roving on it. The first ounce spun into such a nice thin lace weight I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try chain plying. To make a three ply yarn for socks.

Unfortunately this weekend I took the second ounce with me to a weekend demo at the nearby Silver Creek Falls Park. I didn't get much uninterrupted spinning done on the wheel. Lots of people continually streaming into the log cabin where the demos were held. I had a blast teaching dozens of people how to use a turkish spindle. By the sixth person I had a system down that allowed me to totally focus on one person at a time. We started with one yard length of corriedale roving which I had them thin then showed them how fibers and twist interact then the mechanics of spinnng. They spun the length into a single then the person grasped the center of the single while I took the free end and doubled it back to the slip knot with which I'd anchored the roving to the spindle (it's much quicker, and more efficient than using a piece of yarn). I had them spin the spindle counterclockwise and viola a piece of yarn long enough to wrap around the wrist. Happy spinners one and all. :-)

Back to the green roving. I didn't spin the second ounce at all even like the first due to a number of factors mostly having to do with lack of concentration. I was the only spinner there and when I briefly left to grab some lunch provided for the volunteers I just left everything as it was since there were other demonstrators baking dutch oven biscuits, weaving baskets, tin punching, and butter churning. When I returned after Sunday's lunch it was immediately clear that someone had tried spinning with the wheel and a couple of the spindles. I was not very happy but tried to rectify the spun bits.I chain plyed the singles last evening. It took awhile to figure out how to do it but once my hands and fingers picked up the rhythm it wasn't hard, except some areas are way over twisted. Since the second ounce was much thicker I should have used a centerpull, then wound onto a felt ball then double plyed the yarn. It would have been much more uniform. From high hopes of having enough yarn for a pair of anklets to discouragement as it measured only 117yds and is just not consistent enough for socks.

This spool was the first spun ounce. I so wish I hadn't tried to continue spinning the second ounce at the cabin.