The Weekend Whirls

THE WEEKEND WHIRLS HAVE MOVED

2007-07-17T11:27:00.001-07:00

The Weekend Whirls blog is now at:

http://community.livejournal.com/weekend_whirls/

If you are a member and have not yet received instructions to access the new blog (they'll come to the e-mail address you've used with Blogger), drop Rhonna a note and we'll re-send them. Some of your e-mail addresses are bouncing (Anne, you're one) so you may want to use a different e-mail account.

PLEASE DON'T POST OR COMMENT . . .

2007-07-17T08:15:00.001-07:00

Hi, guys---

The long-discussed is happening, and we're in the process of a move. I'll give you all the information before the evening is out, but in the meantime,

PLEASE DON'T POST OR COMMENT ON THIS BLOG (not just this post).

I don't want to lose anything, and this will make life much simpler.

More very soon . . .

Actual Spinning!

2007-07-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

I've been majorly slacking on the spinning posts lately - and the spinning, too. I did manage to sit down in front of Amelia this weekend and spin up a bit of the Sock Hop roving from Crown Mountain Farms in the 'Blue Suede Shoes' colorway:

I'm hoping to Navajo ply this into a sport-weight.

I also received my new Wooly Winder on Friday - and a new camera for my birthday on Sunday! This photo was taken with the new camera, it's made me so happy that it's my desktop wallpaper for the moment :o)

Jess

Stolen moments

2007-07-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time for fibery fun lately, but over the weekend I finally managed to squeeze in a bit of spinning.

That's Coopworth fiber in "Nightshade" from Spunky Eclectic. I have about a bobbin and a half of approximately fingering-weight singles. I'm going to attempt to Navajo-ply them, and if there is enough yarn, I might knit a hat... something along the lines of Fake Isle, perhaps.

Another Newbie from the UK

2007-07-17T02:01:00.001-07:00

My name is Claire and I am a fibreholic. I spin, knit, dye, sew and have just bought my first loom to try weaving. I also do patchwork and quilting - but that's another story (and mountain of stash)

I am a drop spindler as I cant seem to get the necessary co-ordination to use a wheel - but I live in hope. I am currently spinning some pencil rovings from Natalie and, as you can see from the photo, the colours are beautiful.

My day job is as a spindle and swift maker and I am also apprentice Organ Builder for my DH.
My blog is: www.spin-a-yarn.blogspot.com if you would like to have a look at me and my world .

I am very much a beginner spinner, but learning fast. At the moment I am trying to find out how to spin with a drop spindle with no notch or hook as I have been told by a medieval expert that a notch or hook weakens the shaft and is not 'traditional'. So far I cant make my half-hitch to stay put and not slip off - any ideas welcome!!!

Newest Member - here!

2007-07-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Hi you guys! I was so excited to find this website! I am just an average spinner, and mostly love my wheels the most. I have a Jensen Tina II that I absolutely love, love, love and a Majacraft Rose that I have been using mostly for plying lately. I am currently in a Exotic Fiber Club sponsored by Anne at Wooly Wonka Fibers, and the latest batch is white, white cormo. It's fun, but I have almost decided that I don't like Cormo - too many neps! I tend to like nice smooth yarns.

My most recent (prior to WWF cormo) is Romney from Skylines Fibers - I just can't say enough about Melissa's rovings!!!! I am currently spinning to make a Fairisle by Ron Schweitzer - I have just completed skein #3 with 432 yards in my darkest color:

Here are my prior two skeins which brings my total yardage to 1,080 yards with 15wpi approximately.

By the way, hi ya Peggy! I see you are here too! We need to get some of those knitting needles I think!!!

Just Joined

2007-07-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi, I have just joined too. I'm Hannah and I live in SE London, UK. I started spinning three weeks ago, when I got my first spindle. I have a book called Spinning in the Old Way, using a high whorl spindle, by Priscilla A Gibson-Roberts and now I am learning the names and techniques for what I am trying to do. Natalie's great tutorial with lots of colour photographs have really brought it to life and I now have a spindle with a growing cop of bumpy yarn on it. And more roving in the mail.......
I have a husband, three grown up children, four cats and a Giant African Land Snail. I like snails a lot. I hope to add pictures at some stage.

Just Joined

2007-07-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I just joined and have only been spinning since around March or so. Here is my first yarn I've spun up so far for the Tour de Fleece.

I'm glad I found this group. Actually my friend from Norway, Heidi, was the one who told me about it. Thanks Heidi!!!!

Addition

2007-07-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Today I added some sable roving to the bright roving in the earlier post, and got this.
The sable, which I saw as a soft grey/brown, has acquired an almost olive green cast when mixed up with all the pink and orange in the original roving. I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. There are 54g here and I think it's about 110 metres, so that's about right for the project I have in mind.

Impatience

2007-07-14T06:49:00.001-07:00

Having put my new wheel together, I promptly took it apart again (Noooo dis-a-sem-ble!)

It has had two coats of Danish oil and after that has dried, I am going to wax it. So no spinning until tomorrow, at least.

The wheel now has a name: Constance. She was almost Patience, and briefly was Prudence, but she's staying Constance now.

I'm hoping for a series, one day. In fact, the mythical "one day" Schacht Matchless is already christened "Hope" ! I am much aggrieved that to buy one here costs £750 - on the far side of the pond, it's a "mere" $850. A huge difference - and almost possible to believe that it could be achieved :-)

For the full tale, see my Demiurge blog.

My latest yarn.

2007-07-14T04:19:00.001-07:00

My packet from US came yesterday and it was just in time since I was finish with angora&silk yarn. Because in the packet was the Yarn Meter, so this time I got a accurate measureing. You can read more in my blog about all the other wonderful stuff I got from US :)

It is 130 gram (4.59 ounce), 35 wpi and 635 m (694 yards).

No I just need to found out if I am going to dye it ore not. What doe you think, guys?

Spinning Blunders or SPINNERS S.O.S.

2007-07-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Okay everyone, I'm spinning up some absolutely gorgeous roving from Poppy Flower Fibers, I love the color of the domestic wool roving: Kaleidoscope, I believe, but I've got a major problem. I snapped off the roving while spinning, and now I can't find an end to latch it onto!

So far, I've tried scotch tape and using an old tooth brush to try to tease the end up. Nothing has worked. I've even tried using a DPN to try to pull up the snapped off end, no luck.

Do I just cut up and throw away the wool that I've worked so hard to spin? I've got a really small amount to finish spinning onto the bobbin... *sigh*

Help. Please. I plan to spin up another bobbin today while I decide what I'm going to do with this first one. Everytime I look at it, I want to scream, LOL!

Thanks for any and all help in advance.

Oops, I guess I should introduce myself too. My name's Anna of Anna's Yarn Mansion. I took my first spinning class mid-month last month, and I've been the proud owner of an Ashford Joy for about a week now. Great to meet you all and see all the fantastic rovings that you've been spinning up! :-)

Anna

New arrival

2007-07-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hello, just popped in to say... er, "hello"

My name is Beth, but I note that you have at least one Beth already, and so I shall remain plumbum just to save confusion. I live on a small Scottish island, off the north coast and up and to the right a bit (but stop before you get to Fair Isle). I don't originate from here and arrived only last September but I love it and don't intend to move ever again. I've settled in quickly and one of the things I have done since I got here is to learn to spin.

I'm really not very good at it yet. Here's my first (and only) three balls of yarn - it's Jacob, spun from a raw local fleece clipped in 2006.

Feel free to giggle.

I shall get better.

I hope.

*sob*

Let's not get maudlin..

I'll pull myself together soon...

OK. Where was I? Ah yes. We spin in a small group, in each other's houses, not at a weekend, but every Wednesday morning. There is coffee. And cake. Oh, there is cake. And much laughter.

I was shown how to spin on a friend's Ashford Joy. I immediately hunted down an eBay bargain and Hebbie, the Haldane Hebridean wheel, came to live with us. It has been a love/hate relationship. My partner took pity on me and a brand new Ashford Trad has joined my spinning stable. We assembled it just yesterday and I have every hope of making some rapid progress. (I don't have a name for the Trad yet and am open to all suggestions.)

In my defence, I should point out that, as soon as I got my first wheel, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism - a condition that led to tremors in my hands and legs and which have made it very difficult to learn to spin. The meds are now taking care of it and I am fast running out of excuses for my inept work. I have to admit that the secret now is actual practice, as opposed to pretending to be a spinner :-)

I was introduced to this group by Natalie, who has discovered my blog, and I would like to thank her for sending me this way.

I'll go read some posts now.

Resurfacing

2007-07-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

I'm back, the cases are unpacked, the second load is in the laundry, and the house is a complete disaster and I'm buried in e-mails, but I thought I'd take a moment to upload a shot or two while I run backups.

Remember this?

Which looked like this when it was spun?

And how we were wondering what it would look like when it was knitted? Well, here's the answer:

This isn't the best shot (the color is a bit faded), and I'm posting it just so you can see how the colors striped across the fabric. I'll upload better shots of the shawl itself on my own blog, but this is the thing I thought you'd find interesting---if only because *I* did. :-)

Remember that when I drafted the roving, I decided that I should break it up into color chunks if I wanted to preserve any of the color. It made sense to create strips which were predominately red, predominately yellow, or pure green. In other words, when I stripped the roving, I made a point of NOT getting pure yellow or pure red; there was always a bit of green in every strip. That gave me different hues of green rather than different colors, and I think that really worked out nicely. Now that I understand how it handles, I won't be afraid to do the same with other multicolor rovings where the colors run lengthwise in the fiber. I think that overall green tone kept the lace from disappearing in color shifts.

The one really critical thing I've learned by knitting this shawl is that I really do like a firmly-plied yarn, so I need to focus on getting things even during the ply. If I don't do that, then the singles separate a bit here and there. The second thing I discovered was that knitting hides a multitude of spinning sins. :-)

On other fronts, this is what was in the suitcases. (It's amazing how much fiber you can cram into a suitcase or so---even when you're packing it around a carder, books and a couple of training DVDs, four extra bobbins, a jumbo flyer and two of those bobbins, replacement parts for the wheel, and PVC for a niddy noddy.) I couldn't quite fit everything; there's superwash, dye, and raw fleece in a box making its slow way across the Atlantic. Do you reckon that this will keep me busy for a bit? ;-)

Wanda, the shaft to the new spindle was safely tucked in a PVC pipe---complete with caps---and put in my backpack. Airport security didn't even blink. :-) And have I told you yet that it's beautiful? Or that even my non-spinning family that it was a truly cool gizmo? :-)

And on a last note . . . . WOW! You guys have been busy over the past month! I'm soooo impressed!

Spinning around Scotland

2007-07-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

Well after one of the best holiday's we have ever had touring around Scotland, we are home over a week now and its back to reality . Oh how I love Scotland and the Isles , every time we go its different. We spent most of the time on Skye and Mull this time and the weather was good with only one morning of rain; unbelievable as the rest of the country were having floods.. My wheel came along and I knitted socks whilst we were travelling and spun in the evenings. I had dyed some BFL roving's I bought when I first had my wheel to take along with me rather than fleece.

I am in a purpley phase at the moment , maybe its my age !! Do you know that poem about when you get old? LOL No I think in reality its all the purple heather on the hills at the moment that has inspired me with this colour. Do others of you choose colours that are around you at different times of the year ?

I ended up with over 1,000 yds of DK weight and it is destined to become a more heavy weight stole . I have to say that its not as even as I would wish. I was distracted a few times as I spun outside the van in the evenings either by the scenery or folks who were fascinated by seeing someone spin.There was heather on the hills in Scotland also so this is now my souvenir yarn which will bring back sweet memories of our time there.

100th Post Drawing

2007-07-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 100th posting, and over 5000 visitors to The Weekend Whirls since beginning in April, we will have a drawing.

Make that two drawings. :-)

In the mix for the two drawings:

You will have your choice of a 1.9 oz Carob spindle (pictured) or a 2.1 Purpleheart spindleWe have to do something with all that yarn we spin so Ed's offering a set of Bolivian Rosewood circs. Your choice of which size and length. We've had buyers describe these as the Royce Rolls of knitting needles!
The picture doesn't do justice to the sharp tips Ed puts on these babies.To have your name entered you need to be a Weekend Whirl member and to comment on this post by July 18th.

Answer these questions:
1. When did you begin spinning?
2. What is your favorite fiber to spin at this time?
3. Spindle or needles?

Drawings will be on July 19th.
Best of luck to all of you!

We are dealing with major internet connection issues and my online time is very limited right now. More than likely I will not be able respond directly to comments. ~ Wanda (Fiberjoy)

Spinning Maniac

2007-07-10T15:34:00.001-07:00

I just can't get enough of this spinning lark! What did I do with my time before I got my wheel two months ago? This is my latest project - pencil roving from Natalie . I plied 100g of colourful hand paint above with 100g semi solid lilac roving and produced this lovely subtly toned yarn. I have made about 500m which I think is enough for a small shoulder shawl which should show off the subtlety of the yarn. Believe it or not, the yardage of both singles was almost identical - I'm sure it has to have been more luck than judgement!

It has been a complete revelation to me that spinning has opened up so many possibilities for playing with colour. It is certainly a dimension of the craft that I am keen to explore further.

100th post!!!

2007-07-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

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.

A roving we shall go...

2007-07-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

I started spinning this up today. It's organic 100% merino pencil roving.
It spins beautifully, very soft and easy to use.
I'm spinning it worsted and mixing with a couple of solids as well.
The comments about the Louet Victoria were interesting. I'm a Kiwi user at the moment, but I have a hankering after an S45... I'm seduced by its looks.
Has anyone got one? I'm not a hugely experienced spinner, but I just have the urge to buy a wheel that is a bit less basic. I got the Kiwi when I first started and largely chose it on the basis that if I didn't spin very often then it was the perfect wheel, easy to use, undemanding and inexpensive.
It's hard to get the range of wheels you have in the USA here in the UK, so we are limited to Ashford, Majacraft and Louet really. I'm not a "twiddly-bit" person, I like simple shapes, so the louet appeals. Even the Majacraft wheels are a bit twee for my taste, and since it would live in my open plan "space" it needs to look good. I don't plan to take it anywhere so the foldability thing isn't that important, I can take the Kiwi to my Guild... or just use a spindle.
I am in awe of people like Margaret who can describe the number of twists per inch... maybe one day!

First BFL donut done

2007-07-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

I bought this BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) from Amy from Spunky Eclectic along with many others- called Triple Play batts. Each is made up of 3 colors and weighs less than 2 oz. This one was orange, bright raspberry pink and whitish pink. I had contemplated separating out the colors, but wanted to see what would happen if I divided it into 4 slivers and spun them end to end- 2 per bobbin. This is what I got. 170 yards of delicious sherbety barberpoled 2 ply yarn spun on an Ashford Traditional Wheel using a non-tensioned lazy kate.

Merino/Tencel 70/30

2007-07-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

I got home from Scotland last Thursday night, and promptly went down to the Bay to check on the house and catch up on my sleep. I took advantage of the quiet weekend to spin the other half of the merino-tencel top I started a couple of weeks ago, and ply it. I’m still looking for a true laceweight, and need either more patience, a faster wheel, or more practice.

Here’s the resulting skein, a heavy fingering/sportweight, that will make a nice scarf or shawl.

The merino-tencel blend has a soft silky hand and lofty feel, despite being worsted spun. The fiber has a lovely sheen and only the tiniest of halo before being knit up. I haven’t swatched the yarn yet, but have a couple of possible simple lace projects in mind for it.

Details:

Fiber: Ashland Bay Merino/Tencel 70/30, Blueberry, a deep blue-purple blended with pale silvery tencel

Purchased from: Rocktown Yarns, Harrisonburg

Spun with: Louet Victoria

Whorl / Tension: 12:1 / Low-medium tension

WPI/Gauge/TPI: 16wpi sportweight / 7tpi

Plies/Method: 2-ply / standard

Yardage/Finished Wt: ~ 400yds / 3.5oz

Started: 6/15/2007

Completed: 7/1/2007

Notes:

The singles were spun with fairly high twist and then plied with lower twist. I had a devil of a time with the wheel while plying, as it kept sticking and binding up and having issues with the tension. I’m going to start looking at different wheels as the Victoria is a great little wheel, but seems to be limited by its weight and top speed. I'd love to hear from others if they have had better luck spinning laceweight with this wheel.

The merino-tencel was easy enough to spin, but trying to get a laceweight from this wheel seems like a lot of work. There is a high speed flyer due out for the Victoria, but I'm considering investing that money in a more production-oriented wheel and saving this for lighter duty as it is.

Merino Project

2007-07-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit shocked that it's been so long since I've posted! I started spinning this multicolored merino from Arianie around a month ago. The pattern calls for 1190 yards in DK. The most I've spun for one project is 300 yards so the prospects of spinning 2400 yards of singles was daunting at first.

My natural inclination is to spin fine so spinning the first ounce in a DK was a real challenge but by the third ounce it's looking more even. By spinning and plying an ounce then making one strip it's broken down into managable chunks. It only takes an hour to work up a strip.

What am I making?

pea harvest yarn

2007-07-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy in the garden these days. This morning, my back hurt from all the weeding I did yesterday, so I drank an extra cup of coffee, and started spinning on the Great Wheel while I was still wearing my pajamas. Before I knew it I had 88 yards of 14 wraps per inch...and my back felt much better. Guess I just needed to walk it off!

The wool roving was given to me by a friend, she had purchased it from Delly's Delights Farm, but it was processed by the Drafting Zone. It didn't have a name other than "side by side".

Later in the afternoon, I went out and picked the peas, ugh, there goes my back again! Since the roving didn't have a name, I am calling it "pea harvest". I still have a little of it left to spin, and I'm thinking maybe I will need to have another pajama morning soon.

And now for the socks

2007-06-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

I finished up my CEYEBERFIBER roving!
I am so happy with this yarn.
I am hoping it will stripe when I knit it...which is going to be as soon as I can free up my needles.

My bosworth spindle and the yarn

2007-06-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

I finally got me a good spindle! It's a Bosworth midi and I love it. The wool is BFL from lauriegator on Etsy. I'm spinning it quite fine. Don't know the WPi yet. But I have a question, After a while I had trouble getting the yarn as thin as I wanted. Could this be because the spindle was getting heavier? Or was I just too tired? After I skeind the yarn and startet to spin on an empty spindle I got the thin yarn again... Advice appreciated... Sorry for the lousy picture, will wait til morning next time....

I Crave Your Opinions

2007-06-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

Can you all help me make a decision?

My sister is a knitting fiend, and I want to make her some handspun yarn for her birthday. She likes rich colors and jewel tones. So I dyed this silk tussah last week....I don't have much, about 1.5 oz. I blended some of it with some dyed wool and Navajo plied it for a sample. The question is.....should I spin a blend, and end up with more of a sock yarn with a slightly more complex, heathered look, or should I keep the brilliance of the colors and spin the silk alone for a laceweight yarn?

I will be taking this project with me on a trip this weekend.....so please answer soon! :-)

plying your spindle spun yarn

2007-06-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've been working on ways to make plying from a spindle an easier process. What I really would like, is a spindle with multiple shafts. One that I could simply slide the whorl from the shaft, place in my lazy kate, and begin another. If you want to see a beautiful example, check out the one that Peter Teal made. It is in the Spring Spin-Off. The problem is, they are unavailable. So, I kept playing with ideas. I tried winding the single from the spindle onto toilet paper rolls, and I tried smaller weaving bobbins. Both work. Both require the extra step of winding onto another holder. What I finally found is simplicity at its best. It is definitely the cheapest answer and works perfectly. I am fitting my spindles with a large drinking straw, sliced lengthwise. I wind my yarn onto the spindle over the straw. When it is full, I slide it off the spindle and onto my lazy kate. I'm storing them on old knitting needles until I'm ready to ply.

Superwash progress

2007-06-25T14:17:00.001-07:00

6 17 singles
Originally uploaded by Stoneview

I'm slowly working on the blue/yellow/orange hand-dyed superwash and thought I'd test out posting from Flickr since I've recently upgraded to a pro account. This roving is intended for socks though I may be spinning a bit thin. I've been told superwash will bloom and the resultant yarn will be thicker than you might expect based on letting the single wrap back on itself so I'm going to finish the first half of the roving and ply before I decide if it's too thin. I can always use the first half for a shawl or something and then go thicker on the second half. I've got 8 ounces total and pictured on the bobbin is about an ounce.

Demon Singles

2007-06-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

These beautiful singles were beastly to spin! The whole sordid history can be found here. I tried several different drop spindles, all within the 1.0 - 1.3 oz range, and none of them could make this dense, matted fiber pleasant to work with. But the task is now done, and I have 185 yards of fingering weight Romney to work with.

I'm definitely going to knit with them--after all the trouble I had in spinning these singles, I definitely need to use them in a project! But there aren't many practical uses for such a small quantity of yarn. Does anyone have a suggestion to offer? I had thought of the Airy Scarf (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts) but it would be nice to have some alternatives.

The photo doesn't really do justice to the yarn. It's very colorful--all kinds of greens, violet and lavender, a dash of pink and blue, all tempered with grey and black. It's a real shame that the fiber was so awful to work with--I might have thrown it away if I hadn't been so determined to make use of it.

Fiery singles

2007-06-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a little spinning this weekend. This is some very pretty pencil roving that Natalie kindly sent me to play with. I have never used pencil roving before so at first I was having real difficulty in drafting as I was struggling with shaking out the slight twist. The little mantra that someone shared with me about drafting 'Hold the fibre like a baby bird' came back to me as I swung on the roving like a blackbird trying to remove a worm from the lawn.

A rethink was required so I decided to break the roving into metre long sections and split it down the middle, a process that if done slowly and carefully seemed to twiddle the twist out of the roving making it way easier to draft. I love the way it is spinning up. By dividing the roving lengthwise I am getting shorter colour changes which I rather like. Mind you, I'd be grateful if anyone has any other techniques for drafting pencil roving that they can share. Being a beginner spinner, one of the joys of being part of this blog is having so many experienced spinning brains (now there's an image to conjure with...) to pick!

Still Here

2007-06-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted last...just busy but still spinning :-)
This is my most recent spinning. Ceyeberfiber roving in peppermint twist from the shop. It really drafts beautifully. This was the bobbin this afternoon and it is now being plied.
So far I am really happy with the results. I can't wait to knit it up. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend of whirls!

Fleecy gift

2007-06-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

Look what the postman brought me at the weekend. A friend of mine is travelling in the Scottish Isles and thought she'd send me a little souvenir. It's a fleece from a North Ronaldsay seaweed fed sheep. My friend tells me it is best suited to hats and gloves. I love the colours.

I have been on a short course where they introduced us to spinning from the fleece but I am a bit daunted by this little beastie - can anyone advise me on the best way to tackle this lovely challenge? I am off to Woolfest in just over a week's time so if I need any equipment that's the place to get it.

Truth...

2007-06-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

From the Brahma Kumaris 'thought for the day'

Truth

To follow someone else's truth is a trap. The best strategy is to know your own truth, face it and live by it. Others may inspire, guide, give you directions, but ultimately you have to cut your own way through the jungle. You could always be asking others where North is, and they will tell you. Someone will say North is this way and someone else that North is that other way - and both would have been sincere. But you alone has to find your true North.

I liked that. We just have to keep remembering to check our compass. Mine is my heart, what's yours?

Emerald City

2007-06-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend practicing my Navajo Plying technique and managed to squeeze 350ish yards out of 4oz of Lisa Souza BFL roving in the 'Emerald City' colorway:

slide show

2007-06-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Spinsters! Last week I had a chance to take a workshop at the Mannings Handweaving School. The class was all about spinning in the old ways. I really enjoyed myself, and learned quite a bit. On the way home, I visited the Landis Valley Farm Museum and saw some beautiful antique fiber equipment. I have posted a slide show here if you would like to see some of the old spinning wheels and looms.

Skein of blue merle collie

2007-06-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

From a friend at work, I am spinning up some of the collie wool she has brush of here dogs. This skein is from blue merle collie, to bad that it is not to me :o)

Hello!

2007-06-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick hello from a newbie here. My name is Jackie and I am a fibreholic. Oh, sorry, wrong group! I live in the UK, please check out my blog if you would like to know more.

I have only just started spinning, on a drop spindle. Finding it fascinating but frustrating (guess you have all been there..) Embarassed to post pictures of my efforts so far but there is one picture on my blog.

Just looking into getting a 'Babe' wheel, I have an old, wobbly spinning wheel but the Babe ones look good value for money, even though I am going to have to get it sent from the US.

Big thanks to Jo (my stalkee) of Freestylefibre, who is leading me to some interesting places, including this one.

Pleased to meet you all, best wishes, Jackie x

Poppies Revisited

2007-06-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Oops! I forgot I'd started to spin some of my Spunky Eclectic "Poppies" roving on a drop spindle last year.

I found it in a small bag at the bottom of my fiber basket, hiding underneath some natural-dyed Romney. I finished what was attached to the spindle, then divided the rest of the roving in two, and joined it to the ends of the two bobbins of "Poppies" that I'd been spinning on my Lendrum.

There was a small skeinlet of spindle-spun in the bag, too, which I remember making late last summer. It will be very interesting to ply up what's on the spindle now and compare the yarns. We'll see if I've improved at all!

Spin 9 and an update

2007-06-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

I finally finished spinning the Merino-Tencel blend which has been on both the Rose and the spindle, so here's my progress report. As usual, there's a full description of the process on the blog (or will be as soon as I get there). This is the last spinning report you'll have from me for a little while: We're headed stateside for four weeks as of Sunday. I'll have news about fiber and fibery stuff when I get back, but don't look for that until mid-July.

In the meantime, here's the latest. I'm posting the Flickr photo which has a couple of notes in it, so feel free to click over and get those as well. I've marked a section of loose ply in this photo, but there's a better example in the photo right before it. I've added a note to show you what I mean there. I think the loose ply happened when I got tired, and wasn't clever enough to quit. With an odd interruption here and there, it took me the better part of 9 hours to ply the 1100 yards, including stopping here and there to untwist a ply and straighten out a kink. Even so, I didn't get them all.

Folks, I love this blend. If it weren't for the stretches where I seem to have lost focus and forgotten to check the twist in the ply, and the occasional spot where a thinner single slipped through in a kink during the ply (creating a spiral), I'd be in love with this yarn. I haven't given up on fixing the underplied sections (either by running the skein back through the wheel and resetting the twist, or by cutting out that long stretch and handling it separately), but it's not something I have time to look at right now.

Here are the stats:
Fiber: Merino-Tencel (70-30) roving from Kendig Cottage.
Finished Weight: 432 grams/15.23 ounces
Yardage: ca 1100, 2-ply
WPI: 18.
Spun on: Rose and the .7 ounce Bossie.

I think that generally speaking, it's the most consistent I've done yet, but it is also the softest. It feels great. The three-ply merino-silk in Spin 7 has a cool, crisp feel which must come from the Tussah. But the Tencel creates an incredibly soft yarn while giving it the shine of silk, and I'd LOVE a sweater made of this blend.

Roy G. Biv

2007-06-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

The past two weekends I've been working on a rainbow batt from Grafton Fibers I picked up some time ago and was saving for "someday" when I felt I could do it justice. I've decided to stop holding back "the good stuff" and just go for it. Over the weekend I finished spinning my singles and Monday I Navajo plied them into about 160 yards of sportweight-ish yarn. I'm really happy with the results and the skein has been washed and hung to dry.

Feeling quite giddy

2007-06-04T14:59:00.001-07:00

I can't stop stroking this. I am boring on about it here. There is about 120 metres of it so not enough for a pair of socks yet but I had to ply some to see if I was on the right lines. I learnt much more about plying with this project as I wanted a firm twist for strength and stability for socks. Does anyone have any advice about spinning a good solid sock yarn?

simple samples

2007-06-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, I spent an afternoon dyeing some kid mohair locks, and have had a chance to spin up a few samples. I am trying to decide if I want to blend the mohair with wool, or use it alone. My samples are of a blend of Finnsheep and the mohair. I spun them and then plied them off the tip of my Nostepinne. Diane Mulholland explains how to do this here.

I was disappointed with the color of the resulting samples. If this is representative of the overall yarn, I had expected more of the blue green tones. My plan was to use the finished product as sock yarn, so I may go ahead and spin it 100% mohair. Has anyone ever made mohair socks? I am wondering about the durability of them. There is no doubt that they would be soft and comfy :-).

So, its back to spinning up more samples...and maybe even dyeing more wool!

Three Ages of Hand spun

2007-05-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have now plied my new batch of hand spun. I have pictured it alongside my previous batch by way of comparison. There is a definite improvement I think but the journey is yet young. Good job I am enjoying every step!

spindling with a Hardy

2007-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

The May shows are now a memory. The last one here in New England was Cummington, the Masachusetts Sheep & Wool last weekend. It is a smallish festival, but great fun. While there on Saturday, I managed to buy myself a second spindle by Bill Hardy. It is a beautiful spindle made from three woods, the whirl from olive. I haven't wanted to put it down. While there I also bought 6 oz. of a beautifully blended llama and silk. It is a perfect combination for the spindle.

I am experimenting with different ways to take the yarn off the spindle and store it for plying. Here is a picture of a small weaving bobbin that I have filled using an old bobbin winder I picked up years ago at a yard sale.

Howdy!

2007-05-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late to the party, but very glad to be here at last!

I'm a relatively new spinner. I had my first lesson on a drop spindle about a year and a half ago, and quickly progressed to a wheel. But after a few months of getting to know my Lendrum, I still wasn't very adept at using it, and I lost interest in spinning for quite a while. I'd give one of my spindles a twirl now and then, but stuck mostly to my knitting--until very recently, that is.

I don't know what happened--maybe seeing so many beautiful skeins cropping up around the blogosphere?--but my desire to spin came surging back about a month ago, and now my day isn't complete if I don't get to spend at least a few minutes with a spindle or at the wheel. Here's a peek at what I've been working on lately:

Click for big!

On the right are two bobbins of Spunky Eclectic nearly-solid, wool-blend roving in "Poppies". These have been waiting a while for me to ply them (I prefer to ply when I am alone in the house, and can take my time about it, without fear of distractions or interruptions. I wonder, does anyone else feel the same way?) On the left is a bit of Merino/Shetland cross that I purchased at last year's Garden State Sheep Breeders festival. I bought lots of little samples of interesting wools at that festival (two ounces here, four ounces there, etc) and am in the process of spinning them all up for practice. This particular bobbin represents some of my best, most even spinning to date. I'm really very proud of it! Unfortunately, though, the second bobbin isn't turning out nearly as well. I've been letting it sit for the last few days, hoping that taking a little break would do it some good.

Thanks for letting me play! You can read about the rest of my knitting and spinning adventures here if you are so inclined.

Merino/Silk/Angora - Take One

2007-05-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm still at the Bay house and in between working on the husband's ham radio towers and planting a ton of stuff around the house, I've gotten some more spinning and plying done.

Merino/Silk/Angora roving from The Woolen Rabbit

Details on my blog HERE. Scroll down.

First Fleece!

2007-05-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

When faced with the opportunity to buy a charming little fleece, what could I do but buy it?!

The sheep's name is Eshme, and she's a light grey Shetland.

I've sorted the fleece roughly by body-location, and have begun experimenting with scouring it in the tub (blogged). Any tips/tricks/advice for doing right by this pretty Shetland fleece would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I'm wondering what your favorite/preferred methods for fleece preparation are: flicked, Viking combed, hand-cared, drum carded, something else? Right now I'm working with a pet brush as a flick carder, and doing mini test-spins with a drop-spindle, but I've got 3lbs here! Please share your words of wisdom!

A Spinning Test

2007-05-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Remember the Chocolate Bar roving I've been spinning for sock yarn. It seemed to take me forever to spin the 3 ounces I'd started with. The first 1.5 oz ball went fairly quick but about 1/3rd into the second batch I hit a lo-o-ng section of murky light brown that didn't spin as smoothly and became psychologically hard for me to keep spinning. This week I determined to finish it. My speed picked up when the dye job varied back into the richer browns.

While spinning I've often wondered how many yards of spun yarn I average out of one yard of roving. Thursday evening as I neared the roving end I measured a yard in from the end, tied a piece of yarn at the 1 yard spot then measured the next yard of roving and tied another piece. Then as I continued spinning and reached the piece of yarn marking two yards left to spin I check the clock and timed how long it took to spin one yard to a fairly thin single. Thirty five minutes. Hmm, a bit faster than I'd thought. At that point it was past my bedtime so I stopped for the night which was fine since I was also curious to see what my consistency would be on two different spinning days.

Saturday morning I grabbed the spindle and remaining yard of roving, checked the clock and started in. It was one of those mornings where it felt as though it took awhile to get into a rhythm. To my surprise it also took 35 minutes!

Using the warping board to unwind the single I counted out the wraps as I circled the spindle around and around the pegs which are set one yard apart. Hmm. 1 yard roving = 18yds,26inches of spun single. Not too shabby. What would the second yard yield? Imagin my immense astonishment as the last of the single came off the spindle at:
Yes -- 18yds 26inches!!! I am blown away by this. I figured that if my singles measured within a yard of each other I'd be spinning pretty consistantly but this is phenomenal.

Rainy weekends make great spinning days !!

2007-05-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well I have actually been spinning this weekend and will definitely be next weekend also, as our guild are doing a demo at C.A.T's ,'Centre for Alternative Technology' which is near us . (for link check my blog)
I had to get what I was spinning on my wheel finished in time for next weekend when I will most probably take a few varieties of fleece with me, so need as many free bobbins as I can get.
So this is the dyed Cotswold fleece that was ancient (1972) and I only dyed it for the curly locks which I needed for my weaving. I so wish I had given it more respect as after washing it is now so soft and has a lovely halo to it . But a lot of it was cotted so a lot of wastage. I will try and rescue some more of what I have left undyed .

Then I decided to dye some Bluefaced Leicester rovings to take with us on our trip to Scotland so here they are drying in front of the fire like a coiled serpent ready to spring into action.

2007-05-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

I do feel rather like a small child running to show the grown ups what I have made but look at this! It is so much better than the work I produced last week - I think I may be getting the hang of the spinning malarkey. Read me going on and on about it here if you can bear to.

Washing Gotland

2007-05-27T03:41:00.000-07:00

It was a perfect day to wash fleece on Saturday. The sun was shiny and the wind was crisp.
This was my second time scouring fleece.

I have to do something before I spin it. I test spinned a bit and found out that the fiber is too short and too fine. It is difficult to hand-card this fiber. It is so fine that teeth of my handcarder don't catch it very well. And it is difficult to spin because it is too short.

I've already washed and spinned some Gotland. I bought them at the same time. And I had no troubles like these with the former fiber.

Now I have some plans. Forget about handcarding and just use flick carder or something, mix with other longer fiber, or forget about spinning and just felt it.

Greetings from my corner of the world

2007-05-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

My corner of the world? Oh it's Norway. Yes another Norwegian spinner joining the group, thanks to Rhonna for inviting me.

I'm a new spinner. I made my own CD-spindle some weeks ago and bought a Louet low whorl from our local net shop. Now I'm eagerly waiting for a Bosworth midi. I'm also booked for a spinning wheel weekend class in september and I will buy a wheel then too. Right now I'm spinning some lamb wool to thin singles (getting them more and more even) and I'm going to try plying them when the spindles are full. I Blog my things at http://lilleduck.blogspot.com feel free to visit ;)

I'm also a knitter and want to use my yarn right away...But I'm saving some of the yarn in a journal with the details.

Here is a picture of one of my current spinnings:

It's merino fibre and on my louet spindle.

Nina aka Lilleduck in Norway

Hello from Norway

2007-05-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

I have join The Weekend Whirls, found the blog at Rhonna's blog and just had to sign up :o)

I am spinning mostly on my Little Gem II, but have a lot of different drop spindles. Mostly of them are from Sheila (Bosworth) and I have just orded some more, lol.

Here is my latest yarn, it is 50% Collie (dog) and 50% Gotland. I am holding on knitting socks of the yarn.

After reading about Rhonna's Navaho plying ore Chain plying like it is also called, I had to try. This is the first skein, the grey is Gotland and the second I Navaho plyed is merino&silk. I got the hang on the plying method, but think I will further do the regular plying.

I read Rhonna's posting about the best way to measure the yarn, I am going to buy the Yarn Meter that Knitpicks are selling.

Corriedale Fingering Weight

2007-05-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

I've finished spinning and plying 40z of the Crown Mountain Farm pencil roving in the Inspiration colorway, and am happy with the results. Details on my blog HERE.

Questions for the group, how long would it take you to 2-ply 400yds of fingering weight? What method do you use?

and now for something completely different

2007-05-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

The photo above shows my jar full of leftover spinning bits. I have heard a rumor that knitters collect bits and pieces of their leftover yarn and put them into jars also. Apparently, these jars have a special name (has anyone else heard of this, and do you know the name of the jar?)
Spinners, what do you do with your leftover bits?

Occasionally, I find a way to use mine...mostly with a felting needle. This past week, I used a method from Diane Varney's book, and took the tufts of wool and locked them into a ply while spinning. The bobbin looked horrendous, and it was time consuming, but the resulting project serves it's purpose. (and has an interesting,...er well, maybe unusual appearance). I don't like to load up this page with photos...so click over to the riverrim if you would like to know more about it.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Measuring Yarn?

2007-05-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, guys. Wanda asked me about measuring yarn for yardage, and I suddenly realized that there might be a better solution than my own method of winging it. I'm measuring it on the yarn swift when I skein it, but of course that's not precise. I know Margaret is doing the same on her niddy noddy. What are the rest of you doing? Is there an easy way to get an accurate yardage measurement?

Dandy Lions Yarn

2007-05-25T08:07:00.001-07:00

I finished up the spinning for my shawl, so I get to move on to something new!

This is colorway "Dandy Lions" in superwash merino from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber of the Month Club. It is spinning up at around 10 wpi though I am having a hard time spinning consistently. Maybe because the merino is so lofty, the slightest change in grist seems to have a big bearing on the diameter of the yarn. Does anybody have any tips for me? I couldn't even even spin a consistent length long enough to use for a sample card.

This is my first time spinning with superwash, and my first time spinning with merino. The superwash gives almost a papery feeling while I draft, but the finished yarn is pleasant and oh so soft.

I am posting today because tomorrow I am going to my first fiber festival....Great Lakes, in Wooster, OH. I am soooo excited. :-) My sweet DH is taking me, and it is a good thing, because he will restrain me from clearing out our checking account! LOL.

Hello from London, England

2007-05-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Jane, a lifelong knitter who has just dipped her toe into the world of spinning. I attended a fibre retreat in March where the seeds were planted by some enthusiastic spinners. Next was a day's course at the Handweavers Studio and the die was cast. I have been the proud owner of an Ashford Traditional for a whole week and have produced this - my first proper skein of yarn! It's in two natural shades of Blue Faced Leicester. It's a flawed beauty but it makes me very happy. Details are on my blog .

I am looking forward to learning lots from the experienced spinners here!

almost there

2007-05-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

With only 36 yards left to spin before I reach a total of the 625 yards needed for my project...I started knitting.
Surely, some of the other spinners in this group have the same ( bad) habit? Oh, I started out with good intentions...I told myself I would spin all 625 yards before I would cast on a single stitch. No matter what. Absolutely.

But suddenly, I needed to leave for my dentist appointment, and I needed a project to work on while I was waiting, and I caved.
But there is hope for me. I am getting better. At least this time, I know for sure that I have enough wool to complete the remaining 36 yards.
Stats:625 yards (minus the 36 still to go) of a blend of Black Finn sheep and Black Angora. (75% to 25%)
Prepared on the drum (Louet Jr)
Spun singles on the Great Wheel, Ashford ply.
wpi 8
I posted a few more photographs of the GW spindle and cops that I made with this blend over at the riverrim.

Silk Hankies

2007-05-21T03:55:00.001-07:00

June's tutorial on spinning silk hankies inspired me to get out the little practice ones I bought and give it a go. It's pretty lumpybumpy but I did get much more even as I went along so I think I'll be ready to spin the one Teyani gifted me in the Yarn Aboard spinner's exchange. This hankie was .2 ounces and yielded about 30 yards of fingering/lace weight yarn. Most of the time is spent in drafting and then the spinning goes very quickly. I used the plying ball again with the new pot (Thanks Debbi!) but the pot was a bit snaggy so afterward I sanded it smooth around the edges of the hole. I'm debating possibly giving it a clear coat as well. I had trouble when the center pull cake got small in that the center kept wanting to come out. I wonder if I can put something in the center to help it keep it's structure longer.

I so enjoy reading what everyone's been spinning and it's definitely inspiring me to get out the wheel on a regular basis, just what I needed!

2007-05-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

The other day I read some adamant views about the need to use a very light spindle for lace/fine spinning. While I realize it's a raging upstream struggle to encourage people to try using a heavier spindle for such spinning, occasionally I just have to put my oar in and try to turn the raft.

It's been awhile since I've worked on silk but I'm being drawn back to the slippery enchantment. (Okay, I admit, I'm bored right now with spinning the Chocolate bar. It's crazy since I'm closing in on finishing the three ounces of sock yarn.) Wednesday I got out a spindle with some spun silk hankie and twirled awhile. This is a 2.3oz lilac spindle handling the hankie just fine. ( #2 bloodwood needles and a penny for perspective.)
I love the way the spindle holds onto the spin for about 45 seconds. Spinning a pre-drafted silk hankie goes quickly, except for picking out the little slubs from the edges of the hankie.

Thursday evening while sorting and rebagging my fiber stash I came across this spindle Ed played around with in making. He loves working with copper and one day last winter made this spindle. It weighs 1.3oz and holds a spin 15 - 20 seconds, long enough to spin about 18" before it begins backspinning. I'd spun some at the time then had put it away since I prefer spinning most fibers with at least a 2oz spindle for the longer spin time and overall stability. It really is a matter of personal preference.
Tussah top can be a dream to spin. It slips so readily through the fingers. Drawbacks: moisture in hands makes it stick; if hands are dry it catches on any little fragment of dryness; thin, loose fibers tend to get everywhere.

I took this spindle and silk to The Purl District for the Spin and Yak session yesterday. We moved to Friday mornings in order to free up Saturdays for gardening and summer activities. We're finding this spin time is our Oasis in the week. The shop is quieter without the hordes of knitters/crocheters taking various lessons, along with the crowds coming and going on their way upstairs to Not Yo Mama's Coffee Shop. With more experience in testing many spindles and weights over the past few months I didn't mind using this spindle as much as when I first used it.

One thing I'm struggling with in spinning: there's simply not enough time to spin everything that's begging to be spun. I have some white cormo that needs cleaning and carding, a coil of soft brown llama that I haven't even tried, a couple ounces of angora, a bit of cashmere that needs de-hairing, and a couple pounds of Charolais of which I have only spun about an ounce.

newbie here!

2007-05-18T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

I am a newbie to both this blog and to spinning....I bought my first spindle in February and have been entranced ever since. This is a picture of my present main spinning project....koolaid-dyed BFL that I am spinning up as a two-ply for a shawl. There is my sweet little Bossie mini, too. After getting it I no longer consider my other spindle to be fully functional. I hope to finish the spinning this weekend so that I can start chipping away at the rest of my burgeoning fiber stash!

I look forward to learning from you all and enjoying the works of your hands....

(please note that this picture was taken today, not in 2005.....gotta figure that camera out. :-) )

Plying Ball

2007-05-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

I did have a go with the plying ball this week and it's a technique I'd definitely use again. I like the idea of using up every bit of fiber and this is a great way to get a 2-ply yarn without any waste. There's a full post about it with more pictures on my blog.

Answering Cyndy

2007-05-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

Cyndy left a comment with a question on my last post, and since the answer was going to make for a very long return comment and I wanted to ask a couple of questions of my own, I'm cheating and posting it instead. :-)

I had actually thought of Navajo-plying the remaining singles, but I'd never done it before and decided to test it first. So, I pulled the merino-silk off the wheel and spun up some plain wool in fingering-weight singles, then tried to chain ply them. I cannot tell you what a mess I made. Well, ok, I could, but it defies description. :-) I think the problem was that I had too much twist in the singles (thinking it would work the same as a standard 3-ply), and then overspan the ply. It didn't help matters that the "knots" really showed; it was impossibly ugly. I realized pretty quickly that if I couldn't manage it with some vanilla wool at a much heavier gauge, I'd never make it with very thin laceweight singles (assuming the suckers didn't break in the process).

I even thought about rearranging the singles into a center-pull ball and one single, but center-pull with high-twist thread gets nasty quickly, I'd still have a bit of single left over, and I wasn't sure it would be worth the work just for a couple yards of finished yarn. The leftovers aren't lost; I'll save them for something later, or use them for yarn label tags.

I DO, however, need to figure this out. I pulled out some black-white roving from The Sheep Shed Studio to experiment with, and started spinning a fingering-weight single last night. I'll give myself a couple of ounces worth and then try my hand at chain plying it again. This time, though, there's considerably less twist in the single, so we'll see what happens.

But there must be a way to use all the singles in a plain three-ply? Obviously equalizing weight per bobbin would help, but what if you're not spinning a perfectly consistent single? (I'm working on it, but I'm not there yet.) You'll still end up with more on one than another. And what about the "bump" or knotty spot in a Navajo ply? How does that join affect the wear of the yarn? In other words, are there some purposes for which a Navajo-plied yarn would be less "good" or effective than others? I wouldn't think it would make a difference for scarves and shawls, but how does it do for sweaters or clothing?

See? All I have are questions these days. :-)

Pussy Willows

2007-05-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Wooly Wonka BFL, Pussy Willows, 290yds, sportweight

Over the weekend, I made some more yarn! Details on my blog.

A progress report

2007-05-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

I finally (!) finished the lace-weight singles I was working on, and managed to finish plying most of them this weekend. The last 250 yards are hanging to dry even now, but I can show you most of the finished yarn. There's a full report on the blog, but here's the heart of it.

The Stats.

Fiber: Ashland Bay Merino-Tussah (70-30) blend, McKenzie colorway, from Mielke’s Farm.
Finished Weight: just less than a pound.
Yardage: ca 940 yards of standard three ply, plus about five yards of two ply leftovers.
WPI: 16.
Spun on: Rose.

I learned a few things on this one, and used a button to help control the plying process. (Heh . . . one of the things I learned was to NOT let go of the button!) I learned a bit, too, about how Tussah handles in a blend, and there are a few places where the yarn is a bit thicker because I didn't thin the silk quite enough. One skein is a bit overplied, but I'm moderately pleased with my own progress. :-) It's still far from perfect, and I can look at it and see some real places where I need to figure out a few details in the process, but it really ended up with a nice denim tone that I like, and the yarn has a nice feel to it. But ya know, I've gotta admit that I was starting to itch to spin something else by the time I finished!

I couldn't think of a good way to salvage the remaining two singles when the third finished and still get a three ply, hence the two-ply leftovers. If anyone has the secret to that, I'd love to know!

From spindle to yarn

2007-05-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

Managed to capture some shots of the yarn I have just finished spinning and plying on the Turkish, the merino came from Sunset Fibers, and was gifted to me in The Knitters Treat Exchange!

A little hand dyed roving

2007-05-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

I was sent a sample of merino pencil roving last week, so I decided to chuck it in the dyepot!
There was only a couple of metres so it was really just for playing with....
In the UK we have chewy sweets, real tooth-rotters - hated by dentists I expect - and called Starbursts. They were previously called Opal Fruits, but some conglomerate decided to homogenise the product for a world stage, a bit like Snickers bars which used to be known as "Marathon".
Anyway.
They are this colour...

I guess I'll be ordering more. This is my old beginner's Ashford top whorl, not the magnificent Turkish.

Pre-weekend spinning

2007-05-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to get in the habit of spinning once a week at minimum and think that Sunday afternoons will usually be good for that. This week though I will have company so I've been good and "worked ahead". I spun another 2-ounce ball of the Tourmaline pencil roving and plied the singles into this 2-ply yarn. I've got about 250 yards of sportweight (more or less) yarn. That puts me halfway through that batch of roving.

In preparation for Mme Purl's visit I've also got it in gear and created my felted ball from the kit I bought at the CT S&W festival. I'm hoping that between the two of us we can figure out how to do this plying off a ball thing. I've got a fair chunk of single left over from the black and silver roving I was spinning recently to test this out with.

Spin to hook

2007-05-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

I am so thrilled with my lastest finished spinning.
This is Funky Carolina roving spun into singles that I am going to use to crochet an afghan.
I think the colourway was called sunset something...I have spun with her rovings before and loved them so much I am about to add them to the shop.
The superwash is sooo easy to spin! The spinning when really quickly, this was my stress reliever project as I was working to prepare for my latest vacation.
I keep my wheel behind my desk chair and just turn around when I have had too much and spin for a few minutes.
The blanket will be in pink/orange/reds or blues not sure yet. Currently on the bobbin is some yarn wench merino in "blush"

Fiber Stash Enhancement

2007-05-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

I don’t want to bore the knitters on my mostly knitting blog. But y’all understand about a little fiber acquisition. I didn’t go to MDSW this year, and didn’t need to, as the fiber has been coming directly to the house.

Can a more experienced spinner please tell me how to find the time to spin all this?

Thundercloud
Black Bunny Fiber, hand-dyed Falkland roving, 8oz, Thundercloud colorway
Another image here.

Wanted to see what all the fuss is about with pencil roving.

Zorro
Crown Mountain Farm, hand-dyed Corriedale pencil roving, 8oz, Zorro colorway. Deep violet, a hint of pink at the color separation, bitter chocolate brown, warm black.

Inspiration
Crown Mountain Farm, hand-dyed Corriedale pencil roving, 8oz, Inspiration colorway. Peony pink, pale yellow, olive green, and touches of daylily orange.

Green Olives
Crown Mountain Farm, hand-dyed Corriedale pencil roving, 8oz, Green Olives colorway. Olive and grass greens with a touch of gold.

Oh. My.
Crown Mountain Farm, Cashgora top roving, 4oz. The softness is amazing, the sheen is wonderful.

Aster
Crown Mountain Farm, Dicentra Designs hand-dyed superwash merino, 8oz, Aster colorway. Baby this colorway is BRIGHT purple, green, yellow.

I have found time to spin the first half of Anne’s BFL in the Pussy Willows colorway that is hoping to become a lightweight 2-ply for some fingerless mitts for the husband. I had about 3 ¾ oz remaining after experimenting with spinning and plying 2 or 3-ply.

Waiting to become a 2-ply

And now that my extra bobbins have arrived, I set that aside and spun up the rest of the Kid Hollow BFL/mohair into a single that shows off all the slubs and nubs and bits of fiber blended in.

Along with the little sister skein, I now have about 350 yds of 14wpi DK wt singles.

So much softer in person than I can show you in a photo!

Oh, I also got a tensioned lazy kate which should help my plying efforts considerably.

I am still here !!

2007-05-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Things have been rather hectic lately and we have just come back from a really relaxing weekend away so in reality I can't claim this as this weekend's spin but I wanted to show you some yarn I spun and added beads on whilst spinning it.

If you want more details visit my blog as I have given a quick demo there . Sorry I am too tired to re-write it here after updating my blog today.
At the moment I am spinning some Cotswold fleece I was given by someone. It had a label saying it was from 1976 but after dying and hand carding it,it still spins and feels lovely .

Whirling around

2007-05-07T03:52:00.000-07:00

Despite having company this weekend I did squeeze in some spinning. I pulled out some Corriedale pencil roving and had a go with it. This is the first time I've spun Corriedale and the pencil roving was quite easy to work with. I divided it into fourths by weight and plan to do a 2-ply with it.

First Artificail Fiber

2007-05-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

I've finished plying my Blue Faced Leicester on May 3. Yarn thickness isn't even at all, but the last skein I plied didn't twist when I took it from Niddy and hanged it.

Then, I started spinning Merino/Tencel 50/50 purchased from Crown mountain Farms.

I've never seen any kinds of synthetic fiber at the fiber shops near by. I've just wanted to give it a try and bought some online.
At first, I tried to spin fine single to be Navaho plied, but the yarn got thicker than I thought. Still I went for Navaho plying a bit and well, it seems OK.

And following picture is the new lunchtime project, indigo dyed Shetland bought at last year's Tokyo Spinning Party. I've never spun Shetland before and I'm really looking forward to spin it.

Before spinning, I have to decide what I should do with the handspun yarn. Well.....

Shepherd's Delight?

2007-05-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

I'm still practicing with my spindle, this is 1oz of Sunset Fibers merino, which was gifted to me in the Knitters Treat Exchange (the whole package was up on my blog this week), I'm just ironing out all the kinks in my spindle spinning before I attempt to spin some superwash merino I bought to spindle some socks.

Yet Another Newbie

2007-05-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm so glad to be a member of this blog and so excited. My name is Chihiro and I live in Yokohama, Japan. I've started spinning last September and only spindle spin. I'm still a novice and have a strong interest of anything new, such as spinning the fiber I've never used and all.

Here is the photo of my weekend spinning.

The skein is Corriedale, on Niddy is BFL, and on spindle is merino. All are plied.

I usually spin on my lunch break on weekdays, and ply on weekends. I have two spinners at the office to spin together.

I'm now trying hard on three things : 1. Spin evenly twisted yarn. 2. Don't be afraide of fine yarn. 3. Try to spin bulky yarn.

the farmer in the dell

2007-05-01T05:21:00.000-07:00

Wow! Look at all the new members! Great to see the list grow...and fun to read so many new postings! Just stopping in to tell you all that I am still working away on the Farmers special. To date I have a total of 424 yards, weighing in at approx 10.5 oz. I figure by the time I finish, I will have close to a pound. As you can see there is not much color happening between the fingers, but it gives me lots of time to think about what I am going to do when I pull the dye pot out.
Do any of you other spinners get a case of cold feet when it comes to the dye pot? I sometimes wish I could leaving the dyeing to someone else with more experience.

cyndy from riverrim

Another Newbie to The Weekend Whirls

2007-04-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! Thank you for letting me join the group. I'm especially keen on the spinning groups. I did do some weekend whirling. I find Sunday mornings a great time to get my wheel out. It's nice and quiet and I can spin right into the afternoon.

Right now my main project is spinning a bulky yarn to knit my DH a sweater. This is from a Corriedale ram called Mercury that resides at Whitefish Bay Farm in Door County, Wisconsin.

Normally I can do two bobbins in a sitting, but I only go the one bobbin done this weekend. I'll try not to bore you all too much with this one - I'm about 1/2 way through this fleece.

Happy Spinning!

~ Madame Purl

Newbie to Weekend Whirls

2007-04-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm a newbie to the blog. Been lurking for a couple of weeks, and just love perusing the entries and visiting everyone's regular blogs. I've been spinning for about a year, with about a two month lull during that time. I stupidly thought that I had too many hobbies, and in an effort to cut back, sold my Ashford Joy and all things fibery. After about six weeks or so, I found myself reading the spinning blogs again, thinking I could survive by partaking of bits and pieces online. And having it suffice. Hahahahahaha. Pretty soon I was tearing the house apart, looking for my spindle, and damn, I knew that I had saved a little bit of fiber somewhere. Spindle spinning is nice, and was how I got started spinning, but there is nothing like a good zen state wheel spin. Bought me another Ashford Joy, and then about a month after that I bought a Majacraft Rose. I love the Joy, but I'm mad about the Rose. The bobbin size is to die for, and the plying set is the cat's meow. I love to knit, but I swear I'd spin even if I didn't. Here's the latest - a pic of Spunky Eclectic's latest fiber club called Dandy Lions, about 8.5 ounces spun 2ply:

And a close up just because I love closeups, lol:

Off to a good start

2007-04-30T04:03:00.000-07:00

So far so good. I got out the wheel again yesterday and went for a 2-ply of the alpaca/silk singles I had. The skein is 270 yards and 6 3/4 ounces. I forgot to measure the WPI but it looks to be about a DK weight. I can tell it's been too long since I had the wheel out as it's not terribly consistent but it's beatifully soft so I think it would make a great scarf or hat. It's very nearly black so the photo of the whole skein is closer to the true color.

Saturday some friends and I made it down to the Connecticut Sheep and Wool festival which is a tiny wee one with four buildings full of vendors and 5 or 6 ones outside in tents. I picked up some silk hankies (that I have no clue what to do with but they were cheap so why not?) and a 2 1/2 pound fiber bump that'll be my summer spinning.

And now I have a question about photo etiquette for this blog. I have no clue how much storage these blogs have so I'm not sure if it's better to refer to posts on my own blog and keep it to one or two here or if it's okay to post more here. As you can see, for this post I opted for the conservative route.

Blog Information/Question, and Project Finished!

2007-04-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

A big welcome to the new posters! It's fun to see all the different yarns being spun, and I love reading how others are spinning. As a relatively new spinner who's only used spindles I have tons to learn.

A couple bits of info:
1)Please check your posts for comments others have left. I can't figure out how to make them go directly to the poster. Also, to see the commentor's blog you need to click on the name in the sidebar links.

2)I am seriously wondering if we should move this blog over to WordPress or LiveJouranal. Both of those blog servers allow more interactive commenting which I think would be very helpful. Please email me (wjjenkins1ATyahooDOTcom) and let me know you're thoughts on migrating en mass, and your preferences, and/or experiences with either.

Life's been very busy these past two weeks. Remember the book bag I was spinning lofty singles for?

After the first five inches I started spinning a bit tighter getting 46 yds from an ounce. Knitting the final few inches the realization set in that the last ounce wouldn't be enough to make a 36" strap so I respun it to 56yds, and decreased from 10mm to 9mm needles. Dear Ed came to my rescue when I desperately asked him to make me a set of 9mm 24"L circular needles first thing Thursday morning: The bag had to be finished by Friday morning.
AD: Do you want some quality circular needles? Sharp tips perfect for lace work, exotic hard woods - $32. He's now making some smaller sizes, maybe going as small as 5mm. Send me an email if interested.)

After pummelling the fibers in hot sudsy water, the felted bag was not at all what I'd set out to make, but clever friends at the YS Friday morning had a great suggestion when they saw the felted bag: Buttons!

Daughter Aurora, showed the bag to the classmate who asked me to make one for her. I stressed that she didn't have to buy it since it turned out so different than Aurora's bag. Cheers!!! She loves it, and even offered to pay more than my asking price! :-) My first spun/knitted/felted sale.

Another new spinner, yeah, I’m hooked

2007-04-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Kid Hollow BFL/mohair, yum

Hi All, I’ve been lurking for a few weeks, but finally wanted to say Hello, introduce myself, and maybe ask a newbie question or two.

I’m Margaret, in Charlottesville, VA, a knitter who’s been corrupted by the infectious good attitude of the knitting/spinning bloggers, particularly Margene. I was secretly hoping I would hate spinning as my stash is already unmanageable, but, no such luck.

I stopped at Holly Spring Homespun near Richmond on a wild hair for a drop spindle lesson March 7. Yes, this March. Y’all will be so proud of me, not even two months and I have three drop spindles, a wheel, and several pounds of fiber.

Rather than re-post, I’ll invite you over to my blog to see some drop spindling efforts, Fiber!, my brand new Louet Victoria, and my progress with her so far.

My question, since I’ve taught myself to chain (Navajo) ply, is about the size of the loops. How big should they be? Does it matter as long as you are consistent?

Thanks for the inspiration!

A Quick Introduction

2007-04-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I joined this blog a few weeks ago, but Blogger has been being difficult and has refused to let me on to say hello.

I have been spindle spinning for just over a year and two months ago I finally cracked and bought myself a wheel

She is a lovely secondhand, well treated Ashford Traveller in walnut and I have spent the last two months becoming hoplessly addicted to her :-)

You can see my progress on my blogg at Http://guernseygal.typepad.com/knitting_on_an_island/

But in the mean time here is a little taster of what I have been up to :-)

Out of the corner

2007-04-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

When I ran across this blog via Margene I felt it was exactly the sort of nudge I needed to give me the impetus to get my poor neglected wheel back out and give it a spin. I bought it in the summer 2 years ago and it seems like summertime is now spinning time to me. Somehow in the Christmas rush it falls by the wayside and before you know it sheep and wool season is upon us. Last fall I bought some gorgeous alpaca/silk blend from the Sheep Shed at Rhinebeck with plans to spin and knit it for Christmas but it never did get past the first bobbin full. This past weekend I squeezed in a bit of spinning between the painting and the garden cleanup and yesterday afternoon I managed to finish a second bobbinful. I hope to get some plying squeezed in this weekend at some point between the CT S&W and anniversary celebrations.

Turkish Delight

2007-04-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I won a spindle in Wanda's birthday draw, and it arrived a couple of days after I got back from holiday in Japan, which was pretty much a wool-free zone, silk, rayon, bamboo, but no wool. And as for knitting socks.....it provoked much observation on the Shinkansen, partly because I was knitting socks and partly, I think, because the Japanese knit in the continental way with the yarn held in the left hand).
A N Y W A Y .
The weekend whirls has done it again. Before I would have felt guilty that I wasn't using it right away, but this time I set it aside and admired it, and stroked it's smooth curves (is there spindle pron?), and waited until the weekend.
Stupid blogger won't let me upload the image, but I have successfully spun a tiny mini-muffin. I've also realised that I use a spindle differently to Wanda suggests. I am right handed, but I hold the pencil roving in my right hand and spin the spindle with my left, and it's my left hand which slides up the fibre as it twists.
I'll try an image in another post.... grrrrr.

free-wheelin'

2007-04-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, my weekend whirling ever take an unexpected spin for me! I'm still reeling a little from the fact that I now have this...

..in my livingroom! She's an Ashford Elizabeth wheel, on loan for the next month or two. Here I was, finally feeling like I'm getting the hang of my little drop-spindles (I actually didn't drop it once this whole weekend!), and now I'm right back to the basics. Heck, I only just realized why the drive band kept flying off during in my first attempts (it's a double drive!).

I predict interesting times ahead, fellow spinners. Anybody got any useful links to online articles (I've already got to Spin-Off! ones) or blog posts of your own for me?

In the meantime, here's a shot of the very rough spinning I managed (even with in drive band on incorrectly, as you can see here!). It's a lovely natural brown Coopworth roving I picked up at Romni Wools last week, originally intended for spindle spinning. Wish me luck!

sampling the fleece

2007-04-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

With perfect drying weather here, it was time to wash the samples of Border Leicester that I will spin for a guild project. I use mesh bags to control the fleece while washing. Because there was such a small amount, I washed and rinsed it in my kitchen sink. The same bags work in my washer when I have lots to process.

It was a perfect day to spread it out on racks in the sun.

That is another of my favorite spindles. It is a Forrester Safari. It was a perfect choice for sampling the carded fiber. I have this posted with a bit more detail on my blog: smatterings.

Hi Ladies

2007-04-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

I am so thrilled to have joined weekend whirls!
Pictures of plying in progress very soon...I look forward to reading about what you all are doing
Cheers!

Hiya!

2007-04-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! I'm Elizabeth and I'm a new spinner, just got my Majacraft "Rosalita" last November. To say that I'm addicted would be an understatement! I'm sure you can relate. I have tons of questions but right now I'll try to listen and learn for the most part!

Except for this one question (see, I couldn't help myself): is it possible, do you think, to spin Wensleydale for lace? It's just soooo pretty and has such a wonderful sheen that I immediately thought how pretty it would be in a shawl. But the hairiness! here's what it looks like on my bobbin:

The Wensleydale is in the back. I don't want to fight against the nature of the wool. I sampled spinning from the fold and also short draw (?maybe, it's how I normally spin) and short draw, low ratio, not a lot of twist produced a less-hairy yarn. Anything else I should try? Or should I designate this as "outer wear only." Thanks for your help! I'm really happy to be part of this group!

some big muffin

2007-04-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

The last of the cormo / alpaca blend has been spun and plyed. It is under the 4 oz. that I thought I had. I probably test spun, played with it on something else during the past year or so. I haven't weighed this big little yarn muffin. It looks to be the biggest of the four.

I've thought about the question "what is / which are my favorite spindle(s)?" It is really hard to say. I have favorites for the moment, for the project. Some are favorite to handle, to ply with, to look at. If I were to answer in the moment, I'd have to say the Osage Orange Jenkins pictured here and my Tsunami Golding. I've got blue silk on the Golding. It as an incredibly long spin time, a textured shaft that makes spinning with my feet a breeze, and it is big enough and heavy enough to hold quite a lot. My only complaint is that the brass ring corrodes. I haven't been able to polish it away, it returns time after time.

play as you go

2007-04-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hello spinners! It is nice to see the sidebar list of contributors growing, and I am really enjoying reading and learning about what everybody is spinning and how they are spinning it.

Last week I worked on fiber preparation so that I would have something to spin on the weekend. I had planned to work at the Great Wheel, and I have much better results at that wheel when my fiber is extremely "draftable" (for lack of a better word). This involves more than the average amount of preparation that I would go through if I were going to spin on my Ashford.

Since I am still working on that blend of Black Finn and Angora, I first prepare the Finn wool. This fleece came to me from Grace Hatton (see the riverrim blog). I had previously scoured it, and discovered that it has lovely thick locks-- full of crimp! Before I can send this through my drum carder, I need to pick it to fluff and separate the locks. I sometimes do this in the evenings, when I want to watch TV.

After I had a basketful of the picked Finn, I sent a few handfuls through the drum carder (Louet Jr.) and then, I added a few handfuls of angora that I placed directly onto the drum as I was turning it. At this point, I added another few handfuls of Finn. So now I have an angora sandwich.. which suggests an Oreo cookie to me... which I take off the carder, and split down the middle length wise, turn the middles to the outside, and send it through the carder for a second pass. I made as many of these as I could in an afternoon, but I still have more to go.

As I was spinning, I remembered a question that Judy had asked a few weeks ago...about the weight of the yarn that filled the spindle. The Great Wheel is like spinning off of a spindle that has been set on its side...so I decided to make the biggest cop that I could. It weighed in at just over 2.5 oz. I couldn't make it any bigger, because I had trouble with the tip collapsing on itself.
I think the spindle could hold a bit more, but I need to learn how to build a better cop.

Saturday Spin In

2007-04-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Just stopping by to let you know I'm faced with a fiber challenge that I've posted on my blog and would like to hear your views.

Warring Whorls

2007-04-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I did get to spend a nice bit of time with my wheel, Emmylou. You can see some of my progress here. I do hope to enjoy more time spinning this coming weekend and wish you all the same!

Margene
Zeneedle

Ladakhi spindle

2007-04-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

Remember the singles that my friend MC was plying a week ago? She brought the finished skein to The Purl District on Saturday. Everyone agreed that her first yarn is a rousing success in a riot of thick and thin colors.

This week I've taken a detour to prepare the roving for a book bag commissioned by one of DD's (Aurora) classmates who loves Aurora's bag which I knit using unspun pencil roving on #17/12.75mm needles. For this bag I'm first putting a slight twist in the roving which is proving to be a whole new discipline. I've never spun a chunky or bulky yarn, my tendency is thin. It was hard not to put too much twist into the yarn. With the weight of the Ladakhi spindle it was touch and go at first. The Ladakhi is based on spindles used in Ladakh, the Himalayas region North of India.

This picture was sent to me from Celtic Jo, taken during a trip to Ladakh several years ago. Her husband snapped the picture while a monk was spinning.
It is similiar to the Turkish spindle but longer and heavier. The spindle is approximately 16" long. The first one Ed made to the specs from the picture was wildly wobbly and couldn't hold a spin for long. But determindly using that clunky one until I was able to spin half decent yarn confirmed my belief that too often spindles are labeled into narrow, specialized catagories. It's truly amazing the skill that people have on what most would consider inferior spindles. I chose the Ladakhi for its capacity for large amounts of yarn. It weighs 3oz but by slowly spinning it and using it as a support spindle on the floor I'm able to spin horizontally 4 -5 feet. At that point I undulate the single to even out the twist through the fibers before winding on. I'm loving this soft, open "yarn".

Multicolor updates and Spindles

2007-04-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, guys, I think I have a few answers. Note that the emphasis here is on "a few"! First, Artis-Anne confirmed my own experience. If you have a roving where the different colors run vertically down the roving rather than horizontally across, you get a generic color when you draft it all together. If you separate the individual colors to varying extents, then you get lengths of single in those tones. The degree to which you do that and to which you allow some of the base color in the strips of other color---or not---determines the extent to which you end up with mud, barber-pole, or something in between. I didn't get mud, but I did get a variety of everything else. :-)

The color here is washed out and doesn't do the finished yarn justice; it's much richer green. But at least you see what I mean about the different hues. In this case, I split the roving into strips of deep green, yellows, and reds, but kept a bit of the base green in each of the red and yellow strips. In the final tally, I rather like what it turned out to be. The colors aren't so distinctive that they would disrupt a lace pattern, I think?

Spindles. I can't answer much about that one, Em. I've only tried the three I have: a Bosworth .7 ounce mini, a Cascabeles 1.8 ounce, and a special plying spindle from Tracy at Woolly Designs. I improvised a CD spindle when I was trying to find a large enough surface for plying, and tested it as a Navajo-style spindle and found myself uncomfortable with it. I've not tried a bottom whorl of any sort, and I'm a hair away from trying one of you-know-who's Turkish spindles. All three of those I have are a bit different. The Bossie spins quickly and easily with a thumb flick, the Cascabeles is beautiful using a thigh roll. Of those two, I find the Cascabeles is easiest for me and spins most evenly, even though it's too heavy for me to do a laceweight. Interestingly, it's the plying spindle which has one feature I like best, and I can only attribute it to Tracy's handle on ratios. The WD spindle pauses before it begins a back spin. I don't mean that it hesitates. Rather, the thing actually stops when it finishes the forward spin, and there is an incredibly long pause before it begins a backspin. Of those, the WD cost the least; you really don't need to spend 50usd to get an excellent spindle. It just depends on what you want, I think, and what you plan to use it with or for.

Duelling Banjo's ?

2007-04-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone :) and I hope its as sunny with you all as it is here. Hubby is working though so I have been keeping myself amused !! I have been dyeing some handspun sock yarn in stripes, which if you want to see you can check out on my blog.

I needed to get some bobbins clear before Thursday as I have a SWD Guild meeting and its spinning in all its forms so I plied the bobbins of the wool ,mohair and silk I had blended and spun . I have still some more of that to spin but I am having problems trying to spin evenly to a worsted /aran weight at the moment so have to say I was not enjoying doing it.
I don't usually use roving's as I find they are dry and lifeless ,but they are instant gratification I guess and I said I would try and show how I spin a roving to get certain colours to stand out better, rather than blend all together. Now this roving is merino & silk and it has darker blue hues and sea blue , turquoise shades as well as the white silk. So I have split it in sections of the dark blue hues on one side and then the lighter shades on the other . I'm not sure that this photo shows how different the shades are but you will see that on the wheels that there is a difference.
Oh and by the way that is the drop spindle that I favour the most ,odd shape I know but it does the job.
One thing I did overlook in my haste to get this done was that I usually spilt the whole roving that I am using and then weigh the two batches to get an even weight so that I am pretty sure that all the roving will be used.

This is the lighter sea blue shades and using most of the silk as well . I spun this on Tony's wheel which is a great little wheel.

Then the darker one I spun on my Ashford.

Now can you see the difference? So I will then ply these together so the shades will look more definite, of course I could also have just spun the two shades alternating and then Navajo plied them and that would have given me a striped effect. I spun these using the woolen method so that I could keep the individual hues of blues .
So here I was using both wheels side by side and the song 'Duelling Banjo's' came to my head and we have these battery powered rodents that play this tune which are great fun and amuse all children and adults who visit us. Tony has bought a few of these sort of toys and mainly given them to me whenever I have been in hospital to cheer me up , which they invariably do . If I knew how to upload videos I would have had them play for you .

Any way folks hope your weekend is going well; I am going back to finish that roving so that I can free another bobbin up

Whirlpool

2007-04-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow spinners, here I am joining the whirls with a thick and thin merino,which I'm thinking of calling 'whirlpool', hopefully a fitting name for this green and blue concoction. I carded some blue and green merino with some cut silk and a little bit of alpaca, and plied it with a shiny rayon thread. I actually spun this last weekend, but after plying and washing and setting the twist, I finally got the photo shoot done this afternoon.

Saturday Spin In

2007-04-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings all.....................I love the attention Wanda is giving to spinning. I started a Saturday Spin In at my blog awhile ago to stimulate myself and others to get our spinning mojos working. And I can say it's made a difference concerning the amount of time I'm spending on spinning.

In response to Em and Cyndy's posts this what I'm currently spinning on my spindles.

re: spindle advice

2007-04-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I would comment to Em's question in a post.The question of a favorite spindle is difficult for me to answer. It is akin to that question about picking a favorite color....or like comparing apples and oranges. If I had to choose (favorite to spin with) which one to take to a desert island, I'd probably take my small top whorl..and wind up making others! Have you ever tried spinning on the old "apple and a pencil" spindle?

My spindle collection is always at an ebb and flow. I never seem to keep all of the brands of spindles that I have acquired, some of them just pass through my hands. I love to give them away to the people I have taught. I do keep a few favorites, ones that are made by people I know, or ones that I think I need to keep so that I can eventually give them to the right person.

Spindles are like people, don't you think?? Unique in size, shape and weight, and their preferences...each one to be appreciated for their own individuality. Some fibers are easier to spin on some spindles than others. Usually, if I think about it, I can match up the right spindle with the right fiber, and sometimes, the right spindle with the right person.

From right to left:

Infamous CD spindle

Hand made clay whorl with "faster faster" inscribed in runic.

Old Ashford Beginners

Hand turned top whorl

Hand made Turkish

Spindle Advice

2007-04-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings, fellow spinners!

I've recently taken up spinning, and with a cobbled-together drop spindle at that, but nonetheless I'm hooked! Since I already love it so much, I figure I can justify a bit of expenditure (though sadly, not enough for a wheel!), so I was wondering is any of you had some advice for me.

First off, what is your favorite kind of spindle to spin with (high-whorl, low-whorl, Turkish?) And why? I'm aware that different spindles work better depending on the yarn: currently I'm trying to spin lighter-weight singles, to (hopefully) end up with fingering-to-sprt weight yarn (that way if i mess it up I'll still be ok with a worsted!).

Secondly, what brands of spindles do you love? Again, why? I'm looking to get something nice, but I'm having a hard time justifying $50USD for a small blob of lathe-turned hardwood... (I really must repress my inner DIY-er!) I also realize that this group happens to be "sponsored" by a spindlemaker, and I don't want to cause issues, so if this question is 'iffy' just ignore it.

Thanks for your help, in advance.