free-wheelin'

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!

There is no bad wool

I ran out of the Finn/Angora Blend that I was working on last weekend. Actually, I didn't run out of it, I just have to card up more. But I do have a lot of something else ready to go on the Ashford to keep me busy in the meantime:

Farmer Dave's special blend, comprised of at least 3 (maybe more) different (mystery) breeds of sheep. They were all mixed together and processed at Gurdy Run Farm and Woolen Mill.

I have been spinning it in modified long draw, making a woolen single, z-twist. I managed to fill 2 bobbins this past week and decided to ply them today.

I plied using a Hand-over-hand method. I wound up with 4.5 oz with a wpi of 13 or 14.

At 244 yards so far...it's going to be somewhere between a sports and a worsted.

If you could pick one of these stats to describe your yarns ...which one, as a spinner, do you think would be most important? Weight, yardage, color, wpi, breed of sheep, or other? Just wonderin....