pea harvest yarn

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.

almost there

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.

play as you go

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.

gardening or spinning?

This is pretty much the same post that I have over at the riverrim, so if you have already seen that one, you know what I have been busy with!

Thanks Wanda, for your kind invite to join the group of weekend spinners. My weekends are usually very busy days, and with the nicer weather coming along, I will most certainly be out in the garden, but one always finds a little time for spinning ...something! This weekend found me spinning at the Great Wheel....

I have finished spinning all that I had carded up of the finnsheep/angora blend. I am spinning a cop of the blend, and then spinning a cop of finnsheep, and have been plying them together.

I also made myself a lazy kate for plying the cops. I was having trouble with them when I turned them on their sides, so I have fashioned a method where I can stand them up. It is working a little bit better, but I still need to make some modifications to improve the design. The cops don't spin freely, and I think they need a disk to ride on, so I will cut them from the plastic cutting boards, and see if that makes a difference. Currently, I slip the cop off of the spindle and directly onto the double point needle, which rides in the lazy kate.

So far, I have a total of 240 yards of the blend. I'm still uncertain about what I will use it for, but one thing I do know is that I am keeping this for myself. If I get enough, I may decide to knit a sweater/jacket.