I Am Inordinantly Proud
...of this little skein.
After the camera test last night, I finished drop spindling the small remaining amount of sunset colored roving that I had. Tonight, accompanyied by a nice glass wine, I used an Andean plying bracelet to help me turn that single into a two ply yarn. On my last plying adventure, before I set the twist, I had a skein that definitly wanted to twist on itself a little bit. Tonight, I tried to focus my attention on making sure that I had a "balanced" yarn -- that is, once plied, the yarn didn't really want to twist around itself. At first, for some reason, balanced always seemed undertwisted to me. But now that I look at the skein, it seems about right. It still needs a bath to set the twist, but that is a project for tomorrow, I think.
This skein feels like my first real, something I would actually knit with, skein of yarn. Not perfect, but definitely an effort I'm proud of (ask my poor husband, he's been subjected to looking at it several times tonight). I now feel like I understand the basics of spinning with a drop spindle.
In the comments to my last post, Nik asked for some recommendations for learning. The best one I can give: go to MS&W with Cladia, Julie, Leigh and the Harlot. I know that's a bit hard to achieve, so I'd also like to recommend the book that Julie recommended on her blog a while ago:
as well as Ameilia Carlson's "Spindling: the Basics" booklet that I got from the Journey Wheel folks while I was at MS&W.
This go at spinning is actually my second. Sometime back, Julie tried to teach me and I just couldn't figure it out (and it wasn't because she was a bad teacher -- more like I wasn't really ready to want to understand the process). Being able to watch a bunch of different people with different styles helped me realize that I don't have to worry about a "right" or a "wrong" way. It also made me appreciate that in order to do it right, I needed to understand what I was doing. I guess that's the scientist in me, but I do a lot better when I'm not just "following instructions".
I also tried to take my time and not have expectations of perfection. I discovered that pre-drafting is a good thing, and that there's nothing wrong with divinding your roving into whatever size chunks you find easiest to work with. I spent a lot of time spinning and parking and letting the twist move gradually as I learned to deal with handling the fiber. I'm still pretty slow, but now that I have some of the basic motionsin place, I'm sure that my speed will pick up with time.
I also followed the advice of every spinner I have met so far and picked fibers that I wanted to touch. The reality is that sheep are not going extinct, and even if I mess up a whole bunch of lovely cormo, it isn't the end of the world. Better to work with fibers that make me happy and accept that along the path to learning I will have some things that I don't want to look at later on.
Finally, pick a spindle that talks to you. A spindle needs to be well balanced, but it also needs to be something that you want in your hands, that you enjoy looking at, that just "feels right". I'm happy that I started with the two lovely Bosworth spindles that I got and I like to think that these are endowed with special good vibes since some spinners I respect a great deal spun a little bit with them before they came home with me to Chicago.
I enjoyed reading your post. I have just bought a proper spindle and started to use it. I had tried before, but didn't 'get it' until I was taught at a recent wool fair. Then, today, I received Spin it from Amazon, and I am lookingforward to consolidating what I have learnt. It is a good little book.
You have to be proud of that skein - I have a way to go before I get that far!
Happy spinning.
It's lovely yarn.You should feel proud.
It may be slightly undertwisted.When I spin I allow some of my just spun sigles ply back on themselves,then save that piece of yarn as a plying reference.The plied yarn always seems overtwisted until it's had a bath.then it's always perfectly balanced.
Once you've spun singles and left them on a spindle or bobbin you've set the twist,temporarily.That means that the yarn isn't ''alive'' and can't show how balanced it is when plied.
Does that make sense ?
Having said that,there's quite a large margin of acceptably balanced,where your knitted fabric won't bias.Softly spun and plied is good,unless you want hard wearing.
I'm so thrilled that you've discovered this whole new world.Spinning will bring you so much pleasure,in so many ways.
Sorry Theresa ! You'll have to mentally edit that comment ! Obviously I allow the siNgles TO ply back on themselves.
And the great thing is..... even if you don't like the look of the yarn, 9 times out of 10, you can still make something warm for a community knit project out of it!
Emma took the words right off my keyboard.
That is a lovely little skein.
Beautiful, beautiful. You SHOULD be proud of yourself!
Yeah!! I'm so happy that you are enjoying spinning! (We'll have to go wheel shopping next.) And you were too kind, saying that I was a good teacher that first time. I really didn't know what I was doing back then, so it was like the blind leading the blind. Claudia is a much better teacher and MS&W was a great learning experience.
What a lovely color and a lovely little skein!
Beautiful! I'm still dreaming about those spindles you bought at mdsw....still :)
I'm so inspired to try some spinning myself. I'll have to check out that book (especially at those prices) and see if spinning can be learned from a book :)
You should be proud. Very lovely stuff.
Thanks for the suggestion, hon. I love it that soo many people have helped me with my spinning efforts. I'm getting better.
your skein is lovely! i've really enjoyed following your spinning posts - i'm just getting into spinning myself and so i feel a lot of the same enthusiasm you do - isn't spinning awesome? i'm still in awe over the whole thing ;)