Spinning: May 2005 Archives
I haven't been doing a whole lot of knitting for the past couple of days. Instead, I've been playing around with some more of my Handspun by Stefania roving, this one dyed with indigo. In spite of the recent influx of pink on this blog, blue is really my favorite color.
This roving (I wish I could remember what type of sheep it is from) has a relatively long staple -- 3-5" and makes for a nice learning fiber -- especially after I realized that I should work with it on my heavier drop spindle. Rather than trying to co-ordinate too much as I understand how the spinning process works, I am doing the spin and park method and drafting out the fiber while the spindle is parked. This has helped me understand the drafting process a little bit better, as well as to get a sense of how much twist is a good amount of twist.
I'm relatively pleased with how even this yarn came out. I feel like I am finally getting the handle on the drafting process, and how to do it in an even manner. What I am not so pleased about is how fuzzy this yarn is. I think this has to do with not catching all the fibers in the twist. Perhaps it's also a property of this fiber and it's just meant to make a slightly fuzzy yarn. In any event, it will soon be time to ply. I'm thinking of trying out plying via an Andean plying bracelet so that I can avoid having to figure out how to spin a second, equal length single to ply with.
Even though I haven't mastered drop-spindling by any stretch of the imagination, I am beginning to understand the addictive quality of spinning. It really is soothing and does help me clear my mind of things I'd prefer would leave my head. I'm beginning to think more and more about that Ashford Traditional that's waiting for a few simple repairs...
Just a little handspun and a beautiful niddy noddy.
It probably doesn't come as much surprise, given my current pink binge, that that multi-striped pink roving from Handspun by Stefania would be hard for me to put down. This was a roving that Claudia placed in my hands and told me that I really needed to have. How could I argue with that? As it turns out, this corriedale blend is pretty easy fiber for me to draft, and it makes a very pretty yarn. I plied the single I spun more or less by the seat of my pants. It took me a little while to figure out that not enough twist leads to yarn that won't hold together and too much twist while plying leads to something of a knotted mess.
I though this picture was the nicest way to show off the very pretty little niddy noddy that I purchased from Bill Hardy of Turnstyles. Like Leigh, I find myself drawn to niddy noddies. This one is beautful and smooth and and intricate...and I hope perhaps that it will be inspirational to another wood tuner I know. (Would be an awfully nice little project for a guy who just got a great little mini-lathe for his birthday...)
And just because I am inordinantly proud of this little spinning expierment, a closeup of my very first and spun and plied yarn:
I really didn't think I would like this stuff so much. Now I'm wishing I'd gotten more.
P.S. Looking for a good cause to support? My spinning guide, Claudia is planning on embarking on a very big bike ride to help fight Multiple Sclerosis -- a degenerative autoimmune disease that affects the neurological system. The disease, which affects most of it's victims as young adults, is really a terrible thing. Imagine being subject to spontaneous attacks of blindness or a growing lack of co-ordination or just being fatigued all the time. The MS society spends a lot of it's money supporting research to help find a way to cure or fight this debilitating disease -- a long time ago, I was involved with some MS research. So if you've got a little money to spare, go support a great person who's riding for a great cause. Good Luck, Claudia!
In the spirit of Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, the Keyboard Biologist has jumped into spinning with both feet. If you have been following along at Claudia's Blog you got some forewarning of what could be coming. Now, finally, all will be revealed.
First off, it's a little hard to spin anything without any spinning equipment. I think I showed an enormous amount of restraint by not buying a wheel to get started on (okay, maybe not so much restraint, as anyone who has been reading along for a while might remember that my mother's Ashford Traditional is still taking up residence in my house). Instead, it seemed like the best way to get started might be to invest in something a bit more modest, like a handspindle.
Of course, as I would learn later, and as those of you who have them and love them already know, spindles are a little bit like potato chips, it's hard to have just one. Hand spindles come in different weights, sizes and woods; the shaping of the whorls gives them different properties. Knowing which one to select would have been close to impossible without good advice. The first of which was: make sure it spins without wobbiling. The second bit of which was: your first spindle should be relatively heavy and be able to spin relatively slowly.
The thing I learned on my own: spindles, like yarn, will talk to you. They know who they are meant to be for, and they will call out to you and make sure you know that. Even if you don't realy know what you are doing yet, when they are in your hands, you will have this feeling that you and this spindle are meant to be. At least that was the case for the two that left the Journey Wheel booth with me.
The spindle on the left has a what I think is a Grenadilla whorl (unfortunately I have misplaced the tag)combined with a rosewood shaft. It's considered a midi, but is pretty close in weight to the tulipwood maxi spindle on the right because of the weight of the wood in the whorl. The midi spindle is probably a tool above what I am ready for, but once I picked it up, I simply couldn't put it down. The tulipwood maxi is likely to be my major working spindle for a while. And it should also be able to do double duty as a plying spindle. Both are extremely gorgeous in person. It is awfully nice to have tools that are both beautiful and functional at the same time.
The two rovings that are below the spindles come from Handspun by Stefania. Both these rovings are colored with natural dyes. The blue Coopworth is dyed with Indigo and the 3 pink striped Corriedale is dyed with cochineal. These rovings were, of course, selected for their beautiful colors, but also so that I could have two relatively good rovings to begin learning on. The Coopworth is longer staple than the Corriedale, but both are long enough to provide a good starting for a beginner. (The colors are a little bit better in the thumbnail chips than in the photo with the spindles. You can click on the thumbnails if you want a better look.)
Is there more? Of course there's more! But if I spend all morning writing about it, I won't get to play with those lovely spindles.
P.S. Thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes on Friday. It's much appreciated. Being a grown up isn't all it's cracked up to be, but every challenging experience is a means to becoming a stronger, wiser person.
P.P.S. The Blog of the Day isn't gone, just temporarily suspended while I work through my MS&W posts.
