Spinning: December 2005 Archives
A while back I mentioned not being quite sure how to start with the large and lovely mass of teal fiber that I purchased from Spinner's Hill while at MS&W. I'm not sure if being uncertain how to proceed kept me from just trying some on my wheel, or whether it was because I find myself sorely lacking a lazy kate and wasn't sure how I was going to ply anything or whether my spinning muse had decided to take a holiday Iceland. I just didn't feel drawn to the wheel. Which is a bit sad when I have half a pound of fiber (of a most remarkable blend -- alpaca, silk and wool) in my absolute most favorite color out of which I could make something absolutly lovely for myself while facing predictions of "the coldest winter since 1976".
On Sunday, something grabbed me and I boldly ripped a few narrow pieces off the mass, pre-drafted a bit to make it move easier as I spun and just joined it up to the bobbin on my wheel and got spinning. I didn't spin up too much -- I just wanted to see what it felt like to spin with something prepared differently than the top I'm used to, find out how it would look in a two ply (I'm still not good at spinning thicker singles) and give myself enough to do a little swatching.
One thing is clear -- unless I find a way to comb this stuff a bit, the yarn is going to have a little bit of a rustic quality to it. But I don't think that is going to bother me all that much, since I'll probably be lucky to get a sport weight yarn out of this stuff, even as a two ply. Another thing that surprised me completely -- this fiber seems like it is even softer as a yarn than it was as just fiber, which I didn't think was possible. I was just amazed with it's texture as I was winding it onto my niddy noddy. Granted, I didn't get too agressive with the amount of twist I put into it, but it has a pretty decent amount of tensile strength. Finally, I didn't get bored spinning something that is basically a solid color -- and I love the idea of working with some handspun that doesn't spontaneously burst into stripes.
I'll probably ply this with one of my spindles -- this is an amount that I can easily manage with a center pull ball and I think that would be hard to control with the wheel.
Every time I spin a little bit on my wheel, I feel like I learn a little more about what I like and don't like about my wheel. For instance, I really love how my wheel spins -- it is pretty easy for me to control right now while I'm learning. But I'm not so excited about the tensioning for the bobbin (is this the Scotch tensioning? I'm still not so good with the technical spinning terms) -- the Ashford traditional has a little peg around which the fiberglass line is wound. This peg is twisted and untwisted to control the tensioning on the bobbin. But I find that this peg slips a bit (probably because I don't push it in tightly enough) and midway through spinning I have to stop and tighten it to keep the yarn drawing onto the bobbin. I find this a bit frustrating, but I can't tell yet whether this is just because I am a spinning wheel newbie who hasn't completely internalized all the motions yet or because I ultimately won't like this kind of wheel. I guess it will give me something to explore when I start trying to find my next wheel.
If anyone has any opinions about different tensioning systems, I'd love to hear more from folks with more experience than me.
