Monday 11 October 2010

Spinning Monday- A daily dose

Spinning Sunday disappeared yesterday in favour of the annual sloe collection expedition. These are sloes:
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They are the fruit of the blackthorn tree, the picture is about life size so the collect a decent weight takes a while. There is also a reason it is called a blackthorn tree, there are a lot of thorns and for some reason the trees don't seem to want you to nab their fruit.
Once home with the fruit they are washed, the skin is pricked all over (which takes even longer than picking them) and they are added to sugar and vodka. An occasional shake and three months later the fruit is strained off leaving a delicious drink, it improves as it matures as well so if you can resist it it gets better with time. My preference is for a small shot mixed with lemonade- looks like ribena, tastes delicious but not one for the kids!
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Anyway, back to the fibreness. I have been setting myself fibre related challenges as I always like the satisfaction of completing something. This week has been to do fifteen minutes a day of spinning. I went back to the drop spindle for this as it is faster to get set up than the wheel. I was pleasantly surprised how much you can get done in just a short time, until I weighed it and realised there was only about 2g, but that's because I am spinning ridiculously thin.
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I have also come up with a project for this, I think it may be three plied to become part of a pair of endpaper mitts, maybe mixed with a purchased yellow, brown or black (possible risk of looking like a pumpkin if black is used).
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I am going to try and keep up the daily spinning, maybe starting to alternate between the wheel and the spindle.

8 comments:

  1. ooooh, I love the pattern. I just marked it as a favorite. Isn't it amazing how much more control you have when using a drop spindle. It's slower but...more consistent.

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  2. The pattern is wonderful! I really must learn how to knit, I'm teased with all these beautiful colors and designs.

    I can't believe how thin you can get your spinning. Very impressive

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  3. Wow, that is incredibly thin. I only aspire to thin-ness at this point. Although spinning Andrea's alpaca is a dream.

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  4. Nice spindling, you've wound it on so beautifully! I'm interested in the lovely sounding brew you make from the blackthorn fruit, yum!

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  5. Wow. I hope you have an apparatus to help yo prick those tiny sloes. Doing it by hand sounds like it would take forever. The drink sounds yummy.

    Your yarn/thread is impressive. I love the color.

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  6. Wow! Beautiful pattern... and I love how the yarn came out.

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  7. I love your spinning! The yarn is a great color too!

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  8. The Endpaper mitts are gorgeous, and I am in serious awe of your super-thin spinning!!

    Jess

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