Spinning fast and loose

I had an attack of the spinning bug this weekend.

The only prepped fibre in my stash was the green, yellow and brown in this photo from the UK indie dyer Chopped Tomatoes (it is the only before picture I have). I broke this out, got my new Start spinning book and warmed up the wheel.

I wanted to work on my spinning technique with this project. Reading through the book I think I usually do a short backwards draw, dividing the top down into very thin sections before spinning to minimise drafting.

Instead I split the top into lengths (about a foot long) then divided these into three. Each section was predrafted, working end to end then back. I need more practise at predrafting as I sometimes pull too hard and end up with a thin section. Working back and forward, doing less on each pass helped to reduce this. 

Using the instructions in the book I tried to work a short forward draw. This worked quite well but I did slip into a backwards draw a few times. I am happy with the end result which is what matters more to me than the actual method.

I used a fairly low amount of twist, drafting thicker than I usually manage. This made the spinning go really fast, after an very enjoyable couple of hours (it was about the length of two films, so I guess a little over three hours) I had finished the 100g length of top and had a stuffed bobbin.

The colours are fairly accurate in these pictures.

Next week I will share my plying adventures, I need to take some more photos first.

I only have unprepped fibre left now, I need to either do some carding or some shopping.

Something about spinning

This week I have managed to finish the second half of the Chopped Tomatoes fibre. I love working on my projects, but at the same time I am impatient to get them finished, both so I can see what the end product looks like and so I can start the next new, shiny thing, it is possible I have attention span issues!

Close up of the single:

I had hoped to have this as a plying ball already, but have not got round to winding it yet. I might take it to knitting group as it is a pretty low concentration, and somewhat boring, task so that will make it much more fun. I should be able to ply it this weekend and next Thursday I will have actual yarn to show you, then I have to choose which shiny spinning project I want to start next!

Spinning gets a look in

I have, as you will probably have noticed, been joining in with lots of memes and link parties. This is good, it gives me things to write about on days when my brain might be a little slow and lacking in inspiration, but it occured to me that I had not mentioned spinning in a while. So here is some spinning news.

The first half of the Shetland fibre I won on the Chopped Tomatoes blog has been spun into a thin single using my drop spindle (you have seen this picture before as a space filler).

I planned to navajo ply this on my wheel, because I make a mess plying on the spindle and I am sure you need at least four hands to navajo ply on one!

I carefully slid the nice neat spool of single onto a knitting needle in my shoe box lazy kate, and it all started going wrong from there.

The box was not wide enough so it kept jamming and not turning as I pulled the single up towards the wheel. Without thinking I decided to pull the needle out of the centre and just work from the singles sausage.

Spinners of a sensitive nature may wish to look away now!

Ugh- tangles!

It is not quite as bad as it looks, it is not overly tangled for the most part, but it is very slow going as it has to be carefully unrolled, then ply a length, then repeat. I think this will take a long time to finish, but I will spend a few hours on it this weekend and hopefully make some progress.

Tour de Fleece day 20

More of the same, but this time the single is finished!

This is the second half of the superwash merino from Shunklies. I finished it this morning, mostly because there was absolutely nothing to watch on the TV last night (until Sherlock came on, which was super) so I got a couple of hours spinning in. I finished it this morning and will ply it on Saturday.

It is pretty thin, I was aiming for a sock yarn weight when the two singles are plied together but I still think it might be underspun for socks, until it is plied and washed there is not way to tell.

Tomorrow is challenge day. I have some Wensleydale locks that I am going to try and comb and spin (using a dog comb and drop spindle). This may go ok, it may be a total disaster, I think I might go and do a little Googling to see what other people advise.

Tour de Fleece day 14

Today was more of the same superwash merino as yesterday, you can tell I have done some more because it is more blue today.

I have about 1/3 of the prepped fibre left then it is onto the second single. I think this project will take me to the end of the tour apart from the challenge day next Friday.

Tour de fleece day 11

Today I spun up the beaded roving from yesterday. I have been enjoying the different fibres but it is nice to spin something colourful.

Adding the beads was not too bad, although I quite often missed the extra little strand of fluff that stops them sliding around.

See, beads on yarn, although you can't actually tell that they have been spun on, but I promise I did not cheat and thread them on a finished single.