To ply for

Last poor quality spinning pun title, honest. Well, maybe not but I can't think of any more offhand.

Last week I shared this single, spun from 100g Shetland using a short forward draw.

I was a bit stuck what to do next. Choices were to use it as a single, navajo ply or weigh it and wind half on to a second bobbin.

I posted my dilemma on a Ravelry group and someone suggested making a centre pull ball and Andean plying it.

A bit of a google search showed that this just means plying it with itself. The Andean bit is really a way of winding it to make this easier, using a centre pull ball replaces the winding technique.

I tried it, but I think my ball winder was on the early morning cocktails because I ended up with a very lopsided ball. I figured it would be ok.

Never figure it will be ok.

Within ten second of plying the ends together I had some serious yarn barf. No photos because I couldn't put it down without making the tangle worse.

I wound it into a regular hand wound ball for safety and went back to google.

I was going to try the classic Andean plying, but found this Knitty tutorial for "handy plying" instead. I went with that as it seemed much simpler. 

100g of yarn causes quite a bit of finger pain. Sliding it down to make a bracelet was quite a relief.

Essentially you make a loose centre pull ball and put your wrist through to stop it tangling as you ply. The single comes off easily, making a two ply yarn with no leftover singles.

This ended up fairly thick, not something I usually manage. There is about 55m of 6 WPI yarn, some parts are a little thinner but not overly so.

I think it would be best teamed with another yarn for knitting, maybe a dark chocolate brown.

This is definitely my new favourite plying trick.

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.

Book review- Start spinning by Maggie Casey

For Christmas I got myself this book:

Start spinning by Maggie Casey (Yarn and bobbin not included)

I learnt to spin by watching Youtube and using the "try it until it works" method. This is good and I am a big fan of the view that as long as you get what you are after then there is no wrong way of spinning (or knitting, or lots of other things provided you stay inside the law ;) ).

That said, I am also a nerd and like to know about different techniques and ways I can improve. This book is great for that. It would also be a fantastic book for anyone just starting to spin to supplement other ways of learning.

Information in here covers the basics of wool, basic drafting, twist, spindles and spindle spinning, wheel details and how to spin on one, plying, finishing, detailed drafting information, using handspun, fleece preparation and wheel maintenance. Loads of information with enough detail to be interesting and useful, but not so much you get bogged down.

The photos are the bit that really gets me excited about this book. They are clear, in colour and show the process being described step by step. A lot of the older books I have read/own have few photos, or black and white pictures that are not always easy to see properly. Spinning is not so easy to describe with words, but a photo makes you go from "huh what?" to "oh, I see!".

I would recommend this to anyone learning to spin, but also to anyone in a similar situation to me, you know how to spin and can make yarn, but don't really know all the details. I wish I had this when I was learning and still feel like it was money well spent.

Something about spinning

I realised I have not done a tada post for my beaded yarn. It has been skeined and the twist set. Finding a project for it is on my list of New Years Plans.

I have found a few new tools that are not designed for spinning, but are very helpful

This little guy holds the end of your work if you need to stop. I had been using a clothes peg, but the grip on this is much better. As an added bonus he has a magnet on the base, so sticks to my wheel, holding the twist in the work rather than spinning around and removing the twist.

In real life he is a magnetic note holder, you can get them in all sorts of shapes and sizes and they are not very expensive. The tortoise above came from Wilkinsons if you are in the UK and want one just like him, he was in the kitchen area. They have ladybirds (ladybugs) too. So cute!

This one is a little more random.

I have discovered that one of my pairs of trousers is very "sticky" when it comes to fibre. Not actually sticky, but the fibres seem to grab on to the fabric. Normally this is a pain when spinning as I end up looking like I have been wrestling with a cat, but when I wanted to sort out the bead colours to get them in the right order it was just the right amount of stick to line up the next ten beads to be spun. They stayed there quite happily until I picked them up and added them to the end of the spinning. 

Something about spinning

I had a bit of a deadline for finishing my spinning project. I need to pack my wheel up to be able to decorate for Christmas. Due to space shortage the tree goes where my wheel lives for the rest of the year. A few years ago as a compromise between my family tradition of decorating on the 24th and OH's of decorating on the 1st we agreed on the 15th. I didn't want to leave spinning sat half done for another month (by the time I got the wheel back out and got on with it) so I had to get this done last weekend.

On Saturday I finished the beaded single.

O Sunday I plied the two singles. This is still sat on the bobbin, so next week I will show it skeined and washed with details. I made sure you could see beads in the photo :)

I never manage to divide fibre evenly, there was a little of the unbeaded single left. I have rolled this up and added it to the sock yarn blanket box as it is about 4 ply weight.

While I was sat at my wheel I navajo plied a little bit of blue and grey single that was hogging a bobbin. It is about 4 ply weight so this has gone in the sock yarn blanket box too. There is probably enough for a square.

The fully finished project will have its reveal next week, then I am on a spinning hiatus for a couple of weeks until I get my wheel back out. 

Something about spinning

Lots to do this week, so reduced blogging, but I have been fitting crafting in, of course, it would take a major earth shaking event to stop that. I have managed to start the second half of my spinning project. This single will have the beads spun into it.

I wanted to make an attempt at spacing the beads evenly through the single. This is far from exact but I divided the length of roving up into eighty lengths, one for each bead. There are obvious differences between the lengths so the spacing will not be totally even. At least I will not have masses in one place and none in others, which is what would happen if I left it up to chance.

I have spun a few of the lengths, as with the first single it is thinner than planned, but that makes sense as I am now trying to approximately match the first one. The beads are going in nicely, adding them at the end of the length when it thins out a bit seems to be working. This photo is not great as the flash overpowered the beads, but you can see that there are beads.

Hopefully I will have time at the weekend to make good progress on this single. Once again I am having the dilemma between enjoying the crafting time, but at the same time wanting it to be done already so I can see the finished outcome. I really have no patience! :D

Something about spinning

The first half of my green tour de fleece prize is spun.

I failed miserably at making it thick, it is a little thicker than usual maybe, but it was meant to be much fatter, ah well, it is obviously what the fibre wanted. I appreciate that anyone who does not spun now thinks I am lunatic with no control over the fibre in my posession. People who spin will hopefully be nodding in agreement and it is not that I am a lunatic after all!

I have to confess that it is a little thick and thin, my drafting skills obviously need practise so I am trying to think of a lovely giant spinning project for next year once the sock making crazy is done. A blanket or a sweater are most likely. Perhaps something like this Spinning in squares blanket. If anyone fancies joining me we could do an enormous spin/knit/rescue each other from the crazy along.

Sorry, I wandered off a little there, back to the fibre in hand. I am hoping plying evens out the thick and thin somewhat. This week I will start spinning the rest of the fibre and adding the beads, I suspect this will be a much slower process than the plain single.

Something about spinning

I am posting this on Friday because I was not organised enough to get it done yesterday and I want something for the Fibre Arts Friday link party.

During the tour de fleece I took part in a challenge with the Wonder Why team, spinning beads into yarn. The beads are threaded onto a small piece of fibre and this is drafted into the single as you go. The second plain ply helps to hold the beads in place.

I was lucky enough to win the prize draw and received a lovely parcel from Dutch Hollow acres. It is some beautiful wool/alpaca blend dyed green with gorgeous purple tones. Some of the fibre has been prethreaded onto gold and purple beads to be spun into the singles.

I have divided the fibre into two and started spinning the slightly larger piece without beads. I was aiming for something much thicker than usual but it seems to be spinning fairly thin. You would think as the spinner I might get a say but it seems the fibre has other ideas.

More of this next week, hopefully I will have made lots of progress on this single.

Something about spinning

I suspect you are getting bored of seeing the same project every week, the problem with spinning thin yarn is that is takes a long time, so there is nothing new and exciting to share. Anyway, last week I showed you the finished singles on my drop spindle.

Having learnt my lesson from the hideous tangle I got into wiyth the first half of this I made a plying ball. To keep it under control I popped it into a mug and looped the single through the handle.

Up to the wheel, because I am never plying on my spindle ever again, ever! And after a little navajo plying we have this:

It has yet to be washed, but I will count it as done since the photo will not look any different after. The next time you see this is will be being knitted up, or maybe even as a finished object! It feels a little smaller than the first skein, so if I make socks they will be toe up to use as much as possible.

That also means next week there will be a new project to share, I have four to choose from, I feel somewhat spoilt for choice.

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!

Something about spinning

Firstly an apology, my n key is broken and only working intermittently (when I poke it really hard) so if any of my posts are looking a little odd, that is why.

I have been working on the second half of my Chopped Tomatoes Shetland fibre. It is coming along nicely now, drop spindled into a fine single ready to be navajo plied.

The second half seems to be making more of a striped single than the first lot so I might get some odd looking socks out of this!

I have lots of things starting with S planned for this weekend, not intentionally, it just seems that way so maybe I will do some Spinning too.

Something about spinning

Over the weekend I navajo plied the orange single from last week. Having the single wound into a ball made this much easier than the previous tangled version, so I will be doing that again when I am wheel plying spindle spun singles (btw that is really hard to say!).

Here is the finished three ply:

I have to say I love it, a lot. The colours are gorgeous, which I can't take credit for since I bought this one. It has also come out suprisngly soft and squishy considering a lot of the singles were very tightly spun by my new to spinning self.

There is a little difference in the weight along the length, the most recent parts are similar to a commercial 4 ply, the older stuff is a little thinner, but not so much that it does not work. I now have an idea how thin to spin to achieve sock weight, which with my sock obsession is the holy grail of my spinning.

The thing that dissappoints me slightly it that I don't seem to get very good mileage with my spinning. I was told by an experienced spinner that handspun gave a better weight:length ratio than commercial yarn but that does not seem to be the case with my spinning. This skein weighs 68g and I have estimated the length as 170m, for the thickness of the yarn this is not a great ratio. It also means I have no idea what to make with it. I had hoped to get enough for a small shawl but now I am thinking I might combine it with a commercial 4 ply to make a hat. I have too many neck warmer items anyway!

Something about spinning

Prepare yourself for  a lot of orange!

I have had this fibre on the go for well over a year. It was a birthday present to myself last year and I couldn't wait for my wheel, so I started spinning it on my drop spindle.

When my wheel arrived I moved the spun yarn onto a wheel bobbin, but then decided to keep going on the spindle as I could not spin thin enough on the wheel. I plied the length that was on the bobbin, it is sat in my stash waiting for me to think what I am going to do with it.

Finally the rest has been spun using the drop spindle.

I think of spinning, and knitting, very much as learning activities, there is always something new and ways to improve. There were a couple of lesson learnt here.

Lesson one- don't take a year to spin 100g, you will forget how thick you are making it. It is thin, but unfortunately it gets thinner towards the centre.

Lesson 2- don't yank it all off the spindle and get in a horrible tangle.

I tried to slide this onto a knitting needle, but it was too tightly wound. This is also one of those tasks where having four hands would really be quite helpful.

Since I didn't want a repeat of my tangle sock yarn mess from last week I decided to wind it into a plying ball. This took a while, but less time than untangling it would have done.

I am going to navjo ply it and see what I get. Hopefully I can do that this weekend and I should have some finished yarn to show you next week.

Something about spinning

Last week for my spinning post I showed you this:

Fortunately it was not as tangled as it looked. Apart from a few places which had to be picked apart with the end of a dpn it just needed to be very slowly unrolled by hand. About four hours later I had this: 

A happy ending after all!

It has come out pastelly, why does all my spinning seem to end up as pastels?! Actually, I know this is because of the mix of colours and undyed bits especially when it is spun super thin, but still I think I need to dye up some bright fibre.

It has come out a little thinner than intended, sock weight eludes me yet again. However, I think I can use it for socks, either on 2.25mm needles or I might have to buy some 2.0mm. They will be worked toe up until I run out of yarn, but first I need to spin the rest of the fibre to make sure I have yarn for the other foot.

It seems quite well balanced, in that it hangs neatly in the skein (when it is not twisted up to keep it tidy) but it is not a squishy as it could be so I think it is a little overspun in parts. This is quite handy for socks as it should make them a little tougher but soft and squishy yarn is still something I need to aim for.

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.

Something free

Interweave spinning daily is offering a free guide to processing fibre, you do have to register but that is free and you get what looks like s uper guide with loads of photos.

It can be found here

And a spinning related photo, because I hate to post without a picture of something

WIP Wednesday- Spinning

For once I have a WIP to talk about on Wednesday, usually I am saving the projects for either FO Friday or the Year of Projects posts but it occurred to me that I could talk about my spinning projects without infringing on either of them, so Wednesdays might be all about spinning for me.

I am still working on the Shetland fibre from Chopped Tomatoes on my drop spindle. This was my travelling project during the Tour de Fleece and is still on the go as I have been spinning it really fine in the hopes of achieving sock weight when I navajo ply, I think it is going to be too thin though.

I have one more short piece of fibre then I have 50g done. I split the fibre vertically in the hopes of making similar socks, but since then I have been dividing the working bits into shorter lengths in no particular order. There is no way I will be able to replicate it and make the two lengths match. If it works out for socks they will have to be similar but non matching.

Tour de fleece day 23

The last day of the tour, I have had a lot of fun and really been enjoying developing my spinning and making yarns. Looking at all the lovely yarn and fibre on the Ravelry threads has been great too.

Today I only just managed to squeeze my fifteen minutes in, it was a busy day but I did a little more of the super fine Shetland on my drop spindle.

The lesson for today was- drop spindling very thin yarn when tired is not a good idea! I spent quite a bit of my fifteen minutes rejoining the fibre after it had broken.

I think I will be working on this project for a while, so I am going to try and keep up doing a little each day.

And here is my Tour de Fleece haul!

I don't have accurate weights/lengths for a lot of it but roughly-

100g Wonder Why alpaca, spun as a two ply in two skeins. Approx DK weight (caramel brown colour)

30g Humbug BFL, navajo plied, Approx DK weight (grey brown top)

95g superwash merino from Shunklies, a 2 ply approx 4 ply weight (blues, large)

20g baby alpaca, drop spindled and navajo plied on the wheel. Approx 4 ply weight (grey brown, bottom right)

20g alpaca, drop spindled and navajo plied on the wheel. Approx 4 ply weight (dark brown)

15g Shetland and superwash merino with beads (blues, small)

5g Wensleydale single ply on spindle (white)

Shetland fine single on spindle (pastel colours)

I managed to achieve all my self imposed goals. I am going to start planning for next year, jumper quantity maybe?!

Tour de fleece day 19

Today's project had been yet more blue superwash merino. I am onto the second single and an early start this morning has about 1/4 of it done. I am hoping to get a little more done this evening, but it is easier to get the blog post done in the morning, any extra progress will make it into tomorrow's post.

I thought you might be getting a bit bored with reading about this spinning project, it tends to look the same in every daily photo. I took a couple of other pictures to make it a little more interesting.

For the Wonder Why Team- even though I am spinning merino I am keeping it 'paca with some 100%alpaca socks. Still worried these will not be very hard wearing, but I tend to wear them on days when I don't need to wear shoes so they should last longer. They are so soft and mmmmmmmmmmmm.

For anyone who is interested I thought I would take a photo of my spinning corner. The wheel lives here, it is perhaps a tiny bit in the way (there is a corner wall behind the chair, but then so is the sofa really and after a while you don't notice, you just sort of walk around. 

I used to drag the wheel out into the room and point it at the TV to spin. Then it occured to me that I don't actually watch the TV, just listen to it, and the chair fits neatly inbetween the wheel and the wall. So now I just put a chair in front of the wheel and start to spin, it is much faster and less hassle. I am totally in the way, you can't get into the next room when I am sat there, but never mind.

Using the airer for prepped fibre is a new thing, it makes life so much easier and spinning much faster (but means I can't dry as many clothes!).

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.