3 posts tagged “spinning”

(hurrah! I found a mini-USB cable! pictures!)

I'm renting a Babe Fiberstarter to get started on the big bag of fiber that would take me forever to spindle. I'm bummed because I can't figure out how to get the bobbin and flyer working independently. Right now, they're kinda just grinding along together. I was practicing with a bit of yarn and was going to ask Vera, the woman who rented it to me, but she's busy getting ready for the Renegade Craft Fair (woo! hoo!) and I don't want to bother her. Any ideas? Also, the instructions they send along with the Babe are crap and the pictures are fuzzy and have been photocopied into unrecognition! I guess I could just call the company...

I really, really want a wheel but figured it'd probably be a good idea if I actually knew how to use one before making the big purchase. They're not cheap! I know that I should really go out to talk to Toni at The Fold, but it's so very, very, very far away!

Whew! May went by quick! Try as I might, I just never got around to crafting anything with flowers, so my craft challenge for May went kablooey! Darn! Quornflour's buttons are so cute!

Instead, I've been spinning like a mad fiend. Yes...handspinning...with a spindle. I suppose you could say it's a reflection on the state of my mind right now. The end of the school year, end of year violin concerts and recitals, arrangements for summer activities, the taking of the MIL to the doctor for a battery of diagnoses and treatments, the most urgent, pressing need to buy a house and move out before August 1st: all of these combine to make a topsy-turvy lulubird.

I had been wistfully thinking of my spindles. Shortly after my last spinning post, I got all frustrated with attempting to ply and balled the whole mess up and stuck it somewhere out of sight. Unfortunately, they were never quite out of my mind, knowing that I had a pretty blue ball of roving waiting patiently for its chance to be spun once that dang natural corriedale managed to get off the Ashford. At the last SnB I went to, one of the kind spinners there helped me out with plying my snarly-unplied-wool-roving-ball of death. I was able to get bluey all spun up and plied all by myself! Here's my so-far 4 psuedo-balls of yarn that have been spun and plied so far. You'll notice, the first two are significantly smaller than the last two. But the last two are, well, just really small too! I think the blue only made about 35 yards. What the heck can I make with 35 yards?

So now I've caught the spinning bug. Yes, I have known for a very long time that I have crafter's ADD. Just ask my hubby...and my weekly crafty girls cohorts. They'll tell ya for sure. I bounce around from craft to craft, hyper-focusing and obsessing over one until something shiny and new catches my eye over there (or I just get frustrated and bored and want to do something else.)

But I'd spun up all the roving in the house and needed more. Like a crack addict needing a fix, I ran out to the nearest LYS, looking for more roving. In shock over the sticker price (have I ever mentioned how cheap I am?) I ran back home with only a sale pattern in my bag.

Then I haunted the Craftster spinning board. Yes! I knew it! Craftster totally rocks, again. It was there that I found out about The Sheep Shed Studio and their Brown Sheep roving mill ends. $7.50US per lb.! Wow, that sure beat the socks off the $1.75/ounce I was seeing at the LYS. I caved and ordered 3 lbs. It came lickety-split and arrived today! Yay! Check out the box, see how the roving is creeping out, like lava from a volcano!

Finally, it just poured itself all over the floor. Carol, over at Sheep Shed, so kindly sent me a bag of mohair as a goodie giveaway. And I swear, that is a heck of a lot more than 3 lbs., although I have no scale to prove it at this time.

A very good friend of mine gave me a drop spindle kit for Christmas last year. She knew that I had been hankering to give drop spinning a whirl (no pun intended) and as good friends often do, helped me out.

I tried very hard to learn from the book and from online videos, I really did. But dangit, drop-spinning for the completely uninitated is a very difficult technique to grasp without someone giving you a hands-on tutorial...at least for me. Perhaps viewing this video would have helped me understand the drafting and twist portions, very important!

Well, at any rate, the City of Chicago is hosting a top 10 Winter Delights Stitching Salon. Nina Savar, president of the Windy City Knitting Guild, hosted a wonderfully informative and helpful workshop on spinning yarn with a drop spindle. I knew I had to go because I was unsure when I could fork up the dough to take a class on the subject. Nina and her cohorts were helpful and very patient as spindles were being spun in every direction. I managed to spin one ball of roving. It was pretty bad, but as my very kind instructor told me, they teach classes on how to make the schlubs and people pay big money for those "art" yarns. Very kind, as I said! ; ) At any rate, we took a break for lunch (I went with my spindle-gifting friend and her MIL) and I went back determined to figure the dang thing out. One ball of roving, a really bad ply job and another skein of "art" yarn later, I went home, confident that I would at least be able to do it at home, however badly it might turn out.

The next day, with the extra ball of roving so kindly supplied by the workshop (they also had these fun top-whorl drop spindles that you could take home with you to practive that were made from dowels, cd's, two rubber o-rings, a brass cup hook and some packing tape. I took mine home for you, Jenny A!) (make your own!) I proceeded with my lovely Ashford spindle and spun that last ball into a much better looking yarn. I think it'll ply up into perhaps around a heavy worsted, more like a bulky yarn.

Now I want to try my hand at hand-dying. Apparently, there are some really fun techniques using Kool-Aid that I want to try out!

Here's my end results: first is the drop spindle provided by the workshop. Then the first skein that I spun. Notice the difference in color between the first skein's roving and the second skein's roving. I much prefered the first one as it was much smoother and had longer staples and was much easier to spin. But alas, beggers cannot be choosers. Finally, on my Ashford, is the last yarn I spun, as I have not yet plied it. Didn't I do a much better job at keeping the yarn consistently thinner? Now I want to tackle the very pretty roving my friend gave me. I wanted to make sure I didn't screw up before attempting on her pretty blue roving. I'll post pics after I spin it.