Beginner Spinning Class
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These are the blog entries detailing my first spinning class.
March 17, 2006
Mail with added fibre
Two parcels in the mail on Wednesday and one on Thursday from Norma. I love getting mail.
From left to right, the big bag of roving is Dark Coopworth from Copper Moose, and the label says it's from New Zealand, which makes me very happy. It's the colour of dark chocolate, soft and smelling slightly of farm. Eight ounces is a lot more fibre than I was expecting, just over 200g. I'm hoping I can spin this into yarn for a scarf for Hubby. I don't know how yet, but I'll learn. I've never bought roving before, this was a first.
The spindle is Cascade's Little Si, made from maple wood, and it is my first spindle. It came from The Bellweather with a small chunk of beautifully dyed fibre that smells of maiden aunts and is soft as powder. Both stores shipped fast, I would definitely order from them again.
Finally, the gorgeous red yarn is from Norma for winning her stealth contest, thank you! It is Classic Elite Lush, half angora and half merino, soft and cuddleworthy.
April 15, 2006
First spin
I did it, I actually made yarn. Or rather, I made some uneven singles that may or may not function as yarn once I've finished my homework and plied them. This is my classwork on the left, and my homework on the right:
The roving comes from a sheep of unknown heritage that lives (or lived) somewhere in Missouri. That's all we know. There's another chunk to spin before I get to the homework ball. The Cascade Little Si spindle seems to do a decent job. There were three others in the class, and I was youngest by about thirty years. It took a while to get the hang of, and I did drop the spindle several times, but by the end I think I was doing a decent job.
It's all in the drafting, I was trying to spin too much at once last time. Way too much at once! We started with 8 inch lumps of sheep, split them lengthways and teased them out until they were wispy, then spun a length of yarn as a leader, tied it on the spindle and started for real. This is about 2 hours work. Spinning is a lot slower than I expected, but I'm hoping you get faster with time. Pre-drafting will help, I was doing that near the end of the class.
Next week we're using wheels and get to take one home for the week. A spinning wheel, in my house...
April 18, 2006
Second spin
I tried the dark Coopworth from Copper Moose, and it was a lot easier to spin than the homework roving. Had to split it into three to draft, but the spinning went faster this time, and now I have two balls of yarn:
I'm going to spin another ball of Coopworth and then try plying them.
April 19, 2006
More spin
I got two spindles of Coopworth done in two hours last night. I think it was more even by the end of it. Need to take more time with the drafting and make a thinner yarn. I'm not taking into account that it has to be plied, so I'm doing for thicker singles than I need. I tend to spin up some twist, park the spindle, and then let the twist run up the roving. I can do it while the spindle is going sometimes but only if the roving is well drafted in advance. On Friday I'm going to try plying the two balls of Coopworth, it'll come up as a bulky weight yarn and I have no idea what to make with it. Maybe a coaster. Plying is supposed to relax the singles.
My spindle is a good one, it spins fast even with a chunk of yarn wound on it. Spinning teacher said the hook was small, but it seems to be doing fine. I'd like to get a Bosworth Midi for comparison some day, they use beautiful wood but they cost more than I was willing to spend for a first spindle. Tulipwood and Cocobolo look beautiful.
I can't see that spinning would overtake knitting as a hobby, but I do enjoy it. At the end of class on Saturday we're taking a spinning wheel home, and I'll have two nights to myself that week. I may institute an "alternate Tuesdays are for spinning" policy like the Yarn Harlot as Hubby will be out those nights. Spin it: Making yarn from scratch by Lee Raven makes more sense now, it has lots of colour photos that help. The carding and fleece preparation parts don't apply, but the rest is very helpful.
April 26, 2006
Projects and plies and roses, oh my!
A pair of socks hits the mail tomorrow, heading for my mother in England (KnitPicks Simple Stripes in Storm, 9st/in on size 1 Addi turbo), hope she likes them. The colour seems to be discontinued, but it's a good yarn, and another chunk of leftovers for the blanket. Another pair of socks (KnitPicks Essential in Dusk) is in progress, these for Hubby, who brought me roses because it was a random day in April. And I plied my singles today.
I'm doing the heel on Hubby's sock. Essential feels a little thinner than Simple Stripes, but it looks good. I'm using my basic sock pattern (toe up, Sherman heel and toe, rib the cuff until you can't stand it any more, then cast off as loosely as possible using a needle two sizes larger, putting in extra stitches as you go, and praying it'll be loose enough to fit over a foot). Seems to work.
But the yarn is what I'm really proud of, my own handspun yarn. The singles wanted to be plied, they spun the spindle themselves, and it looks like actual yarn. Bumpy and uneven, but yarn nonetheless. I now have a ball of singles, and a ball of plied yarn, and tomorrow I start on the spinning wheel. Love the dark Coopworth.
Plying a whole ball wasn't easy but it was fast. I was running out of room on the spindle towards the end. I want to try making much thinner yarn next. How anyone makes laceweight is beyond me! Got to make the most of the loaner spinning wheel, I'll only have it for a week. There's most of a bag of Coopworth left to spin, George, and the piece of fluff that came with my spindle.
April 29, 2006
Hello Spinner
Today was the final spinning class and I had to give the spinning wheel back. We plied our homework into skeins of real live yarn, wound it using a niddy-noddy, flick-carded some unwashed fleece, and hand carded some washed and dyed fleece. I spun a little ball of "greasy wool" and went on my way, grinning like a fiend, a little high on sheep-fleece fumes, and thinking "I am a spinner!"
This is my first skein of wheel-spun yarn, and I'm shocked at how usable it is. It's a long way from perfect, it snapped once during plying, and it's uneven, but it is YARN! I made yarn. I made 2 ply yarn on a spinning wheel. I feel like Dr Frankenstein just after the lightening strikes and shortly before he realises he's made a terrible mistake making a monster from used parts. "It's alive!" I have faith my yarn will not try to kill me, but it may pursue me for a skein-mate. Our teacher Carol Hagen, a woman of patience and skill, pronounced it good yarn. If you get a chance to learn spinning at Myers House with Carol, you will learn a lot, and have a blast in the process. And walk off with a spinning wheel for a week, which is worth the price of tuition alone.
The little ball of creamy stuff is the greasy wool, and the tangled glob next to it is what happens when you try to ply clockwise-spun yarn with a clockwise twist. It's even worse in person, but I have spent most of this week making mistakes with the wheel and figuring out how to correct them. I learn well that way. I have to wash the yarn to set the twist, but not till I've shown it off a little.