Spinning in Public

Today was gorgeous.  It was in the 70’s when I pulled into my favorite local park by the river.  You may recognize it, the scene of the anointing of my “Bird Poop Socks”.  Late in the afternoon the picnic table next to the boardwalk IN THE CLEARING was free so I set up there.

Cypress trees and moss

The idea was to take some pictures of my hand-spun yarn with the weathered wood of the boardwalk as a backdrop and do some spinning.

Pictures came first while the light was good – bright and mostly overcast with bursts of sunshine.  It was quite breezy so I was a bit apprehensive about setting some of the tiny skeins on the walkway and held some in my hand.

A couple of my favorite pictures:

The first yarn is Rambouillet from Lazy Dog Farm in Texas.  Very very soft and fun to spin.  Two ply, about DK weight.  I think 80 yards.

The mini skein is my “mutant” roving – the sheep breed is CVM or California Variegated Mutant.  The breed is a result of crosses of Romney and Rambouillet sheep from nearly a century ago.  Not quite as soft as the straight Rambouillet and very nice to spin.  I  have about 5 more ounces, and I WANT MORE.  2 ply, sock weight.  I was going for lace weight, and it fluffied up on me.  For comparison the white yarn tied around the skein to hold it in place is good ole’ acrylic worsted.

Spinning

A near-constant breeze and gusts made it a bit windy but not too windy to spin.  The temperature was nice and it was like sitting outside in air conditioning… After I relaxed into the process, I was concentrating so thoroughly I was startled when a woman started talking to me.   We had a nice visit and she admired the single I was making.  After she and her dogs left, others walked by and spoke including a man that mentioned his mother used to spin with a spindle, and make blankets and rugs.

It is fun to talk to people about my spinning and I was able to get a nice start on a Christmas present for a member of my family.

One last picture:

What sheep are you?

Since I’ve been introduced to lovely sheepy wool with knitting and spinning, sheep seem more interesting than ever.

Wonder if I could have A back yard sheep?  Just ONE sheep.  Does a single sheep get lonesome?  Guess the zoning regs wouldn’t be too happy about it.

A new book (please note:  This would make a GREAT Christmas or Birthday present…just sayin’ and USED is just fine…) The Knitter’s Book of Wool has a fun quiz – Which ewe are you?

I’m a Finn!  Huh?

“Finn’s resilient nature makes them practical and straight-forward, a quality these medium wools balance with curiosity and a zest for life.  Fastidious in personal appearance and reliable, Finns stay true to their flock and make loyal friends.”

Awwww.  Very complimentary and guess they don’t know my 7 colored tee shirts I wear with everything.  Everywhere.

A good excuse to locate some FINN wool to spin!

Spinning Adventures-Part 2-the woodworking store

I left off with the first spinning wound into a skein, and here is a picture of the just-wound mess…er…achievement.

The bright white parts are the acrylic yarn I used to tie the skein in a couple of places so it wouldn’t tangle.

The second spindle full was even more fun to work on, and I worked on the consistency of  my “drafting” (pulling the roving apart into spinnable bits).  Soon I had filled a second spindle full, plied, and was ready to start again.

This is so addictive and I want to show and share with everyone I know.  If you don’t move fast enough you are treated to a demonstration or if I can prod you, into trying it for yourself.

I wanted MORE spindles, so back to the woodworking store for more wheels.  I took along what I was working on to show the guys.  They were so funny.  Here I am, standing in a woodworking store that caters to wood turners, carvers, and other woods-craftsmen showing off my precious attempt at their artistry with some rough-looking string on the dowel and a bit of fluff spiraling off the top.

They get a demonstration, and it encourages them to talk – ones mother-in-law crochets THOUSANDS (his words) of preemie caps and has made afghans for everyone in the family.  He continues and looks at me and says quite seriously, you know, you can buy yarn.  I laugh.   He kind of grins, too and says, “There ought to be a more efficient way of doing that…” and you can see the wheels turning in his head. I nod and say there is, a brand new bit of technology called the spinning wheel, merely a few hundred years old.

He gets a good laugh out of that one.

Maybe I should take a picture of a kick wheel in and show them.  I bet they could give me some advise for making one!

Adventures in Spinning with a Drop Spindle

You can tell I’ve been busy – no new blog entries!  So I will catch up with my spinning narrative and will try to be more attentive to the blog.

I can now talk about a new set of adventures!  Spinning!  The easiest spindle to make according to my research uses a toy wheel and dowel.  Both easily available at a woodworking store about a mile from my home.  Most designs include a cup hook/eye hook at the top but I was too excited to actually begin.  A hook might have been easier, but a half hitch looped over the top fastened the yarn to the spindle worked just fine.  And I didn’t have  to wait until the battery charged on the drill,  so began using it as it was and it WORKED.

First Spinning

I yarned!  Well, made a “single” and just kept going and going.  Now I know I put too much twist into the single but it was FUN.  I took the spinning to one of my knit groups to show off, and the other spinners looked at me in amazement and said, where is the notch?  You are spinning with a drop spindle without a NOTCH??  You are braver than me!

I could see their point – the “cop” or bunch of twisted single wound on the spindle was getting big enough that the angle had changed and the half hitch was slipping, showing how the drop spindle earned its name.  DROP spindle…it DROPS to the floor.  No sharp implements with me to modify the design so when I got home I hacked a notch in the side of the wheel (“whorl”) and another at the top of the spindle itself.  Really holds the half-hitch in place MUCH better.

One of the experienced spinners suggested winding the single into a center pull ball and pulling from both ends to ply, or twist the single into a real, true yarn.

The ball winder fastens onto the kitchen counter and I got the brilliant idea to use the in-sink dish drainer to help support the spindle while I wound off onto the ball winder.  Perfect!  I held the first ball of ready-to-be-plied single in my hot little hands and grabbed the spindle to start on the next part of my journey.

A plastic cup made a good ball holder on the floor along side of me, or so I thought.  A tangled mess.  So I grasped the cup and held the two ends apart, allowing the ball to twist. Success!

I didn’t know how much twist to put in the yarn, but since I twisted the life out of the yarn on the first go around decided to do the same with plying.  Got to the end of the ball and the first plying was done!

A “swift” would make the next step easier, but my keyboard drawer is right there so I unwound the spindle onto the drawer to make a skein.  The diameter is 47 inches and I calculated that the first skein was about 30 yards.  Wow!  That is a lot…and then not much at all.  No problem, I can make more!

So I did.

Spinning adventures continue!

Spinning

I have always been interested in spinning.  Turning fluff or plant fiber into yarn or thread?  Magical!  No wonder it features in fairy tales…Sleeping Beauty or Rumpelstiltskin, anyone?

As I child I would sometimes take a cotton ball, tease out a few fibers and twist them into a “yarn” only to have it become a strand of fibers once I let go.  Then I learned that when you let it twist back on itself, a short length of yarn resulted.  But it was a short length, and you couldn’t really do anything with it.

Foxfire books fascinated me with the tales and stories of how to make a living from the land in the Appalachians.  This was a part of my heritage! (one branch of the family traces their lineage back a few hundred years in that area of the country)  Spinning and weaving were important skills to provide warm clothing for the family from your sheep.

But I lived in the era of polyester double knit and acrylic yarn.  Grandmother crocheted exquisite cotton thread lace tablecloths.  The other grandmother passed away when I was quite small, but I still have a warm crochet hat trimmed in ribbon she made for me.  She also knitted, sewed, and cooked with artistry.

I had crochet right in front of me so I was more interested in making things with the hook.  Different eras of life I picked up and put down various hobbies or interests.  Most recently crochet, and I joined a Knitting Group  as a crocheter.  The other women offered to teach me to knit and I took to it like a duck to water!  It is not dull and there is always something new to learn, or a technique to perfect.

In sneaks spinning.  Several knitters writing blogs I read are also spinners.  Some even have their own pet sheep, or farming operations.  Did you know they put jackets on their sheep to keep the wool a bit cleaner?   wow!

Can you see where this is going?  I learned an interesting factoid from the blogs, that the wool from Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) sheep is good for learning…a woman I met knitting is also a spinner and she encouraged me to learn drop spindle (less $$ investment) spinning.

A drop spindle can be made from a dowl and a wodden wheel for a toy.  Hmmm.

Ebay.  I bet they sell wool roving.  And wouldn’t you know, I also found some BFL at what looked to be a good price.  Checking around some websites confirmed that it was a GREAT price (yeah, yeah, I know, buyer beware).  The seller had good ratings and their own website too.  I leaped and bought some.  It came today.

Guess what I did…opened the package and pulled out a small wisp of BLF wool.  Then gently pulled it, twisted and made…YARN!

My time this weekend is pretty well filled through Sunday, so will be looking up some DIY websites to see what instructions I can find.

These look interesting:

http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/HowToDropspin.shtml

http://www.handspinning.com/lollipops/spininst.htm

If any of my readers have spinning or knitting sites to recommend, don’t be shy!