Category Archives: Spinning

Improving my spinning

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Back in May I went on a workshop on Improving Your Spinning with Jan Blight at her house in Basingstoke. Last year I went on her beginner spinning workshop and enjoyed it, and had been looking forward to attending the improver one to learn more.

We started off with finding out a bit more about our wheels, what kind of drive (single or double) system, and tensioning system everyone had, and what ratios were available. I think everyone had different wheels, it was really interesting to be able to see the differences and learn more about the different wheels.

Then after a bit of warm up on fibre we were already spinning, Jan gave our some bluefaced leicester tops, and we spun a semi-worsted yarn. This is semi-worsted because although we were using worsted style spinning, for it to be proper worsted yarn the fibre would have had to be hand combed with all the fibres going in the same direction (so all the tips pointing one way, and all the butts pointing the other). When fibre is commercially prepared like this top is the fibres are all aligned but some might be 180° out with the others. My spinning was not too bad, but I’m afraid I rather underplied this one, more haste, less speed.

For our second sample we were concentrating on getting our hands in time with our feet. This is a great aid to more consistent yarn, if you move your hands at the same time as your feet, and for the same distance each time then you will get the same amount of twist entered into each section of your fibre. So the idea was to draft forward for say 1 inch as you treadled once, then smooth back an inch when you treadled the next time. So each inch of yarn would contain the amount of twist entered from two depressions of your treadles. Luckily I do this fairly automatically, though it was useful to practice keeping more in time, sometimes if I am tired my hands run away from my feet. Again I underplied this one, though it wasn’t as bad as the first.

We stopped for a packed lunch in the garden, it was a lovely sunny day, and I actually had to sit in the shade! And Jan treated us to home made cake – yum!

Then after lunch Jan gave us some organic merino top, very lovely soft fibre, and we had a go at spinning thicker and semi-woollen. For a true woollen yarn you need to hand card your fibre. I had a go at some spinning over the fold, and some a kind of medium-draw. I think I need to practice this! It was fun, but rather lumpy. I would also love to be able to long-draw properly – Jan mentioned that she might hopefully be running a workshop on this later in the year so I shall keep an eye out. I had sorted my plying problem out by this time, patience and less hurrying was the key, so this is a much better finished yarn.

Then to round off the day Jan gave us some merino crossed with dorset horn crossed with lincoln fleece that she had washed, and we had a go at flick carding. We spun this worsted, then the first sample was spiral plied, and the second was just a straight 2ply. Although this was washed I found it rather sticky to spin, and sticky to knit too, it feels better now I have washed it. I think I am just very picky about having no lanolin left in the fibre at all, although I know a lot of people like to leave a bit there when they are spinning.

Here are my skeins of yarn, from left to right as I spun them (and described them above):

And here they are knitted up, but not washed. From the bottom in the order of spinning:

And here is the knitted sample after washing:

It was a really interesting workshop and I learned a lot. It has also been useful to go from fibre, to singles, to finished yarn and then knitted piece and assess how it looks at each stage. I want to make sure that I am making yarn I enjoy knitting with. The difficulty is that I also like to spin a large enough amount so I know I will have enough to knit a complete item, which inevitably takes me a while, so the feedback from knitting my own yarn takes a long time. It was very useful to spin and knit small samples and get pretty instant feedback (well a couple of months seems fairly instant to me!) so I can adjust my spinning to create the yarn I like to knit, even if the samples aren’t going towards a finished garment. I am looking forward to doing some more practicing on my own to try and improve my consistency, and improve my woollen spinning.

National Spinning Week

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Back at the beginning of May was National Spining Week, which I spent demonstrating at Clandon Park again with the West Surrey Guild of Spinners, Weavers, and Dyers. I had a great time, it was lovely to chat to so many people. Also this year we brought along one of the guild wheels and so were able to let people have a go themselves. We had lots of kids have a go, who were all very quick on the uptake, even though some of them had trouble reaching the treadles while sitting on the chair!

I always like to have something nice and loud to spin at these events. It is nice to have a variety of things that we are all spinning to show that spinning doesn’t have to be all brown (although I do like brown too 🙂 ). So this year I was spinning some supersorted bluefaced leicester from Baby Long Legs in Tangy Doddle Tastic, which I bought at Knit Nation last year. I think the supersorted part means that it is the best quality bluefaced leicester, it certainly feels nice.

I spun a 2ply construction, which is about commercial 4ply in thickness. I have 104g and 342m. I split the top in half length wise  in order to spin the two separate plies, so the colours merge slowly from one to another. My plan is to make the Marywarmers fingerless mittens pattern, though I might make them a bit shorter in the arms. They wont be identical because I didn’t split the fibre in two to make two lots the same when I started, but hopefully that will add to their charm 🙂 It was a very nice fibre to spin, and I love the colours.

Unravel 2011

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On the last weekend of February was the Unravel show at the Maltings in Farnham. This is the third year it has been held, and it just keeps getting better (it also helps that I wasn’t horribly jet-lagged this year!). They had a great knitted sign up over the entrance to welcome everyone:

And some lovely Gotland sheep from Well Manor Farm were outside too:

I helped with the Surrey Knitting and Crochet Group, and with the West Surrey Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers. We have a lot of over-lap of members between the two groups so we were sharing about half of the cellar area, and several people were helping with both groups depending on what was needed at the time. We had an exhibition of our work, and were also answering knitting and crochet queries (in my case only knitting, my crochet is a bit basic), and showing people how to spin. Here are Janine and tall Heather (I think that sadly makes me short Heather) setting everything up.

We also had a lot of fun with a spinning wheel that a lady brought in that she had bought in France, I think from an antique shop, for a very advantageous price, which she wanted to get working and learn to spin on. It was actually a double drive wheel, but rigged up as double drive with some of Mary’s string it was a bit temperamental and we had a lot of trouble with the drive band popping off. So with some more string and a couple of elastic bands we rigged it as Scotch tension (with no damage to the wheel, this could all easily be undone) and it span beautifully. The owner did very well starting spinning on it, and I hope has succeeded in her quest for some more bobbins for it too. I do enjoy a nice engineering challenge 🙂

We had one low point to the weekend when we thought that the handbag of one of our older members had been pinched, but fortunately it turned out that it had just been mistakenly picked up by another member (oh the difficulties of everyone having black handbags) and so was returned to Nan when it re-emerged from under a car seat a couple of days later.

There were several talks and workshops during the weekend, which unfortuantely I didn’t manage to get to, but I did get a chance to dash round and have a quick look at all the exhibitors despite the fact that we were very busy all weekend. I was surprisingly restrained with my purchases (which could have had something to do with the number of enthusiastic people we had come to chat with us so I didn’t have too much time for buying – probably better for the old wallet).

I bought some 90% Exmoor Blueface, 10% nylon fibre from John Arbon:

As the name suggests Exmoor Blueface is a sheep which is a cross between an Exmoor Horn and a Bluefaced Leicester. It has the robustness of the Exmoor, but the longer staple, and softness of the Bluefaced Leicester. My plan is to dye this and then spin some yarn for socks. It isn’t the softest yarn in the world (the Exmoor is quite a robust wool) but it should be hardwearing hopefully, which is a good quality in socks.

I also bought two balls of the new Excelana 4ply yarn in Ruby Red, also from John Arbon.

This is a blend of 70% Exmoore Blueface, and 30% Bluefaced Leicester and is a collaboration between John Arbon and Susan Crawford. I think this will also be destined for socks, I am hoping that it will show textured patterns well.

As is often the case with these events the best thing was the opportunity to meet and chat with so many enthusiastic and knowledgeable people. All of the people who came to learn to spin were very quick on the uptake (it really does put my own speed of learning to shame!). It was lovely to catch up with lots of people I don’t see very often and hear and see what they are up to at the moment, and also great to meet lots of new people too. Roll on next year!

Shortly after Unravel, I finished spinning the Bowmont fibre I had started spinning while at the Devon Fibre Retreat (bought on the Devon Fibre Retreat the previous year).

I have a total of 103g and 302m of a 2ply construction, approximately commercial 4ply weight yarn. I am not totally happy with how this has come out. As you can see it is a bit all over the place, and not very consistent at all. I found the fibre to be a bit sticky, I know a lot of people like a bit of lanolin left in their fibre when they spin it, but I am not one of them. I have very sticky hands (particularly in hot weather) and have trouble sticking to the fibre if it is not completely clean. There were also quite a lot of noils and second-cuts in the fibre, which was disappointing. It looked like it had gone through machinery that wasn’t really capable of dealing with such a fine fibre. I did start off trying to remove them all, but quickly realised that if I did I would have nothing left! I’m not quite sure what I am going to do with the yarn, I shall continue to ponder. It has been a learning experience 🙂 It would probably have come out better if I had tried a more woollen (rather than worstead) approach, which is another reason why I need to improve my woollen spinning.

 

Le Tour de Fleece 2011: Day Twenty-One

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Another Tour comes to the end. This has been good fun, and a great motivator to do a bit more spinning and blogging. I have made a start sorting out photographs so hopefully I shall be filling you in shortly on the knitting things I have been up to over the last few months, although not as frequently as during the last three weeks!

Today was City and Guilds class, hopefully I didn’t annoy them all too badly with my sniffing. I am ready for this cold to just get better now, the novelty has definitely worn off. My project is coming along well, it is really enjoyable to knit, I just need to find some more hours in the day 🙂

I finished off my last skein of alpaca/merino this evening, but I haven’t caught up with the cycle race yet. I shall hopefully watch that tomorrow.

The last skein is 136g and 270m, so I have a grand total of 616g and 1173m. It feels lovely and squishy and I am looking forward to knitting with it, though I still haven’t made the final decision what it is going to be.

Le Tour de Fleece 2011: Day Twenty

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No post yesterday because we went to see the in-laws and then went out to the theatre with them to help celebrate their birthdays. In the afternoon we got to watch Le Tour in HD, which we don’t have here. Very impressive scenery! In the evening we went up to Stratford to see the Merchant of Venice. The RSC productions are always innovative and interesting, and encourage you to look at Shakespeare in a new way. For this production they set it in modern Las Vegas and drew out the parallels between Shakespeare’s Venetian merchants and modern gamblers and the recent banking crisis. The bit where Portia’s suitors have to choose which casket contains her image was done as a TV games show and was absolutely hilarious. Some bits were a little weird, but all in all a fun evening out, and very thought provoking.

We came home this afternoon and watched the time trial which we had recorded and I finished the plying and finishing on my second skein of alpaca/merino:

Skein number two has 245g and 477m.

One more load of plying to go. It is looking increasingly unlikely that I will have enough yardage (metreage?) for the Sleeves in Your Pi shawl/cardi. So I think these are my options:

  1. Change the pattern so it uses fewer metres
  2. Use a contrasting yarn for the edging (or somehow combine another yarn)
  3. See if I can get hold of more of the same fibre, unfortunately John Arbon has sold out
  4. Choose another pattern for this yarn and find another yarn to make the Sleeves in Your Pi, preferably one which is actually the weight that the pattern calls for this time

I shall think on it.

I’ve still got a cold, sniffy and stuffed up and achey, though at least it is just annoying rather than seriously debilitating. I think Joanne is right that I probably picked it up either at Knit Nation last weekend, or on the train going and coming.

Le Tour de Fleece 2011: Day Eighteen

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Disappointingly I think I am coming down with a cold. I have been sniffy and stuffed up with a sore throat since last night. I am hoping that ignoring it will make it go away, not sure how successful that has been so far.

Today has been a day of stocking up here, I went and did the supermarket shop this morning, so we are unlikely to starve for some time. This afternoon Paul had a half day holiday so he has made a big batch of chilli for the freezer, thus staving off even further the likelihood of starvation.

Then while the chilli cooked we watched today’s stage of Le Tour and I washed and measured and weighed my first skein of alpaca/merino. The racing was very exciting, I think it is going to be very close right up to the end.

I am very pleased with how the yarn has come out:

This is 70% alpaca, 30% merino, in Cappuccino (a blend of natural colours of alpaca with white merino) from John Arbon. It is a 2ply construction and about a DK weight in thickness. My first skein has 235g and 426m.

I have been toying with using this for the Sleeves in Your Pi pattern, which is sort of a cross between a shawl and a cardigan. The original pattern uses a slightly heavier yarn, but hopefully shouldn’t be too hard to adjust. However I am a bit concerned that I am not going to have enough yarn. I shall have to see how it goes once I have finished the plying.

Today’s coin is a New Jersey state quarter. Paul worked there for a few months many years ago, so my first visit to the US was to NJ to see him.

 

Le Tour de Fleece 2011: Day Seventeen

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I plied up my first bobbin of alpaca/merino today:

I love how this is coming out. It isn’t totally even, I spun it rather quickly, and without as much attention to detail as I used on my previous yarn, but it was good fun 🙂 Even if I did have to spin it straight out of the plastic bag to avoid becoming covered in it.

Today’s coin is a New York state quarter, the other half has a collection of US state quarters so you might be seeing a few more of them over the coming days.

Tomorrow I shall skein this bobbin up and measure it, and hopefully if I have time get started on plying the next.

Sunshine merino/silk

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Another rest day for the cyclists, so some more catching up.

Those of you with very long memories may remember that for the Tour de Fleece last year I was spinning some sunshine yellow 70% merino, 30% silk into a 3ply sock yarn. I finally finished in November:

I have a total of 193g, and 1209m, it is a 3ply construction and a bit thinner than a commercial 4ply in thickness. I’m not sure what I am going to do with this yet as it has come out a bit thinner than I was planning. I had originally thought socks, but now I am not sure. More thinking needed.

Le Tour de Fleece 2011: Days Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen

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No posts on Friday or Saturday (and no spinning progress either) because I was out at Knit Nation, attending some fantastic classes and generally having a great time. My last class was this morning, and I got home just in time for tea, I am now absolutely shattered! I will do a proper post about it soon when I have recovered.

We recorded all the cycling so I have quite a lot of that to catch up with. I have made a start on that and made a good start with my second bobbin of alpaca/merino.

Today’s coin is a South African 1 Rand.

I think I shall have a very early night tonight.