a bit of spinning

Spinning seems to have taken over as my favourite post-dinner television-watching activity, because the wheel is right there, and it doesn't take any thought to get into. I have bee practising various techniques, as I know I can do an effective short draw (worsted spun), but I dislike the rock-solid yarn it produces. I've been practising woollen-spun techniques in two different ways...

First, the longdraw. Having acquired hand carders at the same time as my wheel, I set to carding this luscious pile of fleece into rolags.



That's Jacob fleece (black and white), merino (blue), various purple woollies, and greenishpinkish silk all gifted to me last Christmas (or the Christmas before that??) by my friend Felix.

I spun it long draw as best as I could (still can't do it unsupported, and I think the silk didn't help but it was too pretty to leave out) and got this lovely blue stuff.



225-ish meters and completely uneven. But it was lots of fun to spin!

My other woollen attempt is from 110g of superwash BFL dyed by The Natural Dye Studio.

This one I spun over the fold (sort of - I spread out small bunches and rolled them up, like an uncarded rolag) and really tried for evenness, the result being that it's at least somewhat consistent!


I really love the colour of this, a bright acid green. I think I got about 150 meters of this, and it is soooo squooshily soft, vacillating between DK and worsted weights.

I'm now working on a sock blend (wool and nylon) but forgot to use the macro setting on the camera, so no picture of that, yet. Oops! :)