BYC Spinning Fiber

[snowydiamonds]

buff, you can easily make your own spindle, top or bottom whorl! A piece of dowel, a cup hook, some electrician's tape or "hundred mile an hour" tape, a couple scratched cd's and you're ready to go

 

[buffbeauty]

Yeah I've seen that but...... no fiber. That's coming with my spindle...

thanks though

 

[itsy]

I have been spinning like such a nut. My wrist hurts - my treadle foot hurts....but I keep going because there is something cathartic and magical about spinning. I love my new spinning wheel. I just got it a couple days ago now - or was it just yesterday? I've been spinning for hours. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the craft of the drop spindle and I'll do that more in the future. The drop spindle is primitive feeling. You really feel accomplished when you make yarn from fluff, by hand, with a spinning piece of wood.

But the spinning wheel.....? Wow. As soon as I sat down in the comfort of my own home (I had spun before in two spinning classes), I was relaxed and at ease. It was like a big body sigh. The rhythm of the wheel, coupled with the dance of my hands and feet, ok foot....put me in a meditative trance. If I had any blood pressure issues before hand - they were gone.

Once you get used to the wheel moving and actually WORKING at creating yarn, you begin to lose yourself in the artistry of it; of the way the different animal rovings feel in your fingers, of how different movements and actions will create a different appearance.

And then there was tonight. I paired a green wool pencil roving I spun with a beautiful creamy coffee colored Alpaca I had spun. I coiled them around one another making different patterns. It was almost sculptural!

Don't mind the photos - I could have really done better with them! The first photo is daylight showing three different skeins.

The one on the left is brown alpaca plyed with a handpainted multicolor superwash merino. The one in the middle is hand dyed romney and the one on the right is the same multicolor superwash merino plyed with a thin commercial off-white mohair blend yarn.

This next one is the creamy coffee colored Alpaca (a female named Abby and this is her first year being sheared) plyed with a spun hunter green sheep wool pencil roving, which was a pain in the neck at first to spin but I got the hang of it. I kind of coiled it around itself and then let it ply normally. What an experience! It was a new discovery! I took this photo with the flash....wish you could see it in the daylight. It's such earthy and beautiful yarn.

I still have to wash them to set the twist, but I think I'll wait until we move so I can set it all up properly.

Thanks for reading and letting me share!

 

[buffbeauty]

First of all let me say that reading your description made it sound like.....art.... OK I know it is art but you were so wonderfully descriptive in your wordage that I could hear music in the back ground.... a harp I think, but maybe apiano. HA. Wonderfully colorful descriptions, you should blog,.... or something.

Secondly,

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the blue!! But I already know I would when you first spun it up. Also really like the look of merino on the right with the white. Looks like sherbert. LOVE reds, oranges, golds, etc just as much as blues

Third.......

MY FIBER STILL ISNT HERE!!!!! Tracking says expected delivery was the 8th. The last entry into it's log was on the 7th pm and it was still in ME. SHEESH!!!! I understand monday was a holiday but

I called my PO and they say there's nothing further they can do and just to give it a few more days but good grief. It has just been sitting there!! OK I'm done ranting and I guess I'm just a little impatient especially with itsy's "ODE TO SPINNING" mocking from above.

 

[itsy]

THANK YOU Buff!!!!!

You make me feel like I want to blog. Perhaps I'll blog in the future!

I hope you like spinning....Did everything come in today?

 

[buffbeauty]

NO!!

Per the tracking it is still in maine which is where it's been since the 7th. Like I said it was estimated scheduled to deliver on 8th. I had my PO call the sorting facility yesterday and the manager there "guarantees" it left there. How the *$%& can he guarantee that???? Sorting facilities run thousands if not millions of pieces of mail through A DAY!! How can he guarantee MY package left there?? SHeesh!!! It's probably stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe!!! OK I'm done venting...... not really but I'll quit now!

 

[Jenlyn9483]

Experts... How much roving is needed to spin 4 oz of sport weight sock yarn?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Um, 4 oz?

 

[buffbeauty]

My kit came today!! FINALLY!!!!!!! So I've already spun up maybe an ounce or so of yarn and MAN! is is uuuuuuuuuuGLY!!!!

But I will continue to practice...... Luckily she sent a plain uncolored one as a practice one and then 3 other colored ones. That means I gotta get better fast!! I've already spun about half of the uncolored one....

 

[itsy]

Quote:
Woohooo!!!

Are you drafting the fiber before you spin? I started by drafting the fiber nice and thin and wrapping it several times around my wrist to spin from. You'll have to show us pics when you're ready! Do you like it?? It can be frustrating at first - at least I know I was frustrated, but I was also trying to spin a terribly short staple length alpaca.