Second Bundle of Joy

So, I was just trying to dip my toe into the water on this spinning thing. Venturing in with just a spindle and trying to spin as much as I can. It's very soothing and relaxing and very slow. I signed up for Tour de Fleece on a whim. It's like a knitting olympics on Ravelry except for Spinning. The thing is that a lot of spinner have way more leisure time than I do to spin, so I'm proudly saying as we near the end (sunday july 25th), that I've learned how to spin on a spindle, how to ply on a spindle, and learned how to spin on a spinning wheel. Yes, a spinning wheel.

Here is my second bundle of handspun joy - 77g - that's about 250yds of handspun singles plied into a skein of ~ 125yds. Same base as I'm still working through the lovely pencil roving - alpaca, wool, and silk. Still spinning single between lace and fingering, and plied, it's more like dk weight this skein, rather than worsted on the first skein.

This skein has more of the pink and purple, and less of the burgundy that the first skein showed.

Front view:


Side view:


I found that plying on a spinning wheel is much easier than on a spindle and quicker, but that unless you watch how you're laying the yarn onto the bobbin, it can ply not as tight as I want, and can fill up the bobbin too quickly.

Here's a close-up of the ply.



The spinning wheel I sprung for is the Ashford Joy. It's a small portable wheel, just 11 lbs. I still need a bag and am thinking of getting the one from the Woolery as it has some extra pockets.

Fell off the wagon - first handspun

Although I'd been resisting for years to pick up a spindle, I finally decided at the end of June at the Victoria Fiber Festival that I was going to buy a hand spindle and learn to spin. Instead I bought roving - pencil roving - about 300g of Wool-Alpaca-silk blend (40-40-20) in pink-purple-blue colorway, and 200g of a lovely teal green in Wool-Alpaca-silk blend (64-25-10). I figured what I didn't knit (bulky weight), I could learn to spin.

My first effort at handspun singles using a spindle (which I traded for)



and



Then, this week, I learned how to handply these singles with a spindle. After winding them onto a ball winder (while a friend used a yarn counter to measure the feet of yarn I had), she wound it on a partially opened swift, tied little ties on to hold the yarn, and swung the yarn into a skein - yay! (reverse ball winding!)



I'm in love -

My skein is 58g (just over 2 oz) and measures 170 ft or 56.67 yards.