Am I a Spinner?

"You don't have a spinning wheel? What kind of a spinner are you?" some people would say.
I don't have a wheel and I am not going to buy one at least for the time being. I have spindles and that's fine with me. I'm happy with my spindles.
Am I not a spinner?
Well, maybe and maybe not.
The reason I don't care for a wheel is because they are too large. I usually spin out of my house.
I know with spinning wheel I can spin faster and more. But, is it true? If I stay home not so long, wouldn't spindle spinning more efficient?

Once in a while, I'm thinking of buying a wheel. JourneyWheel, as a matter of fact. If only I could try it before getting one.

Spinning Corriedale

Spinning Corriedale, a photo by Garyou on Flickr.

I usually spin in lunchtime at the office. After I eat my lunch, I take out my spindle and spin.
Now I'm spinning Corriedale top from Rosebank Farm. This fiber is so fabulous and fun to spin with.
I'm thinking of knitting a lace shawl with the yarn. Thanks to a Jenkins Turkish Delight spindle, I can spin the yarn as fine as I want so far.
It really takes time to spin fine yarn, but I'm having fun spinning.


Via Flickr:
Spinning Corriedale Top from Rosebank Farm

Shetland Yarn

Shetland Yarn
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Things get better little by little at least around me. I go to work on weekdays. Often I can't buy what I want to because of supplies are not enough.
But, just as Dickens wrote, "it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. In short, this period is so far like the others."

I've found my Bossie FeatherWeight was broken on the next day of the earthquake. Something heavy might hit it. The whorl was split in half. I sobbed.
But, other Bossies of mine are all fine. I just didn't feel like to spin after the earthquake for a while.

Today, suddenly spinning mojo has been back to me. I just picked up some Shetland top and blended with a handcarder.
I had white, light brown, and brown fiber. In the picture, the largest skein is made of almost the same amount of white and light brown. Other small ones are made of different proportion of three colours.

I'm not very good at carding. Fiber is in fine condition so the result are not so bad.
Blending fiber is such a fun. I've learned it from Knitty. I've tried it some time and found that I love to blend natural colour fiber. A little bit of dark colour, such as bordeaux or dark navy blue would be nice to add.

Too Late?

Weaver's Wool Mini Shawl
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Of course I've been knitting, crocheting, tatting, and spinning.
Last month, I span about 93 g (3.3 oz) of Corridale for Ravelympics 2010. I was participating in Team Spindlers and the Event Flying Camel Spin. Yes, I was just spinning and spinning during the Ravelympics.
The fiber is from Grafton Fibers, now DyakCrafts
The yarn is turned out to be about 306.5 m (335 yd).
At first, I was thinking of crochet a shawlette before spinning. At that time I was hooked with crochet. Keeping that in mind, I was spinning, but, well, I just changed my mind. After all, I'm a lousy spinner. The yarn was thicker than I'd planned.
Weaver's Wool Mini Shawl is one of the shawls I've been wanting to knit. It was a kind of "love at first sight." Its shape attracts me so much. It's not just triangular; it's a bit shaped and that must be good for wearing.
It is.
It's already spring and getting warmer and warmer around here. I might have let the yarn stand for a while.
Well, but it's ok. At least I'm happy with this shawl.

Too Short and Too Fine

Gotland
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

This Saturday was a perfect day for washing fleece. The sun was shining and the wind was crisp. It was my second time to wash greasy fleece.

Last time, I asked all of my spinning friends how to wash greasy fleece. Every answer was slightly different from others.
So, I took the easiest way. Put all the fleece in a cleaning net and wash. As a result, I got some very beautiful fiber with crimp with sheen, and some fiber seemed to me washed too much.

This time, I put all the fleece in warm water without cleaning net for about an hour, then put it in warm water with ditergent (we use Monogen, usually) for about 30 minutes. Here I took the cleaning net and put the fleece in it. I put the net in warm water with ditergent and push it gently for a while. I did rinse the net several times, then put it in the spin-dryer.
The result? Well, not so bad as I took a look at condition of the fleece before washing it with ditergent.

However, I have problems to spin this fleece.
The fiber is too short and too fine. It is difficult to hand-card this fiber. It is so fine that teeth of my handcarder don't catch it very well. And it is difficult to spin because it is too short.

I've already washed and spinned some Gotland. I bought them at the same time. And I had no troubles like these with the former fiber.

Now I have some plans: 1. Forget about handcarding and just use flick carder or something, 2. mix with other longer fiber, or 3. forget about spinning and just felt it.

Nothing Much to Do

Plied Shetland and Turkish Spindle
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Again, I haven't done anything much. I knitted a Flame Wave Sock from _25 Favorite Socks_ a bit, and plied Shetland a bit.
The photo is plied Shetland. I love this Turkish Spindle so much but I still can't spin with it very much. So, I just went for plying. And it turned out very pretty! Still I need more practice, it is delightful to use this spindle.

When I bought the fiber, I asked a person at the shop how I could spin Shetland since this was my first time spinning it. I got answers like "it's easy to spin with" and "you can spin it really fine."
I'm still afraid of fineness. While I was spinning the fiber, I thought it would be much more bulkier when I'd ply than I want.
I had a quick ( and not precise) look at the plied yarn and it is about 14 to 15 wpi average. Wow. This is the finest yarn I spun ever.

What I have in my mind now is to spin much more bulkier yarn. I have some scoured Romney. I'm thinking of spin it into bulky yarn.

Working on Turkish Spindle

It's so difficult. Maybe I spin too fine yarn. Now I'm trying park and draft method. It's getting a bit better.
Anyway, it's so much fun to learn something new. I've never thought I would spin. I've learned and found out a lot of things since I began to spin. I've met quite a number of nice people online and offline since then. I'm really glad that I started spinning.
Oh, I broke the yarn again. But even rejoining it is a delight.

So Lovely

At last, I've received my Turkish spindle!
I've never thought it would spin so wonderfully. I'd never get tired of watching it. So lovely.

Well, I need to get used to it, though.

As a Matter of Fact

I'm waiting for my Turkish spindle. I've ordered it last weekend. And it's already on its way.
Hopefull, I can receive it on Saturday.

Oh, how can I wait?

Holiday Spinning

Holiday Spinning
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

These are what I have done on the last two weekends.
The skein is plied Corriedale. I bought scoured fleece last March. Since then, I card a little and spin a little. Sometimes I find a problem or two while spinning, but that's mainly because I can't card well enough.

On the spindle is plied Merino. I spun it a few months ago. While plying, I found out I wasn't so bad at spinning it. I've been thinking my spinning skill got improved after I started spinning Blue Faced Leicester. That's not like that. My skill's been slowly but steadily improved. Some parts of the yarn are thick and some are fine, but over all, not very bad. At least not very bad as I thought. Plying is going smoothly, that's why.

On the niddy is plied BFL. This is the only yarn that I've already decided what I'm going to knit with. I'm going to knit a garter stitch shawl with lace edging. At first, I was thinking of dyeing the yarn (or fiber). As I spin, the warm yellow-tinged white has grown on me.
So far I plied 100g (about 3.5oz). I'm halfway through plying.

Done

Blue Faced Leicester
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

But plying is waiting for me...

I've spun 200g of Blue Faced Leicester top. Started on 27th March, it took me two months to finish. Well, though I also spun other fiber, it took too long. The thickness of the yarn is quite different from the start and the end.
Still, I got improved so much from spinning BFL. The yarn thickness are getting constant and I can spin more than used to. The fiber was in good condition, that's why.
Now, I'm trying hard on spinning the yarn with constant twist. The yarn I spun has strong twist in some part and weak twist in other part. I'm not sure how I can achieve that goal, but anyway, I'd give it a go.

And I've already bought another 200g of BFL top (200g is a little more than 7 oz. by the way). I'm thinking of spinning it finer and knit some lace.

Energized!

Energized!
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

This is my first time to knit single yarn. For my own handspun yarn, I've knitted only plied and blocked one.

Today, I carded fiber to blend colour. First, I chose almost same amount of five different natural shades merino; white, light grayish brown, light brown, medium brown, and dark brown. Then, I added a bit of pink, very light lavender, and dark purple fiber.
It is fun to card and blend colour of fiber. I've just started card-blending and usually fell into a mess. I like to use natural (not dyed) colour and add a little bit of dyed fiber.

After several tries, I've found out that it looks so different after I spin a card-blended fiber. It looks OK in fiber, but not at all in yarn.
This time, I've come to know that it looks alos different after I knit the yarn.

I think I can spin evenly in thickness, more or less. Now I'm trying hard on spinning evenly twisted yarn.

Can't Help It

At the office, suddenly that feeling came over to me.
That feeling, "I desperately want to spin!!"

I know too well I shouldn't think about it while I'm at work. And furthermore, I desperately want to knit, tat, and crochet, too.
And here's much more important thing. I desperately need sleep and I mean it.

But, I started carding as soon as I got home. Made 5 rolags and spun. Ain't I contented.

When Can I Spin, Anyway?

Bombyx Hankies
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

It was one of the bad days today. While I was walking toward the station from the office, all of a sudden I had stomach ache. At first, it wasn't so bad. At least I was able to walk. But soon I was afraid if I could not get to the station. I managed to make it to the station and got on the train, but there came a limit. I got off at the next station though I had two more stations to go.
So, I repeated getting on and off the train several times and finally got home. Whew!

And can you see what was wating for me?
Bombyx hankies in Opal colourway and Merino-Tencel in Moonstone colourway! Yey! I bought them from Crown Mountain Farms.

I want to spin them immediately, but also, I'm a bit afraid spinning them. I might messing them up since I'm still a novice spinner.

Well, I will take my time and enjoy spinning them leisurely.
Maybe this weekend.

Spindle Craze

My favorites are Bosworth Mini (purpleheart whorl and birch shaft) and Bosworth Midi (quilted maple whorl and molado shaft). I usually take either one when I spin sitting on the desk chair. I call them "A pair of jewels," means the most valuable two persons or things. It's rather a classical idiom but I often use it.
When I sit on the floor and spin, I choose Spindolyn a lot.
I decided to buy Spindolyn because I was looking for a spindle to spin cashmere. Last Feburary, one of my friends and I went to the event held by a shop specialise in cashmere. There, I have spun cashmere for the first time. Before that, I'd thought it'd been to difficult for me to spin cashmere since its fiber is very short. A lady there taught us how to spin cashmere, and I've spun some. It was such a wonderful experience.
Then I got some cashmere web (well.. I think that is called web), and tried to spin at home. I haven't got suitable spindles and that was what I found out. The lady told us that spindle does not have to be extremely light, but shaft must be slim. Later, I've come to spin with my Bossie Mini, but at that time, what I spun was too thick for cashmere.
So, I've looked around the web a bit, and found Spindolyn. Well, some says it is not their taste, but I watched the video instruction of Spindolyn and was so impressed with the elegant movement of the spinner.

At first, I had hard time spinning with Spindolyn, but after three days or so (I stay at home for few hours a day, that's why it took so long), there was no matter at all. I can spin so comfortably with Spindolyn.
I still spin merino with it. After I finish merino, I'm going to try cashmere. And I'm looking forward to it very much.

Nothing Done This Weekend

Colour in Dream
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

Because of fever, I had to rest this weekend. Called in sick on Friday, got a little bit better on Saturday, and again, felt worse on Sunday. Gee.

To make myself feel a little better, I did card-blend fiber a bit. I wanted to blend in dreamy colour. To me, it's almost violet or lavender, maybe perwinkle, and a bit of light blue and pink.
So, I prepared 50% lavender, 20% light blue, 20% pink, and natural white, light green, yellow, and dark purple for rest of 10%.
I think main colour (this time, violet) must be plenty enough, or, you would end up with dull and blurr colour. That's what I've got from card-blending these days. And strong colour (this time, dark purple) might be same shade with the colour you finaly want, and must be added to avoid blurr colour.
Well, I'm still a novice, though.

This time, I got the result as almost what I had in mide before card-blending.
But after I spun, I thought I should have added more strong colour. It really become different when it is spun.
I need more experiment and I desperately want to experiment.

Uh-oh, it seems my temperature gets higher again...

What Kind of a Spinner am I

I've formally started spinning last September. Well, it's a long story. I'd never thought I would spin. I just wanted more twist on my beautiful silk thread. That's all. And the silk thread has never been spun to add more twist.

I'm hooked to spinning. My favorite spindles are Bosworth mini and midi. The mini is made of purpleheart with birch shaft and the midi is made of quilted maple with morado shaft. They spin amazingly well for a very long time. Also, they are so beautiful. I can't stop admiring their beauty every time before spinning with them. They are what I use most among the top whorl spindles. For low whorl spindles, I love my ebony spindle and right now I'm devoted to Spindolyn. Boy, Spindolyn is real something.

As written above, I have but spindles for spinning. I have no spinning wheel and I don't think I would get one.
I saw a web page that says, "Don't care for spinning wheel? What kind of a spinner are you?"
Well, what kind of a spinner am I?

Total Disaster

Card-Blended Fiber
Originally uploaded by Garyou.

What I wanted was green fiber. Not grayish purple-something fiber like the right one.
I chose two shades of light blue and yellow to blend. Also for a bit depth, I picked orangish pink, very light lavender, natural ecru, natural rather dark brown, and deep reddish purple.

Now I know I put too many colours to blend.
Also, I assume something like this : When you add deep or strong colour for depth, choose same shade of the colour you want as a result. Otherwise add a contrast colour. I believe it would do. Need some experiment.

Left fiber is made of all colours above except light blues and yellow. This fiber came out pretty good. That's why I thought I put too many colours to blend.
I've already spun both fiber and found out they were soooooh discouraging. Even left fiber turned into a dull coloured yarn. Gee. I don't want to talk about the yarn made of the right fiber. I've never seen such ugly yarn.

However, my experiments of blending fiber are going to proceed. At least I'm sure about it.

As a Matter of Fact, I Spin

A little.
I've never thought I would spin. Actually, I started spinning not because I want to. I just wanted more twist on my beautiful silk thread. I looked for a tool to add twist on it and there I found a spindle. Then before I knew it, I was struggling to spin. I wonder why.

I'm but a novice spinner. These days I'm thinking of spinning only for socks. I love to knit socks (you may already know if you see other entries in this blog) and socks require rather small amount of yarn. Since I spin only with my spindles, sock knitting project seems suitable.

But novice spinner means he/she just wants to spin any fiber he/she has never spun before.
And I'm just right in middle of that stage.

Now I'm knitting Log Cabin Socks with handspun yarn. So far, they are the ugliest socks I've ever made. But I don't care. After all, it's just a beginning. There is a long road of spinning and knitting ahead of me.
Isn't it wonderful?