Silvergrrl Arts

Today’s big insight: the elephant now knows how to spin.

What’s that, you say? What elephant? Conjures up quite a mental image, doesn’t it?

Granted, I am taking some liberties with the published science. But loosely speaking, we can consider that our conscious awareness is like a child riding on the elephant of the unconscious mind. This elephant is very smart, and very capable. It learns how to do things, and then you don’t have to really think about them any more. Driving a car is an excellent example. Everyone (who can drive) has had the experience of arriving at his or her destination with no real memory of actually doing the driving. When that happens, the elephant was driving. It’s actually better at coordinating all the little things have to come together in order to drive successfully – remember when you were first learning, and you had to think about steering and accelerating and braking (and maybe the clutch) and changing gears and watching the traffic all around you and that stoplight up ahead…whew! So this ability to take all that below conscious awareness is very valuable. And now, my elephant knows at least the basics of spinning. That makes me very happy. It was one of my goals in this daily practice.

So I had this lovely awareness while I finished the first bobbin of the next 3-ply and got a very good start on the second one. I really enjoy the meditative state that I slip into now when I spin, because I can put my thoughts on hold and just watch the wool slip through my fingers. At least for the most part. It still gets away from me now and then, and I have to stop and fix it. And there’s the joining that has to be done as I use up each little chunk of roving. But for the most part, it’s pretty sweet.

Until tomorrow.

Today I spun the third bobbin and plied the three together. There is a velvety feel to this Falklands yarn that I like very much. It’s hard to describe, but I have noticed it in each of the three plied results. I believe it would make lovely clothing.

I might have to get more. In the meantime, I will should end up with enough to make at least a scarf. If the three-ply ends up the way I expect, it will be ideal for that.

Until tomorrow.

I finished the second bobbin of this “plying round” of Falklands today, it was sweet and easy. I’ve noticed that I’m starting to get callouses on my “pinching” fingers, the ones I use to control the twist. That helps! Tomorrow should be no problem getting the third one done, and then doing the 3-ply.

Until tomorrow.

I’m starting to get antsy about spinning something with color in it. I love color. All this white wool is starting to get old. BUT the discipline of daily practice with the inexpensive wool is SO paying off! I keep improving and learning with each practice session and each new type of wool. However, the incredibly gorgeous green Merino in today’s photo is calling to me louder every day. It’s called “Fusion” because of the blend of colors. I can see it when I’m spinning.

But.

Right now I am learning how to best spin and ply this very nice Falklands wool, and in another day or two (probably Friday, I finished the first bobbin today and started the second) I will make a 3-ply yarn with it and see how it turns out.

Until tomorrow.

I’m multi-tasking like crazy this evening, but YES I still got a good spinning session in. It’s getting easier to be consistent with my size (nice and thin) and slip into auto-pilot meditative mode, which is REALLY nice.

I’ve probably got one more evening on this bobbin.

Until tomorrow.

Just a quick spinning session tonight, it’s a little late and I’m tired. AND I want to go spend some quality time with the yarn I plied yesterday. It’s thinner than the first yarn I made with this wool. I’ve done the WPI, it’s around 13-14 which puts it at fingering weight! I’ll also wind it to a ball so I can knit a swatch, see how it behaves.

So since I seem to be able to spin that thickness more or less consistently, I’ll make the next batch 3-ply and see how that comes out.

Until tomorrow.

Yesterday’s plied yarn

Today’s spinning

Today I spun the other half ounce of the Falklands wool and plied it with yesterday’s. I used a higher plying ratio to match the higher spinning ratio.

Everything held together (hooray!) and the two bobbins actually were very close on the length of the singles. That indicates that I spun pretty evenly the whole time.

Today’s picture shows the plied yarn still on the niddy noddy.

Until tomorrow.

I spun another half-ounce of the Falklands wool today. I used a faster ratio (10 to 1) to put more spin in than before. I definitely noticed the difference in the twist. It will be interesting to ply it.

Today I also checked the WPI of the yarn I plied yesterday, it’s 10 WPI which puts it pretty close to DK weight. I am knitting a swatch now – haven’t gotten very far but it is definitely softer than the H57. A LOT softer. This yarn is pretty sweet.

Until tomorrow.