Silvergrrl Arts

Today I spun the 2nd 1/2 ounce bobbin of the new Falklands wool, then plied it. As always, the plying was instructive. The singles I spun today was just fine, but the one from yesterday had several places where there was just not enough spin and it didn’t hold together. That was a surprise. I haven’t had that problem before. At least I kept track of which bobbin was on which side, so I could tell which one was OK and which one had problems. I think when I spin tomorrow I’ll go one ratio higher. That will help make sure I get enough spin in for this wool.

As I write this, the plied wool is soaking. After it comes out, I’ll take a picture and add it to this post.

I bought a binder today to start tracking and compiling notes, samples, photos, etc. An added bonus is that I LOVE office supply stores so that was a really fun trip.

Until tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!!

Today was doubly great because 1) I started the new practice wool – the Falklands – and it is dreamy and 2) husband Mick got me a gift card to The Woolery for Christmas!

The new wool is very interesting because you can actually see the waves of the crimp, which I have not noticed in my previous practice wools. And it feels very silky. However, to really get to know it I am spinning small bobbins, 1/2 ounce each. I did one today, and I’ll do the other tomorrow. Then I’ll ply those, wash the plied yarn, and when it’s dry I’ll knit a little swatch. I’m probably going to have to start a notebook, too. So I can keep track of all this stuff I’m doing and learning.

Until tomorrow.

Hooray!! The H57 is done!! Spun, plied, and hanging to dry.

I have three remaining practice wools: half a pound of Falkland, half a pound of Blue-faced Leicester (yes! again!) and 4 ounces of organic Polwarth. I’ve already decided to do the Falklands next.

Until tomorrow.

Tonight was sort of frustrating – it was my “tired night” instead of Wednesday, due to tomorrow being Christmas Eve and some Wednesday things got shifted to today. BUT I got my spinning practice in. I’ll be glad wen I’ve finished this wool – I’m ready to move on to something new.

Knitting a swatch with this wool has been instructive. I see that the “crispness” that I feel in the plied wool translates to “no drape” in the knitted piece of fabric. So I’m thinking now that a scarf is not a good choice for it. I’ll have to think about what would be good … maybe a hat? Or maybe I’ll save my knitting time for a different wool.

Until tomorrow.

I fooled around some more today with my drafting technique, trying to use shorter movements to get the same thin even singles (the technical term for single-ply spun wool) that I’ve been doing with my semi-log draw. Why? So I can sit straighter and not have to move my arms as much. I did OK with it.

I was reading some posts today on a very interesting web site: Ask The Bellwether. She has some extremely interesting and informative posts. You can find her on Ravelry, too, if you like. I’m now interested in calculating the “grist” of my various yarns: i.e., the pounds per yard.

Until tomorrow.

It was really nice today to have time to spin more/longer than I can manage during the week. I spun a whole bobbin today of the H57 – that leaves just one more bobbin and I’ll have finished all of it. I definitely went on auto-pilot today – and it was good right up until the end. Right about the time I knew I was getting too tired and needed to stop, I was reaching the end of the allotted wool for that bobbin so it worked out well.

I want to make a comment about yesterday’s plied yarn, now that it’s dry. It’s the best yet. The difference is in the plying – it’s much tighter (in a good way). You can see this in today’s picture – the one on the right is yesterday’s, and you can see how much more “together” it looks than the one on the left, which was the previous plying. I had tried putting more twist into the ply this time, and I like the result.

My next thing today will be to go look in my knitting stitch dictionary and pick a couple to try for this yarn, and knit myself a swatch or two.

Until tomorrow.

Today I finished the 2nd bobbin of H57 and plied the two together. It came out very well. The twist looks really good. However, even though I weighed the wool out and they were the same, I still came out uneven on the length. A lot different – there’s probably at least 5 or 6 yards left on the 2nd bobbin. Maybe I’m just better and thinner on that one, or maybe the universe is just laughing at me. Whatever. I’ll join onto that when I spin again, and maybe it will come out even next time. In the overall scheme of things it doesn’t matter that much.

The picture today shows the plied yarn on the niddy noddy before I took it off for soaking.

Until tomorrow.

It’s probably not a good idea to spin when you are in a hurry. Or stressed. BUT if I was going to get it in today, that’s what it had to be. And honestly, the act of sitting down at my wheel and picking up the wool was calming. It kicked in that meditative quality that comes with the practice. So it was short but sweet.

Until tomorrow.

Tonight’s practice was a little shorter than usual, but I still got in almost a half hour. While I was spinning I started thinking about what I will do with this yarn – the 2 ply is good enough to knit something out of, and I’ll have over 400 yards by the time I’m done. Maybe a scarf for my mom. That would be pretty sweet.

Until tomorrow.

Wednesdays are my tiredest days. I get home late, and if I’m going to have challenges with spinning it seems like they most often happen on a Wednesday.

Today was a good example of that. I started a new bobbin, and first the leader yarn was too loose on the bobbin and it wouldn’t take up. After I fixed the leader yarn then the tension was too tight and grabby, and what seemed like a very little tiny adjustment made it too light. And then the wool pulled apart, and I had to go back & pull the end off the bobbin and thread it back through, and THAT took several tries before I got it going again. Whew!

Anyway, I finally got going and after that everything was fine.

Until tomorrow.