Silvergrrl Arts

Today’s practice felt “normal”. I’m used to the faster spin/smaller whorl, and I felt OK about what I spun. No, it’s not perfect, whatever that might be, but it’s OK. I’m human, not a machine. I think I’ll spin a bit more on this bobbin tomorrow and ply after that.

Until tomorrow.

I have reminded myself that I can do this any way I want to. I am playing. I am doing this my way. So I spun a bit today on one bobbin, and then set it aside and started another. When I have spun some more on that one, I will ply them together. I’m interested to see what difference it makes by using the smaller whorl. It’s taking a little getting used to, and I’m not quite as even, but I can live with that.

We’ll see when I ply it, probably tomorrow.

Until then.

There is no picture today. I decided to ply the yarn I’ve been working on this week, and it turned into a complete f*cking mess. I ended up throwing it away.

I’m pretty sure one of my problems was due to not enough spin on the yarn, from going too slow. Remember earlier in the week when I wrote about spinning in slow motion, to try to be even? Well, I had a big problem with the yarn not holding together and I’m pretty sure that was the part, from those days.

Also, I was trying to ply from a center pull ball, as I had done so successfully several times with the Blue Leicester. I now believe that is a bad idea with this type of yarn, and I won’t do it again. Next time even for 2-ply I’ll do it from bobbins.

So. In the interest of getting “back on the horse”, I spun a little more after that. I am using a smaller whorl this time, to get more spin on the fibers.

Until tomorrow.

Today was another “one step back” day. I felt uncoordinated, couldn’t keep the yarn as even as I wanted, had to do joins over several times… bleah.

BUT I hung in there and spun for half an hour, just like every other week day. Practice makes better, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.

Until tomorrow.

I felt like I was spinning in slow motion today. I was very focused on being as even as possible, and on my joins. They tend to be lumpy, and if I’m going to have a problem with the yarn pulling apart, that’s where it’s going to happen. So I divided up my wool so that I have to join more often.

I did three 1/2 ounce bobbins, then plied them using the Lazy Kate. On the plus side, I did MUCH better with the Kate today. I think I finally have that figured out. On the minus side, I had one join pull apart. So there’s about an 8-10 inch length that’s only 2-ply. There was really no way I was willing to go back and un-ply the 2 strands that twisted before I caught it, so the third strand just joined back in. Oh well.

Until tomorrow.

Today was huge. It started, really, yesterday. I was not very happy with the way the 3-ply Blue Leicester came out, and I realized that I had allowed myself to become emotionally invested in something I’m still really new at, and in this case something I had never tried before (plying with the Lazy Kate). Not good – this is supposed to be fun, and I’m supposed to be playing. Mistakes are part of it, and are GOOD because they are opportunities to learn. Mistakes mean I’m trying something new. So.

I realized that if I’m going to get better at plying, I need to do it more often. In particular, this method of 3-ply using the kate means I have to spin onto three bobbins. If I’m going to do that MORE, then it would be smart to do smaller quantities (doh!) so I can PLY them more often.

So really, I think spinning about a half-ounce of wool onto each bobbin would be a good quantity. Of course, by the time I had this flash of brilliance I had already spun an ounce of the new wool H57. So last night and today I spun another ounce each onto two more bobbins and then plied them with the kate. Having learned from many of yesterday’s mistakes, I did much better, and actually made a couple of NEW mistakes! Hooray! I’m actually pretty pleased with it. It’s a really pretty cream color.

Then I turned my attention back to yesterday’s work, the last of the BL. The biggest problem was that it was unevenly twisted – some parts looked OK, others were really hardly twisted at all. So I used a technique I read about on the web – I put the yarn on my swift, and fed it back through the plying process, just letting it twist a bit more and spool onto the bobbin. And you know what? It worked! Because I wasn’t really putting any tension on it, the OK parts stayed OK, and the untwisted parts got twisted. And it was still balanced (i.e. the skein did not twist when I held it up). So that’s a great thing to know about.

Whew! Until tomorrow.

The new “Heinz 57” wool, three strands plied using a Lazy Kate

The re-plied 3-ply Blue Leicester

Good thing this is practice wool.

First, I was right about the learning curve with the Lazy Kate. Where to put it, the best way to use the “pigtail” (the little metal curlicue), how to make the tension band work without having the spools jump off their spindles…

And most important, I ended up with a skein that was seriously unbalanced (with a S-twist), which was a first. In reading about that, there are a several possible causes. One is overplying, another is different amounts of spin on the singles (which I had), and another is when the spin goes “dormant” on singles that have sat around for a while. And the oldest of the three bobbins, which also had the least amount of spin, did sit for a WHILE.

So if the spin goes dormant, soaking will help “wake it up” – and after I soaked it, the yarn was much more balanced. So I suspect that that was in fact my problem. It’s hanging to dry now.

Ok.

So now I’ve moved on to the new wool, I’ll call it H57 for short, since the label says it’s “Heinz 57”. Happily, all the skill I’ve gained so far carried over. H57 feels slipperier than the Blue Leicester, and I can definitely appreciate that it’s been combed. The BL had irritating little curlicues of fiber that this wool does not have. It looks different, too – on the bobbin it is completely matte – no lustre at all.

Until tomorrow.