Let’s talk about spinning!
I’m pretty sure I’m getting a TechnoSpindle for Christmas, along with spinning lessons, but I also have a deep longing for an Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel (I know Solfy has one). I am a huge fan of Pluckyfluff and I dream of making my own art yarn. But I’m going to start simple, on the TechnoSpindle, and wait for a while before getting a spinning wheel.
So who spins? What do you use? Can I see what you’ve made?
I have a Louet wheel. I can’t remember which model it is. It’s the one that’s oak and came either finished or unfinished. I bought the latter and finished it myself.
I’m not spinning much any more, but I loved my Louet. The action was just so darned smooth. And I liked that the bobbins that came with it are different sizes on either end, so you can change the spinning ratio just by switching around the end of the bobbin that the drive band goes over.
I never made anything from my handspun, because my knitting and crocheting skills are, shall we say, somewhat rudimentary?
Strange thing I remember about the one spinning class I took: The instructor had written an entire song about spinning, sung to the tune of The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.
“If you put slubs in your yarn today, you’d better be well aware
The slubs will weaken your yarn, they say, with pilling, abrasion, and wear!”
It went on (and on), but that’s all I remember.
Get some felting needles, and you can experiment with using your yarn as a surface embellishment on felt. You’re gonna have a blast with spinning!
I almost purchased a portable spinning wheel from a friend but decided that I just could not afford it at this time and I have way too much stuff on the go as it is and don’t have the time to learn to spin.
A friend of mine is a Laurel in the SCA for her spinning/weaving/dying so it’s just a matter of time before I badger her to teach me. I have some yak roving that needs to have something done with it eventually.
I bought a spindle last boxing day (quite a deal, it was one of the kits… this one) but I haven’t had much luck with learning. Lack of time mostly, and I think I’m just not quite grokking some of the instructions.
So I’m planning on taking a class in the new year. They teach the basics on spindle and wheel, provide everything so you can just show up.
I started on an Ashford, then moved to a (left-handed) Jensen Wheel (so mine is a reversed version of this picture.) I also spin on a little charka, have dozens of handspindles, and a Great Wheel that dates from about 1750, among other things.
No pictures at the moment as my inventory is in storage and I’m about to leave the country for eight weeks, but I used to spin and weave competitively all over the US and UK, mostly original designs, shorn from my own sheep, hand-dyed (usually natural dyes; I used to have a dye garden), spun, then woven/crocheted/knit.
I have a Louet top whorl drop spindle that I bought at a garage sale for a dollar. The only local yarn store is hideously overpriced; I think they call themselves a “fiber emporium” or something like that. They don’t have any basic worsted wool, but have lots of stuff that comes in sixty yard skeins with random bits and bobs spun into it that goes for about $25 a pop. DO NOT WANT.
Digression over, the fiber emporium is the only source of processed wool in an hour’s drive, so I’m waiting until after the holidays to buy some fiber from a friend who raises alpacas. Then the spinning shall begin and the cat will have lots of slubby toys until I get the hang of it.
Last summer, there was an Ashford Fairytale-style wheel in a thrift shop I frequented for the princely sum of $60. I didn’t have $60 on me, so I told myself I’d come back after payday and it would be mine. Of course, when I came back a week later, it was gone. Come the spring, I saw it in someone’s front yard with a potted plant in it. Oh, god, the pain that caused me.
Past the edit window – I’ve also got a Spin Tech electric spinner which was sold to me for a fraction of its original cost by a lady who was giving up her home spinning business; of the most useful toys I have is a Patrick Green triple carder, and a c. 1750 clock winder (that clicks after every 40 revolutions).
I miss having my proper workshop, but I’m slowly getting things sorted back out again.
One of the more interesting jobs I ever had was photographing and updating the database on the medieval textile collection in the British Museum; they had exhaustive notes on all of the pieces which had been written up by a very knowledgeable textile artist, but no one working at the Museum at the time could make heads or tails of the textile terms or abbreviations.
edited because submit post is not preview post.
