Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Spin Me Round and Round

Again it has been a while since my last post. Birthday parties, holidays and sewing contracts played a part in the small hiatus this time.

Even with the hectic months I still found time to finish a few personal projects. Including my first venture into my new fiber hobby. I spun the entire batch of Noro roving and ended up with an over full drop spindle. I also had a lot of fun. I was not even three quarters through the batch when I made another trip to one of the other local yarn shops, Alpaca Direct, in search of slightly more traditional roving that I will have to learn how to draft myself. Which just means pulling apart the fibers so that you spin the thickness you want. They helped me find a few bags of incredibly soft and beautiful alpaca. I am excited to start working with it.

I quickly learned that drop spindle spinning truly fits my nature. I always like having a project with me everywhere I go. This was very easy to transport and something that I could pick up and work on even if I only had a few moments. I found myself spinning on road trips, in waiting rooms and most frequently at my kids classes. In all these locations my project was a conversation starter, especially with kids. Every child that watched me spin wanted to know what I was doing and most of them wanted to try it out too. That was easily my favorite part. Not just because it was super charming to have groups of kids all waiting for their chance to spin the spindle, but because it was an opportunity to share a little fiber knowledge with them. 
So now I have my first ball of spun yarn but it is not quite yet ready to use. I have a few choices to make, like if I want to have more then one ply. Which just means having more then one strand of yarn twisted together. Then I have to set the twist. When I finally get these stages of the process done I will return to let you know what I did and how it turned out.

Many blessings to you on this fine fibrous day.

-Kate

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