Friday, March 15, 2013

First Attempts at Spinning

Here are my first few attempts at spinning.


The samples get better every time. It took awhile to get coordinated to treadle, draft the fibres and feed the yarn on to the bobbin! Now that I have the hang of it I am trying to make finer, more even yarn. I haven't made enough to make anything with, only samples so far.


The blue skein is Fractal Spinning (from the Craftsy class - Spinning Dyed Fibers). The fibre is super wash Bluefaced Leicester wool from the Spinning Six Colour pack from SweetGeorgia Yarns. I forgot to take a before picture - this is the Stella colour way.


Fractal spinning involves dividing a hand painted fibre in to halves, spinning one half as is and dividing the other half in to narrower sections and spinning it. This results in one bobbin with long lengths of the colours (the bobbin on the right) and the other bobbin with short bursts of the colours (the bobbin on the left).


Then they are plied together (it is about 1oz of wool, and about worsted weight - hard to tell because of the thick and thin sections).


This is the sample I knitted up. You can see how the stripes change over the piece.


I mentioned yesterday that Heather from Ottawa Valley Fibre sent me a bundle of fibres to play with, this is it - there are all kinds! Thanks again Heather!


The only one I have tried is this fun pencil roving, Northern Lights by Louet.


I divided it in half and spun it to two bobbins, as fine as I could.


Plied it. The colours are so pretty.


It ended up to be a DK yarn (14 WPI) when I washed it, so a bit thinner and more even than the last one. I think there will be enough to knit a neck warmer.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 
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