A woolen beginning…

I’ve wanted to learn to spin woolen-style for a while now (the way I usually spin is a worsted-style technique).  I think that buying the Shelter yarn (which is woolen spun) a couple of weeks ago heightened the urge.  So I whipped out Abby Franquemont’s Drafting: The Long and the Short of It DVD and studied up on the long draw woolen style draft.  I pawed through my fiber stash looking for appropriate roving (not top) to practice with and came up with this:

Just a reminder for my non-spinning readers:

• TOP is fiber that has been prepared for spinning by combing it.  Top is more organized than roving – the fibers are all completely parallel to each other.  Top sometimes looks kind of like human hair! 
• ROVING is fiber that has been prepared for spinning by carding it (either with hand carders or a drum carder).  Roving is less organized than top– many of the fibers are aligned in the same direction, but you can definitely see other fibers going every which way.  Batts are pieces of drum-carded roving.

Don’t you just love that logo on the label?  This is 2 ounces of BFL-mohair roving that came into my stash by accident.  When I got my kate for Christmas a couple years ago, the seller included this small batt as a thank-you for waiting on a slightly delayed shipment.  Here is how it looks once opened: Pretty mix of orange and pink, very spring-y!

Woolen style spinning allows twist to enter the fiber supply in the drafting zone (in worsted style spinning, you pinch the fiber in such a way that twist never enters the drafting zone).  With the long draw, you pull your arm back and let a LOT of twist run up into the drafting zone.  And you don’t smooth down the resulting yarn with your fingers, which means that more air stays in the yarn.  Woolen spun yarns are have more yardage by a given weight, because they are airier and loftier. 

Spinning consistent singles with the long draw will definitely require more practice on my part.  You can see here that my singles aren’t all the same width.  You can also see how FUZZY they are – this is the result of the woolen spinning. I will ply these tomorrow and finish the yarn – expect a show-and-tell early next week.

One thing I like about the long draw is how much FASTER it is than my usual worsted style, inchworm approach.  I’ll have to dip into the fiber stash and see what other roving is in there to practice on.

Mo Mo-Finn

I recently realized that I forgot to post my latest handspun.  It slipped my mind because it’s just more of the same mohair-Finn that I began to spin back in September.  The second 4 ounces came out about like the first 4 ounces:Skein #1: 294 yards, 110 g
Skein #2: 323 yards, 117 g

Between the two of these, I definitely have enough for a pair of socks.  Some of this is true fingering weight, but some if more like sportweight.  Any ideas about patterns for my first handspun socks?

I need to get something new on the wheel.  Those Sweet Fern Mitts in Clara Parkes’ new book are on my mind, and I might try spinning something specifically for those.  Maybe the blueberry roving I got at MDSW09 (#5 on this photo collage)…?  I can try to spin it woolen and see what happens.

Hmmmmm.

K’Nex Kate

I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not… but some rambunctious play in my living room resulted in damage to my spinning wheel.  Nothing too major, but still.  Here’s what my wheel looks like now: Do you see it?  The kate was the victim: The wheel itself works fine – what a relief!

I could buy a new kate (it’s a relatively inexpensive part) … but I have been told more than once (and read) that it’s important for the singles bobbins to be far away from the wheel when plying.  A lot of kates are separate things, not attached to the wheel at all.  I really liked the concept of a built-in kate, but I have grown to see their point.  I figured this was my chance to try a separate kate.

But I haven’t gotten one yet.  So when I was ready to ply that Mohair-Finn blend this weekend, I tried to build one out of K’Nex.  (I regularly use a niddy noddy made out of PVC pipe, and have you seen the swifts and ballwinders made out of Legos?  I should do a whole post of those sometime.  There are many!)  Here is my initial design:Notice how I incorporated the stretchy bands from the Ladybug.  I had to modify this a bit more as I plied (to raise the bobbins so that the tension bands would be parallel to the floor and stabilize the top better), and I had to weigh down the base with big huge books (finally, a post-college use for The Riverside Shakespeare), and it was rather frustrating to use and threatened to snap at many points … but it worked. 

See?  Yarn! This is 3.95 oz (112 g) and 294 yards of 2-ply Finn-Mohair.  I think it’s roughly sportweight – maybe on the border between fingering and sportweight.  I spun it on the fast whorl at a 12.5:1 ratio.

I’m not sure if it’s enough for a pair of socks – but I have 4 more ounces of fiber, so I’ll just spin more.  It’s definitely the skinniest yarn I’ve made yet.  I’m pleased.

Mo Finn

I started a new spinning project this past weekend.  I chose some roving I purchased at MDSW just a few months ago, a 50/50 blend of Finn and Mohair in natural brown from Misty Mountain Farm in Virginia. The Finn breed was recommended for spinning sock yarn, and we all know that mohair is “Nature’s Nylon,” so I have high hopes that I might actually be able to make sock yarn with this.

I bought 8 oz.  4 oz should be enough for a pair of socks, if spun finely enough.  Is mine?  We shall see!  I divided the bag into 4 2-oz sections.  I’ll spin two of them onto two bobbins, ply, and evaluate.  Then I’ll probably repeat with the remaining fiber.

So far I have one 2-oz bobbin done:

And look what else I made yesterday: raspberry-blackberry jam from berries we picked at Yellow Hill Farm near Biglerville.  Mmmmmm.  Steven, I had to take off a Black Dog label to reuse a jar.  I’d been hanging onto it for a while, but it’s time for a new life.Currently we have 11 8-oz jars of this yumminess.  I need to make more.  Those berries are taking up freezer space that will need to reallocated to applesauce soon.  Of course, we keep some frozen berries for smoothies and baking… but we have a LOT of berries stored right now.  Enough for more jam!