The Traveller departs

Moving the Coopworth
Originally uploaded by JLW in PA

I still had some of that grey Coopworth on two of the Ashford Traveller bobbins, but I had to return the Traveller to my spinning teacher because she has a new student beginning soon. I didn't want to lose it, though - and I didn't have time to spin the rest of the roving on the Traveller before returning the wheel.

So... I put the Ashford bobbins on the Ladybug kate and ran them through (hopefully not adding too much twist) onto a Schacht bobbin. It worked fairly well. If you look closely at this picture, you can see the tensioning bands (they are black stretchy bands, just like the main drive band) that connect the bobbin to the little white thing in the middle. Can you see those? I adore them.

Then I divided the rest of my Coopworth roving into roughly 3 equal batches (one a little smaller, to add to the already spun yarn). I love my little scale. I want to finish the rest of the Coopworth as 3-ply yarn to match what I've already done.

Right now I only have 2 Schacht bobbins. The Ladybug came with 3, but one was broken when I unpacked it. I will exchange it at The Mannings booth at Knitters' Day Out this weekend. Also, I plan to buy a fourth bobbin. If you want to make 3-ply yarn, you need 4 bobbins.

Bye bye Traveller, hello Ladybug!

New Journey with Traveller...

So I've just recently begun to learn to spin. 10 days ago I had my first lesson, and yesterday was my second lesson. I was thrilled that a loaner wheel (the Ashford Traveller) was available for me to take home and practice with, as I'm not quite ready to buy a wheel. Turns out you just buckle them into the back seat, like children.

My homework for the first week was to fill 2 bobbins at least half full. I came home with a bag full of creamy white wool (not sure what kind, but it's combed and my teacher got it from Brown Sheep, the nice folks who make Nature Spun yarn). I filled 3 bobbins mostly full.

Last night we plied. We used the lazy kate on the Traveller to make a 2-ply yarn, and we Navajo plied another bobbin (this creates a 3-ply yarn). Today I set the twist in hot water. (When my teacher, Gail, told me to put the yarn in hot water, I said "but won't it felt?" She did a double take. Apparently most people ask "but won't it shrink?" at this point...) Here is a picture of some yarn before the twist is set:

And here is a picture of yarn after the twist has been set. I'm not sure you can see a difference in the photos, but the finished yarn is smoother and the fibers have relaxed and bloomed. This helps hide the terrible inconsistencies that I created!

In other knitting news, I'm working on a second pair of Sidestream socks from Dream in Color Smooshy and I'm swatching some Shibui sock yarn. It probably won't continue to look like this when I cast on an appropriate number of stitches for actual socks, but the gauge swatch has each color taking up less than one full round. The one-row striping effect is nice! I'm not sure I can get away with much beyond a plain vanilla sock with these color contrasts, though. Any pattern suggestions?