You know it's bad when I start breaking out the puns...
Check it! Me and the Llyn Guild's Ashford Traditional, all happy and in love. But even such love can soon be forgotten - especially now that I have a wheel that is ALL MY VERY OWN!
Another Ashford, but a tad darker varnished than the Llyn's. She is an utter BEAUTY! And last night, after some surreptitious dealings in an undisclosed location (ok, Tesco car park...) she became mine all mine. :D
The proper drive band still needs attaching, so for the moment she's being held together by crochet cotton, but quite frankly it does the job and she runs spectacularly smoothly. The only trouble is a really rather impressive squeak that comes from somewhere in the flyer/bobbin area, but a spot of oil will have that sorted in no time!
So in the meantime I've been playing with the Llyn Guild's wheel, making the singles and then plying this green affair. Look how shockingly overspun that is! In my defence, all that stuff about plying opposite to the single spin came to nothing when the wheel just downright refused to spin anti-clockwise... try as I might, it just would not ply, or put any spin into the yarn, nor would it draw in the yarn for more than an inch before it started to fight back the other way. After 10 minutes of wheel-wrestling I gave up and plied it in the same direction as I'd done the singles - hence the epic overspin. If anyone has any tips on how to solve said issue, I would be forever in their debt!
This morning, I've been spinning some lush merino tops I bought at Wonderwool...
...really I should be getting ready for work, but meh - I'm sure there's time for just a few more grams?
In related news, this Sunday the Llyn Guild will be doing a spinning demo for the National Trust at Beddgelert to coincide with the sheep on their farm being sheared. If you're in that neck of the woods, do come along and say hi!
Kim x
PS: I haven't forgotten about the Fleece to FO thing, but my goodness! Nobody warned me just how dull picking is!
Hi Kim!
ReplyDeleteI've been a subscriber for at least 6 months now, and wanted to stop by to tell you how inspired I've been by your spinning! I had never heard of a drop spindle before your original post about yours, though I was a little bit familiar with spinning wheels as my mother always had an antique one for decoration. I asked for a spindle for Christmas on a whim, got one from my mom, and now there's no going back! I've inspired my mom to get her antique wheel up and running, and together we've gone to a couple fiber festivals and a fiber processing plant and are learning to spin. She's already scoping out deals on a wheel for me :-). Just wanted to say thanks! Also, have you found any other great spinning blogs? I'm looking for inspiring photos of beautiful handspun yarns, stories about learning to spin, etc.
Thanks again!
Caitlin
thewovenhome.blogspot.com
Oo yaya, pretty wheel! I like it. :D The varnish is beautiful too. Spinning in the opposite direction was a bit of a mess for me at the start too, but you get into it.
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