Current works

[unicornduke]

I made a whole bobbin of yarn on my spinning wheel. I finally got it off and here's a picture. There's some definite variation but that roving is actually kinda hard to work with for some reason. I can't figure it out but it's my test roving for everything. If I learn to spin on it, then moving to other types is easier. I have no idea what it is, I constantly lose what things are. I counted out the turns on the niddy noddy and then calculated it out, and it may or may not be about 270 yards, which is a good amount. I'm not plying anything because that's a pain in the butt and I don't want to.



The next one I'm working on my wheel is this darker yarn. It is easier to do a long draw with and I'm getting much more consistency with it, even if not fully consistent. It's very nice to work with.



This is my secret project that I'm excited about. I'm spinning yarn that I got from Llady Llama at the sheep and wool festival and I'm going to crochet it into a hat and scarf set for Jade for Christmas. It's going pretty well and I'm 2/3 done spinning with a full half on the niddly noddy and set. The colors reminded me of her and it also matches the persona 5 colors, which she's been playing a lot lately. She also came home early tonight while I was working on it, so I did some very unsubtle stuffing of it under my arm.



This is my using-yarn-up crochet blanket. I've got a lot of purple, white and grey so that's what I'm doing.

Comments

[graydon]

Yay, fibre!

That's looking highly respectable on the spinning!

Possibly helpful to remember that old-timey spinning standards presume a simply insane amount of practice; "every waking moment" and "every daylight hour" sorts of thing.

[unicornduke]

Haha, thanks. I keep thinking oh dang I'm having trouble and it's not great. But I know it takes forever to get good at anything so I'm not that bothered lol.

[tielan]

SO MUCH WOW from me! I have many questions, but will probably go and research them on the intarwebs rather than bother you!

[unicornduke]

I'm a relative spinning noob so I might not be able to answer a lot but I don't mind you asking!

[dragonlady7]

Sigh, I still don't think I've gotten past spinning more than like two yards of anything. But! Someday.
Those look so cool, and so consistent. I always think handspun yarn is gonna be chunky but it obviously doesn't have to be. I want to learn to spin finer yarn because since I don't knit I gotta think of other things to do with it... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, lol, it's the least of my problems...
The middle colors are really pretty, I like the variation!

[unicornduke]

Ehh, it's easier with a mission to spin on drop spindle. The red is for Jade's christmas present so it kinda has to get done now. I've been watching hockey and streams while I spin it because it gets kinda boring otherwise. After a certain point in learning, it's easier to spin fine yarn than chunky yarn just because it's actually easier and the fiber tends toward it. I've been struggling to keep the mix color thicker since I'm using it as is for crocheting. If you ply it's not a big deal to go thinner but I don't want to ply.

Spinning buddies also help!

[dragonlady7]

I need a lot of things, not least among them access to all my stuff at the same time and some goals and some work buddies. I have no doubt I'll get to it eventually, but at the moment I seem mostly only able to sigh wistfully about things, LOL. I'm not at a very productive phase in my life, in general...

[unicornduke]

Well, I'll be a spinning buddy any time since it's winter now and I'm in town (other than this weekend) until christmas time. I might not be able to help with the rest of it though lol. I think we all are less productive sometimes, it's nice on occasion.

[dragonlady7]

It is important to take time off, but sometimes taking a little time off means you lose all your momentum and then don't know where to start back up. So. I hope I can find some of my energy this weekend and restart.

[graydon]

I always think handspun yarn is gonna be chunky but it obviously doesn't have to be.

There are a bunch of pre-modern descriptions of people doing things like pulling their shawl through their wedding ring from the middle and similar demonstrations of insane fabric-fineness for swank. ("can still read the Bible through seven layers" comes up, too.) There are people trying to replicate this stuff out there; they swear a lot, because it has to be hand-spun (machine spinning has a minimum thread thickness for actually spun natural fibres) and apparently the technique gets different. And it takes a stupid amount of practice, which is hard to put in if you're trying to make your experimental archeology publication schedule or similar.

TL;DR hand-spinners used to compete to make ridiculously fine threads to be made into sheer fabric for swank.

[dragonlady7]

Oh, yes, I'm aware-- I've done historical re-enactment and costuming and such. I intellectually know it's perfectly possible and indeed in the total of human history, the majority of spinning has been of very fine stuff. That doesn't mean that I actually have internalized how on earth one would ever manage to spin something fine, because in my cumulative fifteen minutes of spinning, all I've ever made is wildly uneven chunky thick yarn.

[graydon]

As someone who could never get the drop spindle to not smack me in the ankle, I sympathize!