Spindling
On a whim yesterday, I dug out my drop spindle and took it to knit group with me. I hadn't touched it in probably a year. For longer than that, I've been practicing spinning the huge ball of white merino roving that I bought way back when carpe_jugulum first taught me how to make felted dreads at that first evil art party, which was long before hecubuscathead taught me how to spin with a drop spindle. This roving is soft and silky and spins like butter, but it gets a bit boring, which is probably why I hadn't touched it. Looking at what's on the spindle, it's very obviously a beginner's work-- it started out consistently chunky, and then I started trying to get it thinner, so there are bits that are like cobweb weight, and bits that are chunky, and everything in between. I decided to work on spinning something that would be thin, but not teeny, and hopefully consistent.
I did do some knitting at knit group-- a few more inches on the second sleeve of my Stargazer sweater, aka stockinette hell. But I got into a groove with the spinning. Such a groove, in fact, that when I got home, I popped in 6 episodes of Buffy (end of S2 into beginning of S3) and spun for another 4 hours. Um.
But guess what? I believe that I have finally figured out how to draft and spin at the same time. No more park and draft for me, baby! I've got more control over the thickness, too-- not perfect, but okay. At the moment, my singles are probably between lace and fingering weight. I think I want to spin enough of this to ply, and I'm hoping it'll be sort of worsted/Aran when plied. And then I can dye it. Yay.
Now I want a heavier spindle with a top whorl instead of my lightish bottom whorl one. Not in the cards for me at the moment, though. And I want a spinning wheel, but that's even more not in the cards.
I did do some knitting at knit group-- a few more inches on the second sleeve of my Stargazer sweater, aka stockinette hell. But I got into a groove with the spinning. Such a groove, in fact, that when I got home, I popped in 6 episodes of Buffy (end of S2 into beginning of S3) and spun for another 4 hours. Um.
But guess what? I believe that I have finally figured out how to draft and spin at the same time. No more park and draft for me, baby! I've got more control over the thickness, too-- not perfect, but okay. At the moment, my singles are probably between lace and fingering weight. I think I want to spin enough of this to ply, and I'm hoping it'll be sort of worsted/Aran when plied. And then I can dye it. Yay.
Now I want a heavier spindle with a top whorl instead of my lightish bottom whorl one. Not in the cards for me at the moment, though. And I want a spinning wheel, but that's even more not in the cards.