Monday
Aug252008
Everything Handspun (**plus Vesper spoiler**)
Monday, August 25, 2008 at 9:17PM
For the Ravelympics I gave myself a goal to learn to spin. Coincidentally, Purlescence Yarns, was also offering a Drop Spinning class as well. I signed up for the class, bought my drop spindle, some spinning books, and I was ready to go.
I had fiber from a few fiber clubs I joined, plus some that I bought just cause they looked pretty 8) I know it's funny that I would invest in fiber without evening knowing how to spin, but I thought if I had fiber around it would force me to spin. Not really force because I really wanted to spin, regardless. It's been something I've wanted to do for awhile now.
I had some pretty teal/greenish' Coriadale wool from The Sweet Sheep, which I thought would be perfect to start spinning with, at least based off of my research.
Sandy from Purlescence I have to say, is a great teacher. She really did give me alot of information about the fibers, the staple lengths, drafting, carding, you name it. At the end of my first lesson she gave me a huge amount of **mystery** fibers to spin. She wouldn't tell me what they were and wouldn't tell me how to spin it.
She wanted it to be a real learning experience, and it was. I can't thank her enough. For each fiber I took a few notes, and put a small piece of the fiber in my notepad. There was the Silk, which is just soft, but very delicate and easy to break, and the cotton top, which is gosh darn easy to break, hard to draft, and the alpaca hair, which is easy to spin and draft, but has a fuzzy kind of hair spin to it.
Look at all these different fibers. For my spinning, I decided to spin each fiber as I pulled them out of the bag. I didn't want to pick & choose, I rather let it come to me. It's really amazing how the finished product came out, it's just so pretty.
In the picture, from Left to Right, Top to Bottom, are the following fibers.. I think there's a few missing that I spun completely:
Alpaca Top, easy to spin, don't need much twist, long staple length.
Camel hair, easy to spin, but still hairy, long staple length.
Silk Top w/nods.. very hard, there's a trick to it, it comes in a square shape, which you stretch into a donut, then spin.. I didn't know this, but found out after.
Merino Silk, easy to spin, can break.
Long Wool, easy to spin.
Cashmere Silk, so soft, spins slow, breaks easily.
Merino Cashmere, soft, spins medium, can break.
Silk Top, hard to spin, very delicate, but super soft.
Bison, so hard to spin, breaks easily, short staple length
Cotton Punt, hard to spin because the staple length is short, and breaks easily.
Merino Silk, spins good, soft.
Cotton Top, hard to spin, breaks easily.
Tencel, spins ok.
Super fine Alpaca, so soft, easy to spin.
After having that sort of crash course in fibers, and I just eager to keep spinning and really become good at it.
All those fibers produced this beautiful skein, which I'm calling "Everything" handspun 8-)
And I still have some left over to ply another fiber with... I can't wait!
In other news.. I received the August shipment from the Vesper Sock Club, I love the colors it has, so pretty...the orange in it really stands out nicely.
I had fiber from a few fiber clubs I joined, plus some that I bought just cause they looked pretty 8) I know it's funny that I would invest in fiber without evening knowing how to spin, but I thought if I had fiber around it would force me to spin. Not really force because I really wanted to spin, regardless. It's been something I've wanted to do for awhile now.
I had some pretty teal/greenish' Coriadale wool from The Sweet Sheep, which I thought would be perfect to start spinning with, at least based off of my research.
Sandy from Purlescence I have to say, is a great teacher. She really did give me alot of information about the fibers, the staple lengths, drafting, carding, you name it. At the end of my first lesson she gave me a huge amount of **mystery** fibers to spin. She wouldn't tell me what they were and wouldn't tell me how to spin it.
She wanted it to be a real learning experience, and it was. I can't thank her enough. For each fiber I took a few notes, and put a small piece of the fiber in my notepad. There was the Silk, which is just soft, but very delicate and easy to break, and the cotton top, which is gosh darn easy to break, hard to draft, and the alpaca hair, which is easy to spin and draft, but has a fuzzy kind of hair spin to it.
Look at all these different fibers. For my spinning, I decided to spin each fiber as I pulled them out of the bag. I didn't want to pick & choose, I rather let it come to me. It's really amazing how the finished product came out, it's just so pretty.
In the picture, from Left to Right, Top to Bottom, are the following fibers.. I think there's a few missing that I spun completely:
Alpaca Top, easy to spin, don't need much twist, long staple length.
Camel hair, easy to spin, but still hairy, long staple length.
Silk Top w/nods.. very hard, there's a trick to it, it comes in a square shape, which you stretch into a donut, then spin.. I didn't know this, but found out after.
Merino Silk, easy to spin, can break.
Long Wool, easy to spin.
Cashmere Silk, so soft, spins slow, breaks easily.
Merino Cashmere, soft, spins medium, can break.
Silk Top, hard to spin, very delicate, but super soft.
Bison, so hard to spin, breaks easily, short staple length
Cotton Punt, hard to spin because the staple length is short, and breaks easily.
Merino Silk, spins good, soft.
Cotton Top, hard to spin, breaks easily.
Tencel, spins ok.
Super fine Alpaca, so soft, easy to spin.
After having that sort of crash course in fibers, and I just eager to keep spinning and really become good at it.
All those fibers produced this beautiful skein, which I'm calling "Everything" handspun 8-)
And I still have some left over to ply another fiber with... I can't wait!
In other news.. I received the August shipment from the Vesper Sock Club, I love the colors it has, so pretty...the orange in it really stands out nicely.