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| From Knitting |
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| From Knitting |
Yea!!! My first spindle spun two ply skein of yarn from Louet’s Coopworth light brown. It’s about 180 yard and I wasted a lot of fiber in the beginning learning how to spin. So out of 1/2 pound of roving I got 180 yard. But it looks pretty good for the first skein. I’m working on the second 1/2 pound now and we’ll see how much yarn I can make out of it now that I don’t waste as much.
I’m trying to achieve a lace weight yarn eventually but this one is more like a worsted weight even though I think I’ve spun as thin as I possibly can. Still, I know there are lots of room for improvement still. I’m watching wheel spinning videos on youtube trying to get as much understanding as I can right now so I can move up to a wheel some day. I’m pretty glad that I picked the right fiber and first spindle to learn the craft. And the lesson I had also helped tremendously. I learned that the singles look kinky and it’s not a failure. I got so frustrated the first few tries when I see only kinky yarn came out and I didn’t know how to control the amount of fiber going in either so it has lots of unspun fiber caught in the over-spun yarn. It was quite a sight. Not.
Now I can draft better and only let a small amount of fiber into the twist, I don’t waste as much. And I learned that playing from both ends of a ball makes it a lot easier than from two separate balls. I can check for balance for each spin and only wind on if the yarn is balanced. Don’t know how I can adjust on a wheel. But spinning with the Golding spindle is easier than the Greensleeves Bare Bone. It spins longer. The Bare Bone is still nice, it just doesn’t spin as long and stable.
And all this improvement happened within a week after the lesson. Before the lesson I tried on and off for a couple of weeks and finally set it down out of frustration thinking I’ll never be able to make yarn. The lesson didn’t really teach me much technically, but it did help me to understand the process better, especially drafting the roving more. I was slowly getting it on my own thinking I could split the roving but I didn’t do the pre-draft so the yarn was still very thick. After predrafting, the yarn is much thinner and consistent. Although I drop the spindle more often trying to spin as thin as I can, the yarn is much better looking. Can’t wait to try other kinds of fiber. This first one is supposed to be easy to spin for the beginners, but it’s not very soft. I like to spin some very soft lace yarn and sock yarn in the future.