WIP: Spinning Lessons --Skeins and Singles AND WIP: Tunisian Crochet Afghan

Excuse the long title but I needed to do one entire post for this one. Some people (who shall remain nameless) think that I do spinning on a small basis. A spinning wheel is just a toy for me to do my meager amount of spinning. I laughed, and they did not understand me. Let me show you what I have done since I got my new "toy."

You remember those red wool singles I gave up on?

Look who has plied them on her new spinning wheel!!

Probably, over filled the bobbin, but it did say it holds 100g... right?

Yeah so those were pretty right? Yeah ok confession time...

This is really what I have been doing:

Behold, my new skeins!

If you count that is 15 skeins (1 on the bobbin resting) and 2 singles.
I have a lace weight single on the wheel now.
Minus 1 of the orange skeins in the middle all these were plied on my wheel.
 All the ones in the middle where also spun on my wheel (minus 1 of course).
The two teal ones and the one on the bobbin are done using Navajo plying.

Is spinning all I have been doing? Of course not!!

Say hello to my way of getting rid... I mean using up my
acrylic yarn! This will end up being a throw/afghan using tunisian crochet!
It is a bit on the rolling up side so excuse the sea salt grinder in the picture.

Also, I have been working on a Plarn bag. Oh yes another one of those things... So to my lovely friend out there, yes my spinning wheel may be a toy but it is one that I love, so stop dissing on JULIE!

WIP and Done: Autumn Dreams

So I have been quiet lately. I have been rather busy with dating and trying to catch up on some sleep. We have construction going on in the stores below so that is not helping anything. However, I have been spinning at night and trolling the Ebay auctions during the day. I have missed out on 5 spinning wheels in the last 3 weeks and my parents were questioning me highly on what I wanted in a spinning wheel when I was at home. It made me want one more then ever! I came home and looked at my HUGE stash of fibre and my heart sank slightly. I have my Yak silvery blend and my bats from Rogue Adventures were staring at me. So I started spinning both but now that has all come to halt!

Why? Because my parents have generously donated me some money to buy my own spinning wheel!! What kind did I get? Well... I will let you know on Thursday when it arrives! I am not the type to giggle but I did, many many times when I got off the phone from the lovely lady at Handspinner.co.uk (Shiela Dixon). If you visit her site you will know I got some kind of Ashford, but that is all I am saying!

Ok so why is the post labelled as a WIP and Done: Autumn Dreams? Because, I have spun a lot of the October colorway from Rogue Adventures. I was trolling the internet, well youtube, looking up my new spinning wheel and there is a video on how to use a ball winder with your spinning wheel. Then using the center pull ball to ply on the spinning wheel. Well, wanted to give the technique a try I plied some of my spun yarn using this technique with my spindolyn. I did not do all of it, nor have spun all the roving.

That is the WIP:

This is the single I spun on the spindolyn! It will be plied on the wheel!
Weight: 23g

Now for the Done:

Nice reddish hue with yellow and brown accents!

Up close pictures of parts of the yarn.

My little skein. If it looks this good on from the Spindolyn who knows
how great it will look from the wheel!! Can't wait!
Weight: 15g
Length: I am getting in a niddy noddy as well so I will be able to tell you
sometime next week.

Find the Difference

For those who like Spot the Difference puzzles here is one for you!

The difference between the two balls of yarn not the two pictures.

Got it?

One was spun on my spindolyn (so no weight on the fibre) and one was spun on my drop spindle. The one on the spindolyn is fluffy and looks like it will fall apart the other is sturdy. This is superwash merino... and I am never spinning with it again!

WIP: Spinning Lessons --Singles

This is what is on the spindolyn today!

I am loving the color changes in this fibre!

Done: Skein -- Red Velvet

The bottom skein is 2 ply, the top 3 are all singles which will stay that way. I am letting them rest before the become something very pretty indeed.

This should be really fun to work with in the future!

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single

This is the lovely single of silk that I just finished spinning! It is so soft and I may just keep it as a single.

There is a lot more here then it appears.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single Samples

So in-between knitting, crocheting and french knitting, I decided to do a bit of spinning... ok so a lot of spinning. For those who are new to my blog I have two spindles, a high-whorl and my new spindolyn. I do not have a spinning wheel.

My High-Whorl Spindle

So, I finished all of my red fibre I was working on. I don't know what possessed
me to put it back on my high-whorl spindle to store but I did.

Spindoyln:

I just love this single!

Oooh, soo pretty!

This is just pretty and it sparkles slightly.

A static laced house plus this silk
equals one tough spin.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single Samples

I finally got all the sample batts spun together. I enjoyed the challenge of spinning the two colors and sometimes the woollen/worseted combed combinations. The last one was hard since the difference in the two fibres made it hard to use my drop spindle.

In order from Left to Right with the card below!

Before the spinning process: In order with card above

WIP: Spinning Lessons --Silk

So I have now the silk I received in my spinning kit spun onto a toilet paper tube for its resting period.

So shiny...

WIP: Spinning Lessons

Red-brown single I am spinning.

I will show my silk spinning tomorrow when I get more done. This red-brown single was what I was spinning in public today!

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single

This is the new single I am spinning. It is a nice teal wool.

Nice color. The second picture is more the real color. I had to diffuse my flash through a sprite bottle.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Dyeing Fiber to Singles

I had fun dyeing this wool! As you can see I did not do stripes. Why? Erm, The other yarn I am adding this to wasn't done in stripes either.

This is the wool. It dried in only 6 hours!

This is how I separate it before pre-drafting it

All spun up into a single.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Dyeing Fiber to Singles

So I tried dyeing my fiber before spinning it... Well this is how it turned out once spun. I dyed some more to see if it looks a bit better. I think my spinning technique is getting better. This is one small single.

Yes this is on a toilet paper tube. But it looks pretty enough.

Close up.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single

I am working on a large white (undyed) single. Don't know its fate yet.

I think I am getting better.

WIP: Spinning Lessons -- Single

This is a single, before being plied and it is on a homemade nostepinne.

Wrapped single.