A Wild Spinning Wheel Appears So I got an unexpected text last night. It was a picture from my sister saying, "Look what my husband brought home for you." Here's the photo. Why hello, beautiful. The story goes that my brother-in-law works at a place that is currently cleaning out a lot of old things in anticipation of a major renovation. This poor wheel was headed for the dumpster, so he rescued it for me! As you can see, it is missing a few parts and pieces - namely the entire flyer/whorl/bobbin assembly. However, the string on the treadle makes me hopeful that this is meant to be a functional wheel, and there are signs of hardware on the...
The Spinning Odyssey Continues Singles are the proto-yarn that first hits the bobbin. You take your prepped fiber and spin it into singles. Why singles? Because they're a single strand. You can work with them as is, but they'll be stronger and more pleasant if you ply multiple singles together. After I spun up the tuft of pink from the last post, I grabbed some practice fiber and spun up a full bobbin of singles. The fiber is mill ends that I got very inexpensively. The good thing is that I have many, many pounds, so I can use a lot of fiber experimenting without running short. The bad thing is that it's inconsistently prepped. That means that either I...
Spinning Wheel Got to Go 'Round Like many knitters, I have dabbled in spinning. It is not something I do well or quickly, but it is something that I greatly enjoy. For me, spinning is 99% about the process, as opposed to knitting where it's more 80% process, 20% product. I had not used my wheels in over a year because of various life things and other shiny opportunities. However, when a tiny sample of roving made its way into my mailbox, I knew that I just HAD to spin it up Right. This. Second. I busted out my trusty Ashford Traveller for the job. This wheel came to me courtesy of my mother-in-law. She was at work one day...
