What a great creative spinning week! It’s funny how the time goes by and it feels like you haven’t done much until you stop and take a look.
First: I sold my first yarn!!!
Wheeeee! This was uber exciting!
Here’s a progress photo for the rest of the week:
1. 400 yards of singles. 70% wool, 30% silk.
2. Coreless tailspun yarn: 50 yards, local lamb locks and mohair locks
3. My best ever supercoils and the project from them.
All in all, a great week. How about you?
Spin on!
I 💜 supercoils!
But what do you do with art yarn? I am on a quest..to figure out great and exciting uses for spectacular yarn. Here’s my first recommendation. All it takes is about 70 yards of supercoils and a couple of large beads.
Hand pull a row of chain stitches, loop around itself three times. Pull ends through a large bead and secure end knot with fabric glue. Pretty, funky, warm..and most importantly, shows off the yarn!
Spin on!
This is not just a picture of supercoils. This is a picture of (invisible) me being ecstatic because I don’t have a tangled, overspun, frustrating bundle of supercoil wannabe.
My first attempts at supercoilling have been challenging, to say the least. The core gets over-spun and I have tried LOTs of tricks to balance it..but with no luck..until now.
Add the little spindle. Sarah Anderson talks about the wrap and roll method, so I had to try it. I started last night, and while it worked, I think I got about a foot done in an hour. Not. Sustainable. Without. Hurting. Someone.
This morning? Much better. Could be that my beverage of choice was coffee instead of beer (that was last night), but suddenly both hands were spinning independently and I was supercoilling! And talking, and drinking coffee without missing a beat!
Look how fine and even it is!! I am super stoked. Hoping to finish tonight and post drying pix tomorrow!
Spin on..!
I love that this:
Came from this:
And became this:
I’ve gotten into carding batts that fit “my perfect criteria.” I had NO idea I was that picky until I realized how amazing batts can be to spin– if they are light, airy, and well combed!! (Clearly I have had some clumpy, squished and not well processed batts in my past purchases) The most recent batch was a wool that I got that was a tad scratchier than I would have liked, so I dyed a BFL, silk, merino, cashmere blend I had, added some recycled sari silk clumps, and carded about 1.5 ounces at a time. Gotta tell ya..it flew out of my fingers and onto the wheel. I spun 4.5 ounces in a few hours. It was awesome!!!
And (as per my last post) very stress reducing. 🙂
Spin on!
A few weeks ago Saran Anderson’s book A Spinner’s Book of Yarn Design arrived, and I have been pretty glued to it ever since. Her descriptions work well for the way I think, and I have successfully spun some beautiful beehives on nicely balanced singles and my latest obsession, thick wool bouclé. I have not yet spun bouclé with mohair (can’t wait to get super loopy with it), but I am pretty pleased with my attempts with a thick wool single so far.
The top photo is from her book to show how it should look and the bottom two are my first attempts..I’m getting there, don’t you think? If anyone has suggestions for opening the loops more, I would love it!!
And the book…awesome. Tons of info, instructions, and ideas. Probably my fav spinning book so far.
Spin on!
SeattleSpinner 