My first knitted project with own spun wool! It is spun merino tops that was the first attempt I made at spinning. My technique was awful, but it did actually turn out to be a lovely single ply fancy wool to knit with. There was only just enough to make this knitted coaster, which still needs to be felted. But I will look forward to putting my drinks (very carefully) down on my first lot of spinning!!
My second lot of spinning was some lovely brown and white wool that came in a bag of waste wool from
World of Wool. I have no idea what it is, but it is lovely and soft! Anyhow, whilst spinning this my spinning improved tremendously, and I became far more consistent, so I have another fancy wool, I plied two bobbins together, and I have some bits that are thick plied with thin, or thin plied with thin. Will have to think what to do with it! Plying it raised a few questions for me. What do you do when one bobbin runs out, and you still have some wool left on the other? Is there any way of splitting the remaining wool between two bobbins, so you can ply the rest of it? Or do you just have to keep it as single ply?
Another thing that has become apparent, as I am loving spinning, but keep wondering what to do with all the yarn I am creating. Do you spin with a project in mind? Or just spin to process the fleece, and hope a project comes to you at some point!
And just look what came in the post the other day! A complete surprise from the wonderful
Sarah. She has been busy dyeing and thought I would appreciate some lovely wool to practice with. Thank you, I will look forward to spinning this, and hope to do it justice!
I have the same problem with the leftover part-bobbin! Your wool looks great. Looking forward to seeing that lovely purple fleece spun up xx
ReplyDeleteHi, lovely to see your coaster - looks fantastic and you will treasure it I'm sure. Lovely to see you've done some more too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I do 2 ply from two bobbins and one runs out I have transferred some to another bobbin or wind a ball to do it from two bobbins/balls.
Nowadays I generally switch to navajo plying the remaining bit - although it changes the look of the yarn slightly as it is a 3 ply - this video is great at showing how to navajo if you fancy trying it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmlwtojLXI8
Navajo plying produces a 3 ply yarn from one single bobbin and uses a crochet style loop, and you pull through the single a bit at a time, keeping the loop and repeating (hope that makes sense - the video is better at showing it than I am at explaining it).
I don't usually have a plan in mind for my spinning - just spin for the joy of spinning and think something will come to me. If I do have a plan for something, I think about whether I want it chunky or thinner so I know how to spin it.
Love your purple, enjoy spinning it, hoping to do some dyeing over Easter here x
Your knitting looks gorgeous, well done. Love the look of your brown/cream too, and that purple is a gorgeous colour.
ReplyDeleteThankyou for joining us at Spinspiration, your spinning is looking just wonderful x
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