Monday, April 19, 2010

for the love of spinning

One of the things i enjoy most about my Living history hobby is the time i get to spend taking wool 'from sheep to sock'... that is cleaning, combing, spinning,dying and finally naalbinding it.
one of the mid-weigh spindles and some yarn spun from it

i finished my WIP drop spindles, and did some 'test spinning' on the different weights. here are some of the results
 light weight on the left, then medium, and heavy
at a guess, the first is lace weight as a 1-ply, the heaviest is perhaps a sport weight.

 close up of the same

 i have this crazy idea that i want to save all of the light weight that i end up spinning, and eventually buy/make a loom (preferably a viking-style warp-weighted loom) and test my hand at weaving. I think the light wool would be perfect for weft, and would make a nice mid-weight fabric.

 a light spindle, full of thread-like yarn

 i'm slowly taking bites out of my BAGS full of raw wool, washing, carding/combing and spinning it. i still have.. oh, at least 15lbs of wool to go though! (yikes!)

i would love to get a carding machine. that has to be the one step i like LEAST about getting the wool ready. hand combing/carding/flick carding is just not the same. it's okay for a show, or small batches, but i'd like to be able to do more, and larger batches!

After Finishing my first set of drop spindles, i decided that i would make further medium and small ones, as i know i want more than one weight of each for myself (one way to make 2-ply yarn is to spin onto two same-weight spindles, then ply (reverse spin) them together onto a third (often heavier) spindle)

I'm also mid-packing and preparing for our next event. it's a trainer (not open to the general public event) in SK and it's this weekend. i still have so much to pack!

on another note, my seedlings are growing by leaps and bounds... have had to transplant my acorn squash into larger containers, and will be doing the same with some of my other seedlings in the next day or two

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