Spinning....

I told you a couple weeks ago about my new-to-me Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel. When I bought it, it was a little rough...meaning it was missing parts, dirty and the wood needed conditioning...badly.  I cleaned it up with the help of DH and my flyer and bobbins came in last Wednesday.  So, now I have a working spinning wheel and have been able to sit down with it and learn to spin.  First, I'd like to thank Mary Ann Pagano of Three Waters Farm.  When I posted a pic of the used wheel and asked for advice about buying it to my local fiber arts group, she was the only one to respond, so I gave her my order for the standard flyer and bobbins.  She has been very kind and helpful. I brought my wheel to her shop, and she helped me attach the necessary parts and teach me how to adjust them and the basics of spinning on a wheel.  Emma was with me and I have said this before and will say it again...they fiber arts community has always presented the finest examples of kindness and helpfulness to my daughter, for which I am truly grateful.

Spinning with a drop spindle over the years has made learning to spin at the wheel much easier than it might have been.  Mostly because I am already practiced at drafting and plying with the spindle, so transferring those skills to a spinning wheel was pretty easy. The only thing that required practice was keeping the wheel turning with my foot and drafting out my fibers at the same time.  A rhythm is necessary to accomplish that feat, but a few sessions of practice has yielded a few nice skeins of plied yarn.

This is Merino top that I bought at Unplanned Peacock.  I realize that Merino isn't as easy to spin as BFL, and this fiber was bought in 2011 and is still in the braid, so it required more pre-drafting than usual, but the singles are bouncy and soft and I am happy with the yarn I made.  I am going to spin the rest on one bobbin and ply that from a center pull ball, just like I did these.  I spun these with a z twist and plied with an s twist. The color in these pics really isn't quite right, either...it is really more of a deep teal.   I think this will probably become a hat...we'll see:0)