Has it really been so long

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything here since October. I have been busy for the last few months with my latest project for my degree course, so the Certificate of Achievement has had to take a back seat.

I have been practising my spindle spinning and have found that I can spin much finer now that I have bought some seriously light spindles from Mike Williams at the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild's advent gathering. This has helped me with my fine spinning on my wheels.

I have begun to get the hang of spinning on the Ashford Traveller - it just took some getting used to as I was used to spinning on the Louet & Chitty. I had also bought another version of Chitty - named Chitty 2. This wheel would not draw and I was sure it was because the diameter of the bobbin was practically the same as the diameter of the wheel on the spindle. Selina had the marvellous idea of taking the smaller bobbin off Chitty to see if this solved the problem and it did - Yippee!!!

So I took the flyers of the wheels and handed these over to Mike Williams to see if he could make a couple of bobbins for me that would work. He reckons they will be done after Christmas - so I will hopefully hear something in the next couple of weeks.

Although Chitty is a clunky and noisy little thing, I do find it easy to spin finely on it - so I am quite looking forward to getting the flyers back so that I can get practising on the little darlings.

Selina has had an Ashford Joy with Carrying Bag for Christmas as the Louet was getting knocked about in the car when going to guild meetings. She has now got to get used to a new wheel too.

Viscose and trilobal nylon pics

These are some pics of the tencel and trilobal nylon that I had been practising with. The Tencel (top) was really quite shiny and took some getting used to. The trilobal nylon (bottom) was easier to spin. I was just trying to get the feel of fibres that I wasn't familliar with. I also wanted to improve my drafting skills in order to spin thick and thin as required, rather than worry about spinning a consistant yarn thickness. I also spun some thickish bright white trilobal nylon - but have just realised that I didn't take any pics of that - oops.

Back on the wool again

I have not been well - really bad cold - possible swine flu - stuck in the house.

I need to improve my wool techniques, so I decided to make the most of the time and practise preparing fibre for worsted spinning.

So I have washed some fleeces, got my dutch combs out and practised wool combing with Dutch combs and practised using a diz to making rovings - I am more pleased with my fibre preparation and am beginning to enjoy combing better than carding but my spinning is still not good enough. So I haven't dared to post any pictures of my sample yarns and I haven't posted any pictures of my rovings and fibre prep as I may want to use them in the body of work that I will be submitting for assessment. Below is a pic of some Masham - the curly one on the left and some Romney that I have scoured. They both came from the wool marketing board and I have to say that the Masham was a bit on the rough side - still - it will make good practise - I just hope that if I decide to use Masham I can get my hands on a good fleece for my final submission work.

Experimenting with viscose and tri-lobal nylon

I have become a little disheartened with my wool spinning. I know in theory what I am doing - and have read Mabel Ross's offerings over and over (along with every other book in my rapidly exanding library) - but no matter what I do, I just don't get the result I am looking for. So I have decided to quit spinning wool for a while and practise other materials.

1. Tri lobal nylon - I have both bright white and dyed tri-lobal nylon and have been practising spinning both thick and thin yarns with each. Probably iro 25 wpi and 12 wpi
2. Viscose - Again, I have been practising thick and thin yarns - having said that - my thick wasn't exactly thick. I reckon that the thin was iro 50 wpi and the thick 25 to 30 wpi.

I have been trying to improve my thick and thin yarns as the syllabus requires me to spin thick and thin and consider plies and purpose. The wpi's above were for the singles and by the time they were plied they were much thicker and would represent a range of yarn thicknesses.

I have enjoyed spinning both and am keen to experiment more with these fibres. My main problem is that I need to get my head around spinning for a purpose - and not just spinning because I want to.

So - any suggestions for what kind of yarn I should spin with each and with suggested uses or a project/purpose in mind would be appreciated.

pics to follow

Hampshire Down Sheep at Bakewell Show

I went to Bakewell Show in August and eagerly rushed over to the sheep section. There weren't very many breeds represented. There were more texels than anything other breed, and sadly most of these had been sprayed to highlight their conformation. (Sadly from a spinners point of view that is). There were quite a few jacobs, and a few other breeds, but more excitingly - there was a pen of young Hampshire Downs. They were dressed in lovely little jackets to protect their fleece. I took down the contact details from the breeders information board above the pen. I really wish all of the breeders would put up their contact details.

It has taken me three weeks to pluck up the courage to call about the possibility of getting a few fleece from this flock for my C of A. I was so glad I called. The flock owner was a very kind and helpful lady who was easy to speak to and was pleased to hear from someone who was interested in the fleece. She has no fleeces from this years shearing - but I have left my contact details for next time. Hampshire Down are a particularly cute breed of sheep. I haven't spun a fleece from this breed before and I just hope that when I finally get my hands on a fleece - I am not disappointed and find it suitable for my C of A.

Fibre Stash

I have been collecting different fibres for spinning practise for my Certificate of Achievement. Here is a picture of my stash. There is alpaca, possum, yak, cotton (in various forms), lots of silk - caps, bricks, throwsters waste, filament, cocoon strippings - all sorts, flax line and tow, tencel, ramie, viscose and nylon. I have also got about 14 fleeces in the shed waiting to be picked over and cleaned. Hopefully, by the time I have worked my way through this lot, I should be pretty darn good at spinning just about anything.

Registered and eager to start - but where? Wool, cotton, flax, silk or something else?

I have now got to start on my portfolio of samples. A range of yarns in various thicknesses, appropriate for the fibre being spun and the use to which it will be put. Singles and plied yarns to be included & all hanks to be at least 100m in length.

As I usually spin wool, this would seem the most sensible place to start - but there are so many combinations to consider:

Wool - to be spun woollen and worsted as appropriate.

1. short wool and down
2. long wool and lustre
3. mountain and hill

I am beginning to think that it may be easier to start with flax!