Making your own yarn?



Navajo Ply'd Peruvian Yarn

I am sure a while back you saw my spinning wheel posts.  Well here is some of my semi-finished work.

 

I used Peruvian wool roving to make my single.  I have not perfected my drafting so my singles come bout a bit wobbly thin and think so I  needed to make sure when I ply'ed I did it in a manner that would help hide those spots.  I decided to go with the Navajo Ply'ing as it created a 3 ply yarn with out having to cut up my single into 3 even sections and ball them with out loosing all the twist I put in. It came out bulky weight even though I was hoping to a bit thinner, I guess that's where I will need more practice learning to spin thinner.

 

I am no expert at spinning. I am actually new to it.  So I would love advice, tips and honest critics'.  I spun my singles on the Turkish spindle I made below, its just 5 chop sticks and some rubber bands but it works great, it might be a bit light weight, but it worked well for me.  It was to light for me to ply on, so I used the spindle my mom worked up to ply on as it is much heavier and a top whorl and helped prevent the kinking and back twist that happened when I tried my lighter Turkish.      



I need to 'finish' they yarn still.  I am spinning up the remainder of my roving to add to the ply ball, which I never finished off so that I could add more single to the ply if I could work it up.



I have not 'finished' a yarn before. I read that you have to wash it then wack it against something to set the twist.  It sounds intimidating but I want to make sure I have all my roving available spun up so I only have to wash and wack once.

 

Hand made Turkish with Single on it.

I think it will also 'fluff' up more after washing so I am not sure what I will make with my finished yarn.  There is not a lot of it I have not measured it yet but it will probably wind up going into something small, and with it being wool possibly a winter item that I will have too wait till winter rolls around again to use (if it ever decides to end since it snowed 2 days ago and now is warming up again).

 

I hope that I will get more fiber for my birthday in June so I can practice spinning more. I would love an other blend that isn't just wool like a bamboo or alpaca roving or batt.

 

I need more practice.  I honestly broke my single a few times during plying and had to back track and repair my single before finishing on.  Eventually if I can get good enough to spin  a sock weight yarn I will start dabbling in trying to hand paint my finished yarn.

If I get realy good I might even treat myself to a professionally made Turkish spindle.  Or even one of those kick spindles I keep watching videos for leaving hands free to work and draft which seems to be my biggest hurdle when spinning.  It doesn't help that my arm span is small, friends of mine even pointed out there 9 year old has a arm span the same length as me.  *Sigh* that started all of the T-Rex tiny arms jokes.  Which are funny until I look down and 'Oh my arms are to short to do that too'.