Birthday Gifrt from my Hubby finaly came in!

 I finaly got my birthday gift from Wayne in, he gave me a gift card to Knit Picks and I bought some of the items that have been sitting in my 'wish list'.

I got their Turkish spindle, I am slightly disappointed by it, the whorl and bead are both solid wood but the spindle feels like some sort of compressed faux wood that reminds me of those cheap chopsticks.  It was probably done for the weight balancing I will just have to wait till I use it to see how it works, its heavier then the spindle I made out of chopsticks.          

That is 100g Sapphire Heather Wool of the Andy's Roving under the spindle.  I cant wait to get my hands into it, but I want to work on my drafting some more so I dont ruin this beautifully soft wool.

As for this lot of yarn, from top left to bottom right:
Eggplant 
Cobblestone Heather (also in the3rd row 3rd ball)
Celestial (also in the 3rd row 4th ball)
Grass
Solstice Heather
Lady Slipper
Cornflower
Asphalt Heather
Indigo Healther Tweed
Wellies Heather Tweed

I didnt realize that the two Tweeds where only 50g balls.  They are very small -.-  I had planned on making the Dirk the Dragon Pattern I also got for my birthday in the Indigo but I know there is not enough to even complete the body so I will have to come up with something else.   The other colors will be going into the other pattern I got for my birthday the African Flower Hippo, I plan on cobblestone being my joining round color, outside of that I am not sure which of these other colors I will use, or if I will pull from my stash and save these for something else.


BUT making things for myself will be put on a back burnner because the yarn for a commissioned mixed granny square scarf has come in and I should work on it first. 

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'.