This has, without a doubt, been the most productive spinning week of my life! Of course, that means that it has not been the most productive knitting, working or housekeeping week of my life, but I'm ok with that trade off. The 3 skeins pictured above make me literally squeal with delight at the fact that I made them! I spun a little bit every day (and a lotta bit on some days) and spun about 300g and 1100yds! It's been fun and I plan to keep up the momentum this week.
I am not the worlds fastest spinner, and I'm not 100% certain that I'm doing it right because when I do it I end up getting a bit of a leg workout, which I'm thrilled by because it makes me feel like I'm exercising, but I don't think that it's supposed to feel like that... I could not spin a skein a day even if I tried. At most I can sit at my wheel for an hour, maybe an hour and a half at a time before I need a break and in that amount of time I've usually just made a small dent in my singles. I figure that each skein probably takes me between 6-8 hours to complete. Between spinning the singles, then the plying, it's not for the faint of heart, but to me it's oh so worth it! Just look at those gorgeous skeins!
That last skein is something that I've never tried before, it's my first time spinning a single ply yarn. With the long graduating colour shifts I plan on knitting it up into a beautiful simple shawl like this.
Details about these handspun yarns (yardage etc.) can be found on my Ravelry Stash page here.
Details about these handspun yarns (yardage etc.) can be found on my Ravelry Stash page here.
What fun Tanis. I do not spin, but enjoy seeing the results when you show them. It is so neat to see how the colours spin together. As for your last skien shown, it would be really special knit into entre lac.
ReplyDeleteThey have spun up into some beautiful wool!
ReplyDeleteThey have spun up so beautifully. Love the colorways.
ReplyDeleteThese are WONDERFUL! I especially like the first one.
ReplyDeleteOhMyBob, these are gorgeous! You are going to have a heck of a personal hand-spun stash when the tour is complete. And I instantly gravitated to the single ply on the bottom, hoping you'd say it would be for a shawl. Yeah!
ReplyDeleteoh WOW. All 3 are utterly beautiful!!! 1100 yards is an awesome amount for week 1! Way to go!
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish I knew how spin on a wheel. When I was a child, I used to watch my grandma spin the yarn harvested from the sheep my grandpa kept as pets once they had retired and sold the rest of their farm. I, sadly, never learned.
ReplyDeleteI am just learning how to spindle and I took to it quickly (once I found the right fiber) but using a wheel (and trying bottom whorl Russian or Tibetan spindles for laceweights) is my goal.
I know a local Vancouver shop rents wheels for a weekly rate but I haven't the room. Someday soon, though, and with a lot of patience, I will try my luck with it.
OMG Tanis is this so gorgeous you made me OMG! I was spinning on the drop spindle just a little bit at a time and kinda slacking on it but you just inspired me a TONNE to get going again and get better at this. Maybe even work my way up to a wheel ;) Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work, absolutely inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you've covered this in a previous post, but can you tell us what kind of spinning wheel you use? :)
I use a Lendrum double treadle spinning wheel and I love it! It's the only wheel I've ever used, so I'm no authority, but it works for me.
DeleteLove the beautifully dyed rovings and the great results! Almost makes me want to learn to spin.
ReplyDeleteJust gorgeous!! You're doing something right! :)
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