aw SURE you do. everyone likes an enabler. ;) if you ever feel like coming out this way there is a GREAT shop where you can try all the different kinds of spinning wheels. and i know a guy who makes awesome drop spindles out of hardwood and sells them to my spinning group for $10 less!
honestly, i am not a great spinner, and my yarn is inconsistant and i'm worried about my first sweater keeping guage as a result. but i'm really enjoying the process of slowly going insane with this stuff.
Well, I enjoy handspinning, but I don't know what to do with the yarn once I get it spun. I have no clue how to set the twist (yet) and I definitely don't know if I should be plying two strands together and if so, can I do it with a hand spindle. If you have any thoughts on those and other burning questions about making yarn by hand.
handspinning is cool. it is a lot slower with a spindle than a wheel, but still fun. setting twist can be done a couple of different ways. i've never done it, but the ladies at my spinning group (yes, i'm that geeky) do it by soaking the yarn in water or water/woolwash and then hanging it to dry. some people hang it with weights, but they say that is unecessary. i don't know for sure if they do it to singles, but i'm pretty sure they do it for plied yarn.
i definitely know that you CAN ply with a spindle. you just have to spin your spindle in the opposite direction, just like you would with a wheel. and you will need to wind everything off on bobbins or something to serve the purpose of bobbins in order to do it. i believe you can also just use one bobbin(or bobbin substitute) and navajo ply (which somehow gets 3 ply out of one long single - there is a youtube demo video).it is a good idea. ya know how your phone cord can get tangled and how annoying it is to have it kink up every time you hang up the phone? well your spun singles will do the same thing. plying balances that twist (because you spin the other way) and it also strengthens your yarn. yarn can be just a single (i believe noro is), but it is not as strong as yarn that has been plied or cabled (spinning two plied yarns together).
I just got my copy of Intentional Spinning and it has some great info in it, so I'm hopeful I'll figure it out. I am going to need to figure out something for bobbins (since I has the poors) and make a go at plying. I was really excited when I figured out how to make a nice even thin yarn, but I am afraid it will be to fragile, so I realized I was going to have to ply it. Now to figure out how to spin this top whorl with my left hand.
for handspindling, i would seriously recommend an investigation into navajo ply because it seems like it would be the easiest to manage. and really....you should be able to use a toilet paper tube as a bobbin. the ratio doesn't matter since you aren't spinning on to it, just using it to hold your singles. i would recommend finding some sort of stationary post to hold it. like if your husband holds a pen and you put the toilet paper tube on the pen - it should spin freely around the pen for your unwinding purposes. and it would be really silly for you to BUY a bobbin since you don't know what kind of spinning wheel you want yet.
i like the alden amos book of hand-spinning, which has way more information than i will ever use in it, and which is on semi-permanant loan to me because i have nice friends and i also has the poor (hence no decadent silk yarn for me). amos is REALLY opinionated though, so if you decide to get it/find it used/whatever take into consideration that this guy is a perfectionist and is really opinionated. take his words with a grain of salt, because sometimes he puts you through more steps than are strictly necessary. that being said, he knows his stuff, he builds his own wheels, he spells out the math. and he's sometimes funny.
omg that batt is amazing. i'm also willing to club people over the head for the magnets. i can resist the others, but only barely. it's the magnets and the wool that have me undone.
evil. pure, wonderful evil. that's what you are. :)
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-10 08:44 pm (UTC)I am so close to wanting a spinning wheel, it makes my soul hurt.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-11 01:01 pm (UTC)everyone likes an enabler.
;)
if you ever feel like coming out this way there is a GREAT shop where you can try all the different kinds of spinning wheels. and i know a guy who makes awesome drop spindles out of hardwood and sells them to my spinning group for $10 less!
honestly, i am not a great spinner, and my yarn is inconsistant and i'm worried about my first sweater keeping guage as a result. but i'm really enjoying the process of slowly going insane with this stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-12 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-12 02:57 pm (UTC)it is a lot slower with a spindle than a wheel, but still fun.
setting twist can be done a couple of different ways. i've never done it, but the ladies at my spinning group (yes, i'm that geeky) do it by soaking the yarn in water or water/woolwash and then hanging it to dry. some people hang it with weights, but they say that is unecessary. i don't know for sure if they do it to singles, but i'm pretty sure they do it for plied yarn.
i definitely know that you CAN ply with a spindle. you just have to spin your spindle in the opposite direction, just like you would with a wheel. and you will need to wind everything off on bobbins or something to serve the purpose of bobbins in order to do it. i believe you can also just use one bobbin(or bobbin substitute) and navajo ply (which somehow gets 3 ply out of one long single - there is a youtube demo video).it is a good idea.
ya know how your phone cord can get tangled and how annoying it is to have it kink up every time you hang up the phone? well your spun singles will do the same thing. plying balances that twist (because you spin the other way) and it also strengthens your yarn. yarn can be just a single (i believe noro is), but it is not as strong as yarn that has been plied or cabled (spinning two plied yarns together).
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-12 03:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-12 04:05 pm (UTC)and really....you should be able to use a toilet paper tube as a bobbin. the ratio doesn't matter since you aren't spinning on to it, just using it to hold your singles. i would recommend finding some sort of stationary post to hold it. like if your husband holds a pen and you put the toilet paper tube on the pen - it should spin freely around the pen for your unwinding purposes.
and it would be really silly for you to BUY a bobbin since you don't know what kind of spinning wheel you want yet.
i like the alden amos book of hand-spinning, which has way more information than i will ever use in it, and which is on semi-permanant loan to me because i have nice friends and i also has the poor (hence no decadent silk yarn for me). amos is REALLY opinionated though, so if you decide to get it/find it used/whatever take into consideration that this guy is a perfectionist and is really opinionated. take his words with a grain of salt, because sometimes he puts you through more steps than are strictly necessary.
that being said, he knows his stuff, he builds his own wheels, he spells out the math. and he's sometimes funny.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-11 06:02 pm (UTC)omg that batt is amazing. i'm also willing to club people over the head for the magnets. i can resist the others, but only barely. it's the magnets and the wool that have me undone.
evil. pure, wonderful evil. that's what you are. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-11 06:24 pm (UTC)and you like it. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-12 12:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-12 02:51 pm (UTC)my work is done.