Adventures in Spinning - Day 300

So, this is my first time blogging about my adventures in learning how to spin yarn. It all started last spring (2022) when my friend mentioned that she was going to her brother's to shear his sheep. I didn't even know he had a sheep, but I had been on a sock-knitting kick and thought free wool was better than paying for it. I asked what they planned to do with the wool. She said they were probably going to throw it away like they had done last year.

I got over my shock pretty quickly (she knew I was a yarn crafter), and asked her if I could have the wool. She agreed, and I patiently waited for shearing day.

I watched every YouTube video I could find on processing wool and learning how to spin without spending a fortune. I learned so much but was ultimately unprepared for what I received. They have no idea what breed Lamby is, so there was no way to know what type of fleece I would be getting. Also, they had only sheared him one time before, and they were using dog trimmers - so add inexperienced shearers into the formula.

This is the wool after I washed it (which I later learned I may have done wrong).

Since I didn't know what fleece was supposed to feel like or look like when it's ready to spin, I went ahead a bought some Corriedale roving from Amazon - nothing special, just an 8 oz. box of beige wool.

I also made a spindle from a chopstick and jar lid and built a Dodec spinning wheel.

So, fast forward quite a few months. I finally got my first skein of useable yarn from Lamby.

I ended up using supported spindles to make this. I had done some work with drop spindles, but most of my work since I started was from my bed. I am now out of the bed and working with drop spindles and supported spindles.

Dodec Spinning Wheel

Now, back to my reason for this post. I had some success with the Dodec spinning wheel, which is a spindle wheel. My biggest frustration was mechanics - the drive band kept slipping as soon as I put any kind of tension on the spindle. I'm not sure if that means the band is too tight or too loose. I can't seem to find any concrete information on this.

Unfortunately, right after Christmas, I knocked the wheel over and broke the spindle. So it took me all this time to get around to repairing it and making more spindles. But I am up and running again, and ready to work on a spinning wheel. My daughter, Suzi, is an artist, and she decided to paint it for me. I wanted to show you the progress.

You can see the mini-landscapes on each of the wheel faces. She lost inspiration for the yellow and orange, but she plans to finish this week. :) Here are close-ups of each of the mini-landscapes.

The blue one is my favorite, but they are all so beautiful! My daughter never fails to impress me. :)

Also, the original plans give instructions for making the whorl out of blocks of wood. I am the world's worst carpenter, and I racked my brain for anything I could use that was already round. My youngest daughter had a toy RC car she wasn't using anymore, so I harvested the wheels, and they already had grooves, plus, there were four of them! Score! Here is a close-up of the new spindle and whorls.

Spinning on the Dodec

Spinning on a wheel of any kind is quite different than spindle spinning. With the supported spindle, you have limited room to work, so the draws tend to be shorter. I still struggle with a long draw, but my short draw has gotten pretty good, as long as the fiber is nice and loose.

For Lamby, I found the best results by flicking it to get the tangled cut ends off, then carding it a couple of times to fluff it up, then rolling it up into punis with dowels or chopsticks. I was concerned with the large amount of waste I was getting this way, so I recently started re-carding the bundles left over. This fiber is much shorter than the locks I was pulling off, but it is still usable.

The drop spindle is a little faster than the supported spindle, which means the fiber has to be loose and flowing, otherwise, you have a lot of stops as you go. I've been using the drop spindle a little more lately, only because I set a goal to make a single-piece chain-plied 50g ball of yarn. My support spindles aren't big enough to hold 50 grams, so I'm working with the drop spindles for now.

Spinning on the wheel, the twist comes in much faster, so I have to draft very quickly, or spot spinning while I draft. It takes practice. I'll keep you posted!