I've been itching to spin lately. It's been at least two weeks, what with the trip to Kentucky and the requisite busy-ness on either side, and the itch was really getting to me. I woke up at 5:30 this morning to answer nature's call, and then contemplated creeping up the stairs to spin. Instead, I waited until this afternoon when Rick went on a call and took Brian. I had enough time to finish the
chocolate roving that Beth sent to me -- WHEE! I tried to get "artsy" with this fiber, with limited success. As you can see by following the link, Beth gave me three bumps. I spun two of them up rather thick and loose, overdyed the third with tamarind and grape Kool-Aid (I wanted to use red but found I didn't have any good red flavors in my stash; I've since remedied that) and spun it much finer. I'm planning to ply the thicker single with two strands of the thinner single (using both ends of a center-pull ball) to make a warm scarf for a friend.
Recently a new spinner with a Louet asked for advice from the Yahoo Spinning list. Her wheel was pulling in the yarn aggressively, as bobbin-lead Louets can, and she was frustrated. She was told to lace the yarn back and forth between the left and right hooks until the bobbin was half full. I have read this advice before, but have never tried it -- don't ask me why, as I, too, have been frustrated with the strong pull of my Louets. Well, the first time my fine single separated today, I decided to try it. Magic! No more pulling! Louie and Louie Two have never really been "beasts," but it is nice to have a way to make them better behaved when needed. :-)
That's it for now from . . .
2 comments:
Wow, it looks VERY nice, and what a cool trick. I added a woolee winder to mine a while ago and that solved it as well. Plus, I hated moving the yarn from hook to hook.
I'm trying something similar with some merino I dyed for a baby gift. The parents are inconveniently not finding out the sex ahead of time so I dyed it a neutral yellow/pale blue/green/iris with a lot of the natural white left in as well. I figure when I find out the sex, I'll quickly ply it with a deeper blue sewing thread if it's a boy or a bright iris if it's a girl and then knit, knit like the wind.
I'll have to remember that, I haven't heard that tip before, but I don't have a louet. I assume it might also work on other wheels too though. Your yarn looks great! The overdyed stuff always seems to turn out so nice.
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