Tag: drop spindle

My first handspun yarn!

Plied handspun yarn

Well, it took me long enough, but today I took my singles off the drop spindle, and turned it into yarn! I wound it off onto a plastic bottle which took the place of a nostepinne. I was then able to use both ends of the same yarn, and ply them together with the spindle.

My first handspun!

And here it is – my very first ball of handspun yarn. A whole ten grams of thick-and-thin, funny-coloured, badly spun, badly plied hand made yarn!

Little Mikey's Monstrous Scarf

I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to knit with such a little amount of yarn. (I wasn’t able to spin any more because the spindle needed to be emptied before the spinning workshop that’s running next week.) It turned out that Little Mikey was in need of a scarf, so I thought my monstrous handspun would be the perfect yarn! I used my Simplest Scarf in the World tutorial, with two 5mm needles and one 12mm. It came out just long enough, and I’ve saved the last couple of inches of yarn as a memento.

I have to say that ticking the “my handspun” box on Ravelry was very satisfying. I hope I’m able to make a lot more!

Learning to spin

Spinning!

Look! I made yarn! I started with fluff, and now I have yarn!

Yes, I am exactly as excited as that made me sound, if not more so. Yarn!!

So, yes, anyway. I borrowed the drop  spindle from work, months and months ago, along with a bit of leftover fibre from the felting sessions. I thought it might be handy if I could teach myself to spin, given that there were a bunch of spindles right there not being used. I found a couple of books, read a couple of magazines, and gave it a try. But it didn’t seem to make sense, I wasn’t able to make yarn, and I got a bit cross and shoved it all in a  bag and pretended I wasn’t sulking about it.

Fast forward to last night, and I went along to a local knitting group where Felix very kindly taught me how to spin! It turned out that what I needed was a person to demonstrate the principles, and then it turned out to be really easy!

Of course, the little bit of yarn I’ve made so far is terrible. It’s inconsistent in thickness, lumpy in places, disastrously over-spun, and almost certainly useless. However, I am assured that this is widely considered to be Art Yarn, and that I should make as much of it as I like until I start to get the hang of consistency. Usually I would be upset at the prospect of making an increasing amount of crappy yarn. Thankfully I’m so excited about having learnt this new-to-me ancient method of transforming fluff that I want to make as much of it as I possibly can!

As you might expect, I’m already coveting new fibres and new tools. I’m currently using a cheap MDF spindle, and spinning merino tops. That’s great, I’m making yarn… but trying out Felix’s lovely little walnut spindle with a little bit of fluffy Estonian wool was something of a revelation. Felix also suggested that I might want to look up Hilltop Katie on Etsy, and now I’m having a really hard time trying not to buy one of everything. Her beginners’ kits look like a great place to start.

I can’t go back to the knitting group next week, I’ll be at work. But the week after, I’d love to be able to go back and show them a whole  spindle full of Very Artistic Yarn!