My First Foray into Handspinning

My first foray into handspinning produced about 3-4 yards of slubby, thick and thin singles. Many say it will never happen again, so I better label and date my "First Yarn". For the records, I'm using an Ashford Turkish Spindle. I attempted to practice the Inchworm method and had a hard time learning to draft. The fiber is constantly breaking on me. This occurs when there's too little fiber in a spot to hold the yarn. To fix a break, we need to feather the end of the yarn and the end of your fiber and make a new join. The merino top is quite slippery and the fiber doesn't hold together easily again after breaking. I think I have about 4-5 joins, and was literally struggling my way through this little skein... thinking if I'm overly crazy to be spinning instead of knitting.

I tried again in the afternoon with a top-whorl spindle, and am encouraged by the better results. This time, I used the "Park and Draft" method, and instead of Inchworm, I pre-drafted the fibers with my hands about 6-8 inches apart tugging them lightly, and then spinning about half a yard at a time. I ended up with about 10 yards, of almost the same slubby singles but with only one break. I could have continued spinning on for more yardage but then I was uncertain about my twist. The thinner spots seem to be a lot more twisted than the fatter slubs. Hmmm, must read up some more.... before I wash them to set the twist.

Hey, see my new toys....

I was working mid-way through the 2nd sleeve of my Scoup Du Jour this morning and thought I might be able to finish this off real soon... Then came Mr. Postman and I was completely distracted with my new toys.

First a niddy noddy by Kromski, it's mahogany in medium size and supposed to make 48" skeins. It does look small at the first glance so I took out the Joan & David's sweaters that I wanted to recycle to try them on the niddy. By the way... I got these 2 sweaters last winter at an outlet sale for merely HK$360, that is US$46 - yes only $46 for 2 sweaters worth of cashmere yarn!. The original retail price tag says they cost $1800 each so you can imagine me giggling when I checked them off at the till. It's a very silky soft cashmere/silk/wool blend, the original design is... ummm, think an over-sized stockinette cardi with a thin belt. Wish I had taken a photo of it for record, but I have already dismanted them before I remember. Anyway, with my new niddy - unravelling them is a breeze. Whew, see what I have accomplished in less that an hour... this is about 1200yard or 400g of DK yarn and I think I can finish the rest today.

Other than the niddy noddy, I also bought these yummy lavender merino top and an Ashford turkish drop spindle. The drop spindle is actually quite huge, much taller than my niddy. The shaft measures 16", whereas the niddy is only 12". I'm hoping to teach myself to handspin with these hand-spinning tutorials and this shall be my summer project. ;o)