Lazy Kate mockup

Time to ply again! My spinning production took a dramatic downturn with the onset of the stay at home orders, which seems strange. Turns out that it had nothing to do with staying home (although with two kids and crisis schooling I have much less time for my crafts), and everything to do with not wanting to knit. I changed my plan for the yarn to a crochet vest, with motifs rather than a large solid piece, and suddenly I have motivation to spin again. I don’t know why, but even though I can knit, I don’t enjoy it as much as crochet or nålbinding. I like the stretch and feel of knit, I just don’t like ripping it out (which ALWAYS happens). I thought about nålbinding the vest, but that would be a two-year project, which also makes me go “ugh”. So the current plan is to make crochet motifs and join them together into a vest (note: this may change!)

Any who, I am still looking for the best plying method for me, and have been researching what works for others. I’ve seen many wooden contraptions, in many different styles. I like working in wood, and I have scrap wood in the garage, but before I render anything in wood, I thought I should try it in cardboard first. So I took the box that I tried a sideways method to hold the spindle shafts, and poked holes in it and tried an upright method. This worked better, but needs a weighted bottom. I actually think a slight angle on the shafts also works nicely. Now to think on how I want to make a wooden one.

Cardboard lazy kate experiment