I can walk and spin! I’m beyond excited. I took my merino wool roving and my bottom whorl drop spindle and headed off through the neighborhood. For fiber management, I wrapped the roving around my wrist, which works really well. I really expected the spindle to swing, but it stays mostly straight down, and I didn’t kick it even once. The psychology also worked, because I walked longer than I would have without spinning.
Bottom whorl drop spindle with “sage” merino roving blends into the pavement
One of my neighbors who was also out walking commented that from a distance it just looks like I’m waving my hands in the air. My fiber is rather road colored!
One technique from the tapestry weaving book by Rebecca Mezoff is using a hidden weft when running vertical lines to close the hole. I decided to try it on my current weaving. I picked a strong thread from my stash and before I make a pass with the weft yarn, lay the thread across. As long as I pay attention to the way I lay the thread, the weft covers it, hence giving me a hidden weft and no vertical slit. I have other areas where I will sew the vertical slit when I am done, to be able to compare methods, however, I am a big fan of reducing finish work so this method is very appealing.
Close up of my weaving utilizing a hidden weft (white thread)
So many esoteric terms in spinning! (Here is a funny article from Spin-off magazine on hand spinning terms.) In this case, plying is spinning singles together to make a thicker stronger yarn. A cop is the yarn wound upon a spindle. I took the end from the inside and the outside of the cop and plied them together, essentially working from both ends of the single.
Cop on the left, two ply yarn on the rightPlied yarn completing a new cop
I’m still working on consistency, but it is the process I enjoy. It is meditative.
I continue my Frankenstein method of using drop spindles. The shaft is from a Turkish style drop spindle that I made, the whorl is a wooden toy wheel because it was lighter than the arms of the Turkish spindle, and the support is from my original experiments and made from the base of two aluminum cans. Why? Why do I keep piecing and parting? Well, because I want to walk and spin. However it is cold outside and my cat wanted a lap. Drop spinning in my recliner so my very long cat has enough lap room was awkward, then I remembered that cotton spinners use a supported spindle set up, so I dug out the aluminum can contraption. I did not care for supported spinning in the beginning, but it was just the trick this time.
Spinning merino wool with a supported spindle
I am able to mix and match because of the shape of the shaft. It tapers sharply to a point at the bottom, which allows it to spin in a rounded support, and has a long taper from the base to the top, which allows the accommodation of various hole sizes in whorls. As a bonus, the cop of spun yarn slides up and off the shaft, without having to rewind!
Cop of yarn removed from the shaft of the spindle
So, if you are new to drop spindle spinning and want the flexibility to try different methods, I recommend looking closely at the shaft of prospective spindles. Or making your own.
When the cat and dog require a warm lap, what to do? Grab some sewing and give them the lap. Yes, this project would have gone quicker with the sewing machine, but at the time power was still intermittent and I was also cold.
Hand sewing because my lap was required
The project was a new pad for Missy’s cage. None of the pads available to order quite fit right, so I ordered some fleece and some egg crate foam (twin sized because it was the most economical). The zipper came from my stash, and I hand sewed that in first, sewed the sides, then cut two rectangles of foam about an inch smaller than the case. It helped to fold the foam in half to slide it into the case, the zip it up.
Finished crate matMissy investigating the new mat (sorry for the flash, no power)
Critters and Craft 