Tag: spinning

Found!

On By CarynIn Craft

I knew I had another box of blended fiber by Anniewhere, and I found it while looking for what to spin next in my prepped fiber box! Yay! I think I’ve spun 4 oz of this blend so far, which consists of Merino wool, Blue Faced Leichtester, Alpaca, Tussah Silk, and Finn Wool. I’ve been using it to test out different spindles, so I continued that and dug out a 3D printed Turkish spindle that I bought at a fiber festival. It spins beautifully and even though I have to use a half hitch at the top, rather than a hook or notch, I haven’t been dropping it as much as I feared.

Photo description: From the top, a rosewood ring distaff with cord and handkerchief, a 3D printed Turkish spindle with turned wood shaft and the start of a yarn turtle, bakery box full of carded and blended fiber.

I even used a small ball of a single spun from the same fiber that was left over from plying to start the yarn turtle, and in so doing had a gauge for how thin to spin, and saved more yarn from the scrap bin!

Cat’s in the cradle

On By CarynIn Cats, Craft

Ok, not a baby cradle, but the cat is definitely interested in what is going on when my spindle is in the makeshift cradle formed by an upside down side table. I put my spindle there because it makes it easier to wind the yarn onto my niddy noddy. As I unwind the yarn, the spindle skips and jumps and makes interesting scritchy noises against the metal.

Photo description: Wooden drop spindle set into the curved legs of an upside down metal side table. Gray tabby sniffing the end of the spindle with one claw caught in the yarn.

Despite the extra “assistance,” I did manage to get all the yarn onto my niddy noddy. This is the multi-fiber blend from Anniewhere. I’ve wet down the fibers and set them to dry out of the cat’s reach.

Photo description: Several bundles of 2-ply yarn wrapped onto a PVC niddy noddy.

Cats and fiber arts really don’t mix, but it is remarkable how often they do anyway.

Distaff experiments part 2

On By CarynIn Craft

I have spun all my fiber blended by Anniewhere. I searched my fiber stash and didn’t find any more, so it is time to ply. I have six balls of singles, all slightly different colors. To even out the tone I decided to ply two balls together, so sorted the balls by weight.

Photo description: six nostepinne style wound balls of blended fiber, paired by size.

To control the balls while I plied, I decided to stretch the use of my rosewood distaff. The shaft of the distaff fits through the center of the yarn balls, so I put two on, and to keep the yarn from flying off, placed a spherical pencil eraser on top.

Photo description: On the left a rosewood ring distaff with two balls of yarn and a bright yellow heart-eyed emoji eraser on top. On the right my hand made drop spindle with wooden top whorl and metal hook.

This setup works great. I was able to complete my walk and complete the plying without tangling issues, which is huge for a spinner.

Photo description: Same distaff, same spindle, but now there is only one small ball on the distaff and a large cop of two ply yarn on the spindle.

Now to the other four!

Distaff experiments part 1

On By CarynIn Craft

I’ve been trying different ways to dress my distaff. A distaff is a way to hold fiber in preparation for spinning, and placing the fiber on the shaft is called “dressing” because it is very much like placing clothes on a doll.

My first method involved laying out parallel tufts of fiber on a handkerchief, making sure the ends went the same direction and stuck out the bottom. I would then roll up the fiber and fabric on the distaff and tie it loosely with a cord. This worked OK until the fiber was mostly gone, then it preferred to stick to the cloth instead of itself, which made drafting difficult.

The second method I tried didn’t use the handkerchief, rather just the fiber parallel to the distaff shaft, tied round with cord. As I drafted the fibers off, the cord slipped down and became a restricting collar at the base of the shaft, also making it hard to draft.

My third method involved rolling the fiber parallel to the shaft, then adding the handkerchief around the fibers in a layer, and tying the cord so that it was tightest at the top. This top secured trick is the key. It was much easier to draft the fibers off the distaff, the dressing behaved itself to the near end when I had enough fiber to hold in my hand without tangling.

Photo description: Rosewood ring distaff dressed with a blended carded fiber, handkerchief, and cord in a inverted cone shape (left). 3D printed Tough resin spindle with single spun yarn wound nostepinne style (right).

A matter of angle

On By CarynIn Craft

I am still testing the newest spindle design, even though I had a batch run, something was still off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what bothered me. I was having trouble getting a good spin. I thought maybe it was weight, but it didn’t improve as the cop of yarn increased. So I looked at the head, and decided to thin down the top. I used my oscillating drum sander, and with the curve of the drum was able to make just the top of the spindle concave rather than convex.

Photo description: Closeup of the head of my 3D printed spindle, showing a convex surface from tip to midline.
Photo description: Same spindle after some sanding with an oscillating drum sander to make the tip to midline concave.

This small change made a huge difference. My fingers now had more contact with the surface of the top of the spindle and I could get it spinning much easier. The grooves left by the rough sandpaper also aided my grip, so I think I will not sand that part smooth. I now need to be careful not to spin the spindle so fast that it flies up sideways, unwinds itself, and falls to the ground. I probably dropped the spindle a dozen times on my walk; there are a couple marks, but it did not break, even when hitting asphalt.

Photo description: 3D printed spindle with a ball of blended single spun yarn on the shaft, held in my hand with the road in the background.

I will sand down the rest of the spindles, then before posting them to Etsy, I still need to develop a decoration and packaging. Development is slow, but inching forward!