Tag: spinning

One step at a time

On By CarynIn Craft

I thought I would be at the park and draft stage of spindle spinning forever. There I would sit forever, spinning the spindle to build twist, then catching the spindle between my knees, or under one leg, or arm, and only then letting the twist run into my fiber as I drafted. Managing both spin and drafting seemed unattainable. I was actually OK with it, except for the lure of an idea. The idea to spin and walk.

So I grabbed my Turkish spindle and some prepared merino roving and tried again. The spindle seemed too heavy, so I took off the arms and slid a light wood whorl down the shaft to make a bottom whorl spindle. (With park and draft I preferred a top whorl.) Oh my goodness, something clicked. Yes, I dropped the spindle a few times as I figured out which direction I was spinning (I couldn’t think S or Z, I had to think counterclockwise or clockwise). I tried using my distaff, but kept getting the fibers wrapped tight around it, so instead wrapped some roving around my arm. The fiber was bunching up, so I divided the roving in half. That seemed to do the trick! I was spinning while standing! Missy the pup helped me with the next step because when I am standing that means I can kick her ball, right? And if I can kick her ball, maybe I can walk and spin. For now, spinning will continue indoors, as it is cold outside. But when it warms up, it will be time to try to walk!

Missy helping me with the spinning goals by asking me to kick her ball while I spin.

Spinning

On By CarynIn Craft

When you haven’t spun in awhile, and open a new jar of vitamins.

Spinning cotton from a vitamin jar

Apparently I need to get back to spinning, because I really do have better fibers to spin than this. However, I feel like I need to make usable items from my spun yarn before I spin more, which is my hang up. I have several projects to finish up that are dragging on. So I guess I will spin the bit of fluffy packing material for now!

The spindle is one I made from an old button, a rubber band, and a steel mandrel (I used to make glass beads). I couldn’t find the spindle stand, so I used a serving spoon.

From fluff to stuff

On By CarynIn Craft

I finished another cake of yarn and thought it would be fun to show the pictorial progression of fluff to stuff.

Alpaca fleece, skirted (shaken out and undesirable areas and some vegetable matter removed).
Carding and blending washed alpaca fleece.
Rolags created from carding.
Three spun singles being plied into yarn.
Plied yarn transferred to a niddy noddy and ready to be set (wetted and allowed to dry).
Skein of yarn on a swift to help hold the yarn while making a yarn cake with a winder
Finished yarn cake (well, now I need to make something with the yarn, but that is another story).

More alpaca yarn

On By CarynIn Craft
Spun Alpaca

I now have spun and plied three colors of alpaca yarn. The Lazy Kate I made for plying also works well to hold a spindle full of plied yarn as I transfer the yarn to my niddy noddy. I did give the Lazy Kate a clear coat, but needed to use it before putting on a second coat. I modified my niddy noddy as well. The 18 inch center pipe made a 3 foot circumference skein, which is the maximum size my yarn swift can handle, which makes me uncomfortable. So I cut down the center tube to 12 inches so I get a two foot circumference. I also took off the end caps as they really aren’t necessary to hold the yarn in place on the arms, since the arms are so long. Really all the end caps were doing was making a nice cozy environment for mold. Ew.

Using a Lazy Kate and a PVC Niddy Noddy

I have to say, if I read this post a year ago I would have had to look up most of the terms. I’m learning!

Lazy Kate for drop spindles

On By CarynIn Craft

I finally made a wooden Lazy Kate. I had grand schemes to make something fancy and practice making dovetails, but alas I need more practice and on something smaller and softer than the 1” cupped oak plank I tried! Still, I managed to salvage the wood, which is nice and heavy, to make a functional tool. A Lazy Kate is used to hold spindles full of single ply yarn so the spinner can ply easily. It really should be a Genius Kate, or a Work Smarter Not Harder Kate. Poor Kate. She and Susan probably have some grievances. Anyway, I cut notches in sides of the top and bottom pieces and then cut pegs that fit in the notches for the sides. The holes for the spindle shafts are at a 5 degree angle because I saw another design that tilted the spindles. I used the largest section of wood for the base for stability, and glued the whole thing together.

Testing the Lazy Kate

When the glue was dry, I did apply some wood filler to the gaps, and when that was dry sanded the whole thing first with an orbital sander, then by hand with 120 grit sandpaper. Before applying finish, I tested plying with it. I have seen another style with a loop to feed the threads through, so I tried that. Turns out it is easier not to use a loop. I also put a rubber mat under the base to keep it from sliding, which isn’t a bad idea, but the weight of the wood did a good job keeping it steady.

Plied yarn using the Lazy Kate

This is the best Lazy Kate I’ve made so far. It made plying easier as I didn’t have to fight the tool the whole time. The angle of the holes worked great, letting the spindles spin, but not spin out of control (I’ve seen other designs that use elastic or wrapped string to provide tension). Since it passed its test, I’ll give it a nice polyurethane clear finish!