The fleece I washed the other day was dry tonight, so I started experimenting with how to process it for spinning. The Icelandic sheep's fleece has a longer overcoat, called the tog, and shorter, finer undercoat, called the thel. I'm thinking that I want to take advantage of these two different kinds of fiber. I'd like to use the longer tog for my warp thread, and the shorter thel for the weft. But how to separate it out? Here's the experiment. First, I pulled at the butt end of the lock, where it was cut off of the sheep. There were some very short fibers there. I pulled those out, and put them in a 'felting' pile. Then I loaded the butt ends of the locks onto the wool combs, filling about half way up the tines. Holding the Viking comb in one hand, I brushed the other comb sideways through the locks of wool, first away from me then (carefully!!) towards me. This opened up the locks, and transferred them onto the moving comb. There was some short nubby wool left on the comb. I pulled that off, and put it in the felt pile. Then I switched the full comb to my left hand, and started the process over again. After a couple of repeats, the wool looked like this. That is quite a difference from where I started! I pulled the tips of the wool into a point, and started pulling. I'd pull my fiber out a half inch or so, then move my hand forward and grab from the main bunch again. This had the effect of pulling out a long, continuous roving. This is ready to spin from now. The current plan is to spin this on a reproduction Medieval drop spindle, worsted style. This should give me a fine, strong warp thread. I stopped pulling the fibers when the bunch left on the combs were only an inch or so long. I figured that would be the thel that was left there. I pulled that off the combs, and ran it through my carders Here's the rolag off of the carders. The current plan is to spin this wool on my antique Great or Walking wheel, using the long draw. This should give me a fluffier yarn for my weft. And that 'felting' pile? When it got big enough, I went to the bathroom sink and made a felt ball for my cats to play with. They love these! The next step will be to spin up the couple of combs full of wool that I processed this evening, and see what the resulting yarn looks like.
pdf of the Fine Spinning Workbook by Elizabeth Lovick ways to spin fine and ultra fine yarns on spindles and wheels The workbook consists of 42 pages of detailed theory and practise, illustrated with photos throughout, and arranged in 'lessons'. It is suitable for anyone who can already spin a thread – you do not have to be an expert when you start! In each lesson you will move from the theory to the practise, ending with exercises to help your progress. The lessons include: What you will need Where you are now Spinning wool fine Spinning other fibres Spinning ultra fine (the silly stuff!) How others do it – Orkney and Shetland wheel makers and spinners in action Bits and pieces Trouble shooting A triangular mini shawl pattern The Small Print! Once I have received your payment I will send the pattern as a pdf attachment to an email. The file size is 7 MB so your inbox must be big enough to take a file of that size. All sales are final. Please remember that this book is copyright, and you cannot use the notes for teaching etc without my permission. Thank you. If you have any questions, please convo me. Liz Lovick
In approximately 2011, I was gifted some beautiful sheeps wool already prepared into this pretty roving, stranded bi-color black and white, and I fe…
pallia
aulas da D.Ilídia blogged at Noussnouss
In this Fiberygoodness short course, Evanita will take you through the process of successful spindle spinning with the Turkish Spindle. This is the kind of spindle that allows you to create a beau…
Here it is! I'd like to formally introduce The Wind Rose Spindle Noddy! I'm so excited! The Wind Rose Spindle Noddy is a drop spindle and a niddy noddy all in one! Use the Spindle Noddy to spin beautiful skeins of yarn and wrap them right onto the 24" Niddy Noddy. Singles can be placed on a swift and wound into center pull balls for easy plying. Or you can make single ply yarn that is conveniently wrapped onto the niddy noddy as you spin. Slide off your completed hank and it's ready to be washed and the twist set. You may also enjoy having the 2 foot niddy noddy for making sample skeins or short skeins for smaller projects. The Wind Rose Spindle Noddy weighs 1oz with an 8.5" spindle length. The arms of the niddy noddy are 6" long allowing three inches on each side of the spindle. This is enough room to spin nice big skeins of yarn. The Spindle Noddy is made from unfinished birch and comes with spinning instructions, a leader cord and a .5oz sample of roving. It's shipped in a sturdy box for safe travels.
para ser torcida, destinada a meias.
Es ist schon gut zwei Jahre her, da habe ich bei einer englischsprachigen Spindelbaugruppe bei Ravelry mal den Schnappschuss einer selbstgebauten Kreuzspindel gesehen. In Erinnerung an dieses Foto habe ich mich vor ein paar Wochen endlich daran gemacht, selbst tätig zu werden. Insgeheim nenne ich die Spindel für mich "Paläo-Spindel". Natürlich habe ich keinerlei Belege dafür, dass solche Spind ...
By Benjamin Krudwig
Explore needlesinthehay's 854 photos on Flickr!
Explore RoundRabbit's 2971 photos on Flickr!
I recently purchased a top-whorl spindle and a bottom-whorl spindle from this shop on Etsy. They came in the mail very quickly, and over th...
By Stephanie Flynn Sokolov
I have many thousands of images on my computer of all things fiberish, and from time to time as I'm browsing through them something will emerge as a common theme, feature, or phenomenon. I present to you one such: Romanian...
The “malacate”, spindle used in Mexico to spin silk with its horn whorl.
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Learn everything you need to know about drop spindle spinning in this FREE spinning eBook that includes detailed instructions and more.
A blog about hand spinning, spinning yarn, knitting, weaving, crochet and craft inspiration.
In the last installment of my spinning misadventures, I was trying to decide what to spin from a lovely bump of Targhee wool. Since this is my first time working with Targhee, I decided to keep things simple and go with a solid 2-ply yarn. The fiber gets to lead the rest of the way and do its
DIY: How to Card and Spin Wool: A do-it-yourself instructional on how to card and spin wool using hand carders and a drop spindle. http://pages.uoregon.edu/giden/artd252/diy/DIY.swf
By Denise Renee Grace
Spinning Yarn: Yarn has been spun on spindles for thousands of years. With a little fiber and a spindle, you too can participate in this oldest of alchemies. This instructable will show you how to spin a single from wool roving, using a top-whorl spindle.
Spindle whorls are artifacts found worldwide, and they represent a technological leap forward in the process of making textiles.
Explore DaysLight's 115 photos on Flickr!
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While digging in Must Farm, a Bronze Age settlement known as "Britain's Pompeii," British archaeologists unearthed yarn that is 3,000 years old. The ball is extremely small and fragile, and the team took great care to clean it off without damaging it, according to their Facebook page.
