muninnhuginn: (alien kitty)
[personal profile] muninnhuginn
Almost every day of the Tour de France, I spun.

A 13-gramme oak on maple top-whorl drop spindle needed running in--and I needed to get the muscle memory for spindling properly established. I also needed to tackle my problem fibre: wool. I've happily managed slippery fibres like alpaca and camel but plain old wool, and varieties that are deemed good for beginners, has not been a success. Too resistant, too sticky, hard to draft. I suspect I've been tense and keeping my hands too close together when drafting.
The good thing about the TdF is the community posting, providing support and accountability. (And I won a prize, too.)
The bad thing: heat. My zombie hands became hot and sweaty enough to felt my floof :-(
And the results:
- 25g Shetland (white)
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- 25g Falkland (white)
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- 18g BFL (white)
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- 19g Romney Marsh (carded), 5g Romney Marsh (uncarded)
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- c35g "candy cane"
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- 50g fine wool with slubs
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- small quantity (not-weighed) dyed alpaca
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And I learned that Shetland is lovely to work with, if tacky. Falkland is great, too. I found BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) less appealing, tho' having found the small sample I'd tried out previously, I can handle it a great deal more competently now.
The Romney Marsh lamb locks were curly, resistant. So I combed them, another new to me activity. Worked like a dream.
That was my big experiment out of the way. The remainder of the days was about increasing my output. I think I succeeded in this.
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I also read entire book on animal fibres: Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Carol Ekarius and Deborah Robson. Highly informative, if a little US-centric (with the inevitable "intertsing" "facts" about UK geography).
Yesterday, I had a mammoth session winding a single ball of the two slubby singles and then plying them. Took hours. But the result, now waiting for a wash, was worth it.
DSCF1243

Date: 2016-07-26 07:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wellinghall.livejournal.com
Thank you for the photos, and well done!

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