On A Completely Different Note

[ladysprite]

I am still utterly in love with my spinning wheel.

I always worry when I pick up a new hobby - I'm never certain that I'm going to be any good at it, or that I'll give up before I put in enough effort, or that I'll get tired of it too quickly or won't be able to find time for it in between my other hobbies, or, or, or... until about half the time I wind up talking myself out of truly committing to trying whatever new thing has caught my eye.

Luckily, spinning has managed to avoid that pitfall. Since I got my wheel early this fall, I've been playing with it and practicing with it, and realizing that it's a lot easier and more fun to use than I had been afraid it would be. I don't know how much of this is due to the fact that I had plenty of practice with drop-spindle and how much is due just to the fact that I tend to like rhythmic, low-brain handcrafts, but either way, it's turning into one of my new favorite handcrafts.

It took a few practice skeins before I started getting something that resembled useable yarn, but another selling point of spinning is that I get visibly better with every hour of practice. And, while there's definitely a learning curve, it's not nearly as steep as I feared it would be. This afternoon I sat down to figure out Navajo plying (because a friend gave me a gorgeous hank of hand-painted variegated fiber for my birthday), guessing that I'd want to spin a few spindles of practice fiber and spend a week or two cursing and grousing before I figured it out.... only to have something consistent and, if not beautiful at least functional, by the end of the first spindleful.

I can do this. And it's fun, and it makes useful stuff. I think I've found something good....




Look! It almost looks like real yarn!

Comments

[citabria]

What do you mean "almost"? It does look like real yarn! In fact, I'd suspect that is *is* real yarn! And it's beautiful!

One of the things that's held me back from using my wheel more is that I don't really knit or crochet -- that does rather limit the whole point of spinning. :/

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'll admit, I don't tend to crochet much with wool - but I figure, even if I don't use the stuff myself, it'll make nice gifts for friends....

[quietann.livejournal.com]

That is lovely!

[bess.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!

[bess.livejournal.com]

Variegated fiber can also look lovely as a normal 2 ply. You get all the colors with all the other colors in a random way, but it also looks lovely. a very different effect though -- you might want to spin up a bit and ply it that way to see what it looks like before you make a final decision.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Ooh! :D

[bess.livejournal.com]

Oh, and would you be willing to show me how to Navajo ply sometime? I haven't tried that yet.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Sure - if you've ever crocheted, it's essentially just like chaining, only with your hands instead of a hook. I learned it from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmlwtojLXI8

....but I'd be happy to show you next time I come up your way!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

"Almost", my eye -- that IS real yarn. And such a lovely color, too!

Is your wheel single- or double-treadle? I got to play with a wheel once, but it was double-treadle and I couldn't get my feet and my hands coordinated at the same time. (This is a familiar problem, and one of the reasons I'm not good at international dance.) I think I might do better on a single-treadle wheel, but more likely I'd need to work with a drop-spindle until I got the hand motions down to where I don't need to think about them any more.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

The wheel I have is a double-treadle - before I bought it I had the opportunity to play around with both single and double, and this was easiest for me. I found it was easier to have both of my feet doing the same thing than to have one foot treadling while holding the other still; this just seemed more rhythmic and natural.

That said, the woman teaching me strongly disliked double-treadle and found single-treadle much easier and more natural, so there's obviously wide personal variation. :)

[crash-mccormick.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I look forwards to meeting it in a new form someday :)

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

We have also recently acquired a spinning wheel, as it was pecunium's primary Christmas present (though he chipped in on it too).

He's been making worsted, but having trouble with woolen preparation. I should try to get the two of you together to spinning wheel geek (possibly with some others) at some point, maybe at Arisia?

Your yarn looks great!