For the past couple months, I've been spinning, and spinning, and spinning. It started back in July at the Fiber Arts Market at the TKGA/CGOA conference in Oakland. I was happily going from booth to booth looking at yarn and needles, when I wandered into Carolina Homespun's booth. There were bins of gorgeous fiber, a table stocked with beautiful spindles, and an array of spinning wheels (including some more modern ones that I could actually envision in my apartment). I tried to be good...I really did. I focused on the fibers and figured that I'd buy a couple colors to use for felting. Very frugal, I thought. But then a nice person offered to teach me how to use a spindle, and I was hooked.
I ended up leaving with a Bosworth Midi spindle, the book Spin It : Making Yarn from Scratch
You can't tell from the picture, but the spindle is truly lovely, with a rich brown whorl. She is still nameless, but I am very fond of her. I'm not usually one to attribute personalities to inanimate objects, but there's something about my spinning tools that has changed my mind on this front. I don't know why I don't feel the same way about my knitting things -- maybe they are just too familiar, since I've been using them for so long. In contrast, I still really need to concentrate on my spinning and the tools...and I have to say that the spindle is just amazing -- cheerful and soothing at the same time. At some point soon, I may need to get her some friends; I've been eying a couple spindles with larger whorls for bulkier yarns. And maybe a lighter spindle for spinning cotton...
My First Yarn!
As it turned out, the fiber purchases worked out well. After a few tangled attempts, I managed to figure out the motions for spinning with the spindle. I started with about 4 oz. of Colonial Top in navy sprinkled with bits of other colors. My first attempt could most charitably be called a monstrous thick and thin slub yarn; but in the process, I also figured out that I could unspin the worst sections and thin them out. So I actually ended up spinning the yarn once, slipping it onto a knitting needle, and then unspinning and respinning sections until I came out with a yarn that was at least usable.
To the Library...
After finishing my first rather lumpy yarn, I really could have used an experienced spinner or two to help with the fine points. But without one readily available, I headed to the library. I checked out a large number of books, and quickly found my favorites: High Whorling: A Spinners Guide to an Old World Skill
...and to Carolina Homespun
Contrary to what you might conclude from its name, Carolina Homespun is located in San Francisco. The shop is way out in the Excelsior/Outer Mission section of the city jam-packed into what was once a regular residential garage.
The hours are a bit erratic, since the owner, Morgaine, also sells at a large number of fiber shows. And after seeing the contrast between the shop and the larger space that she had at the FiberArts Market, I can see why. :) Still, it is wonderful to have a store in the city -- I'm sure that I will be visiting it pretty regularly!
I left the store with an Ashford niddy noddy (love it!), a set of combs (hate them - more on them in my next post), and more fiber, including two beautiful 4 oz. bags of wool from Crosspatch Creations, 4 oz. of soft merino-tencel fiber in a lovely burgundy color, 8 oz. of a variegated green merino/kid mohair blend, and two containers filled with colorful little balls of merino for felting or spinning.
On to Some Color Experiments
Armed with a bit more knowledge and quite a bit more fiber, I began practicing different techniques. These first three were experiments to figure out how the color of the fiber and the method of spinning interact. For all three balls, I started with a variegated blue wool top with strands of other colors blended it. The colors in the singles yarn (on the front right) that I spun from the fiber are definitely less muted and more distinct than those in the 2-ply yarn (on the front left). For the third ball (in back) I experimented by adding strips of brighter blue fiber and simply spinning them in with the original fiber. This definitely results in a stripey yarn, which I then emphasized further by plying it back on itself.
With my next try at color blending, I continued to simply lay the colors next to each other and draft them together, rather than blending them by carding or combing. For these samples, I began with a warm brown fiber from Angora Cottage (see the front ball) and added greens and darker browns to get a yarn that reminds me of a forest floor. 
My First Yarn without Slubs!
The burgundy merino-tencel blend spun up beautifully -- I had to stop a couple times to unspin a section and respin it, but the result was worth it. I have my first yarn with relatively few slubs. Hooray!
Navajo Plying
I like the stripey-barber pole look that the blue and Forest yarns have, but wanted to do something different with the lovely fiber from Crosspatch Creations. I was afraid that regular double-plying wouldn't show off the beautiful colors adequately, and decided to try Navajo plying instead. I've never seen this done, so I am not sure that I'm doing it correctly, but the results seem fine -there are definitely distinct sections of each color. I enjoyed using this method -- sort of like making an exaggerated finger-crochet chain as you spin. It takes a bit of doing to keep the spindle turning at the same time, but once I developed a rhythm, I found it very satisfying.
Next spinning post: Freeform Spinning!
i have not the intestinal fortitude to ply. anything. in my head, i love singles, and i will not do anything else. ok. that is a copout. i have camp pluckyfluff at the end of the month, so if you go to my blog, i am sure you will be kept posted.
i love your work!
Posted by: natasha fialkov | October 18, 2005 at 03:38 PM
i started plying, mostly just with thread to give shape, but i have no clue how you are doing all this spinning without a wheel. insane! with a wheel, you would be dangerous.
Posted by: natasha fialkov | November 15, 2005 at 08:26 PM