Wednesday, November 19, 2014

My $700 skein of yarn.

I am SO glad I went to this spinning class at the John Campbell Folk School. I learned so much. And now I CAN SPIN! I will be able to spin my own wool from my own sheep now! I am beyond thrilled about this. I also learned how to use a drop spindle. 2 different kinds. I am very impressed with myself and proud of me too. It was so much fun.

This is the yarn I spun at the school. Some Corriedale roving. Very easy to use.





This is what I've done at home. I am getting better at getting the fiber smaller so I can get more on the spindle. Or bobbin. What is this called? I would love to take a class now on the mechanics of the wheel. What everything is called and how it works. I need to know these things as well. At any rate, I LOVE spinning! On the wheel and the drop spindles.




This is my home made Lazy Kate. I have my great grand mother's but it's too narrow to hold these newer bobbins. So I used to rods and put them through this basket. Works great!



And this is some of the spun yarn, plied.  Pretty big.  I am already spinning smaller.





This is some of the washed Romney fleece I had gotten from the fiber show a few weeks ago. I carded up 5 batts  and spun away. I am loving Romney. It's SO soft.



This is some of the Romney, spun. You can see how much smaller it is here than the white. I already have 2 bobbins full so far. Need to get the rest of that fleece washed up.




I really loved that school. And it's only about 100 miles from here. I had called to get a room because I couldn't find any hotels in Murphy. I got a room in the Bidstrup  House. With a shared bath. Which I didn't mind. But specifically said I did not want a shared room. So when I got there, I went to register. Got my room # and found the house. It looked like a little Hobbit house. All I could see was the roof. I had to walk down and behind to get to the door. A long hallway with rooms on either side. Cold. I found my room. It was the size of a small bedroom, with 2 twin beds, really close together. I saw another name on the door with my name. Then the door opened and this little lady walked in. And to my room. My little room mate. I almost cried. So I went back up to the registration office and told her I was not happy. I wanted my own room. SO she looked and found me another room. I would have to upgrade, which was fine with me. It ended up being a huge room with 2 double beds and a bathroom in the room!!! And upstairs from my classroom! I was a very happy camper then. And had a great time the rest of my stay.

There were people from all over the country there. Some families. One of the girls in my class was from Brooklyn, NY. If anyone can go, I highly recommend this place. I would love to take the pottery class next.  Sunday, we all had to display our work in the 2nd floor of the house I stayed in. It was amazing seeing all the beautiful things all these people had made that week. Very impressive indeed. I will go back.

But glad to be home. It's freezing here. Had out 1st snow of the season yesterday. Already found 2 dead hens in the past several days. The sheep of course are loving this cold weather. They are dressed for it. I hope you all stay warm and happy the rest of the week!

5 comments:

An At Home Daughter said...

I was wondering how your class went.

I can never remember the names of the parts, even though I did learn them once upon a time. There are spinning books that explain the mechanics of the spinning wheel. Also books that show how to spin all different types of yarn, and different types of plying. I've found them at our library before.

I recently started spinning again. I have been needing to spin a lot of alpaca that we bought a while back, and finally dusted off my Mom's spinning wheel. I was worried I would be bad at it after not spinning in so long, but I guess its just like riding a bike. I spun all the multi-colored romney I got at a fiber show, and Navajo 3-plyed it. Now I'm working on the alpaca. I took pictures I plan to include in my next post.
Kimberly

Kris said...

That's all I want to do now, play with wool. I'd like to know about Navajo plying. I've seen it but don't understand how it's done.

And good for you for spinning after so long! Keep it up!

An At Home Daughter said...

Navajo plying is very easy once you get the hang of it. You start by pulling a loop through to start and then you pull a long loop through that loop and on and on. Making a chain. We have a book called the Complete Guide to Spinning Yarn by Brenda Gibson. It shows the different techniques of spinning.
You could probably find youtube videos showing how to do it.
The reason I like the Navajo 3-ply is because you can randomly spin a bunch of different colors, and when you Navajo ply it it will keep all the colors seperated, Vs. if you 2-ply the colors from the 2 spun they are not going to match up for all the color changes.
Kimberly

Su Ba said...

I don't understand spinning and weaving at all, but I think it's really cool that you are learning. Keep it up!

Kristin said...

I love that Romney yarn. So beautiful. I don't blame you about sharing a room with a stranger. I wouldn't sleep a wink.