Spinsterhood

Day 69: From the first time I sat down at my great-grandmother's wheel at four years of age, I knew I was destined to be a spinster. It wasn't until I entered my teens that I realized the second meaning of the word was also likely to apply, and of course by then, the first was no longer relevant. My great-grandma was long gone, and my grandmother who had taught me the art was in a rest home and her wheel had been sold. I forgot all about spinning, except to admire the craftspeople who put on demonstrations, but gradually, a desire to take it up was growing in the back of my mind. When I mentioned to my mother that I'd learned to spin from her mother, she told me, "Grandma didn't know how to spin. She can't have taught you," but I remembered clearly Gma turning the crank by hand as I manipulated what little fiber we'd found caught in the carders into a short piece of yarn. When I finally decided to purchase a wheel, my mother went with me, and to her utter amazement, I sat down in the shop and began to spin. "I told you Gma taught me how," I said. "And I haven't forgotten." That wheel (the Louët I bought that day) is now my "ply wheel." I spin singles on a Kromski Minstrel, and when I have two bobbins full, I set them aside to rest for at least 24 hours. This frees up the Minstrel to spin more singles. I cycle through the process, plying a little, spinning a little, and I've been known to run myself short of bobbins when I'm in "production" mode. Here's just a bit of what I've spun over the last six weeks or so. There's more off camera. The two skeins of Green Chaos and two skeins of Salt & Pepper are done. The orange 8-Ball is plied and ready to be stretched on the warping board, as is the huge bobbin loaded with Raspberry Yogurt. The two bobbins of red 8-Ball are ready to be plied, and the "purple" (a blend of red and blue) 8-Ball is a single waiting for its partner to be spun. Stretched on the warping board in the Loom Room, you'd find yellow 8-Ball and the last skein of Salt & Pepper, now waiting to be soaked and weighted to set the twist. Spinsterhood suits me well.

Playing With Patterns

Day 58: This is what happens when the internet goes down but the power stays on. I had two bobbins of plied "Green Chaos" yarn and one of "Salt and Pepper" ready to wind onto the warping board (a handy way of skeining and measuring yardage). They'd had their rest period and were ready to wrap, so I set up the Lazy Kate (Lazy Cat helping more than I appreciated) and wound them off. I took a couple of pictures, and once I got them onto the computer, decided to play around with some of PaintShop Pro's distortion effects. Top right and lower left were made with the "Kaleidoscope" feature, and the other two with "Patterns." There's quite a bit of latitude in the kaleidoscopic treatment, such as number of repeats, number of petals, angle, etc. Okay, I was bored without all you little people in my computer to keep me company, but this is also productive time. Sometimes when I'm playing around with these virtual techniques, the results inspire me to create weaving or knitting patterns. The upper left looks particularly interesting if translated to card-weaving.

With Merry's Gracious Permission

Day 54: This, with Merry's gracious permission, is what I have accomplished on the spinning front in the last month. Admittedly, I had part of one of the bobbins of "Green Chaos" done, but only as a singles. Here, both bobbins hold the finished double-ply yarn. It is roughly a DK weight. The "Salt and Pepper" bobbins are both single ply. They have to rest a few days to set the twist before I can ply them into a sock/fingering weight yarn. When I am done spinning all eight ounces of "Salt and Pepper," I will have three skeins (i.e., six bobbins of singles plied onto three bobbins. You may have noticed that there are two different types of bobbin here. I spin the singles on the Kromski Minstrel, and ply on my old Louët. My little Helper no longer tries to grab spinning wheel drive belts after having his nose gently sanded, but I still can't leave yarn without covering it with a lavender-scented towel. Lavender is a natural insect repellent, and it seems to work equally well as a curious-kitten deterrent. He gave it a good sniff, shook his head, batted his eyes and walked away.