Ever since I got a new wheel things around my house have been tornado-tastaic. (Spinning up a storm!)
I think I mentioned I got a new spinning wheel a while back, it's an ashford joy (cue squealing), and its little bitty and travel friendly.
there was a little bit of a learning curve, switching from the old creaky wheel I learned on. Turns out I was treadling WAYYY to fast, and also the parts needed oiled so that the yarn would pull on correctly. :)
Incorporating a little of the festus-de-Estes...Here's what I did last night!
It's 1 oz of angora (that I bought at wool festival 2011) I spun up myself, and plied with sparkly silver thread and BEADS!!! Its lucious....I might just go pet it some more.
I have about 108 sparkly magnificent yards. Its a light sport-weight (baby yarn). Any project ideas?
For those of you who are perpetually searching for spinning tips, like I am, I spun it semi-worsted. I went with a from-the-fold drafting method and then inchwormed the bejesus out of it so that it wouldnt go all fluffy riffic and fly apart. I OVER spun the single, so that I could ply it with thread and not have a finished product that came apart in my hands. Plying with beads is TRES easy heres what you do:
1-string beads onto a STURDY thread. (something that will hold up to lots of bead rubbing across-ness)
2- tie one strand of single and thread that beads are on in a knot
3- begin plying as normal
4- every so often, slide a bead up to the drafting triangle, and pop that bad boy in!
5- keep on a spinnin.
6- continue until you are out of thread/beads. Tie a knot between thread/single whenever you break it, so your beads don't run off
some tips- be sure your beads fit through your wheel's orifice. (it makes me giggle too, but is rather important)
You spinners astonish me! That's some lovely stuff.
ReplyDeleteGLOW IN THE DARK THUNDER BEADS. Hahaha. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin, I just gave you an award for your blog. Go to this post to see: http://nichookscrochet.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-nod-to-some-fellow-bloggers.html?showComment=1343483536190#c2398610929051154689. It's not spam! Thank you for writing a blog that I enjoy! :-) You're hilarious!
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