As I warned in my last post, there is quite a bit of spinning to report from yesterday. I was determined to make up for my lack of spinning mojo last weekend.

First I flicked up a whole lot of the brown polwarth and spun it until I’d filled a second bobbin. Then I needed an empty spool so I could ply it, so I andean plied my dog’s dinner attempts at spinning roving last week:

Small and humiliating. Actually, the red-yellow stuff wasn’t too bad. It was spun from carded rolags, which seemed easier to spin. The red spun from straight roving makes a small bit of yarn because I had spent most of the practise time rethreading the singles through the orifice because it kept breaking.

Next I made a lazy kate out of a cardboard box and a coat hanger:

Then I plied up the white singles from the class, and the brown polwarth:

These are now soaking in a bucket. I’m being much more careful about cleaning this lot. The last skein of white had blobs of grease still in it after washing, though I followed the teacher’s instructions to the letter, so I put it through the hot water and woolmix soak a couple more times. I don’t know whether it was that, or the extra movement involved, which caused it to felt onto itself and go a bit harsh and scratchy.

The instructions say (after the initial overnight soak in warm water and dishwashing detergent) to soak the skeins in very hot water and woolmix for a few hours then rinse in water the same temperature, reducing the temperature with each rinse until its luke warm. Avoiding sudden changes of temperature is essential to avoid felting. But if you leave the yarn for a few hours it’s no longer hot. So then rinsing it in hot water means a sudden change of temperature. And so is adding yarn at room temperature to a bucket of hot water in the first place.

This time I’m trying to avoid any abrupt change of temperature. I added warm water to the bucket first, then gradually added hotter water. I’ll do the same when it comes to rinsing, reheating the yarn slowly then reducing the temp as the instructions say.

Anyway… back to the spinning. After I’d plied so much yarn my foot was tired from pedalling, I took a break and then tried spinning roving. I had bought a big bag of un-dyed white tops from the Guild, figuring I wouldn’t feel as guilty if I messed it up than if I messed up something dyed in pretty colours.

It was excruciatingly slow at first. I literally drafted a bit, then turned the wheel by hand to add the twist, then drafted more, then turned again. It took ages to get the tension just right. Finally I was able to mix pedalling with hand turning. The trouble is, there’s a ‘dead spot’ on the wheel where it locks and won’t shift if I pedal, and if I pedal slow it always gets stuck there.

Eventually I did manage to get things running smoothly. I was surprised to find I’d filled a bobbin, so I went on to fill another. Then I plied them, filling up the bobbin to bursting point:

Not the most even yarn, but I was pathetically grateful just to have yarn.

And the finished skein, which is luxuriously soft. Now and then I wonder if I should dye it, or what I could make out of it, but for now I’m just grateful to have achieved what I didn’t at last week’s lesson: unhumiliating spun roving.

And I should probably spin up and ply the rest of the white roving before I made any decisions, too.

Last night I decided to start knitting the yarn we spun and dyed in class. More on that in the next post…