Episode 135 Live: UNBOXING! (& setting up an Ashford eSpinner 3)
Thank you for being here today, especially those who were able to make it to the Live Stream. I appreciate your time spent here in this place and me. I hope you feel most welcome because you are welcome here.
In today’s show, we chat about projects from the Ravelry group’s 51 Yarns SAL and the handspun knitting thread. I share some WIPs and we unbox an Ashford eSpinner 3! Enjoy the show!
Attentive Spinners! Be sure to sign up for the Doodle to be part of Wool n’ Spinning Radio in the new year! We will be working on Word Prompt episodes and if you are a part of the Attentive Spinner tier – you are invited to join!!
Giveaway
For January, I’ll be sending out the other batt to anyone who enters in the January Episode Thread and answers: What did you learn in 2019?
Breed & Colour Studies
In December’s newsletter, I shared the beginnings of my Breed & Colour Study thoughts that will be vlogged about in the How I Spin content beginning January 2020. For the initial thoughts, please have a look here (YouTube).
Thanks so much for sharing!
Handspun Knitting Thread in Ravelry
Glenda – madstasher1 (post no. 370) shared:
It took me while but I finally found a pattern to make with the fibre that I won from Rachel over a year ago. I love it! The pattern is Butterfly Cowl by Marin Melchior
51 Yarns – Group A – Fine Wool Study
Liz – LizzieH (post no. 187) shared:
I spun a merino from Leesburg, Virginia for my fine wool spin. I bought it as a fleece in 2017 and had it scoured and made into top by Zeilinger’s. I saved two locks and have them in the photo below along with the micron count and staple length data that came with the fleece. I have 5 pounds of it and decided to work with 20 grams for this SAL. (do not have time to spin it all up now!) I spun with a forward draw, forcing myself to hold my back hand still by keeping my elbow to my body. I really do not like spinning forward draw as I need to really focus on my hands. I do like the resulting yarn though. It is a 3-ply with a twist angle of 40 degrees. I used a 14:1 ratio on a Kromski Sonata. In the swatch, I experimented with different cables and I actually have four yarnovers in there, but I will not say I have four eyelets, because you really cannot see them (but not surprised based on the yarn)!
I should have taken a photo of the skein prior to knitting up the swatch – will try to remember to do that for the next one!
51 Yarns – Group B – Getting Started
Colleen – ColMary (post no. 47) shared:
I just read through the all the posts and saw that there were two questions to answer…what do you want to achieve from the study and what fibers are you going to use for the first months? #1. What I want to achieve is to understand how to spin the different fibers and gain more confidence with different spinning fibers. #2 I went through my fiber stash today and have several sample packs that I picked up over the last couple of years, so I selected Merino for the fine fiber and BFL for the medium fiber.
The photo is my table filled with sample packs from Alpaca to Shetland.
Finished Objects
SweetGeorgia Yarns Alpaca/Merino/Silk
- ‘Falling Leaves’ colourway from UK’s Spin Together in Fall 2019
- High ratio – 27:1 for high twist singles due to multiple staple lengths of fibre & quite short staple lengths overall (fibre probably cut in commercial processing)
- Divided fibre into 6 nests and spun end-to-end with very little prep or attenuating as fibre began to drift apart (no coarseness of fibres – alpaca and silk are smooth – to keep fibre together even with small twist)
Works in Progress – Spinning
- Spinning with a distaff — managing hands and placement learning curve
- Enjoying fineness of spun yarn — keeping medium twist
UNBOXING!
Housekeeping
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Thank you so much for joining me today!
Until then, Happy Spinning!
I listened with my daughters in the room, so please forgive me if I’m asking something that was answered in the video. But what kind of cotton thread are you using to replace the nylon brake band? Is it waxed, or just sewing thread?
That’s fun that you were able to watch with your kids in the room! I used 2/8 cotton weaving yarn but I prefer a 2/8 or 2//10 linen weaving yarn better — cottolin works well too.
Do you import high quality wool for your project?
I use a lot of locally sourced wool!