Back at the wheel

This long weekend I had time to spend an afternoon and evening spinning. It's been so long I was worried I would forget what I was doing, but I guess it's like riding a bike. I started with a jar of mixed fibres from the Roving Spinners, including wool, lots of silk and mohair locks. I carded them by hand with a blend of all the fibres. Rather than try to make uniform rolags, I mixed different colours and ratios for a quite diverse range. Then I spun a very fine yarn, and a thick and thin with the goal of making some funky art yarn with lots of coils.


I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The silk gives it an amazing lustre and strength and I like the colour variation. There are a few spots where I should have been a bit more careful with the thick coils, but the vast majority look great.

I had a fair bit of the lace-weight yarn left, so I gave navajo plying a try. It's a technique that makes a three-ply yarn with a single bobbin. It's tricky at first, but once you get in the rhythm it goes fast. Even with three plies, it's still quite fine.


This weekend I also started on my idea for earrings made on a small scale like the ornaments on my mobile. They're looking neat so far, but are definitely require far more patience because they're teeny. Plus I have to make two that look fairly similar. I should have gone with my first plan to make ones with the same beads, but different design. That would have been way easier. Stupid perfectionism.