Spinning Wheels: Mom's Louet and Mom's Ashford

Clara may have been ready to jump in and buy a spinning wheel on the yarn crawl, but I have a lot more testing to do before I buy one. I intend to spin on as many wheels as possible before I choose one, and last weekend I started with two.


I started with Mom's Louet.


I've plied on it before, but this was my first time actually spinning. It was pretty lumpy at first.


I eventually got my rhythm, drafting in very short lengths.


This wheel has a lot of "pull." It made it really hard to get started. Eventually I drafted the roving some more, in addition to taking shorter drafts.


Here's the finished single on the Louet. (It's Corriedale wool.) The leather strap on the bobbin adjusts the tension. Mom has it so loose it doesn't even touch the bobbin, but it's still has a lot of pull. I got used to the high tension, but I could see how being able to adjust to a lower tension could be helpful.


This is Mom's Ashford wheel.


It has a thingy to wrap your roving around when you're not spinning. It's a helpful feature.


The knob underneath the bobbin adjusts the tension on the wheel. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I loosened it at first, and then I had to tighten it as I went along.


(I'm still new, so I really have to focus on what I am doing.)


Here's the Ashford in action. I'm still not sure which one I like best. The Ashford seems to have more flexibility.


Here's the completed single on the spindle.

I don't think I'm any closer to making a decision, but I'll have some decent skills to try at wheels next week at Kid 'n Ewe.

Tour de Fleece 2008: Finished!

I did it!

I achieved my goal for the Tour de Fleece goal. I turned all my soy/wool roving into a skein of Navajo plied yarn.

I also set and plied the other yarns I was working on in the process. I have three handspun yarns to add to my Ravelry page.

It's a good thing, too. I was running out of mugs.

Can you tell that the yarn bled? The picture on the left is before setting the twist, and the one on the right is after setting the twist. I think the difference is more pronounced in real life, but it still looks good.

After setting the soy/wool yarn, I set the Corriedale single. I didn't have to worry about it bleeding. Even with the mug, it's still a little kinky.

I think it's pretty even for the most part. The beginning is slubbier.

This is about six ounces of naturally gray Corriedale in a single. I'm still debating what to do with it.

(There are more pictures of the Corriedale here and here.)

The merino did leave a tinge of blue in the water. However, after the debacle with the bleeding soy/wool, it didn't bother me at all.

I'm really proud of the merino. I plan to make a simple ribbed hat out of it soon.

This is about four ounces of merino total, two in indigo, and two in periwinkle. The two colors were plied together.

There's more pictures of the merino here and here.

I'm so excited. And next year, I'll set an even bigger goal.

Plying Saturday: Part One - Merino and Corriedale

Saturday afternoon, I finally got a chance to finish plying the merino that I started on the Fourth of July. The wheel was fixed and ready to go. (And I was happier than I look in this picture.)

I got a one-handed rhythm going pretty early on. I actually switched hands when one got tired. I know most people only use one.

(I just realized how bad that first sentence sounds out of context.)


This time I managed to get a 15-second masterpiece of me on the spinning wheel (with Mom behind the camera.) Now that I look at it, it looks like I'm pulling back with a lot of force after feeding in the yarn, but I'm not. Or at least it didn't seem like I was at the time.

You'll notice I've still got the two singles in separate bowls as a substitute for a Lazy Kate. Mom actually has a Lazy Kate, but it was full. Besides, I spun the singles on my drop spindle, so it wasn't like it was on a bobbin to start with.

Here's the completed bobbin. Mom and I were both pleasantly surprised that both singles were almost the exact same length. (The very end of the lighter single broke off later on, but the difference was still only a few inches.)

Here's the side view. I think I did an ok job of distributing the yarn evenly across the bobbin.

Mom said the bobbins on this wheel are a little bigger than her Ashford wheel. I would have probably had to use two bobbins if I had used the other wheel.

The nice thing about Mom's Louet is the skein winder at the top. (I'm not sure if it's technically called a swift swift, since it's a fixed size.)

I don't have the numbers with me, but I counted the revolutions (or at least tried to) and multiplied it by the circumference of the skein winder. I can't remember the number now, but it I had more yardage than I expected.

(Ok, so technically it's not circumference because the skein winder is square, but you know what I mean.)

Here's the skein all tied up and ready to go.

All that skeining inspired me to use Mom's Niddy Noddy for it's intended purpose. I managed to tie off the Corriedale single I spun without taking it off the Niddy Noddy. (I still had a layer of "yarn barf" from my first try underneath.) Mom said it had been on there so long that the twist may already be set. Really a Niddy Noddy is not meant for storage, but that's just how it ended up.

And here are the yarns, all skeined up.

This is the plied Merino...

...and this is the Corriedale single.

I haven't set the twist on the merino yet. I'm still a little gun shy after the other yarn bled. However, my Corriedale is soaking right now. It's naturally gray, so I don't have to worry about bleeding.

I'll have pictures of Navajo plying my Tour de Fleece yarn in a day or two.