Trenchwork

I found myself totally brain dead after a batch of exams, so I gave in to the pull and picked up the spindle. I have two 4oz bags of of Cormo roving, and have decided to spin one of those in shorter bits as training. I can knit the mess up into a bag or something later and then felt it, so the fiber won’t be wasted.

With that in mind, I propped open Spinning in the Old Way on the table and opened the laptop to the icanspin site, took the first bag and pulled out about 5 feet of roving. I set up the spindle with a leader, snapped the roving a few times to loosen it up, and found that it seemed to have grown a foot. Suddenly a bit dubious about the wisdom of buying 24oz without having spun the first—it had seemed like a tiny amount when I bought it, but it suddenly strikes me that 24oz for a total greenhorn is a lot of fiber—I split it into two manageable 3-foot sections and hied myself back to the book and website. Like a good student, I followed instructions and split one of the sections in half down its length, then each half in half again and began spinning my first quarter using the inchworm or park-and-draft method.

I’ve discovered a few things.

First, I like this spindle. Of course, I have nothing to compare it with, but when I roll it off my thigh while I’m standing, the sucker spins forever. I tried twisting it with my hand, and it spins that way, but I found I have better control and a much more stable spin with a thigh roll. It also spins much faster that way. The spindle surprised me. I thought it might be too heavy for thin strands, but it handled them beautifully when I accidentally thinned the roving too much. No falling to the floor when I wound up with something the thickness of 2 strands of DMC floss.

Second, a quarter-strip of roving makes for a fluffier single than I really want. Lately my yarn wants have been in sport, fingering, and lace weight. I’m not attempting lace weight spinning at the moment, but I’d love to nail fingering weight. I found I had trouble controlling the fiber and NOT getting a fat single. I split that second 3-foot strip into 6 (or was it 8?) lengths, and that worked much better. That section gave me a thinner single, and a more consistent thickness.

Third. I totally suck at joining new fiber. I need to learn how to thin the fiber a bit toward the ends I’m joining so that I don’t end up with a fat lump at the join.

Fourth. I can’t quite tell whether I’m over or under twisting. I think the fatter singles are being undertwisted and the thinner singles are overtwisted, but I’m not sure about that. When I plied those two singles, I improvised a bit in order to find something I could put the singles on (a couple of heavy screwdrivers were the final solution), and didn’t have the right tension on them. The plied yarn actually balanced pretty well, but I see that not all of the thin sections were given enough tension to keep them from twisting in on themselves while they were being plied. (I want a nøstepinne!) However, I think the ply is under twisted in most sections.

That bit of roving gave me 39 yards of singles, with more to the second 3-foot strip than the first (of course).

I plied those singles together, and ended up with something which looks rather like the cord you use to hold back your curtains. A very messy cord you might have used decades ago to hold back your curtains.

Absolutely awful, isn’t it? You see what I mean, though, about the first strand being fluffier than the second, yes? There are a few sections which are halfway decent (emphasis on the word “halfway”):

Of course, it doesn’t look quite so awful when it’s balled up:

No, I take it back, it’s still pretty bad. (grin)

Nevertheless, I’m rather pleased. I’m far, far from pleased with the result, but I’m very pleased with the process. I need to figure out how to control my fiber supply more evenly, and I need to figure out what twist there should be—and how to keep that twist consistent. In short, this is a start.

It should felt up beautifully. (veg)