spinning update

[horusporus]

I thought I'd share my process a little bit. Spinning lace for me is a combination of two main challenges: the weight of the spindle plus cop and the speed of the spindle. So, even though supported spindle is giving me really good fine singles, I don't ply as fast as I like on the ones I have, so I'm still using a bigger drop spindle (and one with a metal tip) for the plying (which, in the end, needs to be supported anyway so I don't break the yarn). On the other hand, I find it makes no sense for me to chase for bigger cops of singles at this gauge - inevitably there will be a snarl and later, waste. Which is why I've turned to chain-plying - I get to do manageably sized cops, and I get to join the singles by more spinning rather than splicing or spit-splicing.

I thought I share because I feel like I'm not exactly doing something commonly shared. :) what's your respective processes?

anyway, yarn porn:

updated photo of my current plying spindle. and you know, the more i look at it, the more i'm tempted to call it 'sweetcorn'.

over in my meatspace blog, i also wrote a small post on weaving traditions thanks to my visit to my country's national textile museum, if you're interested.

Comments

[silversandbea]

That is a very sweetcorn color - I like the white accents. What's the fiber content?

On a spindle, I got used to dividing out and weighing the fiber before spinning - then making sure each pile would go onto one toilet paper roll bobbin. It was never that exact, so I'd end up splicing the singles together at a similar place, but not so close that it affected the integrity of the yarn.

The downside to this is it ends up being kind of messy, and you still end up with some stray singles you have to redivide at the end (or use as ties/waste yarn/whatnot). Plus putting everything onto toilet paper bobbins takes some time.

[horusporus]

Have you tried Andean plying for the last bits of single or is that too fiddly on the wheel? I used to divide the coloured top if it's gradient, if it's the one with streaks all through I just spin as is and weigh the spindle (back when I was 2-plying) - it tends to come out heathered or close to.

As for this one, I was basically handcarding the mix from various tops, as I went along. It was white angora mixes (merino and silk) and a yellow/orange/pink merino-silk, so the uneven distribution really showed because no mini rolag was quite the same, haha.

[silversandbea]

I've used it before, and it's definitely doable - my issue is that either I'm not doing a two ply, or I'm so ready to be done with spinning the thing that I don't have patience to re-teach myself on youtube and decide that I need more waste yarn for X project, anyway. Or practice chain plying with it, or use it for test yarn, or something.

Have you tried fractal spinning for multicolored non-gradient works? It's on my to-do list to do properly, the next time I do a multicolored roving that I'm not mixing with anything else.

Interesting about the pink and orange! I didn't see it on first go, but I can see it now.

[horusporus]

I like the idea of fractal spinning... I just don't like the results very much (but then again I avoid most gradient fibre for that reason unless it's a colour pattern I can either do long repeats or heathered effect)