Last month I decided to move on with my spinning. I started out with a drop spindle last November and immediately took to the craft. Five spindles later I began to get frustrated with the speed limit that a spindle has. Having to keep stopping to wind the yarn on every few feet, the relatively small amount of plied yarn that a drop spindle can hold, needing to wind the singles off on to holders to spin the second one, then plying. It was taking months to make a decent length of yarn. I finally caved and bought a spinning wheel, and I’m pleased that I love it! And here it is!
A Louet S10C with Scotch tension, double-treadle. My husband had been concerned that a wheel would take up a lot of space in our home, and wouldn’t get used. Wrong on both counts! It fits neatly in what was unused space between the sideboard and a bookcase (it will even tuck behind a door if necessary) and so far I’ve spun two skeins of plied and finished yarn and am working on my third.
Here are those skeins..
Here are those skeins..
The pink one (which tends more towards purple than the photo but I just can’t get my camera to pick it up) is a 2-plied Merino, roughly DK weight and about 200 yards in length.
The second is the first part of a pack of undyed Shetland fibre I was given for my birthday in four natural colours. The finished yarn is chain-plied to a fingering weight, about 150 yards. I’m now working on the black fibre from the same pack, and will then spin up the grey (fourth is moorit, a lighter brown) and plan to use them for colourwork.
Here is the black so far.
The second is the first part of a pack of undyed Shetland fibre I was given for my birthday in four natural colours. The finished yarn is chain-plied to a fingering weight, about 150 yards. I’m now working on the black fibre from the same pack, and will then spin up the grey (fourth is moorit, a lighter brown) and plan to use them for colourwork.
Here is the black so far.
As for my spindles though, they’re not being retired just yet. I have two projects in progress on those with designs in mind for each.