My first handspun!

[vaneramos]

Spinning did not originally appeal to me but where knitting could not inspire, weaving did. The loom asks me to feed it something original. Today was my first time: on Danny's lovely Lendrum spinning wheel with a passionate teacher at hand. From some indifferent Briggs and Little pencil roving came this bulky, cushy, two-ply yarn I actually like.

Danny tends to make fine yarn but I like funky. Spinners tell me it's hard to relearn to spin it chunky way they did when they began. I'll just have to keep practising.

Comments

[missprune.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I miss my old hobby of needleweaving tapestries. If I could only find my old home-made loom... lost it somewhere and too lazy to build another!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't know you made tapestries. One of the reasons I took an interest in weaving to begin with is I wanted to go that way. But my experiments with the foot treddle loom have been so satisfying, I suppose I'll stick with it for a long time. Building one's own tapestry loom sounds like an excellent project though.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

welcome to the spinning world, Van! That's lovely. I've got alpaca on my wheel at the moment. (It's a Schacht double drive.)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Danny and I are big fans of alpaca. We made friends with a woman who sells products from her alpaca farm at the farmers' market. He recently purchased a gorgeous silver fleece from one of her animals. I'm a serious colour geek though. I can hardly wait to start hand-dying and spinning fibre.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

Last summer, I picked up a raw alpaca fleece the color of my hair. Just over 3 lbs. I paid them $28 for it. I'm spinning it up, blending in specs of teal colored merino. I'm planning to Navajo ply.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Ooh nice! I would love to see the results.

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

It must be great to be able to spin your own wool, and then knit it too! I think there would be a great sense of accomplishment. Well, I'd be feeling pretty accomplished if it was me!!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, and there is the option of dying your own yarn, which is another exciting part of the equation for me. With my initial forays into weaving I find it a lot more satisfying than knitting. The stole I wove recently only required about 9 or so hours of work. A knitted item that size could easily take 30 hours, or much more depending the technique. I will not likely give up knitting because it is an excellent social activity, however I also love to the solitary, meditative experience of working at my loom.