I spun and plied the dyed Falkland top on Monday. Continuing in my apparent desire to push my spinning boundaries, I spun this long-draw. Long-draw isn't something I've been comfortable doing before, but this time it worked fairly well.
Left to right, that's 4.7oz/260yds, 1.5oz/80yds, and .5oz/33yds, all two ply. The two on the left are one ply each of the blue and the green, and the little skein on the right is the leftovers from the blue bobbin plied on itself.
Not my most even spinning, but miles better than any long-draw I've done before. And even though it's not the most perfect yarn I've ever spun, it is scrumptiously soft and bouncy, and I love the colors, though my camera refuses to capture them correctly. I think this may go into a hat, or possibly mittens. It's definitely next-to-the-skin soft.
Long draw goes so fast! Just an easy sweep back with my left hand while a light touch of my right finger and thumb monitors the amount of twist going into the yarn, a pause at the farthest point of the sweep to let some twist accumulate, then bring my left hand forward to wind the yarn on. I got about a yard of yarn on each draw. My right hand didn't really have anything to do, just provide an occasional anchor point to pull against when I needed to draw out a slub. I'd like to try spinning on a great wheel some time; the left-hand motion is practically the same, and the right hand turns the wheel. (Cyndy's great wheel video is one of my favorites!)
I'll finish off this post with a shot of the box of goodies I got yesterday for being a randomly-picked blogiversary commenter at Weebug Knits. Packages in the mail are so fun!
The yarn is some bright and happy bamboo boucle, the retractable tape measure is something I've been meaning to get for a while, and the little bug pins (dare I say it- wee bug pins- hee hee!) are so cute! The tea went to work with me today, but sadly, the box of yummy chocolates is now empty...
2 comments:
i love the picture of your gift! your spinning looks fantastic!
You didn't say, did you use the double drive for the long draw?
If so, that's pretty much where my 22 years of spinning experience has brought me: Double drive for long draw woolen spinning, scotch tension for short draw semi-worsted spinning.
Very nice dyeing and spinning! All this and you're working too!!
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