Tuesday 2 November 2010

On Spinning A Yarn



And here is my well used appliance. Used endlessly this summer. With great enjoyment. Now you might be questioning as to whether I am referring to the pot of struggling plant or the curious object sat beside it with the hook on its head. And yes, it is this object which has given me hours of pleasure of late, not the pot.

And from this pile of mucky fleece, which came off our flock of sheep:



With these tools:


I made these: 


Which are 'rolags'.

Applied to the object previously spoken about, which I shall now refer to as a 'Drop Spindle' possibly because for a lot of time one is having to retrieve it from off the floor, balls of yarn were made, then skeined.
  


Then washed and stretched and dried: 



And voila!


Yarn!

But.....it takes a humungous amount of time to get the fleece into this state of being. So far, I have managed to yarn-up one and half fleeces, with seven and half still to go. Now winter is nearly here, other projects are resurrecting themselves, one of them being to keep on with my writing, and that alone takes up hours of the day. so the 'fleece into yarn' project looked like being put on the back burner, only it was a shame to waste the fleeces......

Hubs intervened. 'Go buy one' he said. 

And today it arrived. Packaged and partly assembled. 'An hour' said the blurb in regards to the assembling, six it actually took me. 

But look:


Oh yummy. A new appliance. Been on YouTube all evening looking at how to get yarn from this machine. I pedal it, the wheel turns, I feed it with rolags (rolled wool), it gobbles the wool up, twists it around and around itself, and I get yarn. Easy!

Mmmmmm. Perhaps not! Ah well, yet another opportunity to have a go at learning patience!

Things I have learnt today: That I wish men would ask women to write the 'How To Use' pamphlets, only the male mind assumes far to much by way of knowledge about nuts and things, which some of us women have trouble understanding. Therefore, to persevere as far as one can, and then collapse in a heap on the settee. But not to give up, because a short break might refresh one's enthusiasm for trying to read the gobbledegook in the 'How to assemble' pamphlet. Either that, or go make one's partner a cup of tea in the hopes that he might take over!

7 comments:

the fly in the web said...

So glad you enjoy spinning!
I had a New Zealand wheel...not very aesthetic but jolly good all the same.
Have you seen the illustrations of the flax spinners at their big wheel?

Diane said...

Vera I could not agree more, if only woman wrote these pamphlets so much time would be saved!!! I think your 'making' wool is so exciting I am waiting to see you wearing your first jersey :-) Have a good week. Diane

DUTA said...

That's wonderful! I'm excited by the wool, the yarn, the device for processing the wool, and especially by your work and effort to learn all about it.
Kudos to you and Good Luck with all your projects!

Anonymous said...

Hello there Vera,
What a super bit of kit, I can see you going into factory rate production of yarn, with it to help you will soon gobble up the rest of the fleece. What are you going to make with it eventually? Looks like it would suit thick wooden needles.
Ondine xx

Vera said...

F: Oh so you are a spinner! Was it an Ashford spinning wheel you had? Lovely wheels, but the Kromski wheels 'spoke' to me when I first set my eyes on one. I think it is because they look traditional. I have seen more modern wheels and while they are lovely creations in their own right, they didn't lift my heart like the Kromski's did. Will have a look at the flax spinners in a mo.

Diane: I think it is a tad optimistic of you to expect me to be make a jumper anytime soon, only the pace is very slow here in regards to the Fleece Project at the moment. Maybe 2015!

Duta: I love learning new things as it keeps my mind active. And most certainly I will never be bored, although am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of things I do!

Ondine: Hi! The yarn in the photo was actually thinner than how it looks, maybe double knitting / aran weight, interspersed with 3 ply and 4 ply stretches of yarn which is going to make it difficult to knit with. So I am going to crotchet with it, probably small squares sewn into a larger article. Hope I get that fleece all used up, as I wouldn't want to waste it.

Ken Devine said...

Hi Vera
You don't need to bother with the woolly jumpers now that you have windows and a fire:)

Even though I'm a bloke, I agree with women writing the instruction manuals.

Happy spinning!

Vera said...

Ken: Ah but we do still need thermals because of lack of central heating, and we have a plethora of draughts and often can be caught in the crossfire between competing draughts! Glad you agree about the instruction manuals. Men assume too much masculine knowledge which is not available to the feminine mind! Hope you have a good weekend....