Isn't she bee-u-tee-ful? (not me, the spinning wheel!) Yay! My new Schacht Matchless Double-Treadle Spinning Wheel arrived on Friday! I couldn't believe it! I had waited so long... Chris had ordered it on December 13'th; but with the Christmas back-log, it took longer than expected. Each Schacht spinning wheel is made as it is ordered!
Chris and I set the wheel up and I only had 15 minutes that first night to play before we headed out for a hockey game. What I couldn't believe was how fast I adapted to it.
When I went to White Rock Weaving Center to look for a spinning wheel, Anna the owner had me sit down and try the wheel out. Well, I was just a mess! I couldn't even treadle the damn thing and keep the wheel going, let alone spin and feed fiber to the bobbin! My Mom, Anna and me were laughing so hard because I was so mental on that thing! So, I ordered dvd's about spinning and watched every You Tube video out there! All these weeks of watching - and not doing - must've been the trick, because when I sat down with my new wheel, everything just clicked!
Now, I still have a lot of learning to do: speed of treadling, how much twist to give the fiber to form the thread, making a thread that has continuity of thickness and twist, and on and on...
Right now I am using sheep's wool as shown in these pictures. This is the natural color of the sheep! The fleece is sheared from the sheep then cleaned of it's natural greases and any vegetative matter (straw, grass, etc). Then it is combed several times to align the individual fibers into one direction. It is then assembled into this large ball called "top".
To spin the top, I take a small chunk and pre-draft it... that means I lightly pull lengthwise on the fibers to make a thinner piece of top and by doing this, it makes i
t easier for me to spin and get the continuity I want. I then begin spinning it, literally -- I am spinning the fiber, giving it twist, so that the fibers will hold together and become strong. Once I have achieved the right amount of spin, thickness and texture, I let the spinning wheel take up the thread and spin it around the bobbin.
Now, I could knit with just this one ply of yarn/thread; but that would be crazy (for me)! That would make a lace weight yarn -- but I think even *that* thick of a yarn would still be 2-ply. To make a yarn that is more sport weight, I would ply together 3 or 4 of these spun threads! Then the yarn is "set" by gently wetting it, beating it :) or rapping it on a table corner a few times, then letting it dry completely! Tah-Dah! Yarn!
I'll keep you posted as I create things!
1 comment:
Let's name it Sterence. Sterence is the sweetest thing in the world... But Gertrude's noice too. Ok, is it just me, or are the word verifications weird? Mine was "snnnrkwr". Hey, that'd be a good name too.
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