Spinning, plying and stepping out

 I've been spinning and plying industriously, as far as I can, considering my arms start whining about it after about an hour, but okay, I can work with that.  And here's where we are, with today's plying on the big spindle, which is good for plying, except that these two yarns were finer, and it might be better to back off to the medium spindle, because the thread broke a time or two.  Not a problem, I can splice when I'm knitting, to I just knot it and carry on.

But, to raise the tone of this blog a trifle, there's a wonderful textile museum in DC, part of George Washington U, which you can see more about here:  Textile Museum

It's closed to visitors now, but it's putting some great offerings online via Zoom, and if you go to that link and scroll down a bit, you'll find them.  I've signed up for the Saturday morning one coming up, about carpets and auctions and history.  Just register, and they'll send you an acknowledgment and if you ask them to, a reminder email before.

I have been at presentations of theirs long ago when people could do this, and one was particularly lovely, where their carpet expert did a spot appraisal program in a posh back yard in DC, forget where, where people laid out their rugs on the grass to get them explained to them.

These rug folk take no prisoners. One kicked aside one rug, saying, this is a cheap modern knockoff, get it out of here! to the abashed owner, who slunk away.  But another tiny little tattered item I'd noticed, they focused on with great intensity, asking the owner where he'd got it.  It was in his family for ages, a silk prayer rug, evidently used for prayer for decades hence the wear, and the appraiser sternly told him to pick that up off the ground right now.  Never allow anyone to step on it.  Mount it properly on a wall if you're not using it as a prayer rug, and it's one of the best specimens I've ever seen. The owner looked a bit stunned, but very pleased about this, probably thinking, hm, better get an insurance rider on this.

The early days when rugs were used in tents in the desert, they were walked on, but over soft yielding sand, not hard floors, and either barefoot or with soft slippers, not the brutal hard shoes we trot about in now. They were treated as artworks and respected.  If you know anything about the hand production of these works, you'll see why they were expensive and cared for.  Wonderful work, with all kinds of mythical and cultural references in them. 

Anyway, I'm hoping for great things on Saturday from the presentation.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears

 In this case the teacher, or a series of them, is the collection of roving ends I'm spinning into plied yarn.

As you see from the cardboard tubes with spun singles on them, waiting for plying, spinning has been going on.  This represents quite a bit of spinning time.

And as always, art materials teach us as much as we're willing to learn from them.  In the case of spinning waste roving ends and tops, as I'm doing, each one has a different texture, different need from the last.

You get the hang of one lot, then it's spun, and you're onto the next, which is different, needs to be handled and drafted differently. 

 I find that if I listen and watch, the roving itself shows me how to go on.  If it's very fuzzy and long stapled, it will ask to be picked up and drafted in finer amounts, as long as the yarn doesn't break, and the turquoise one is one of those.  It ended up spinning just a treat, once I got over my dismay at wondering if I could spin this fuzz at all.

Then the red one, a different sort of roving, silkier, I think a mix, easy to draft and spin, and just very willing to cope with me.

But the yellow, ah, another thing entirely.  A horse, or yarn, of a different color. I think it's silk, judging from the way it snags on my winter hands and the luster and intensity of the color. 

There are little knotty areas in it which are resistant to be undone.  At first I got a bit impatient about this, and wanted to smooth everything out, then I realized that it's better to address the nature of the roving before forcing it to do what I planned.

This worked better for both of us, and there are little slubs here and there, okay, probably they won't even be evident once it's plied, we'll see.  And I did think that if I made cloth dolls, this would make fabulous shiny blonde hair.  

The Dollivers, whom you saw here are all knitted, so their hair is yarn, in keeping with the rest of their bodies.  And, if ever you want to amuse yourself with simple knitting that is also fun, try one of them. They're not difficult, but, as with all dollmaking, their character emerges as you work.  Before they're finished, they have personalities.  It's a little eerie.

Here's where to find the Dollivers' origin, and the other animals I mentioned in the Thanksgiving post linked above.

The Knitted Babes are pretty accessible to beginning knitters with basic knowledge.  The animals do require some experience and the ability to follow more complex directions.  But as you saw from my results, they do work.

Back to roving.  This is a visual adventure, quite aside from being a productive one.  I've learned better spinning, better understanding of different rovings, just from observing and working with them rather than knowing ahead of time what they actually are by name.

I think this is a helpful way to learn, in fact.  Once you name a thing you've basically stopped learning about it. Your brain thinks, well, that's sorted, then, no need for further thought, and it stops.

This is why you don't name what you're drawing as you draw it.  In fact, when I used to guide students, I never named parts of their work at all, so as not to disturb their drawing understanding. I'd refer to "this passage" or "that section" without naming, and it was more useful for their continued learning rather than labeling and filing it away never to be considered again.

One of my friends, a naturalist, pointed out that there's an exception to this avoiding of naming, which is in the case of a plant. If you can find out the name, that's what you need in order to learn more about its taxonomy, origins, discoverer, cultivation, all that.  So I conceded that, since I've done it myself.

When you're creating though, better not. You see better when you don't clutter up your vision with a bunch of nouns. And just enjoying the textures and colors is plenty to be going on with.

Spinning again, to Spinal Tap

 

I've been spinning again, and felt very pleased that I can spin without having my hands and arms shouting for a break.  However, I may have overdone it just a bit, since this morning I could have used a lever to get out of bed. My back explained she'd rather stay put, thank you, all stiff. I sort of hobbled to the bathroom, applied my go to, arnica gel, the real gel, and even that was a bit hard to do.  And it took effect quickly, so I'm functioning again.  But I don't think I'll spin today, much as I'd like to.  

I'd just reached a good place, where I was getting the drafting right, and the yarn was even and fine and as you see on the spindle, much better than the other sample on the cardboard roll.  However, I hope I can recover that magic spot when I pick it up again tomorrow.

The blue you see there? I picked that up in dim light, while I was watching Spinal Tap, and thought it was a soft grey, just nice for following the pink. Oh.  Anyway, once plied with the black, it won't matter much.

The drawback to watching movies like Spinal Tap, the Rockumentary, is that there's a lot of visual humor, and I can only watch when I'm winding the yarn onto the spindle.  When I'm spinning I have to observe the drafting process.  So it's a bit like catching the action on flash cards.  Still a very funny movie, though, highly recommended to people who spot the references.

It's time for Liz to diz

The needlework peacock feather motif is done and only needs to be appliqued to the robe, so I'm taking a little break from close work, and since we've had a light frost, I'm spinning.

The connection is that my allergies make it almost impossible to spin or knit or do anything wool related, but the first frost usually sees the end of swollen, itching eyes and sneezing, yay.

So I can start what might be a winter project, dizzing, then spindle spinning, then plying, then knitting a top for which I already have an idea how to design and proceed.

Dizzing is the process of drawing roving, the fluff which eventually becomes yarn, through a fine aperture to make spinning a consistently even yarn easier.

You can spend money getting all carried away buying various sizes of diz for various thicknesses of yarn, or you can just find a handy button and a fine crochet hook, and go from there.

Like this

You can spin from roving or combed top without dizzing, and I have, but I find the extra step gives me a more consistent yarn. It's like predrafting only for me it works better.

So this is where I am. 

The plan is to spin a lot of single ply in one color range, here pink/red/rust, then spin another lot in a different colorway, then ply them together to make a chunky variegated yarn. You spin clockwise, ply counterclockwise.

Plying has been a bit of a comic scene around here, since it's so much faster than spinning, the plies just hurling themselves around each other, it's like being in a speeded up movie. And you can't laugh and ply at the same time. I know this.

 I've ordered a fairly large supply of mixed ends in merino and bamboo from Goats Magosh through their Etsy shop, since they're open for business again. 

These are like what you see above here, plenty of variety in color and texture. 

And shopping for ends rather than a large amount of roving in a pre blended mix is not only cheaper but more interesting, to mix my own color sequence. My experience with Goats Magosh has been good, so why not.

The stitching project is just taking a break. It will return!

And I can now bring some yarn related work to my knitting group.

 

The Goat and I

So here's yesterday's foray into working with goat cashmere.

It was so good to handle, and, a bonus, since I never touched goat cashmere before, I found I'm not allergic to it. You never know. What a pleasure to handle. I had wondered about carding then decided it might be too harsh, so I just dizzed. See the tiny button, even tinier hole to pass the fiber through.

It worked fine, fibers going into place, easy to remove the few remaining guard hairs and bits of grass as I went. And it made the best spinning evah. This is my smallest spindle, but the fibers don't tend to separate anyway, so I could probably have gone heavier. The spinning motion is very good with this fiber, much less resistance than with other fibers I've used. So you can keep drafting, trusting that the spin is still happening.

Here's it's making a visit to local plant life, cameo appearance

It's five star. I'll diz more today if my fingers are agreeable, and spin, then we'll see what to make next with the resulting yarn.

Spinning returns, briefly

I've been hors de combat for a couple of days, after getting part one of the newish shingles shot. After seeking it for two years, finally the pharmacy had it in stock, and I seized the day.

Just as well I didn't have any commitments this weekend. When they say site pain and tiredness are common side effects, I am here to say, yes, yes.

My deltoid whined and complained, and I slept many hours. I suppose it means my system is working on it.

Up to now, none of the serious side effects I had  from the last flu shot, involving calls to the FDA etc. I survived and don't get flu shots any more.

I do encourage everyone else who can, to get them, though, for herd immunity. But the doctor and pharmacist both said the flu vaccine isn't similar to this one.  And a friend who has had both shingles and the shots says the shot is preferable. So there's that.

All this means I've been trying to occupy myself when awake, with something that didn't involve raising my arm or lifting stuff. Surprising how many things do require either or both.

I got desperate this morning and did a bit of spinning, very calming, felt really good. The yarn might become Izzy dolls eventually.

However spindle spinning if you sit, inevitably makes your shoulder go up as the yarn lengthens before you wind it on to the shaft. And I didn't feel too much like standing.

But I really enjoyed getting back into it. And here's the little bit I accomplished.  Much more cheerful now.