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Monday, June 4, 2012

Spinning Mama

So I called my roll of ready to spin fiber a "danish" the other day. It's actually more of a "cinnamon bun". Obviously some donut research is needed ;-).

In the meantime, I've unrolled my "pastry", thinned it out some more by gently pulling it thinner (This is really the hardest part of learning to spin I think - drafting - and a video would really be helpful :-/). This drafting is what determines how thick or thin your yarn will be.

I'm sure there are videos on youtube showing how to join the loose roving onto a leader thread (and how to draft ;-) to begin spinning... I may try to do a specific "how to" post at some point, but for now, let's just enjoy looking at how Mama spins up and if you want to know more, just ask :-).



Yarn is basically just twisted fiber. And that can be any fiber. And you can choose any number of methods to add twist. I'm using a spinning wheel to speed things up, but you can use just your fingers and start twisting your wool, flax, cotton, dog hair, musk ox... In the picture above you can see the difference between the loose fiber and the twisted fiber.



Or this might show it better.





Blossom and I spent an enjoyable afternoon spinning up about a half of a bobbin of Mama. She has lovely wool and it was easy to spin.



I then wound the freshly spun yarn (a single ply) into a center pull ball so I could put the two ends together to ply (sort of re-spinning) them into a two ply yarn. You can see how the yarn naturally wants to do that on it's own.



Again, the wheel speeds things up and I end up with a bobbin full of two ply.

I completely forgot to take any pictures of the yarn being unwound from the bobbin onto a niddy noddy (a hand tool to make a skein) so you'll just have to imagine that part. Sigh.



Blossom, modeling the skein of Mama's yarn.



Pretty yarn even with it's spinning inconsistencies due to too much "Aw, look how cute Blossom is napping/sitting there/sniffing the yarn/checking out the wheel/chasing the chickens/mugging me for Cheerios... Wait! I should take a picture/video of that!"


iPhone



Today we spent a nice afternoon together knitting up a fun sample. Actually I knit while Blossom napped ;-). There are some cute pictures of her on my Twitter feed.

I hope you've enjoyed "meeting Mama" as much as I did. I'll be spinning the rest of Mama to send back to Miss C and she's got a fun project in mind. Stay tuned!

15 comments:

MarmePurl said...

Mama's Yarn is so lovely. Wonder what Miss C has in mind??

Aaron said...

Awesome spinning video. A couple of times it sounded like the birds were chirping in time to your drafting.

You're a brave woman to trust Blossom with a skein of pretty yarn like that.

It's June. Any progress on that weaving challenge you were talking about? ;-)

I'm gonna tell Mom! said...

Beautiful and inspiring!
Kim

cecilia g said...

Wow, that really does look beautiful. And that shot of Blossom in the clover wearing Mama is Brilliant! I shall link it into tomorrows post, thank you so much Sara. Now I had better find some crochet needles. My bag of needles is still in NZ! No good to me over there. How lovely to spin out in the barn. Hopefully my internet connection will come in a little stronger later and I can watch the movies! have a grand day! c

Alice said...

Cecilia has quite a treasure indeed! You have done Mama proud :-)

Blossom is quite the fashion diva with her accessory!

Dreaming said...

Blossom really seems to take her 'quality control inspector' job quite seriously. She was making sure that Mama's yarn is just perfect!
Loved the pictures and videos.

Susan said...

That was just mezmerizing. I was sure that Blossom was napping standing up. I may just play that video every time I feel stressed.

Maureen said...

From someone who has never seen this done before, it looks like you are performing magic! So beautiful!

You make me so want to spin wool in a barn, listening to the birds with chickens scratching about and a lamb at my feet.

Perfection.

thecrazysheeplady said...

Yeah, it was pretty nice :-).

Sharyn Dimmick said...

That is nice-looking yarn: Celi will be pleased.

Debra said...

How lovely! I look forward to seeing what Celi will create with this beautiful spun wool! I'm also very happy to be introduced to your wonderful blog. :-)

Benita said...

Wow! That is some beautiful yarn - so white and lofty. I wanna touch it but the stupid monitor won't let me!

Mama is really white! Is any of it going to be dyed?

amy@ Souldipper said...

I can only imagine Celi's delight! Now...what is she going to do with that wool...

amy@ Souldipper said...

I can only imagine Celi's delight! Now...what is she going to do with that wool...

Far Side of Fifty said...

Wonderful blog..I loved following the process! The yarn is beautiful, especially around Blossoms neck:)

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