Spindlitis

This is my first attempt at using my Bulgarian distaff. I am using some uncarded Shetland fleece. This is not a special fleece and a little bit coarse. I am posting this picture so that no one will ever feel bad about how their distaff looks!

This is what it looks like on the spindle.

So far I’m enjoying this. My shoulder muscles are really out of shape for any prolonged spinning. Gotta get back in shape!

Cascade spindle with Corriedale/Romney cross. I got this at Black Sheep several years ago. I think it was a third place winner.

I think this is a Tabacheck spindle, with silk/alpaca blend.

One of my new spindle whorls, spinning colored cotton.

Hatchtown with that rayon stuff from Scrap.

Another one of the new whorls, with dyed cotton.

Today’s spinning done on my custom Hatchtown. Relax, I didn’t spin all of this today! I believe this is llama from a fiber swap. I really do love this spindle.

I cleared one spindle, did a little more of the Scrap rayon and carded a bit of the llama to spin. I even managed to convince Fanny to leave it all alone. She’s a good kitten. I’m not sure that working with fiber is a good thing when you have lung problems, but I really need to do some light exercise to build my strength.

This is some roving from Scrap. I suspect that it’s rayon, since it burns pretty well when I did a burn test. I have a lot of nice roving that I could be working on. Of course I wanted to see what this looks like. So far, it looks like this:

I suspect that every spinner has made unloved yarn. Buy some roving, sight unseen. I believe this was called “Partridge” from Autumn House Farms. Then spin it up just to do that. I did this back when I first moved in with Lon and the house was full of people, when I was shy about spinning at a new place. Ply it just to clear off the bobbin for another project.

What you wind up with is unloved yarn. I have no idea what I will do with this. I will try and use my imagination just to see if it can be useful, even if unloved.

I’m currently working on a reproduction of a 1897 Danish wrap shawl. I’m using some Shetland yarn, previously used on a shawl that didn’t work out. I really love the bottom lace pattern. I think this will be a good use for the yarn. I’m concerned about running out of yarn. I picked up 2 pounds of shetland roving from Wing and a Prayer Farm that seems to be a good match. I’m going to trade off the two yarns in the garter section, then finish up the last lace pattern with the new yarn.

I’m using some handspun yarn for my new shawl. It’s a Shetland fleece from Ingrid Painter that I bought at Black Sheep Festival some years ago. I hand carded it and it’s not very uniform. I made a shawl out of it but it was too small. I took it apart and let it set.

This shawl is a reproduction of an old Danish shawl. I think the yarn gives it a nice Rustic look. I think of it as a very 1970s project, because it does not look like it was produced by a machine. The problem is that I do’t have enough yarn for this project.

I started looking for fleece to buy. December is not a good time to do this. On Etsy, I came across Wing and a Prayer Farm. She had some roving that looked like a good match. I’m in the process of spinning it now. It’s been nice to have the wheel out. I’ve had several spindle projects going, but I think I will finish some of those on the wheel. Will be nice to have some new yarn to play with.