Impromptu Lazy Kate #2
You remember the attempt at spinning I made the other month? The stuff that looked, uh, crap?
Well, never one to let things go (the hoarding thing, remember?) I decided to try and unwind the mega-over-twists onto some toilet rolls and see whether I could ply it. Lazy Kate #1 (aka - our towel rail) worked well, but I had to attach the toilet rolls to the towel rail *before* winding on the yarn. Since I already had my yarn wrapped on toilet rolls, I couldn't use the towel rack.
Sticking with the laundry theme though, I realised that with some long knitting pins (hey! They finally get some use!) I could use our smaller washing basket:
It worked jolly well, and I was able to turn that overtwisted snarl into a respectable small skein (get this: there were only FOUR INCHES left over after plying). I shall use this as a tester for my next Kool Aid experimentation session.
And I shall use Lazy Kate #2 for plying my current Kool Aid spinning. In a way it's good that I don't have a camera right now. Otherwise there'd be [more] pictures of the dyed top; pictures of the particular colours which appeared during the predrafting process; the glorious coiled nest of predrafted fibre I made prior to spinning; pictures of the bobbin every 5 or so minutes as a new colour combination appeared... well... let's just say that this post would otherwise have been a real pain for anyone on dial up.
The colours are beautiful. I know they looked clashing and muddy in the photos below, but they're not. The 'muddy' sections are a deep burgundy, and because the Tropical Punch is actually reddy rather than muddy-orange, there is no clashing. I hope it all plys nicely - I've decided to go with 2-plying rather than Navajo plying, so there is going to be a barberpole effect, but I've tried to aim it so that the colour sections will kinda match up (ha!).
I split the top in half - one for each ply - then predrafted into smaller strips, and spun the first half on Saturday. It spun so nicely - no felted bits at all. My spinning is getting more consistent, and I realised that often I was spinning totally by feel and not looking at what I was doing. I managed a respectable average of 27 wpi (go me and my terminology). Then yesterday I wound off onto a toilet roll and predrafted the second half. The second one wasn't quite as effortless as the first: I think I over drafted occasionally (in my defence, I was watching Lost and not always paying 100%) and as tonight wore on (maybe spinning past 10pm is not the best thing to do) the yarn kept breaking. *Hopefully* this won't be too much of an issue whilst plying. Hopefully.
Well, never one to let things go (the hoarding thing, remember?) I decided to try and unwind the mega-over-twists onto some toilet rolls and see whether I could ply it. Lazy Kate #1 (aka - our towel rail) worked well, but I had to attach the toilet rolls to the towel rail *before* winding on the yarn. Since I already had my yarn wrapped on toilet rolls, I couldn't use the towel rack.
Sticking with the laundry theme though, I realised that with some long knitting pins (hey! They finally get some use!) I could use our smaller washing basket:
It worked jolly well, and I was able to turn that overtwisted snarl into a respectable small skein (get this: there were only FOUR INCHES left over after plying). I shall use this as a tester for my next Kool Aid experimentation session.
And I shall use Lazy Kate #2 for plying my current Kool Aid spinning. In a way it's good that I don't have a camera right now. Otherwise there'd be [more] pictures of the dyed top; pictures of the particular colours which appeared during the predrafting process; the glorious coiled nest of predrafted fibre I made prior to spinning; pictures of the bobbin every 5 or so minutes as a new colour combination appeared... well... let's just say that this post would otherwise have been a real pain for anyone on dial up.
The colours are beautiful. I know they looked clashing and muddy in the photos below, but they're not. The 'muddy' sections are a deep burgundy, and because the Tropical Punch is actually reddy rather than muddy-orange, there is no clashing. I hope it all plys nicely - I've decided to go with 2-plying rather than Navajo plying, so there is going to be a barberpole effect, but I've tried to aim it so that the colour sections will kinda match up (ha!).
I split the top in half - one for each ply - then predrafted into smaller strips, and spun the first half on Saturday. It spun so nicely - no felted bits at all. My spinning is getting more consistent, and I realised that often I was spinning totally by feel and not looking at what I was doing. I managed a respectable average of 27 wpi (go me and my terminology). Then yesterday I wound off onto a toilet roll and predrafted the second half. The second one wasn't quite as effortless as the first: I think I over drafted occasionally (in my defence, I was watching Lost and not always paying 100%) and as tonight wore on (maybe spinning past 10pm is not the best thing to do) the yarn kept breaking. *Hopefully* this won't be too much of an issue whilst plying. Hopefully.
posted by TheKnittingBee at 10:54 pm
1 Comments:
That's really clever! I don't spin (yet), but yours is looking good.
Post a Comment
<< Home