Tuesday, June 12, 2007
My hands are killlling me. I spent part of today spinning up the first little bit of lace weight yarn for my spun stitches shawl. It's seriously bad on my back, neck, and hands. Especially because I have horrible posture. Anyway this is what I've got done...and it's not much, but a start for sure! I am debating plying it but I don't know if that would make it too thick? I probably should since I have some very thin threadlike areas, but at the same time I really want more yardage. So that's my dilemma right now. I guess when I wind it off I'll see how bad it really is. I would rather have less yardage and yarn that won't break on me...
I've already learned some very important things in regards to spinning. Here they are for ya.
1. Don't spin the spindle too quickly or the twist runs up into the roving and won't draft so well.
2. Don't draft when your spindle has stopped spinning...(duh I know but I didn't realize it had stopped!)
3. Keep your pinched fingers closer together, because it gives you more control, and keeping your fingers holding the roving closer to the twist helps too. I don't drop and break it as much because my fingers are still pinching it.
4. If and when the spindle drops, it tends to untwist quite a bit of what you spun, and if you're not careful, it rips off.
5. It really hurts when you spin for 2 hours straight...
Anyways, I started my lace sock for the along. It's going well, but the sock may be too small. I can always ship them off to my sister!
More repeats done on clementine today. I'm so close to being done I can taste it!!! I'd like to get my size four needles back for a few other things...I really should just buy more. I also don't have enough sock needles either. In my case that's probably a good thing since I tend to start way too many things...
Well that's all the updates for now!
7 comments:
That yarn looks great!!! :) And the socks is coming right along!
Actually you've been doing a great job with spinning. Sadly you'll get the thin spots every once in a while with lace weight, such is the peril of hand spun lace weight. But, your consistency through the yarn is really good so hopefully you could maybe get it off with spindle with out breaking. From experience if you unwinding it slowly and don't pull too much you can get away with little breakage.
wow! two straight hours on the spindle? i'd be hurting too.
from here it does look like you got a lot done. have you tried plying the yarn back onto itself to see what the yarn would like?
Two hours of knitting hurts my fingers. I can only imagine the pain you're in from spinning. Eep! It's looking really good though!
You spun for 2 hours straight? Wow, no wonder it hurts everywhere. But I felt the same, shoulders and neck where killing me. Now with the wheel I get sore on other places, but I think with practice this will go away. Nice sock, by the way!
I am super impressed about spinning on the drop spindles for your project. I started spinning with a drop spindle and all of your observations are dead on. Another tip, try to spin on a stool because you are sort of forced to balance yourself straight and have enough inner thigh room than if you are on the edge of a couch. You are inspiring me to spin laceweight on a drop spindle. But first, to find a laceweight drop spindle--Bosworth's, maybe? Can't wait to see what blossoms from your spinning.
plying will make it stronger. One thing to consider if it turns out to be thicker than you want is to find a shawl that you can "stop when it's big enough"... does that make sense? that way, the thickness of the yarn doesn't matter as much.
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