Show Off Your Handspun Yarns

This weekend I dyed a batch of Leicester Longwool that I'd had a while... the fiber looks marvelous!

This afternoon I tried spinning this long stuff! And I mean it is long... the shortest lengths are at least 6" long... and some are evenlonger. It wants to be spun finely... it will not go thick at all. It was so hard to spin that I tried making a rolag and that was a little bit better, but still difficult... So I just finished carding the whole pile... well it's only 10 oz. and fits into a gallon zip lock baggie...Here is the first part of the spinning I did today... this will be a very slow process.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on April 8, 2012 at 9:02pm

There weren't any pictures or anything, Wendy. I think it was in this month's Palavar discussion in the Support Spindlers group. One of the spinners was complaining about how her n-plying turned out and how she had problems chaining while plying. Then a couple of others suggested that she try doing a plying ball and doing the chain while winding the plying ball. And then ply. The single is already chained, so all you have to do is ply. Does that make it clear?

Permalink Reply by wendy on April 8, 2012 at 10:07pm

Not at all - lol. My brain must not be working properly at all. I guess I'll need to research a plying ball first.

Permalink Reply by christina | AlohaBlu on April 6, 2012 at 12:21pm

Wow - Dawn, that's truly spectacular. The spinning and dyeing is just fantastic - and N-plied on a spindle no less! How long did you put the yarn in the oven for? did you have small pans with different colors? wonderful wonderful wonderful! nicely done :)

Permalink Reply by wendy on April 7, 2012 at 1:23pm

Beautiful! I am so impressed with this skein, and all the work you did. Great Job!! :o)

Permalink Reply by Elaine Wenger on April 9, 2012 at 4:21am

Dawn, That is definitely a WOW! Great color! My grand daughter wants a rainbow yarn, this gives me an idea.

Permalink Reply by robdob on April 9, 2012 at 7:58am

What colors of Koolaid did you use? They sure look bright and springy and your spinning looks wonderful! I didn't get the whole thing on the navajo plying but yours look nice and tightly plied. Great job!

Permalink Reply by Dawn Railsback on April 9, 2012 at 10:05am

Thanks everybody! It was a labor of love.

Christina - I used large roasting pans and cooked them for an hour at 300 degrees per this blog.

Robin - I used Mixed Berry, Grape, Strawberry Kiwi and Lime. I found this article that helped with choosing the colors I wanted.

Wendy and Susan - I saw this video on making a chain ball, but didn't try doing this. I fed my yarn off of my homemade lazy kate so I could get some tension on it. Next time I do it I'll see if my DH or son can record me. I'm sure it was pretty funny to watch. Lots of stretching and contortion. Who needs yoga when you can drop spindle!

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on April 9, 2012 at 4:04pm

Thanks, Dawn, for the video. I only wish she had shown how she started her plying ball.

Permalink Reply by Dawn Railsback on April 9, 2012 at 4:07pm

Yeah, I think that would have been useful. I watched a ton of videos before I started and this was the only one I saw that did the chain ball first. There were many others that were more helpful, even the wheel ones.

Permalink Reply by cherylbwaters on April 9, 2012 at 4:09pm

So many techniques I want to learn now! Or even better that I had already learned.

Permalink Reply by wendy on April 9, 2012 at 8:26pm

Thanks Dawn.

Permalink Reply by KnitterGirl39 on April 9, 2012 at 12:18pm