Monday 3 May 2010

Pretty Fibres


After a bit of a rummage through my roving stash this weekend, I came across this lovely hand painted roving by 'All the pretty fibres'. I think I showed you it last year when I bought it but I didn't want to spin it straight away till I had got a little more practice in spinning. So, okay, I haven't spent that much time spinning, only on  Jelly Jelly and black coffee but I think as those were both plied yarns, I may try to spin a consistantly even single. That 'consistantly even' bit is going to be the challenge:-)


When I learned to spin, yonks ago, it was on a traditional wheel using rolags and all the spinning techniques seemed really easy. Now, on my modern louet with roving, it seems that all my previous skill has gone out the window - sigh:-) I still have some samples of those earlier yarns so I looked them out and although they weren't as super duper as I'd remembered, they still seemed more competently spun  - with even tension throughout. Different wheel and tension? Different technique of using roving? Whatever, this is the wheel I have and the roving I've stashed so A+B has to equal a decent C!!


So I've spent some of the weekend, splitting some roving into even slivers. Well, as even as I can get them. Another area that could do with more patience! Now, I'm going to make sure the thickness throughout each sliver is as even as possible as I think this is where I slipped up a little last time and got a few thicker areas. And when I hit a thicker area, I changed my  technique to thin it out as I went and it went a bit pearshaped regarding evenness - hey-ho! If I spun a bit more often I really would learn from my mistakes quicker;-))

I'm also interested in seeing how this particular roving will spin up. There is a lot of length to each section of colour so if I average 3 x length of colour on the roving as the length of the spun yarn, that's a lot of each colour. It's definitely going to be stripey! I know I could choose to spin the roving a different way to change this effect but I want to see how this one plays out first. If I like the effect enough, I may get some undyed roving to play with and expand my dyeing into fibres as well.....

5 comments:

  1. hello sis, such beautiful colours ! I can't wait to see what it turns out like. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous ;-)))
    have a lovely day xx

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  2. Thanks Sis! Plan to get some trial singles spinning done this evening and see how it turns out. Take care and thinking of you all tomorrow xxx

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  3. Oh Elaine that is a fabulous colour love it..what are you planning on making with it?....Look forward to seeing it made up
    Thanks for dropping by and yes the big flower canvases are mine got 4 small ones l want to do but not had a chance to get to them for a while..one day when l get a few minutes free..hehe that will be the day hey!
    Have a great Sunday
    Hugs xx

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  4. Haha, I get to leave you a comment twice, as my internet went down right after I wrote the first one.

    As to spinning....Can't say that I have ever tried that and am not sure I have the guts to. It seems complicated. Maybe some day.

    Also wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your posts on all the baby clothes you have made. They are so pretty and I think that is one lucky baby that gets to wear them. You just make such beautiful things and I so enjoy watching the process.

    Hope you had a lovely mother's day!

    Till soon....Tschuess as we say in german

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  5. The spinning mojo has not appeared as yet so it may take me a little longer to get something more photogenic than a pile of dumped fleece in the bin:-)

    Love your new look on your blog too! Must be change in the air.....!

    ReplyDelete

Hello and thanks for stopping by. Do stay a while and visit. Please do leave a comment - I'd love to hear from you and be inspired by all your blogs out there too:-) elaine xx

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