Tuesday 6 April 2010

Spinning

About 2 years ago my aunt gave me some fleeces, last summer my dad washed it and we carded it with carders I picked up on holiday in Sweden (if you're ever in Sweden you really should visit Scansen). I learned how to spin with a drop spindle recently from Chicwithstix and brought it with me to Galway with the intention of trying some of it. I also brought some longer staple yarn to see if I could get one of the spinning wheels operating in the house. There's about 4 or so of them, built by my dad, my brothers and some of dad's students (who didn't want them at the end of the year), built for a variety of leaving certs and curiousity by my dad to reproduce some wheels that caught his interest. They have never really been used and I failed to get the first one to work this weekend.

Still I did get some of the shorter staple yarn from my aunt spun, and plied!
004

It led to a near blister and it's not perfect, but for a beginner it wasn't bad. More practice when I go back again.

My little brother has a bag of my longer staple Leicester to play with, as he is determined to make the spinning wheel work and he has some time on his hands.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! spinning wheels made by your Dad - how cool!
    Would love to see picks and I hope you get them working.

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  2. I will have to take some photos when we visit in May. Most of them are in the attic at home. Dad wants to see me use his copy of his mother's/grandmother's wheel!

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