Setting the Twist

My first three attempts at handspun yarn hanging on the porch so the twist can set. The first two were made using a drop spindle and the last one (on the middle) was made on my spinning wheel, a used Ashford Traditional and plied with a drop spindle. Altogether it's a whopping 86 yards and pretty chunky and unevenly twisty. Hopefully my sister, an expert knitter, will be able to make something small and semi-ok with it.


They say that when you get a spinning wheel you should practice every day for 20 minutes - a thing I did not do. I got the wheel and learned how to use it in March, and then got sidetracked by outside work for a few months. When I came back to the wheel recently (to make my sister a birthday present), I find that I can't use it any more. I can't do the hand motions properly, the singles have no twist (which is bad), and I can't add on more roving. Stuck.


I'm inside more these days because the entire month of June has been below average temperature and above average rain - as in rain just about every day of the month! It hasn't cracked 80 up here on the mountain yet, and only been above 80 five times down in Albany (compared to 15 times last year by now). I suppose real homesteaders would just go out in the rain, a chore I'm happy to postpone until I get to be a real homesteader.


The tiny bit of good news is that there is a knitting guild about 10 minutes away from my house that meets on Fridays. I hear that these people are also great spinners and been assured that if I take my wheel over, they'll straighten me out tut suite. It's amazing to find such a group out here in this rural area. I have to be home for a delivery early this afternoon, but if I luck out, the delivery will come at the beginning of the 2-hour delivery window so I can book over to the knitting ladies and they can get me spinning again!