Something Old, Something New...

Hi everyone! As you may have noticed it has been a while since my last post. This was primarily due to exam season and all of my creative energy being focused on my essays. But its all done now! I have complete my undergrad! Yippee!

With my undergrad completed I now have more time to focus on my spinning, knitting and overall fiber artwork. As a graduation present I received the best present a spinner could ask for from my mother: a spinning wheel!

I am in love! Here is a picture of my lovely Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel (I need to do a proper photo shoot for it). I was able to get it used from a fellow spinner in London. It is 20+ years old but it works wonderfully. 

My lovely Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel

I have been trying all kinds of fiber combinations out on the wheel, including alpaca. Yes that's right, I have finally begun spinning my alpaca roving! It was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

Alpaca - Merino blend from Silver Cloud Alpaca Farm

My most recently spun yarn is a 100% merino wool in beautiful blues and purples. It is a two ply yarn and the colours are absolutely lovely. My spinning wheel has been invaluable and has significantly cut down on the time it takes to produce a skein. The size of the skeins that I can produce on a spinning wheel in contrast to a drop spindle are much larger. Altogether my spinning wheel has been one of the best gifts I have ever received.

Fresh off the wheel! I haven't event taken it off the bobbin yet!

Stay tuned for more blog posts! Is there a specific topic you want me to cover in my next post? If so let me know in the comment section below! Happy Spinning!

DIY: Lazy Kate

To ply or not to ply? This is a common question for many hand spinners when creating yarn. Plying yarn, at the simplest level, is taking a minimum of 2 singles and spinning them together to create a more durable, textured, and balanced yarn. Many factors go into plying yarn, from the angles of the singles to the spinning speed.

One of the difficulties I had when plying was the tangling of the singles together. The more affluent hand spinner can purchase a tool called a Lazy Kate, which supports multiple bobbins and prevents tangling. The average price of a Lazy Kate ranges from $25.00 to $100.00. After examining the structure of various  Lazy Kates, I decided to try my hand at making my own out of supplies found around my apartment.

I only have one spindle loaded in this picture. 

Supplies:

1 cardboard box

4 circular cardboard cut outs

1 paper towel roll

Scrap cardboard

2 knitting needles (or any dowel-like objects)

Hot glue gun

Step 1: Prepare all cardboard pieces. Cut out 4 cardboard circles with a larger diameter than a paper towel roll. Make circular holes in the center of each circle.

Step 2: Cut paper towel roll in half.

Step 3: Cut out 4 cardboard rectangles with rectangular slits in the middle (they will need to be wide enough for your knitting needles - I will refer to these pieces as "cardboard windows").

Step 4: Glue a cardboard circle to each end of the two halves of the paper towel roll. This creates the bobbin.

Step 5: Glue the cardboard windows onto the side of the box. Two windows on each of the longest sides of the rectangular box. Make sure they are parallel.

Step 6: Place knitting needle through the bobbin, then insert ends of the needle through the 2 parallel cardboard windows.

VOILA! You now have a make-shift Lazy Kate for under $10.00.

Any questions? Send an e-mail to northerndelightsfiberart@gmail.com or leave a comment below! 

Fresh Off The Spindle - Sea Foam Merino

Fresh off the spindle is a two ply superwash merino in the colour Sea Foam. I spun the singles for this yarn AND plied it on my favourite bottom whorl drop spindle. Merino is lovely to work with - soft on the hands and easy to spin. I am currently using this yarn in a knitting project (I will include pictures in a later blog post).

 

Today's Tip: When plying on a drop spindle the angle at which you hold the two singles will effect how the yarn plies. Play around with different angles while plying to achieve different effects!