Cria Watch Day 43: Actual Spinning Content
I have the day off from my day job and it's raining sporadically -- just enough rain so I have an excuse not to do much outside unless I feel like it. I felt like working outside earlier, but I don’t feel like it now. It's the second of two days off in a row, and I finally feel like I'm starting to recover from shearing.
So I spent much of the afternoon spinning.
I'm still making slow progress on the black suri fleece I started last fall. I skeined the first bobbin of plied yarn today, and 558 yards of two-ply weighs in at exactly eight ounces unwashed. It's a dusty fleece, so I'm guessing this will end up at 1150-1300 yards per pound once it's washed. Part of my excuse for spinning so slowly on this fleece has been that I'm spinning fine yarn. Now we know I'm not spinning nearly as fine as I thought I was, so I'm now forced to admit I'm simply not spending very much time spinning.
But I didn't just make a skein of yarn I plied weeks ago.
I spun.
I was making really good progress filling the current bobbin with singles when, as sometimes happens when spinning fine singles, the yarn broke and I lost the end. Usually, I can find the end again by putting my hand on the bobbin and spinning backwards.
Not this time.
So I bent over the bobbin and started looking.
No end.
I took the bobbin off the wheel and started looking.
Nothing.
I picked a likely strand of yarn and I pulled and I got two ends. I tried to unwind the ends and they both got caught under other strands of yarn. I searched and looked for another likely strand of yarn and pulled again and got two more ends.
Suffice it to say that at this time, I have a tangled mess of short singles -- both on and off the bobbin. Most of today's progress has been removed from the bobbin. Repair and remediation of the situation will require a ball winder and patience. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll manage plying from so many short singles. They're too short to use effectively, but they represent too much effort to waste. In the past, I have grafted singles by joining a new hank of fiber between them. Depending on what I have when I finish clean-up, I might try that again.
Oh, and Chloe's cria? We're still watching.
So I spent much of the afternoon spinning.
I'm still making slow progress on the black suri fleece I started last fall. I skeined the first bobbin of plied yarn today, and 558 yards of two-ply weighs in at exactly eight ounces unwashed. It's a dusty fleece, so I'm guessing this will end up at 1150-1300 yards per pound once it's washed. Part of my excuse for spinning so slowly on this fleece has been that I'm spinning fine yarn. Now we know I'm not spinning nearly as fine as I thought I was, so I'm now forced to admit I'm simply not spending very much time spinning.
But I didn't just make a skein of yarn I plied weeks ago.
I spun.
I was making really good progress filling the current bobbin with singles when, as sometimes happens when spinning fine singles, the yarn broke and I lost the end. Usually, I can find the end again by putting my hand on the bobbin and spinning backwards.
Not this time.
So I bent over the bobbin and started looking.
No end.
I took the bobbin off the wheel and started looking.
Nothing.
I picked a likely strand of yarn and I pulled and I got two ends. I tried to unwind the ends and they both got caught under other strands of yarn. I searched and looked for another likely strand of yarn and pulled again and got two more ends.
Suffice it to say that at this time, I have a tangled mess of short singles -- both on and off the bobbin. Most of today's progress has been removed from the bobbin. Repair and remediation of the situation will require a ball winder and patience. I'm not quite sure yet how I'll manage plying from so many short singles. They're too short to use effectively, but they represent too much effort to waste. In the past, I have grafted singles by joining a new hank of fiber between them. Depending on what I have when I finish clean-up, I might try that again.
Oh, and Chloe's cria? We're still watching.
posted by Upper Alpacas | 8:11 PM
3 Comments:
2 suggestions: 1. Try scotch tape to lift off the loose end. If you keep track of which hook you are using it helps (I never do and usually regret it) 2. When I have an unexpected mess (who has expected ones?) I respin the short pieces with my unspun fiber - I guess that may be what you mean by grafting. Makes sense to me - especially if you are plying. June probably will chime in with even better advice. I'll check back.
Argh! I've lost the end in the past and never found it again. But! Try gently brushing the fiber with a toothbrush or blowing on it with a blowdrier to lift the end next time.
I don't try to reincorporate short pieces - they've usually lost whatever twist they were supposed to have, which messes up yarn structure. I s'pose you could core spin around them, but for me, it's easier to throw it out and be disgusted w/myself. :b
If you truly don't want to waste anything, card it into contrast color and make yourself a novelty (thrummed) yarn.
Now where's that cria already? :D
I think I'm taking June's advice. The shortest pieces are badly tangled, wound around each other, and variably unspun. I could probably re-use this by grafting and allowing them to re-gain twist while winding on, but it doesn't seem worth the untangling effort.
Several longer pieces were pulled off using the ball winder and they haven't lost twist. These pieces are long enough and have sufficient integrity that I plan to use them in plying.
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