Spinning and cycling

A week in late November is not the most reliable time of year to have a 'staycation' in England, but I've got lots of plans for this week, not all of which rely on good weather.

Today I had hoped to go out to Gravesend and do a bit of cycling on the Kent leg of national route 1 but it started off pretty rainy, and once the rain had cleared, the wind became very gusty. I even got my bike out of the shed, but it blew over as I was trying to sort out my panniers. I took this as a sign, and decided to limit my cycling to the local area.

Hence my day was a combination of spinning, cycling and a couple of chores.

I've been spinning this yarn for about a year or perhaps even more. The wheel doesn't get brought out much these days, although with the winter approaching it will probably be making more regular appearances. Late morning after I abandoned the Gravesend plans I put radio 4 on and settled down to spin the remainder of the fibre, and then ply the two bobbins together.



Here it is on the niddy-noddy before I washed it and hung it up to dry.


Then it was out on the bike, along to Lewisham and a couple of miles on the Waterlink Way through Catford to Bell Green, then back through the rather unprepossessing estates of Bellingham to Hither Green, Lee, Blackheath and Greenwich Park.



I caught the late afternoon sunshine from the top of hill right outside the Greenwich Observatory. One of my favourite views.

Totally crafty weekend

Merino/tencel mix from the Yarn Yard, finally finished spinning and plying this. LOVELY colours! It was quite difficult to spin as it's quite slippery and needed a lot of twist, but once I got the hang of it I managed ok. I spun it really fine, this is probably somewhere between sock and lace weight, I might use it to make my first attempt at lace! Don't hold your breath though!


The somewhat cowl, which has been stalled for quite a while, is finally on the home stretch! It was stalled because I was bored with the stocking stitch, then it stalled again because I was hating doing the three inches of 2x2 ribbing around the bottom, but I persevered and finally got to the bottom of the main body.

Now I've reached the 2x2 ribbing of the first sleeve - also quite yawnful but each round is much shorter than the body, so hopefully I won't get stalled on this.

I've also discovered that this yarn, Blue Sky Alpaca's 100% alpaca, is not very forgiving of mistakes or shoddy finishing. I already had to unpick one of my finished ends because it looked dreadful from the right side. I'm not very conscientious at making sure my ends are in suitable places - especially on the body where it's such a faff to rip back when you discover you're at the end of the yarn and it's right in the middle of the front. This has taught me that it's worth making the effort!

Tour de Fleece/latest projects

Today and yesterday I have been mostly spinning. Aided by four hours' attendance at the Alternative Village Fete outside the National Theatre on the South Bank. I spun Wensleydale, then when I ran out of Wensleydale, (apart from the extremely mucky bits that needed washing) I went on to Bowmont. The Wensleydale is shown below.



The whole time we were entertained by morris dancing, the Bollywood Brass Band and several other acts, and we knitted, spun and made bits for the Great British Sheep.



This is one of the current socks that are on the go, shown here in Noro sock yarn. I don't really like knitting with this, it is rough on the hands and has a tendency to twist. Hopefully it will improve on washing.



This is the Ribbed Lace Bolero knitted in the Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran that has been hanging around for a couple of years now. It looks quite good I think, although the pic isn't great because the Curse is not here to help me with the photography at the moment. See that look of concentration on my face as I try to point the camera in the right direction!



And this is the harvest from the blueberry bush on the balcony. Not as impressive as last year's tomatoes, it's true, but still gratifying and delicious!

Tour de Fleece

Out of curiosity more than anything else, I have joined the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry. I like the fact that they have guidelines (NOT rules!) and that if you forget/slip up/lose interest you don't get scolded for it! Since I'm a cyclist as well as a spinner, it seemed quite appropriate. Don't get the wrong idea though, me and sporty definitely do not mix.

The idea is that your wheel spins along with the spinning of the wheels of the cyclists in the race - ie you try and spin every day of the tour. That's from 5 July to 27 July, with rest days on 15 July and 21 July. On 23 July, which is the hardest stage of the tour, you should try and spin something challenging. You can wear yellow if you feel like you've had a successful day, and there are prizes too.

It's all about personal goals and doing your best. I'm not sure if we are allowed performance-enhancing drugs (I'm thinking Nurofen natch) but since there are no drug tests I guess we can get away with it.

Spinning tips

Last Saturday I headed down to the little village of Lyminge near Folkestone for two hours of tuition from Sue Chitty of Hilltop Spinning.

Sue and her husband Bill run a spinning and weaving business from their bungalow on the edge of the village - doing tuition in spinning, weaving, dyeing and so on, and selling fibre, looms, dye kits, spinning wheels and so on.

I had booked some tuition to try and iron out the difficulties I was encountering with my spinning - although I knew the theory, in practice I was aware that my technique needed some polishing. And I hadn't a clue about the difference between (and uses for) woollen and worsted spinning.

It was a very valuable morning's work, and one of the most important things that Sue taught me was that less is more! I was using too much fibre at a time, and trying to go too fast. This meant I was trying to draft the fibre out from a big lump, making it difficult to get a fine, consistent ply, and resulting in my hands getting tired very quickly. By taking only a small amount of fibre, I got a much better result, with a lot less effort! I also realised that my control of the wheel, which took so long to get used to in the first place, was actually quite good now! Seeing Sue struggling to get it going the right way - I think the Louet style was slightly alien to her - gave me some confidence in my abilities and made me realise it was not my poor coordination that was the reason!

I also learned about woollen and worsted spinning and found out that, unless I'm planning to start weaving (well it has crossed my mind....!) I don't need to worry too much about worsted spinning. This is a method for getting a smoother ply - you comb out the short fibres and only use the long fibres, and you spin with them at 90 degrees to the drafting direction. This gives a smoother finish, which apparently is good for the warp (or is it the weft?) threads.

I did quite enjoy the technique though, it seems easier to draft that way, and I found myself using it a lot when I got back home.

Sue and Bill have a good range of fibres for spinners, as well as whole fleeces on sale. If you find the website a bit confusing, they also have a mail order brochure that you can order for free from here.

Sue was a very good teacher - relaxed and patient, and keen to tailor the tuition to suit the pupil as much as possible. Well worth the money and the effort of getting there.

My spinning, part II

I realise I should have given you a bit more info about the spinning samples, but I was a bit tired last night after a long day at work and a few glasses of wine, and I had no words left!

They were snapped hanging out to dry on the washing line at the weekend.

Top pic, from left to right:

- pink merino plied with white unidentified fibre (you've seen this before some time back)
- green merino plied with 'humbug' blue-faced leicester (I think!)
- a mixture of bfl and shetland


Bottom pic, my fibre club samples from the Yarn Yard, left to right:

- 'spring flowers' blue-faced leicester
- 'semi-goth' tencel/merino

The samples in the top picture are probably going to get knitted into a teacosy or Bodum cosy or something. The ones in the bottom picture are only small swatch samples that I'm just going to play with to decide what to make out of the rest of the batch.

My spinning