Spinning wool

Finally removed blue wool from the spinning wheel. It was sitting there for almost a year. Somehow it did not work for me, although the yarn is very nice and soft. Maybe some time later....
Started spinning some old sliver from KnitPicks. It may became a garment one day...

Rainbow dilemma

This was my first again.

First locks, first carding.

I am not sure I did everything right, maybe this is the reason I am not quite satisfied with the result.

It was spinning with difficulties and ended up uneven and itchy (English Leicester).

In any case, I promised myself to try this again later with a different fleece. 

I spun the colours rendomly but I spun them too thin for using as singles. 

Need to ply.

My question is whether I should ply the wool on itself thus creating even crazier yarn or shoud I spun some natural wool singles and combine them with coloured ones?

Spinning

Spinning Wensleydale yarn turned out to be less fun than expected. I know now I am too young as a weaver to cut corners and... taking your wool everywhere in hot weather may have some negative consequences.

And with my cotton spinning project brining so much pleasure, finding extra time for wool spinning can be rather difficult.   

Spinning alpaca

After my first alpaca practice with warm and cozy results I am trying to spin the same yarn on a cotton/linen core.
It kind of works...

Warm and cozy

The slippers are done.
They are knitted from the first yarn I ever spun on my spinning wheel - happy practice is here.
The Alpaca sliver was a surprise part of Louet S90 I gon back in April.

Apricot merino

And done!
Spun, plied, skeined and washed.

August in pictures

Spinning merino

Cross-stitching

Smocking

Knitting

Support spindle

Drawing

Apricot

Australian merino wool 18mk

Still spinning...

First I span my rayons in small portions. Piece of yellow combined with piece of blue for one single, and than green and white for another single.

And then I plied everything together.

Did not really like it. So, decided to sping each colour separately and then will see what to do next.
Green:

Meanwhile, learning to support spin. I did not have any support though, just my leg and sofa...

Spinning wheel practice

I was very pleased to receive a complimentary bag of alpaca sliver with my Louet s90. And as it was free I could learn spinning with second thoughts :-)
For the first exercise I span one thick and one thin single and then plied them together. The major problem as I see it was not enough twist, but I am learning.

Another training. Today I've bought some rayon fibers to learn how to spin synthetic ones. To make the task interesting, I bought four colours in hope to combine them in the process. So far yellow and blue. I suspect I still give less twist than necessary. Will see...

Spinning singles

With the pink top I decided to try my luck to spin thick singles. It was fun and the result looks like dessert!

Dreams coming true

My new Louet S90

Spinning

Plying

And done

And now the time to really produce some yarn, because the first experience was just spining without drafting.

First step in totally hand-made socks

I am done with the first stage of creating my absolutely hand-made socks.
The wool has been spun!

The journey started when I bought some grey wool top which I decided to combine with natural wool top from my beginner's spinning kit into two-ply yarn.

Some gray

Some natural

Singles

Plied

My very first cake of yarn (50g)

To be continued.... (socks to follow).

Spinning wool...

As soon as my first spinning kit arrived I ventured into new realm.
First day I just studied the book and top whorl spindle and was gathering my courage.

Next day - spinning of the wool top.
My first result is 'perfect' novelty yarn - all bumps and uneven thickness.

'Novelty' single

My first 6g of wool plied

Skein wound

Skein washed

First attempt commemorated in a knitted sample:

PS. Yesterday I started to spin a new batch. This time all attention is given to even thickness.