I have been putting my little Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel through it's paces. I have been pushing it to the 'Pepsi Max' of it's capabilities. I am in experimental 'Lucy in The Sky' style territory. If there are rules, they are there to be broken! Finally I have made a little dent in my Alpaca stash. I have realised that if I want have any chance of spinning a 'decent' yarn with it I am going to have to be brutal and lose a massive proportion of my haul. Just keeping the better quality fleece. It seems like a terrible waste to me, but some of it has too much vegetable matter in it and I do not have the hours in the day to pick it all out. I have also only ever spun Alpaca unwashed and uncarded. The next lot I spin will be washed and carefully carded. I still have at least seven black bags full to play with! Tomorrow I am going to Weaving Spinning and Dyeing Guild and I am doing an all day workshop, 'Peg Loom Weaving'. Well I have a plan.
In among by Gizmos and Gadgets I have an under used peg loom, and the most delightful little 'Owlie' bag.
The pegs fit nicely in the 'Owlie' bag. I have used the loom briefly at work where as a collaborative project the kids all had a go at weaving a group piece. We used an assortment of odds and ends, bright acrylic and novelty yarns. As I say, the loom is under used. The pegs were too much of a tight fit so Euan has very kindly and diligently filed the end of each peg and now they are a much better fit. I have done a little bit of 'Googling' about peg looms and know you can pretty much weave anything on them from rags to raw fleece. I didn't want to buy anything in addition to the too much fleece and yarn I already hoard so the natural conclusion I came to was to prepare some of my 'Free' Alpaca.
I have literally chucked it through the wheel and made some Super Duper Ultra Bulky 'Yarn' as I Navajo Plied the already thick singles. The little 'Kiwi' groaned under the pressure. My Other Half came across a ball of the said yarn today and said 'What the Hell's that! It looks like a creature!' It does as well, it reminds me of that episode of Star Trek with all those 'Tribbles'
I wonder how they will weave up tomorrow? I will of course be back to update you regarding my adventures. Beam me up Scotty!
I thought I would quickly share two of my favourite spinning books. Creative Spinning is a lovely book to read and look at. It talks you through the basics of spinning right up to spinning unusual yarns based upon a Design Focus. The photographs used for design focus in this book are beautiful, 'Sunset', 'Lapis Lazuli', 'Seedling' and 'Driftwood' to name but a few and the resulting 30 yarn projects are fascinating. It discusses colour, texture, techniques and a variety of fibres, even including Possum fur. I was Lucky enough to go to a WSD Guild workshop with Alison Daykin and it was really inspirational to see what could be achieved. I had already spun a Yarn using Daffodils as the design focus and after working in a group with Alison I went on to spin my first 'Beaded' Yarn. View Alison Daykin's Blog 'The Willington Weaver' here.
This is the second book and I could not recommend it enough. Lexi Boeger liberates spinning in a way I have not seen before. It freed me up as a novice spinner to appreciate anything goes, as long as I like it. Lexi spins some fantastic 'Art' yarns using materials including recycled paper, old wrappers and audio cassette tape. She uses yarn as a medium for personal expression. My favourite project from this book is 'Ghost Town Zombie Hat' the yarn includes washers, nuts, springs and skull beads. There is also a section called 'Crazy Carding' to assist you with creating wild 'Art' batts. Pluckyfluff is the home of Lexi's website. Youtube also has videos of Lexi's 'Extreme' spinning and yarn activities including:
Cement Mixer powered spindle
and this looks really fun to me!
Giant skein winding (winding 10.5 miles of yarn into a 'Giant Skein').
This Giant skein believed to be the largest in the world, is made from donated skeins of handspun yarn from fans and followers of Lexi's work.
