mainly here for #fiberarts (#spinning, #weaving, #knitting, etc) and friends who left twitter.
aspiring #homesteader (garden, chickens, sheep)
i like doing things the pre-industrial ways
| location | new mexico |
i just measured them taking notes of their width (shown) and length, so i can come up with a plan. never knitted a sweater!
i bought the yarn variety to figure out which sheep i wanted, and how i might want to spin. i got them ecru to learn dyeing with.
family was asked about new year’s resolutions. i said to learn to dye yarn (bought a natural kit in summer 2021) and to knit a sweater out of this sampler i have (bought late 2022) which will be dyed.
each of the 12 yarns will be a different color.
love this little spindle. spun 46 yards of ultra fine yarn with it. about 45 wraps per inch. estimate 720 yards per 50 grams.
for comparison, malabrigo lace is about 30 wpi and 470 yards. this looks comparable to a single ply of 2/18 weaving yarn, which i also measured at 45 wpi.
went to the local rural art gallery, having a fiber show right now. bought some variegated wool to spin (i’ve only spun undyed so far). the blue is super fine, the red is sorta fine.
there’s some incredibly cheap handspun yarn for sale, but it’s also incredibly coarse.
i carded waste wool and spun it.
closest to the whorl was already there. then there’s fairly nice soft waste from combs (second pic). then commercial merino top scraps (not pictured). and finally some of the worst waste from the combs (last 2 pics), full of kemp and matted bits.
made 59 grams of chunky 2-ply yarn on the wheel. malabrigo rios for scale in the third pic. knitted some up on 6 mm needles.
was thinking of making a blanket. math from this sample says i’d need 5 kg. that’d take me a solid week to spin. as in no sleep, no eat. 😂
of course, after spinning 5kg of wool i’m sure i’d be much faster. i’ve probably spun at most 500 grams, including on spindles.
