I started a new project on my lace spindle last night. I have a largish piece of hand-dyed merino top left over from the felting class I took in December. It is the rest of a piece I used to make a scarf in the class. The scarf is very sheer and I decided it would be kind of neat to knit a lace scarf out of the same wool - a sort of a study in the different textures that can be achieved with the same wool. I wasn’t sure how finely I’d be able to spin so I just drafted out some skinny strips of wool and set to it.

It turns out that it is much easier to spin a very fine thread than the thicker grey yarn I was making last time. It’s absolute magic to see the spindle whirling around suspended by this tiny line of wool. The colour variations in the wool are very soft and look beautiful wound around the spindle body. I’m planing to make this another two -ply. I don’t think it would be strong enough for a lace style blocking as a singles.

I had Rob take some pictures of me spinning this afternoon so I could share this with all of you. Notice my wrist distaff - made out of the grey two-ply from last weekend. It’s very handy.

 

 

This is the first product off my very own spindle. What began as a piece of nice grey roving is now a silvery two-ply. I think I might make this into a wrist distaff to help me with my next spinning project.
 
Weight: aprox. 10g
Length: aprox. 11m

 
I am the proud owner of two beautiful top-whorl spindles. The tags on them are a little difficult to interpret but as far as I can tell one is a 17 gram “lace” weight spindle made of Padauk wood and the other is a 38 gram “Dervish” weight spindle of Pecan wood. Based on some quick google searches for “dervish spindle” I think my spindles are from Houndesign, also in Vancouver. The grey yarn on the little spindle is from my playing around yesterday.



When I ordered my spindles I also ordered some wool roving to spin up with them. Since I was ordering over the phone I pretty much let the girl in the shop surprise me once I’d approved a price. I like the colour I got - “Summer in Alberta”. It’s really a bunch of different colours mixed together so I think it will have a very even appearance when I spin it up and ply it. I haven’t decided what it should be yet. I’m contemplating a lace weight two-ply for another shawl.

 
I also got a book to help me figure out what I’m supposed to be doing with my new toys - Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey. I read through a bunch of it last night and it’s really good. There are plenty of pictures to show what’s supposed to be happening and explanations of different methods of plying and other fun things you can do with your handspun yarn. The second half of the book is a variety of patterns that can be made partially or entirely with handspun yarn in various weights. There are also little biographies of many spinners who have contributed or inspired the patterns.
 
I got some needles too (when I sorted out my vacation shopping I realized I’d gotten yarn for some projects but had nothing to knit them with). They are Crystal Palace needles (my first from them). They feel very nice but don’t have the size marked in millimetres (and according the Crystal Palace a 7mm needles is US size 10¾?).  I think I need to get one of those tools scientists use to measure diameters to keep in my knitting bag. I can’t remember what they are called - something-o-meter I expect - but I remember using them in physics labs at university and they would be very handy when it comes to accurately measuring knitting needles. Anybody know?