Sorry about the break

I prepared this post last Friday and was going to put it up then, but I was in a bit of a rush (despite having been off work all week) and couldn't get blogger to behave. So I saved it and am posting it now instead. As a result of this you will have to wait for another week for this weeks news! And you should get a report of my Christmas around about the second week in January!

Hope you're all suitably confused. I am!

So remember this is the news from last week not the week just gone!

Ro's handspun and plyed yarn, pre knitting.

As you may remember I bought a spinning wheel on ebay a couple of weeks ago and having got it home was having a bit of trouble getting the damned thing to work. Well I decided that it may be a good idea if I had some lessons so I booked onto a mini spin course at Wingham Wool Works in Wentworth near Rotherham (and I booked a place for Ro too!). Ro has been spinning for a long time but is a little out of practice.

My handspun & plyed yarn, pre knitting

Well the course was on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and it was FAB! I learned so many things and I feel much more confident now, able to identify what is going wrong when it's not working properly. How to set the wheel up to optimise it's performance.

Both of our yarns knitted up, Ro's on the left mine on the right.

I can spin short draw, extended draw, and long draw. I can spin from roving, from tops, from rollags (I can card rollags). I can spin from the fan, from the fold. I can ply from two bobbins, I can Navajo ply, I can Andean ply. All this in two days.

Close up of mine knitted up.

I know how to work out the gearing of my wheel and how to make it work for me when spinning and plying.

Ro's other two yarns that she spun.

My other three yarns that I spun (one on the far right was a bit over twisted I think!.

I know (in theory) how to work out how many treadles I need to the length of draw and the amount of fibre I allow through to spin specific weights of yarn. I'm a very happy bunny, and Ro found it really useful too despite her greater experience.

Finally Ro's silk spun & plyed.

She spun some silk tops that I'd bought for her at Harrogate last year, she'd been a bit anxious of using them as she didn't want to spoil it.
Well worth the cost of the course and HIGHLY reccomended!

And this is this week .

Since then Ro has spun up , plied and knitted into a pair of socks some more stuff and I've been practicing with some coloured tops I bought at Wingham and some undyed Corriedale that Ro gave me. It seems to be working still so something must have taken! Problem now is that I find that I'm torn between spinning and knitting (I'm halfway through a top down raglan at present.). Tricky one that. I may have to give up working so that I have time for both!