Spin, Span, Spun

I purchased some “easy to spin” cotton roving at the Manning’s Spinning day…and watched while a craftsman with a regular wheel seemed to easily spin some even, thin, balanced cotton yarn.  It looked so easy!  Of course, when I tried it myself this past week, I found it was anything BUT easy!

First off, I had trouble getting it thin enough….it was either very thick, or would briefly “behave” and then either spin right out of my fingers or clump up into thick bundles of fiber.   Sigh.   Every time I THOUGHT I’d finally gotten the hang of it, I was quickly brought back to reality.  I’d manage only about 5-10 inches of “perfect” spinning.   Once I’d think, “Hmmmm…..I’ve finally got it!”, the roving would suddenly become uncooperative and go back to spinning our of my hands or producing ugly clumps of poorly formed yarn.  

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, I had produced a two-ply 4 oz skein of very “artsy” cotton yarn.   It’s incredibly soft, and will make a fabulous wash cloth.   HOWEVER, it’s will be a VERY dense wash cloth – the 4 oz skein is ONLY 66 yards in length! 

. 

 

 

 

 

 

On a sad note, my workhorse wheel, the Louet S-77 affectionately known as “Louie” needs some repairs.   The point where the bearing casing at the wheel  connects to the wood that leads to the footman connection is worn out….the screw no longer holds.   I took it apart and reconnected tightly and it seemed to work, but it held for only a short time.   I believe I’ll need to do some “minor surgery” on my trusty wheel to get him spin-worthy again.   Rigth now I’m thinking that I’ll need to fill the hole in the wood with liquid wood and then once it’s hardened, I can then re-set the screw.   So sad.(Thankfully, I have other wheels, so I won’t be “wheel-less”, but this is my favorite for plying as it has nice large bobbins.

Ah…..here we have some of my favorite sights of the summer…the thistles and flowers.   I just love the thistles like the ones on the left – I call them “ballet thistles” as they look like they’re wearing little tu-tus. 

Tonight’s sunset was absolutely gorgeous!   A bright explosion of colors as day passed on to night.