SpinnySpinny

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate low-twist yarns? I have three of four bobbins done of the Cascade-alike single. I don’t have more done because I have to force myself to spin it. It doesn’t even look like yarn on the bobbin, it’s like there are just strands of fiber wrapped around it. That is very close to the truth. I have to use the slowest possible ratio of my wheel, which is I think 6:1. I didn’t even own the “normal” flyer until a few months ago because it just isn’t something I use. And this is not a large single, either. Most commercial yarns are like this, even the one that is supposed to be a substitute for handspun lace yarn. I tried to reproduce that one a few months ago and I was using the same slow ratio for an even smaller single.

These are absolutely the product of modern mechanical spinning equipment, because they could never be made with a spindle. It would immediately break with a drop spindle and you don’t get an extra hand to do a worsted style technique with a supported spindle. Even traditional worsted wool is supposed to be hard and smooth, not this light and fluffy stuff. It’s easier to make a consistant yarn from combed wool, and that’s what everybody wants for reliable high-speed processing, so there is almost no true woolen commercial yarn anymore. Rumor has it there is some somewhere, but I actually have never seen it.

The hardware upgrade was positively painless, so I’m back together sooner than I expected. The software upgrade was a different story, unfortunately. The one thing that didn’t work perfectly is my website development environment, so I’m back to the old system for now. I didn’t get much actual spinning done, but I did measure out several more final skeins, a truly dull operation. Pretty soon I have to get started on the wraps per inch tags, which begins with cutting out 40 little pieces of cardboard. Now that’s excitement! I’ve been saving the inserts from my monthly Apple developer mailings just for this purpose.

I bought a bunch of printable labels to avoid having to write out every single wpi tag and index card by hand. None of my friends have owned a typewriter for decades and even my mother got rid of hers when she finally switched to a computer. At least I have a printer now, someone gave me his old one a few months ago. I’ve been saving it because it’s an inkjet and as soon as I install the new cartridges, I have a limited amount of time before they stop working. I tried to find printable index cards but they are hideously expensive and I already spent enough on the box of labels. I’m not really clear the purpose of putting all this information on a 3×5 card (and it must be 3 inches by 5 inches) and then stapling it to a file folder. Oh, I don’t have a stapler either. But there is one in the office I can use when nobody’s around. All this paper, arranged in seemingly arbitrary fashion.

I also got another mailing from the registrar this week, with shipping instructions. I have to ship my package and then send, under separate cover, a form detailing a box inventory, date of shipping, insurance valuation and carrier. “The forms should arrive in advance of the materials.” I will certainly be sending this by something other than Parcel Post, which means the package may well arrive before the form announcing it’s impending delivery. Plus, the letter didn’t even give the actual submission deadline (despite blanks left on the form for this purpose) but only a hand-written note that it would be best if I shipped everything by the first of August. I only know the date because I sent an email to the registrar myself to find out. I realize this is a mostly volunteer organization, but there are some things that I expect to see just out of good practice.

I’ve been updating the yarn pages, filling in missing details and adding a few more pages. There are more Misfits, too. I’ll be spinning most of the weekend but also upgrading the computer so I don’t expect to get much online the next few days. Between backups and verifications and restores and delicate laptop-opening maneuvers, it will take some time.

I’m back to the millspun yarns, today I’m making Cascade 220. What a pain in the ass. My first attempt is right on with twist and even a good color match but the single is so fragile that winding it off for the 4-ply makes it horribly fuzzy. It shreds if you as much as run your finger over it. I have to reproduce, by hand, a process that has been “improved” to make it economically efficient for machine processing. All those pretty, fluffy yarns at the store? They have as little twist as possible to get them out of the factory. Instead of making actual durable yarns, industry has instead created a new marketing opportunity for fabric shavers. I’m now doing it over again on four bobbins. Since my lazy kate can only hold three, I don’t know how well that is going to work. Because one bobbin is untensioned, I have no choice other than to have all of them untensioned because I can’t do much to make the cardboard box and stick work like the specially designed piece of equipment. I could borrow one, but that means tying up four bobbins until I can get it. I’ll see what I think of that later.

Now I remember what else I was going to say. This month’s guild meeting was the ongoing project of sampling fibers, 50 by 05. It started before I got there and was to celebrate the guild’s 50th year. So every few meetings we get a pile of samples, many from one terribly over-stashed member’s apartment. As usual, she didn’t want to take any of it home. Nobody was much interested in the camel hair, so I ended up with another color similar to the one she gave me earlier in the week. Now I can do something interesting with the two contrasting natural colors. I also came home with a good sized chunk of this amazing Cormo fleece. It looks very like the white Merino/Corrie I already have (which makes sense given the history of the breed.) Only after I washed it could I tell that the crimp was slightly different and a little less Merino-like. It still has that fine crimp, but washed it looks a more wavy. It’s almost like there is a second crimp pattern in the fleece. It should be a little more bouncy.

Another weekend of spinning. This is about how it’s going to be until everything is done. I finished more yarns over the weekend and now that The Boyfriend is done borrowing my camera I’ll get pictures taken. A local knitting group did a dye workshop a few blocks away, I stopped by for a visit Saturday afternoon and ended up with a bottle of extra dye. I need to dye some of the Andean two-ply for the traditional three color patterns, so now I have medium gray, white and blue. The white is from a Blue-faced Leicester top I picked up for fun, it’s similar fiber although not so long a staple length.

I also did the drop spindle skein, again because I didn’t like how it came out the first time. The fiber for that was a grab-bag of fleece that appears to be Border Leicester. It was cotted (tangled) and had some color variation, so I flicked, drum carded and then combed just a little. Saturday I reeled some silk and Sunday was the guild meeting where I did fiber prep. I tried an experiment with the mystery farm fleece, a 4/3 12-ply cable. It was lofty and bouncy and huge, and with that many plies it doesn’t matter what the single looks like. But the fiber is filthy, so there I was with the dog brush yet again to get the junk out. It’s short and fine and crimpy but obviously has some down breed in it. The woman from the farm thinks it might be part Rambouillet, closely related to Merino, but there’s no way to really know.

Today I’m working on the remaining woolen with the Suffolk fleece. I used a friend’s drum carder to make batts and now I’m tearing them into chunks to make rolags. I couldn’t do it with hand cards because I couldn’t get batts large enough for the yarn I need. I’m also doing it with the quill, because it has to be large and low twist. Long draw works really well that way and the Lendrum quill head is huge. It’s weird to work with this big spike pointing directly at me, I can’t draft as far as with a normal position but this yarn doesn’t take long. Even if it’s still slower to spin than it should be because I have to get it as perfectly even as possible. Woolen just doesn’t like to do that.