This is me (on the right)
behind my 'Joy' spinning wheel at a Guild meeting.I learnt to spin when I was about 10. I first learnt on a drop spindle and moved on to using my mothers spinning wheel. I re-discovered spinning when I moved to Welwyn Garden City, just before I started working. I joined the Mid-Herts Guild, and they lent me a wheel and carders to have a go with. I shortly afterwards got my own wheel (a present from my husband) and have been fairly busy since.
This is me (on the right)
behind my 'Joy' spinning wheel at a Guild meeting.
I learnt to weave a few years after I learnt to spin and I bought a Harris 4 shaft table loom and associated equipment to have a go with it. I have made various items over the years from scarves to a bed spread to table mats and coasters.
This is me at my new loom making a rug in an
undulating twill pattern. The Warp is hand spun and rainbow dyed by me, and the weft is
hand spun and naturally black.
Whilst on our
honeymoon
in the Yorkshire Dales, I picked up half a fleece of the local wensleydale wool from the
wensleydale sheep shop.
I decided to make this into a jumper using a Sasha Kagan pattern. I attended a
workshop with Sasha Kagan at the Knitting
and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace on intarsia knitting and this made me confident
enough to want to have a go.
Wensleydale
sheep, like the one pictured above, have a very long staple and it therefore needs to be combed rather than carded.
I decided to use a dog comb to comb each staple. Combing removes a lot of the shorter fluff and fibres,
and opens out the fibres ready for spinning. Left is what a staple of wensleydale looks like once
it has been combed. The fluff that was removed by combing was carded into rolags like the one on the right.
The long stapled combed wool was spun 'worsted' to make a smooth shiney strong thread. In the picture below you will see that the fibres in my hand are parallel to the direction they are being drafted. It is important when spinning worsted to put a bit more twist into the yarn than you would initially think. As the fibres are very long, you also need to hold them loosley and not allow your hands to get too close together.
The shorter fibres and fluff were spun 'woollen' to make a softer fluffier thread. In the picure below you will see that the fibres in the rolag are perpendicular (at right angles) to the direction they are being drafted. This means more air gets trapped into the fibres as they are being spun.
Both of the yarns were plied with themselves. The worsted spun yarn appears white and shiney. The woollen yarn appears grey and fluffy. The wool at this stage has been washed very gently once before being combed and spun. The finished skeins were then washed again to get rid of most of the grease.
The skeins were dyed with acid dyes in my 'dyeing' microwave. The darker and lighter shades of purple and green were obtained by using the same dye bath after I had dyed the darker shade for dyeing the paler shade. The different colour pinks were obtained by using the same dye bath but one skein was worsted and the other woollen. Once the wool had been dyed, rinsed and dried out, it was wound into balls.
It will take me a long time before I finish the jumper. In order to ensure I had enough wool, I have knitted a test sample of the basic pattern for the jumper (see picture). From checking the gauge and tension against the pattern, the actual jumper will be knitted on slightly smaller needles, so the pattern will be tighter than the sample. The knitted jumper itself, however, is taking some time to be completed. Having finished the back and front, I ran out of wool and have had to spin and dye some more before being able to complete the arms!
