Clean the Freaking House Before Trying Plying!!

Well, a couple of weeks ago I plied (or is it plyed) two very small balls at Jenny's, which she put into two coffee mugs and ran the yarns through the handles. That went just fine. But now I've just finished spinning the Blue and Red Louet Northern Lights (2nd spin) which is a freaking 8 ounces. Well, it's seven if I deduct the two small balls we did a trial on, which weren't even an ounce.

Now I'm plying the rest, and this is a freaking nightmare! So far I've had singles break twice midstream plying, and three hopeless tangles in a single (looked like a beehive, I mean THAT kind of tangle). Overspun thin parts. Bah, humbug. So we have knots. I swore I wouldn't have knots, and ever so carefully left unspun fiber on the ends of each spindleful as I wound each off and did great splices. But KNOTS! Oh, I have no idea how many, I'm not counting.

First of all, whatever a Lazy Kate is, if it has anything to do with plying, I'm buying one. No. I know what I should have done. I think those suckers are expensive, and if I get a wheel I'm not sure I'd need one. I think they're built in somehow, not sure. Maybe bobbins do it or something.

Well, I stored the yarn on paper towel cores, and I should have wound these two (two) lots into balls. And then put each ball under a planter, and run the yarn out through the holes. Oh, no. I decided to go right off the paper towel cores. Well, everyone seems to say "Why not? You can just put them on a broom handle." Well, I'll tell you why not. Because it's a freaking mess.

This morning I swore I'd clean off the table, go through papers and... just this whole mishmash of shit I've just stuck on the table. I have bills to pay, notes to keep somewhere safe, phone numbers, marketing lists. Reminders of URGENT things. But oh no, I thought, "Well, I'll just ply up this finished yarn so I can wash, whirr and whack it. It'll dry today and by tonight I'll see what I've got. And of course, it'll give me a chance to try out my brand new, gorgeous, mahogany/birchwood Kromski niddy noddy. And act like I've done this before, and impress myself in the mirror.

So I didn't. I not only didn't clean off the table, I didn't even do the dishes. I mean, this is where it just has to be done, and I crave yesterday's perfectly neat, clean counter tops.

Okay, Setup #1 was on top of two chairs, one on each side of the table. I ran the broom handle over them, and figured that was clever, this would be easy. NOT! No tension. Rumply plies.

I'm not saying it's pretty. I thought it would work great.

Not!

(Okay, don't even say anything about there being a huge wad of yarn on one paper towel core and a not-so-big one on the other. I know. I know.

So here's setup #2. The right paper towel holder really wasn't left trapped, just in the photo.

I now moved the chairs over to the sink, with the broom stick on top of them and VOILA! Two cabinets over the sink, on each side of it, have doors that open up FROM the sink. That means knobs. Tension! So I opened those doors and ran the yarns straight up and over the knobs. (Me standing at the other end of the room, walking to and fro). Oh, screw the mess, this was driving me nutty. But don't think it didn't occur to me that I shoulda done the kitchen before I started this "just a short time" project. Obviously with all this set up like it is, I not only can't clean the kitchen until I move everything back (unhooking yarn from everywhere) but... well, it was just a dumb mess to work around with something like yarn. Add now the dog bowl and toys which my beastie incessantly wants to move around into unsuspecting places. I think she thinks that if I trip on one, I'll be on the floor again, and she can come lick my face without having to stretch or reach. In any event, trust me, it's worth it to start something like this when you have places to set things, without moving other things. Especially wet things.

So I wasn't happy leaving well enough alone. I re-arranged everything, only this time I not only used the two cabinet door knobs, but tried to tension the yarns around parts of the chair. This was like walking into a huge 4wpi spider web.

Meanwhile, GUILT! At this point, the horse needs water, I'm dreading shlepping 8 gallons minimum out to the barn, true. But can't fill them anyway until I move the plying setup and put away the clean dishes to free up that sink. Which is the only sink that won't make the gallon jugs tip over because of some stupid garbage disposal that I can't even use anyway because of Septic Tank -- just a bad combination, garbage disposals and septic tanks.

So here's setup #3.

Now I've added what I said above. And broke another freaking single! Now I know why camera people were touting that wide angle lens when I bought mine that doesn't have it. I wish you could see how this yarn wraps around the room, lol! I tried getting farther back, but then you can't see it at all. I think just from this mini-glance at it and a little imagination though, you'll get the idea.

Okay, so I've never packed a spindle this fat. In fact I don't think I've even ever seen one packed this fat. And that includes the spindle guru-ess, Amy who lives in the Midwest, but knows how to really pack a spindle. But I was determined not to have another knot by stopping before I used ALL of the yarn on that left paper towel holder.

So I put it on the niddy noddy. First time for that. All was right except... except... one crossover. Well, who knows WHAT that would do when it comes to skein time. I had to unwrap tons of wraps, and re-do it. But fortunately nothing tangled. My niddy noddy has a shitload of yarn wrapped on it. I'm a little afraid to pack it any fuller, so tonight's decision is whether to tie it "as is" or push my luck and see if I can cram the rest of the big ball onto it.

That's another thing. Do I dare take that wad of yarn off the right hand paper towel holder and hope like hell I can treat it like a center pull ball? I don't think so. I think that really WOULD be pushing my luck. Maybe try treating it like a center pull ball while it's still ON the paper towel holder.

This will be interesting. As for how much twist in the ply? Hah! Don't even ask. I'm just hoping it's knitable and that it'll have the appearance of an "intentionally" rustic yarn.

It ain't over, this is the next morning at 6am.

Last night I tried another trick I've read about. Slip the inside thread out, and wind that AND the outside thread together into a ball, then just ply off the ball. Priscilla Gibson-Roberts writes in Spinning In The Old Way that she plies right off her nostepinne that way. Well, I tried it and DOH!!! The yarns totally cross over one another each time the outside yarn wraps around the ball! So how the hell do they do it?? That crossover happens between the nostepinne (or substitute) and your fingers that are holding the two singles. Arg. Anyway, I'm afraid to try that trick again, I ended up having to cut both lengths off because it became a hopeless mess.

So back to the drawing board. I think I'm just going to make it easy this time (easy?) and make a 2nd way smaller skein on the niddy noddy. Count the wraps, then wind off half, cut, wind the 2nd into a 2nd ball, and ply from two teensy balls. I mean I have so many knot-ties at this point, what difference would two more make? Nada.

The fiber and spin in discussion re drafting...

Looking at all but the tail which has no tension on it...
"Well, I THOUGHT it was pretty evenly spun."


Here's the fiber. So is that tightly braided? I do know it's hard to pull a chunk off. I have to unbraid a good 18 inches of it, maybe more, to get a length off. And then I have to really tug hard.

Draft Photos Ilustrating Questions

The little finger (not visible) is what's holding the fiber. By pulling the fiber hand away from the drafting hand, the fiber thins out as it passes through the tunnel from pinkie side to thumb side of hand. Fiber rides over ring finger with just a teensy bit of tension from riding on it, then straight through (no contact with middle finger) to thumb and forefingers which are stretched out to form a "beak" that can pinch the twist.




Shot this back toward myself from the other side.



















The below photo got flipped on its side somehow. so right side of photo is actually vertically downward. This photo is backlit to show funnel that comes from interior of wad of fiber. Note: There is no twist in the funnel whatsoever. It is fibers from INSIDE the fiber mass that seem to grip onto what's been drafted, as though what's been drafted is acting as a leader, pulling it along. At this point the fiber seems to draft itself, and the funnel starts coming straight from the little finger's hold. I don't thin it out with thumb and forefinger, at all. That's already done and the thumb and forefinger's only function is to pinch off the twist with the fiber hand so I can release it with the drafting/spindle hand.



















Please see this swirl. Here I had to let go of the pinch with my right (spindle) hand to hold the camera AND wanted to show the "beak" I'm forming with thumb and forefinger, so in this shot you will see some twist did get into the wad of fiber.
But more importantly, the photo shows how defined that weird funnel actually is. It goes straight through into the core of the wad. (???????)

Eventually, when I'm at the end of the wad, I have to stop and straighten out the fiber mass. My sense of it is that what it wants to do (I THINK!) is invert itself and become the last part of the funnel, but there's usually uneven blobs attached that prevent that from happening.

Bottom line is that when the drafting is in motion, I'm not touching (let alone gripping) the fiber with any part of my palm or fingers EXCEPT that the pinkie is curled around it, and maybe a little of the ring finger, though as far as I can tell, the ring finger doesn't contribute tension other than the fiber funnel riding over it.

Here's another photo of the funnel, with the mass being held down by a remote in absence of my drafting hand. I shot it with daylight backlighting and no flash so you can see through it. The funnel continues on into the mass as a darkened area. I am sure it doesn't have twist in it, because I have no problem thinning it out if I wanted to, and I wouldn't be able to do that if it had twist. Yet if it doesn't, I am totally STUMPED why that dark area can continue this far into the mass! It's looking to me like it's actually curling right around within the mass if that pink tinged area I'm seeing is "funnel-yet-to-be." And it sho do look that-a way.

The Spindolyn Arriveth!!

First of all, it is beautiful. Unfortunately the base it stands on is in a dark area, but if you look closely, you can see it. The size of the hook is rather ungraceful on first glance compared to the more delicate hooks on most drop spindles, but I see why it's useful at its size. There may come a point when I think I'd redesign its shape, but it works.

Spinning with this takes some practice, even for a more experienced spinner. However, there's just something about spinning with it that I know will be fun, if not comforting once I get the fluid motion and rhythm down. The stem piece that the spindle shaft fits into on this one seems to have been drilled and glued in a tad off center into the base, but it still spins well. I've sent an email to see if it makes a difference, because if so, I would want it right. That may not be a relevant concern if holding it in your lap, which is what it was designed to do. What I liked about it as a beginning spinner is that I don't have to worry about a drop spindle dropping or starting into a furious reverse spin if my attention gets captured by refining my drafting.

To learn on it, I'm spinning a very lovely, extremely soft pastel BFL that I bought from Erica who goes by the shop name, Squoosh at Etsy. Though my yarn is not as thin as I believe the Spindolyn prefers, it's thinner than I've spun before, and works pretty well on the Spindolyn. Though uneven, and some parts are thinner (a few thicker), an average length I checked came out to about 14wpi. That seems to keep being somewhere in the vicinity of my 'default spin' thickness. I'm now a little sorry that I didn't keep up with its much thinner start that both Jenny and I got when we first tried it because it would have been great practice to maintain that finer of a yarn. I'm also thinking that it's easier all the way around to spin finer than I tend to. That said, however, I'm getting a fairly consistent thickness, and probably shouldn't complain after a whopping 30 days of spinning anything, ON anything.

If you want to see the Spindolyn in action, because it's an intriguing little invention with great potential, its inventor and hand-crafted maker can be seen demonstrating it in her delightful video. Even if you weren't interested in spinning, her accompanying music will make you reailze how ridiculously complicated you've let your life become, and that simplifying whatever you can is a good thing. Catherine's original Spindolyn, which is what she used in the video, did not have the black rubber sleeve over the shaft; that was a re-model that she felt eliminated certain winding-on problems she said were inherent in the bare shaft original. Her video also shows a very gentle, and to me inviable, drafting technique. When I asked her for pointers, since I hold my fiber totally differently, she said to hold the fiber loosely, as though you were holding a baby hummingbird and didn't want to crush it. And to release into the drafting zone as though sowing teensy seeds thinly in a row, or letting fine sand through your fingers. It's hard to describe a motion with words, but that gets a 10 for transmitting a feel for something. You can see her video here.

The shaft does not hold as much yarn as a drop spindle, but they can't be compared. Each has its own purpose. I'm finding that I really like both, and I think the spindolyn is going to be a great tool for improving my drafting technique. The way I've been doing it actually works pretty well because I'm told that I'm getting amazingly even yarn for my experience, but I think that in the long term, I could eventually be able to have perhaps more control doing it the way Catherine does it. So I'm now in the process of trying to learn this different way of holding and releasing the fiber for comparison. There's something I like about the way it's coming naturally to me, and I've been working on improving that way with definite progress. But I'd like to learn her way as well, then have a choice of which I think will be best to refine. Maybe both!

Catherine mentions, on her website (knittinganyway.com) that you can sink the whole base of the spindolyn into a bean bag, enabling you to spin from a table top. I didn't have a bean bag handy, so I dumped a whole box of rice into a Ziplock bag with expandable (flat) bottom. It wasn't deep enough with rice to offer stability, so I rubberbanded the middle of the bag, forcing the rice to squish up higher in the bag. It worked, but the rice itself doesn't have the weight-to-volume that split peas might, so I'll try those next. In any event, the little that I did spin with it from tabletop, I liked because it enabled me to stand and get a much longer strand before having to wind on.

What I can't seem to master is how she spins her spun yarn onto the shaft cone without getting too loose of a cop. I think that would be a lot easier with the finer yarn.

I like this tool.

Finished Project #1 - From First Spin!

I just finished knitting my FIRST SPIN! With only somewhere around a vaguely-estimated 123 yards that I spun, as thickly as I spun it, out of the gorgeous 4 oz. of fiber that Jenny gave me with the drop spindle for Christmas, I was really limited as to what I could make. That's not a lot of yarn but probably typical for a first spin.

I had a particular scarf in mind which is tailored. That was my only problem with it, because I'm not. I still like the way it looks though, and I had enough yarn for that. So I started it and only knit up about 2 inches before I realized, the size 4 needles called for were way too small for my yarn -- at least the part that came off the ball first.
This was coming out super stiff, thick and dense. I hated it, and would never be motivated to wear it. (The center stocking stitch part is where the slit would eventually go.) Otherwise it's ribbed. Thick, stiff, tight ribs!



So "tinked" it. (Jenny says "tinK" is Knit spelled backwards, and it refers to Un-knitting, otherwise known as ripping it out. So I switched to size 8, and started again.


Better, but still too dense and stiff. Only now, add that it would be too wide also. I thought maybe I could fold it over in the back, but why start out having to adjust to something you don't like anyway for this yarn.
I really wanted this first spin to be knit into something I could keep forever. Not only did this fiber come along with my drop spindle (and I can now say my "first" drop spindle), but Jenny picked out the fiber because it's a really nice BFL that spins great, and it was in my colors.

So for all those reasons, I abandoned that pattern and looked on Ravelry again for another thing to make out of it. I found one. Its picture wasn't QUITE what I wanted, but envisioning my yarn, I thought this might be a perfect thing to make. Plus it called for size 13 needles! Now we're getting somewhere!

So I tinked again.

This is now three tinks on the same yarn. AARG!

The pattern did not say "Cast on so freaking loosely that it's downright ridiculous, so I didn't. I cast on looser than I normally do, but not so it was downright ridiculous. Next time I make this (and I will), I will cast on so loosely that it's downright ridiculous. The very first rows are... you start with 60 inches, then knit 2 together down to 30 in the first row! Then without any breather purl row, in the very next row you decrease yet again! Down to 15 stitches. I mean, that's a violent change. I really had to struggle to knit two together even in the first row. The second was worse.

Time out: At least a year ago, I saw a whole set of bamboo knitting needles on eBay, cheaper than just one pair elsewhere. I ordered them for Jenny, just in case they weren't crap quality. I mean, they came out to $1 per pair so I didn't have high hopes, but it looked like these were mass produced somewhere in Asia, and who knows. Well, Jenny didn't like the tiny ones at all, which was what she was after, so I've had 12+ sets of round needles in tons of sizes, just sitting there. I am soooo glad I do! I figure the teensy ones are all wrong (cables are too big) but the big ones, I actually like a LOT! In any event, that's how I came to have so many needles so I could keep trying different sizes. And that's really a darned good deal! I could definitely get into knitting with bamboo needles for everything!

So the yarn kept being thick, and I was really liking this scarf-to-be. Then suddenly, not even a gradual change, it became thin. And I mean THIN! Can't find the close-up, but you can see what happened on the left side of the paper. Skinny yarn, skinny part of scarf.

I kept hoping the thickness would vary back and forth so it would look consistent and on purpose, but there are just sections that are skinny.

So this is what I got. One lacy, thinner tail, and one thicker, clubbier tail.



Adding to the variation in width of the scarf caused by the thick yarn on one tail and the thin on the other, when binding off, I just couldn't do it as tightly as when I cast on. So we have one "super-ruffle" and one "not so super" ruffle.


Here are the two ends hanging off a hook so gravity adds to the differences even more.



End result (the bad part):

• The two ruffles really do look like they're on two different scarves. In fact, one ruffle is a good 1/3rd wider than the other.


• Same with the actual body of the scarf. The thick side is about 1/4 its own width wider than the thin side.
  
  End result (the good part):


• Hey, one end will be flipped over onto my back. You won't see them together.


• Hey, if I'm being dressy and delicate, I can have the lacy end in front. If not, then the clubbier end in front. A convertible scarf! (Okay, we are really reaching here, but it's actually true because they don't look much alike.)


• Hey, if it was perfect it would look like I bought it in a department store.

And last but not least...

• Hey, it's my first spin! Some people don't knit anything from their first spin. It seems fitting somehow that it would be as inconsistent as it is, and I can't help but love that about it.

So there it is. And I will definitely wear it! In fact, I think I'll wear it with pride.
I sure learned a lot more about spinning, just from having knitted something out of what I did spin.

Nothing is Obvious Until you See It... ongoing learnings

Sun., 1/18/09 - Splicing a newly-filled spindle shaft to a previously spun stored section:
I couldn't figure out how to do this, and something was missing from the methods I'd been told to do when I asked someone. (Aside: I've already decided I don't like wrapping stored section on empty toilet paper tubes because they're smaller and weaker than I'd like, so I just happened to have a paper towel tube. I like it for a number of reasons.) Anyway, I'd loaded two separate spins onto one PT tube, but didn't want to keep having separate sections, then try to splice them together after the fact. One of them had a more accessible free end that I'd slipped into a cut slit on the cardboard, except it had a knot in it. That was okay. I cut the knot off, then unspun a couple of inches. The spin had already set, however, so I took a regular hair comb (just a black Ace with both size/spacing of teeth). I combed out the two inches so it was nice, neat, fluffy fiber again. Then I put a ton of spin in the last foot or so of the yarn on my spindle. Carefully laid the two ends of now-unspun-fiber over one another, and held it in a flat pinch. Lifted it off the table, and slowly released it. SNAP!! That overspin I'd put into the spindle piece just totally gobbled up the joint's fiber. I then unwound a little longer length, both from the PT tube and from the shaft of my spindle. The overspin spread out, I pulled on it, and NOTHING was going to separate that splice short of breaking it on purpose. I relaxed the whole length, and it wasn't overspun, so that was that. I unwound my spindle onto the PT holder, making a big fat single yarn. YEEEEEE-HAW!!

Unfortunately I didn't do that to the first spindle cop, so that one is still separate and needing to be joined once I get one of them off the paper towel tube. But from now on, this is how I'm going to do it -- straight from the spindle onto the previously-stored source.

Couldn't figure that out prior to trying it for some reason. But it's so simple. Just leave a puff at the beginning and end of each cop, and use the puffed end of your stored cop as your fiber source during the splice. Et Voila. One down, a zillion to go.

Ordered a Spindolyn and Misc. Unrelated Blitherings

Oooo, I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

Maybe it's something to do with the music that accompanies Cady May's demonstration video of her spindolyns. Or the image of such a peaceful seeming soul sitting there in her cabin, cat stretching in the background. But this just looked like a wonderful way to spin.

Add that my back has gone out, out, OUT! and I'm worrying that it's the position I get into when spindling. Now that I'm so hooked into it, that's a big fear.

I do know I can't live with this back pain. It feels like a nerve that runs through my entire pelvic section from my back straight through to the front, then across and 90 degree turn down the inside of my thigh. It feels like that nerve is being subjected to a medieval torture device, then bashed with a sledge hammer for good measure. So if it is the position of spindling with my top whorler, then the spindolyn might be more than just an intrigue, but my solution. I'm hooked into spindling, one way or the other.

Cady May did email me and said that she hadn't sent mine out as of Friday because, with the frigid cold front, her cabin rooms were 45 degrees except right by the fireplace, so she was afraid the glue wouldn't have dried. But she said she'd gotten an electric heater and would send it tomorrow (which is now yesterday) if the heater helped. So I don't know when it'll arrive, probably sometime this week. It won't be soon enough! I'm dying to try it.

This is one of those times when having a horse is huge overhead, and I'm not talking about cost. I'm talking about in 10 minutes I have to fill 4 gallon jugs of water, carried two in each hand (that means no gloves for that part) out to the barn, saved from slipping on the solid sheet of ice that's my driveway by some serious spike button ice cleats, and do just what my back feels like most (NOT!) Fork out Cloud's indoor pen, bend in that awful position to pour the water, and all the other moves that result in her getting grained and 10 lbs. of hay, those tight leaves spread open. I'm not looking forward to that, but gotta do it.

New barn cat. S/he ran from me for months. Looked too fat to be ferel, but it's adopted my barn. I feed him now. He knows by now I'm not interested in eating him. He loves to be pet, even a little roughly (my test). I sat down out there to see if he'd come to me, and he did. This cat ain't de-clawed, along with the purring came the claw-kneading. On my leg. That cat's a mystery. He's either very trusting or is owned. Or was. He's taken up residence here for sure.

I'd bring him inside if Bella-Dawg wouldn't eat him. But I have no doubt in the world that she would. He never looks cold. With all that thick fur, no one would be. He's adopted a bale of hay as his bed. I put a blanket on it for him. I think I'll find a more crumply one he can snuggle into, this is a mover's furniture protector pad. Not very snuggly.