Follow the Fiber - The spinner

Well, not too long ago 4 oz of lovely Merino fiber was handed from Cris of Into The Whirled into my itchy little fingers.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on it!

The (almost) final destination of the fiber is Cal who will crochet it into something fabulous.  I decided for her I'd make a nice balanced 2 ply  with not too long color repeats.

After undoing the nice tight daisy chain it was in for neat keeping I split the fiber into 2 even parts - one for each ply...

 

I shot them on a blanket I crocheted a million years ago because I couldn't believe how similar the colors were!  Did you plan that Cris?

 My next step was to split each of those 2 balls into quarters. Why quarters, you ask? Like most humans I'm a creature of habit and have found this thickness to be both easy to draft and a nice break up of the colors.

Next stop, my Lendrum folding double treadle spinning wheel 

 

I LOVE this wheel!  The green yarn hanging out is called a leader, it's a scratchy wool (I use Icelandic) that's used to pull the top into the wheel.  I spun two singles clockwise with a lot of twist because when I ply them they get twisted counter clockwise and will lose some of the twist I spin into them at this point.

 

I love watching the way the colors "change" from top to singles, a two ply and finally a finished piece.

The singles then get put on my Lazy Kate and the regular head gets traded out for the plying head on the wheel.

 
 

The plying head has a much wider orifice and larger bobbin to accommodate more & thicker yarn.  The drive band also gets changed to fit the larger head.

 
 

This little device has made my life SO much easier - what it is meant for is to count fishing line depth - what I use it for is as a yardage meter.  I use a niddy noddy to wrap the yarn off the wheel, through the meter into nice neat hanks.

For yarns destined for my shop, I wait for a nice sunny day and with the help of a stratigically placed roll of white craft paper I shoot (what feels like) a million pictures from lots of different angles to show the most true representation of the color.

I use Photoshop to crop & do any clean up or color correcting and finally the yarn is ready to be made into something that I hope will be loved for years to come!

I am lucky enough to have amzing customers who have shared their finished projects with me.  It is always so interesting & fun to see what the yarn "grows up" to be.  I know in Cal's talented paws it will be something amazing!  You can follow the fiber on the next step in its journey at her blog 

I know I will be!